FBI Agent Dunn was nauseated, but kept control. “Almost all of these people had some identification on them, but we were concerned that it might be phony. Therefore, we had to have you check. Now we can release them to their families. Quietly, of course.”
Tom laughed, “Quietly? Don’t you think somebody’s going to notice a parade of bodies being taken out in hearses and a host of obituaries in the papers?”
Dunn grimaced. “Not my decision. Nor was it my idea to say that we had all the Nazis already bagged. Off the record, the Director is raising holy hell with anyone who thought we were safe. I’m just thankful I wasn’t involved. Much too junior, you know.”
They had three more bodies to view. The dead Germans had been isolated from the others. Again, none of them was Stahl. All had been shot multiple times.
“I understand one of them lived for a while,” Alicia inquired. Her complexion was a little green, but she was holding on.
“Yes,” Dunn answered, “but he didn’t answer any questions. Not surprisingly, his last words were Heil Hitler.”
“And there definitely was a fourth man,” said Tom.
“Absolutely,” said Dunn. “He was seen shooting and he was even briefly chased down Wall Street until he got lost in the crowd that was running away. We think he ran down a subway. Some tourists had taken pictures and we’ve had them developed. Unfortunately, they don’t show anything useful.”
“Any chance the fourth kraut got shot and is dead somewhere, like in an alley?” Tom asked.
“One can only hope,” Dunn said.
Alicia looked distastefully at the three dead Germans, their bodies now covered by sheets. She was astonished at how well she had gotten through the ordeal of seeing so many mangled dead bodies. But then, she thought, the Americans were innocents and the dead Germans were monsters who had slaughtered them. She had no pity for them.
“Did the dead Nazis give you anything useful?” she asked.
“A little,” Dunn said with a small smile. “These guys had some receipts on them for dry cleaning and such and we were able to identify where they lived by showing people in that neighborhood their photos that we sent by Associated Press Wire Photo. Obviously, we’ve been sending a lot of planes back and forth. Regardless, we found that four men had been living in a rooming house and at least three weren’t coming back. We’re checking for anything useful, but I doubt that we’ll find much. The Germans weren’t that important and it’s becoming clear that Stahl wasn’t staying with them.”
Baldwin had been quiet up to now. “For a variety of reasons, I’d like to be able to check on that apartment and its contents.”
“The Director might not like that,” Dunn said grimly, “so let’s not tell him.”
Tony Romano’s ankle had healed quickly. Either it hadn’t been broken or not broken that badly. Still, he thought it was a good idea to keep using the crutches he’d been issued. The more helpless he appeared to the Black Shirt guards, the better were his chances of escaping.
He’d concluded that the Black Shirts were a confused bunch. Some of them wanted to brutalize the prisoners, but others said not to. It was clear that they were worried about the direction the war was taking. Some of the guards openly grumbled about the possibility of Germany losing and admitted that a number of their group had folded up their shirts and gone home.
In the evening the guards changed and some of the few Italian soldiers who remained in Toronto took over. Since Tony spoke the language, he and the Italian guards had a number of pleasant conversations. It was clear that many of them, including some officers were trying to figure a way to get out of the army and on to the United States. Desertion was not a moral problem for them. They felt that Mussolini was a buffoon who had betrayed them by sending them all the way to Canada. They did admit, however, that they were much better off than some of their comrades who were supporting the German invasion of Russia. They just didn’t want to get killed in what they saw as a hopeless war fighting for Germany against the overwhelming might of the United States. It occurred to many of them that they could soon be trying to kill some of their own relatives who’d emigrated years earlier.
They understood that it might be a very long time before they saw Italy again. It was another reason to hate Mussolini and Hitler and try for a new life in the United States.
Life in the camp wasn’t unpleasant, just boring and frustrating. The food was decent, brought in by an independent caterer, and they’d made the barracks livable. Better, they were beginning to get and send mail. Tony’s been able to inform his family that he was okay. He didn’t bother to burden them with news about his ankle. He’d been delighted when they’d responded and been even more delighted when his girlfriend, Nancy O’Connor, wrote and said she would wait for him and, yes, an Irish Catholic girl and an Italian Catholic boy might be a good match.
The rest of his crew were in the camp as well, but they seemed to resent the fact that they’d been shot down and blamed him for it. They were right, of course.
Another reason that the POWs were treated well was the presence of the Red Cross who watched the camp like hawks. The German military who were in charge of the camp were routinely informed of problems which they tried to solve. The German soldiers might have behaved like barbarians in Poland and Russia, but not in Canada. The camp where civilians were interned was run by the Gestapo and life was not as pleasant. Food was enough to sustain them, but it was nowhere near as plentiful as the American POWs had, and the same held with the living conditions. Tony had found that the Gestapo was led by some swine named Neumann and it was widely believed that he was responsible for both the martyrdom of some Canadian girl as well as the attempt to ship Jews to Germany.
“Penny for your thoughts, Tony.”
It was Major Bryant, the second highest ranking officer in the camp. He was also the head of the escape committee. “I was thinking you had some good news for me, sir.”
“Tony, there’s no doubt that your escape plan is solid, but there are concerns that there might be reprisals against us if you made it out.”
“Understood, sir, but what about reprisals against me if they find out that I sank four of their precious submarines?”
It was becoming common knowledge that the German navy was suffering very high losses to their submarine fleet. If they got their hands on someone who’d sunk four of them, they would likely interrogate him until he divulged just how they were able to find and kill so many. To the best of his knowledge, he was the only sub-killer who’d been captured, and he was certain that interrogation would rapidly become torture. He’d heard of people standing up to savage torture, but had also been told that everyone broke sooner or later. This might present a problem since he really didn’t know all that much. In the U.S. he was considered a hero. He didn’t want the SS to know about his exploits, even though they’d been somewhat offset by having two planes shot out from under him.
Bryant picked up a small rock and tossed it a few feet. To anyone in a guard tower, they were just two guys talking. “You know there’s no way we can get you back to the States even if you do escape. You’d have to hook up with some local guerillas and work with them. Any idea how you’d do that?”
Tony grinned. “I was kind of hoping you’d know, sir.”
Koenig snapped to attention and smiled as Guderian entered his spartan office in the well-hidden underground bunker.