A lot of boats out. A lot of heads bobbing in the water as the ship slid under. The survivors wouldn't last long, not in seas like this. Lemp wondered if he'd sunk a troopship bringing soldiers from Canada to England. That would be an even stronger blow against the enemy than he'd thought he struck.
He also wondered if she'd got out an SOS. If destroyers, say, were hurrying this way on a rescue mission, he didn't want to hang around any longer than he had to. "Surface," he said. "Let's skedaddle. We've done our job here." PEGGY DRUCE FINALLY HAD HER bags packed. In a couple of hours, she would head for the train station. The train would take her out of Germany and into neutral Denmark. In Copenhagen, she would get on a lovely American liner, the Athenia. Before too long, she'd be in New York. Two hours by train from Philadelphia. A million billion miles from a Europe that had lost its mind.
Somebody knocked on the door.
A hotel flunky, she thought. As soon as she saw the uniform, she realized the man wasn't from the hotel. It wasn't a military uniform, but civilians in the Third Reich liked playing dress-up, too. This guy, unless she was wrong, came from the Foreign Ministry.
And this guy, unless she was very, very wrong, was Trouble. With a capital T.
"You are Miss, uh, Margaret Druce?" he asked in pretty good English.
"Missus," Peggy corrected automatically. Just as automatically, she flashed her ring.
"Please to excuse me. And please to let me introduce myself. I am Konrad Hoppe, of the Sub-bureau for the Supervision of Interned Neutrals." He didn't click his heels, but he gave her a stiff little bow, something you'd never see in the States. As he straightened, he went on, "You were formerly scheduled to leave Germany today and to return to America in the near future."
Amazing how something as simple as an adverb could be scarier than the bombs that had rained down on Berlin at New Year's. "What do you mean, formerly?" Peggy demanded, doing her goddamnedest not to show how frightened she was.
"Ah." Herr Hoppe nodded, more to himself than to her. "Then you will not have heard any news this morning."
"What's that got to do with anything? Don't play riddles, if you don't mind. If you've got something to say, come out and say it, already."
"Very well, Mrs. Druce." This time, Hoppe got it right. And, this time, he really did click his heels. "I regret that I must be the one to inform you that the Athenia went down in the North Atlantic yesterday, bound for Copenhagen from New York City. Loss of life is reported to be heavy."
"Went down." Numbly, Peggy entered the words. They sounded innocuous, almost antiseptic. Little by little, her wits started working. "What do you mean, 'went down'? Went down how? Did a U-boat torpedo her?" That was the likeliest way she could think of for a ship to go down in the middle of the North Atlantic in wartime. "They can't do that! She's a neutral! She's an American!"
They could do that. They could do anything they damn well pleased. Sometimes, as an American herself, she had trouble remembering that in spite of all the horrors she'd seen. Maybe that made her a fool. Maybe it left her one of the last sane people on this poor, benighted continent.
Konrad Hoppe, dutiful employee of the Sub-bureau for the Supervision of Interned Neutrals, looked pained. "So the BBC claims. But this is one more lie from a nation of liars. The government of the Reich has denied any involvement in the sinking of the Athenia. If it was not an accident, the British torpedoed or bombed it themselves, to stir up hatred against Germany in America."
"That's the nuttiest thing I ever heard in my life!" Peggy exclaimed.
"It is not," Hoppe insisted. "For the British, it would make perfect sense. But why would the Reich sink an American ocean liner? Do you not think we learned our lessons on the folly of this in the last war?"
Peggy opened her mouth. Then she closed it again. She didn't know what to say. She couldn't imagine England doing anything so filthy. But she also had trouble believing Hitler wanted to antagonize the USA. Wouldn't he be cutting his own throat if he did? He might be nuts, but he wasn't stupid. He wasn't that stupid, anyhow, or Peggy didn't think so.
"Maybe your guy just made a mistake," she said after a few seconds of thought. "Have you ever crossed the Atlantic in January? I have, and it's rough seas and nasty weather all the way."
"Our submarine captains do not make such errors," the Foreign Ministry official said stiffly. "It is impossible. And if you find the Atlantic in January so unappetizing, why did you book passage on the Athenia?"
To get the hell out of your stinking country. But if Peggy said something like that, some guys who wore different uniforms-those of the SS, say-were liable to have some sharp questions for her. Or pointed ones. Or hot ones. "To get away from the war," she did say, a couple of heartbeats slower than she might have.
"I am afraid this is not possible for you at the moment," Hoppe said.
"Can't I go to Denmark anyway?" Peggy yelped. The lights were on in neutral Denmark. Denmark had never heard of rationing, except as something other people suffered. Much more to the point, Denmark was a civilized country. Once upon a time, Peggy would have said the same thing about Germany. No more. No more.
"I am very sorry." Konrad Hoppe didn't sound sorry. If anything, he sounded coldly amused. He got to tell foreigners no, and the Foreign Ministry paid him to do it. If that wasn't heaven for the nasty little man, Peggy would have been amazed. A small, chilly smile on his lips, Hoppe went on, "That also for you is not possible."
"How come?" She wouldn't give up without a fight. "I've got the train ticket. I've got the Danish visa. Why can't I use 'em?"
"It is not the policy of the Reich to permit departures unless the return journey to the foreigner's home may be completed without delay," Hoppe droned.
"Why the-dickens not?" She wanted to say something hotter than that, but feared it would do her more harm than good.
"I am not obligated to discuss the Reich's policies with those affected by them. I am obliged only to communicate them to you," Hoppe said primly.
Fuck you, Charlie. Peggy didn't say that, either. A few years earlier, she would have. Maybe she was finally growing up. She rolled her eyes. She didn't think Herb would believe it. That made her roll them again. God only knew when-or if-she'd see her husband again.
She tried a different tack: "Okay, you're not obligated. Could you do it because you want to, or because it'd be a civilized kind of thing to do?"
Yes, she'd throw that in Hoppe's face. And his sallow cheeks did turn red. Russians got ticked off if you called them uncultured. Germans were almost as bad. A lot of them had an inferiority complex about France and England. And, oddly, that had got worse since Hitler took over. It was as if the Nazis were uneasily aware of what a bunch of bastards they were, and embarrassed when somebody called them on it.
"I believe…" Hoppe's voice trailed away. A little muscle under one eye twitched, the only visible sign of what had to be a struggle inside him. Human being against Nazi functionary? Peggy knew which way she would have bet. But she would have lost, because the Foreign Ministry official went on, "I believe it is to keep people from blaming the Reich for disrupted schedules when those are not of our making."
Who sank the Athenia? Peggy wondered again. But Hoppe would only deny it one more time if she threw it in his face. If Goebbels was saying the British had done it, that was Holy Writ inside the Third Reich. Hoppe probably believed it himself, even if it seemed like obvious horse manure to Peggy.
"Well, suppose I sign a pledge that says I won't be offended?" Peggy proposed. "If I badmouth you in the papers or anything, you can haul it out and tell people what a liar I am."
He shook his head. "No. That is not good. You would claim you signed the document under duress. We have experience with others who prove ungrateful after going beyond our borders."