A dozen Swiss soldiers on motorcycles led the parade and chased other vehicles off the road. Allen Dulles sat down beside them on a park bench as the parade passed them. He handed each of them a coffee in a cardboard mug.
“Are we going to follow them?” Winnie asked.
“No point to it. We know precisely where they are going and why. When they arrive, they will be secure and secluded. We will observe them and the compound at our leisure.”
Ernie grimaced. The coffee had gotten cold. “From what you’ve told us, they have a hand-picked group of so-called assistants inside the compound. They are, of course, all SS troops and their one and only job is to keep mother viper and her viperlings safe. And, there will be at least a battalion of Swiss army soldiers securing the outside.”
Dulles smiled. “And none of them will be personally neutral. I have it on excellent authority that they’ve been hand-picked because of their pro-Nazi leanings. Therefore, there’s not much chance of their being suborned by sweet talk or money from us.”
Winnie sighed. “Well, it would be wonderful to talk with the happy family. In particular, I’d like to talk to the children.”
Dulles smiled like the cat who’d eaten the canary. “We will.”
“And just how will you do that?” asked Ernie. “Just how devious are you going to be this time?”
Dulles pretended to be hurt. “I’m not going to be devious at all. I’ve gone about it the old-fashioned way. I simply contacted the Germans via the Swiss and asked for a meeting. Frau Goebbels is as intrigued as we are and will grant an interview just as soon as they are settled in. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.”
“May I ask her about Marie Leroux?”
Dulles winced. “I have it on very good authority that both she and Sven are still alive. Beyond that, I cannot say.”
“Is it safe to assume that your contacts come from General Vietinghoff’s headquarters?” asked Ernie.
Dulles shook his head. “I will neither confirm nor deny that. Sadly, I can report that both were interrogated and the interrogations were rather brutal along with being very effective.”
“Oh God,” moaned Winnie.
“What can we do to strike back at them?” asked Ernie. “If Herr Goebbels should decide to make a conjugal visit to fornicate with Frau Goebbels, could we arrange to either kill him or kidnap him while they’re screwing their little Nazi hearts out?”
“Absolutely not. First, it would do nothing towards shortening the war. Someone else, probably Field Marshal Schoerner, would take over immediately. Perhaps the successor would even be the head torturer himself, General Hahn. If there was some way of getting Vietinghoff on the throne, I would consider it.”
Ernie didn’t argue. He’d expected the rebuff.
Dulles continued. “There is also the fact that the Swiss government would be deeply offended and require us to leave their country immediately. Whether or not we approve is irrelevant. The United States likes having an outpost so close to the heart of the cancerous Nazi tumor; that is, if Nazi tumors have hearts.
“Therefore, you will make no plans regarding any assassination or kidnapping of Josef Goebbels. Nor will you contemplate kidnapping or harming either Magda Goebels or her children. We simply will not sink to their level.”
“Even if it meant saving lives?” Winnie asked as she wiped the tears from her face.
Dulles nodded tolerantly. “Winifred, when you asked to cross the border as part of an OSS team, I turned you down because I thought you’d be caught immediately. Now you’re feeling guilty because you didn’t push me hard enough. Instead, your old friend Marie went in and is suffering the torments of hell. I have no regrets as to my choice and you have no choice but to respect it. It was not your decision, it was mine and mine alone. You did not have a vote. There was no way on earth that I was going to let you enter Germany or, if you prefer, Germanica. Not only would it have been a waste of your talents, but the political implications would have been enormous. The one time I did send you, the circumstances were considerably different and there was a sense of urgency.”
He shook his head. “Nor did I feel that there was any real danger in that excursion. It was nothing more than the drop off and subsequent pickup of of an envelope that we’d done many times before. I had no idea that Hitler would decide to kill his wretched self on that date and cause such chaos.”
Ernie was puzzled. “Winnie, what the hell is this nice man talking about when he says political implications.”
She smiled wanly. “My father is, was, a friend of Roosevelt’s. He is a big contributor to the Democratic Party. He’s also a buddy of Colonel Donovan’s.”
“I’m surprised that Winnie didn’t tell you too much about herself,” Dulles said. “Along with being lovely, graceful, and intelligent, she is quite wealthy and part of Philadelphia’s Main Line community.”
“Winnie, is that true? What does your father do?”
She was able to manage a real smile. “He buys things. The last time we talked he was thinking about buying Philadelphia.”
* * *
Having gotten out of bombing German targets in the mountains at night, neither Bud nor George, nor the other pilots for that matter, could complain about escorting bombers on another toilet paper run.
As with this and previous other flights, the bombers they were protecting would drop leaflets over what were presumed to be German positions occupied by turncoat Russians. Neither man had heard of a General Vlasov and his anti-communist army. But if they were fighting for the Germans, then they were the enemy. Nor were any of the pilots concerned about the rumored forced repatriation of the Russians to Stalin’s embrace. Hell, they’d fought for the Germans and should be punished. The piper wants to be paid, one pilot had said.
But if thousands of Russians could be convinced to surrender, then a lot of Americans might survive the war instead of getting killed in pointless fighting. The surrender of the Japanese after the second atomic bomb had struck Nagasaki had come as a pleasant surprise to everyone. It had been presumed that the Japs would fight to the last Japanese man, woman, and child, and that the war would continue for many long years. The American body count would run into the hundreds of thousands, if not more. “The Golden Gate in Sixty Eight,” was a commonly heard cry from the soldiers in the Pacific. Now it looked like it was the Nazis who wouldn’t give up. The Germans didn’t stand a ghost of a chance against the Americans, so why were they still fighting, was the constantly asked question.
“Toilet paper away, alert the assholes,” said a sarcastic Bud as bomb bay doors opened and tens of thousands of sheets of paper billowed down. Puffs of black smoke appeared by the bombers as German antiaircraft guns took up the challenge.
“Where are they coming from?” Bud asked. He looked below for flashes of gunfire. “I see something, guys. Just follow me.”
A stream of four planes plummeted down. When they were low enough, Bud fired his rockets and machine guns, the shells’ impacts highlighting what he thought was a target. The other planes saturated the area with their rockets and machine guns. There were no secondary explosions and there was no more antiaircraft fire. They made a second pass and dropped bombs. This time there was a small secondary explosion and they were jubilant. They received radioed thanks from the bomber pilots.
“Well,” said George, “do you think we hit them or just chased them away.”
“Either way works fine for me. I hate to lose bombers I’m supposed to be shepherding. I think the bomber pilots are arrogant pricks, but they are Americans.”
“Yep, and they think we’re arrogant pricks as well.”
Ahead, the bombers were turning and heading back to base. The fighters followed in their wake. Other formations joined them and a mighty armada that hadn’t dropped a single bomb turned for home.