Angel Rising, page 24
part #6 of Anna Fehrbach Series
‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.’
‘I’ve done it before,’ Anna pointed out.
‘Just across the border from Hessen,’ Clive said thoughtfully.
Damnation, Anna thought. She had forgotten how well Clive had known Germany before the War. ‘Once we get it out,’ she went on, ‘we drive it down to Switzerland.’
‘Why this harping on Switzerland?’ Joe asked. ‘If we can get it back into the US sector . . .’
‘Joe, we are talking about four hundred fifty-pound ingots. We can’t just carry it into a bank and say we want to open an account. They’d lock us up for a start.’
‘And you don’t think they’ll do that in Switzerland?’
‘Not if we go to the right place.’
‘If you’re thinking about Laurent, you have got to be stark raving mad,’ Clive said. ‘The moment he lays eyes on you he’ll call the police. Besides, I promised him you’d never trouble him again.’
‘You always seem to be making promises you can’t keep,’ Anna pointed out. ‘It’s a bad habit. As for Henri, he isn’t going to hand me over to anybody. We can still blow his business apart. And we can make it worth his while.’
‘Who the hell is this guy Henri?’ Joe inquired. ‘Have I met him?’
‘Not yet.’
‘And you reckon he can handle ten tons of gold?’
‘He can handle anything where there’s money involved.’ The seat belt light came on. ‘So here’s the programme,’ Anna said. ‘We spend two days here in Dakar, while my ankle picks up and I get some clothes. You’ll have to square that with the pilot, Clive. Then we fly on to Geneva. Joe and I will leave the plane. We are both American citizens and have the passports to prove it. I will wear my hair up and be totally nondescript.’
‘Do you seriously suppose that you could ever be nondescript?’
‘You say the sweetest things. But I can be sufficiently nondescript to get through airport immigration. I have only ever been in and out of Switzerland by train, except for last year when you and I and Mama and Papa left, in an RAF plane, and no questions were asked. You will then fly on to London, make your peace with Baxter, recruit your two divers, and return to Geneva, where we will be waiting for you. By that time we will have set up Henri, Joe will have accumulated what we need, and be ready to go.’
Clive looked at Joe, who shrugged. ‘She seems to have it all worked out.’
*
Anna stood in front of the mirror in her hotel bedroom, and gave a little twirl, as best she was able virtually standing on one leg. But the ankle was healing nicely, and the dress, in her favourite pale blue linen, was both cool and comfortable. Of course it was very hot in the West African seaport, and she had no idea what the weather was going to be like in Central Europe, but the coat she had bought was warm enough, and she had also bought a pair of slacks and a thick shirt to wear on the actual recovery, as well as several pairs of stockings and a pair of heavy lace-up shoes. These were all temporary expedients, and then . . . but she hardly dared consider what lay ahead. All, or nothing. But it was going to be all!
There was a tap on her door. ‘Come,’ she said, wondering which of them it would be.
It was Clive. ‘How do I look,’ she asked.
‘Stupendous, as always.’ He closed the door behind himself. ‘We leave in an hour.’
‘I’ll be ready.’
‘Anna . . .’ he came further into the room. ‘You know this idea is crazy.’
‘Are you opting out?’
‘Would you be happier if I did?’
She sat on the bed. ‘What makes you say that?’
He sat beside her. ‘While you’re waiting for me in Geneva, what will you be doing?’
‘You mean apart from making contact with Henri? Keeping a very low profile.’
‘With Joe?’
‘He’s our partner.’
‘And you feel like a change of bed-mates.’
Anna’s eyes were cool. ‘Right now, I don’t have a bed-mate to change. But it’s nice to know you’re jealous.’
‘When this is done, if we manage to pull it off . . .’
‘We’ll talk about the future.’
‘But you tell me that you’re committed to working for the Yanks. Even if you do happen to be a multi-millionairess.’
‘I gave Joe my word.’
‘For how long?’
‘That’s something I will have to discover.’
‘And you really think that they will ever let you just walk away from them?’
‘Clive, in my position, I have to take each day as it comes, and hope that there is a tomorrow. I have some plans, but they are pretty nebulous at the moment. You are welcome to share in those plans. I really would like that more than anything else in the world. But you can’t do it unless you give up your world and enter mine. I can’t give mine up, you see. They, whether they be the Reds, the Yanks, or HM Government, won’t let me. Unless, one day, I can get out completely. And I mean, completely. Disappear. Ten million dollars will help me to do that. But once I go down that route, I can’t ever come back. Nor can anyone who accompanies me.’
He regarded her for several moments. ‘Do you really think you can do it?’
‘I intend to.’
Another consideration. ‘There is something I should tell you.’
‘Please do.’
‘I know our ultimate destination.’
‘I thought you might have some ideas. But you cannot possibly know where my ingots are lying. No one living knows that, except me. All you know is that it is at the bottom of a river. There are quite a few rivers in the Thuringian Wald.’
‘Of course. But as I understand it, Joe, and the CIA, are going along with you because they want to get their hands on the main store of bullion.’
Anna frowned. ‘So? I don’t propose to tell them until after I’m safely back in Switzerland.’
‘And you don’t think they have someone on their staff capable of working out that a hundred tons of gold that has totally disappeared in Erfurt can only have been concealed in the old salt mines some miles south of Eisenach?’
Anna got up, limped to where her shoulder bag lay on a chair. Would she use it? On Clive? Please, she thought, oh please convince me that I should never have to do that.
‘I’m not going to betray you, Anna. I love you too much.’
She turned to face him. ‘Did you say love?’
He flushed. ‘It’s been growing on me since that Scottish debacle.’
She was in his arms and kissing him with more passion than she had ever revealed in bed. Then she pulled her head back. ‘Does that mean . . .’
‘As you always say, business before pleasure. I just want you to keep your eyes open, just in case someone makes that point to Joe before you’re ready. Now, we have a plane to catch.’
*
‘You really trust that guy?’ Joe asked, as they sat together in the back of the taxi to ride from Geneva airport to the hotel at which they had made reservations.
‘I told you, he’s the one man who has never let me down.’
‘You keep rubbing my nose in it. But you do appreciate that he was sent to collect you.’
‘And I talked him out of it.’
‘Let me see, his brief was to return you to England. Well, he seems to have got you more than halfway there without too much effort.’
‘Joe, you really are a snarling dog. He happens to have just saved my life.’
‘Well, I imagine he is required to bring you back alive.’
‘Bastard! We also happen to have been flying in his plane for the past three days.’
‘I also imagine he’s as interested in that bullion as anyone. You won’t forget that the location is promised to us, no one else.’
‘I have given you my word, Joe, that I will reveal the location of that gold to no one but you. I always keep my word.’
‘I guess you do,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘So what’s the programme? A quiet supper and then . . .’
‘A quiet bed. I have a lot to do tomorrow. But so have you. I’ll outline it over dinner.’
*
‘Miss Fehrbach is here, Mr Laurent,’ Rudolf announced.
Laurent looked at his watch. ‘Already? We’re supposed to be meeting for lunch, after she finishes her shopping. I suppose she’s run out of money. Well, send her in.’
‘Ah,’ Rudolf said.
Laurent raised his eyebrows.
‘This is . . . well, not the Miss Fehrbach.’
Laurent leaned back in his chair. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about, Rudolf. Do you mean . . .’ he sat bolt upright. ‘Oh, Jesus Christ!’
‘Sir?’ Rudolf had never heard his boss blaspheme before.
‘Is this lady . . .?’
‘She is very like Miss Katherine. Save that . . .’ He hesitated.
‘She is better looking.’
‘Well, sir . . . she could be her sister.’
She is her sister, you buffoon, Laurent thought. What to do? Call the number he had been given? But while the two Russians had terrified him, they had not been able to convey the subtle menace that Anna could suggest. And they had not told him how they intended to manage the matter. Kidnapping Anna was not something that could be undertaken on the spur of the moment, certainly not with him in the middle. And one never knew just how much back-up Anna might have tucked away.
‘Shall I send her away, sir?’ Rudolf asked.
Laurent licked his lips. ‘She is alone, is she?’
‘Oh, yes, sir.’
‘Then I suppose I had better see her. But Rudolf, leave the door open, will you.’
‘Certainly, sir.’
Rudolf turned, and Laurent said, ‘Rudolf, is the lady carrying a shoulder bag?’
‘Yes, sir, she is.’
‘Shit!’
‘Sir? Would you like me to search her, or at least require her to leave the bag outside?’
‘No. I don’t think that would be a good idea.’ Not if you intend to collect your pension, he thought. ‘Just show her in, but as I said, leave the door open.’
‘Certainly, sir.’ Rudolf opened the door and stood in the aperture. ‘Mr Laurent can see you now, Miss Fehrbach.’
‘Thank you,’ said that unforgettably liquid voice. And there she was. Laurent goggled. The three years since he had first seen her might have dropped away. Except that both the coat and the cloche were pale blue instead of black, he might have been looking at the same woman who had entered his office on that July day in 1943, equally with her hair tucked entirely out of sight, and now taking off her dark glasses. She smiled at him. ‘I do assure you, Henri, that I am not a ghost. Or would you prefer it if I were?’
‘I . . . ah . . .’
Anna turned to the petrified Rudolf, ‘You may close the door.’
‘Ah . . .’
‘Close the door!’ Anna’s voice suddenly became a steel trap, closing.
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Rudolf gave his boss an apologetic glance and backed from the room, closing the door behind him.
Anna advanced to the desk and sat down, crossing her legs. ‘You’re looking well.’
Laurent had been patting his brow with his handkerchief. Now he restored it to his pocket. ‘As are you, as always. You have not changed at all since the first time I saw you.’
‘Well, it was only three years ago. Actually, I have changed quite a lot in those three years, even if perhaps it doesn’t show.’
‘But to come back here, where . . .’
‘I am wanted for murder?’
‘Well . . .’
‘But things have changed there as well, in the past year. Those men were Gestapo, regarded today as the last dregs of humanity, and I killed them in self defence. I have an eyewitness.’
‘Bartley.’
‘Quite. Whereas your transactions with Himmler are on file.’
‘Set up by you. You were SD.’
‘But you’re not in a position to reveal that fact, without admitting how you know it. I have not come here to settle old scores, or to issue you with a summons to appear at Nuremberg. At this time, anyway. I am here on business.’
‘Business,’ he muttered.
‘Your business. Which is handling and disposing of money, is it not? Now concentrate. When I left Germany, last year, it was in rather a hurry, as I am sure you appreciate. I therefore had to leave certain items behind. I am now on my way back to reclaim those items.’
‘You mean to return to Germany?’ Just as the Russians had said she would do!
‘Why else would I be here? You should know that I am doing this with the full support of both the British and American governments, and am in fact being supported by an Anglo-American team of experts. You should bear this always in mind. However, for reasons which need not concern you, they wish this operation to be clandestine. That is, top secret. Do not forget that. Your business is to dispose of the goods when I deliver them to you in a few days’ time. We will make it worth your while.’
Now he was using the handkerchief again. ‘These goods . . .’
‘Will consist of four hundred fifty-pound ingots of pure gold.’
‘Four . . .’ His mouth opened and shut like a fish just taken from the water. ‘Fifty-pound . . . that is ten million dollars!’
‘I believe so. Can you handle that amount of bullion?’
‘I . . . well . . .’
‘I’m sure you can. Now, if we agree that it is worth ten million dollars, then each of the bars is worth twenty-five thousand. You may keep four of them for yourself. Another ten you will set aside for disposal in a separate manner. I will tell you how this should be done when I return. The proceeds from the remaining three hundred and eighty-six ingots will be placed in a numbered bank account in the name of Anna O’Flaherty.’
‘That is . . .’
‘Me, yes. I have a passport to prove both that and that I am an American citizen.’
Think, God damn it, he told himself: while the Russians had made it clear that they wanted Anna, they had not mentioned ten million dollars: did they know of it? But coherent thought was next to impossible when he was impaled upon those huge blue eyes and could remember what lay beneath the blue dress. These were weapons Anna had used throughout her career, just as effectively as her gun or her hands or her speed of thought and reaction. And ten million dollars . . . it made far more sense to wait until she brought the money back, and then . . .
‘Something disturbs you?’ Anna asked.
‘I was thinking . . . if you are in a hurry, I may not be able to get the best price for the gold, immediately. After all, there seems to be a great deal of it, and it is illegal money, is it not?’
‘It is far more legal than anything you handled for Himmler. And I am not in that much of a hurry. I quite understand that you may need to handle it in small amounts. However, when I deliver it, you will give me a receipt, and you will keep me informed as to your progress in disposing of it. What you need to remember is that I am operating under the auspices of both MI6 and the CIA, each of whom are far more deadly that the SD, and far more powerful. A betrayal of me, this time, would be a catastrophe for you.’ She stood up. ‘It has been so nice seeing you again. When I return, we must have a meal together and talk about old times.’ She went to the door, stopped, and turned. ‘Oh, by the way, I don’t want to put you to any trouble having me followed about the place. I am staying at the Imperial Hotel, under my new name of Anna O’Flaherty, in the company of a Mr Joseph Andrews. He is my CIA controller.’
Laurent tried to pull himself together. ‘I would have thought it would be Bartley.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Anna said. ‘He is joining us in a day or two. Ciao.’
*
Laurent remained staring at the door for some time after it had closed behind her. A nightmare, returned to haunt him? Or a dream, returned to life? When he remembered . . .
Of course she would have to be destroyed, both to remove her from his life and to get the Russians off his back. Therefore . . . he stretched out his hand to the telephone, and then withdrew it again. Ten million dollars! She was taking her life in her hands in any event by returning to Germany, but she clearly felt that when she regained Switzerland she would be safe. So, think rationally.
If she were to run into the Russians while trying to regain her money – he wondered where it was? Surely not even Anna would dare attempt to return to Berlin? – she would either be killed on the spot or carted off to a gulag. Going by what Katherine had told him, there would be no possibility of her getting out of there unless she also were to be released, and he did not see any chance of that. And there would be the end of the matter; she would cease to be either a dream or a nightmare and become only a memory.
While if she were to pull it off, and return with the money, a simple phone call would similarly end her bloodstained career, and he would be left ten million dollars the richer. As she obviously had no idea that the Russians had worked out exactly what she would do, neither could her associates. He did not doubt the Reds would be happy to dispose of them also.
So, wait for her to come back. If she came back. That determination suited his reluctance to make irrevocable decisions.
And Katherine? Why, Katherine would never know anything about it.
*
Baxter had been smoking so vigorously as he listened to Clive’s report that he was surrounded in a fog. ‘You took out Bormann?’ he asked.
‘No, I did not. Anna did that. But I helped her eliminate a Nazi cell. That can’t be bad.’
‘You had no authority.’
‘Be real, Billy. Isn’t, or wasn’t, he the most wanted man not at Nuremberg? And if I hadn’t acted as I did, we’d have lost Anna.’
‘If I understand what you have been telling me, we’ve lost her anyway.’
‘I have an idea I can get her back, if the government will play ball. Have you got that exemption yet?’
‘No.’
‘You mean . . .?’
‘No. I do not mean that they have closed the door. They are still considering the matter.’
