“You don’t like him, do you, Ludwig?” Vierhaus said.
“There is not much to like or dislike, actually,” Ludwig answered. “He is very much a loner, never joins us for a beer at night. He’s civil to his teachers and the other students but that is as far as he goes. He is totally dedicated to perfection.”
Ludwig lowered his glasses for a moment.
“On the other hand, he is quite the actor. He actually outwitted the entire staff three or four times by disguising himself.”
“Is that so?” Vierhaus said.
Ludwig raised the glasses again.
“He can even be quite charming when he is not himself,” Ludwig added.
Confident, unswerving, the skier reached the bottom of the steep slope and disappeared into the trees at the base.
“I must say, you have picked the perfect spot for this training facility. Why did you pick the Dolomites?”
“Mostly for the snow. The mountains are capped year- round. And it is isolated. Nobody blunders onto this camp. The people in Millstadt think we are a border station. Italy is only twenty or thirty kilometers from here.”
“It seems a pleasant village.”
“Very friendly and totally isolated.”
“Tell me more about Swan,” Vierhaus said.
“Best student I ever had,” the tall SS trainer said. “A very smart man. You tell him a thing once and he has learned it. He has already mastered everything my five instructors and I have taught him.”
“You think he is ready to leave?”
Ludwig pondered the question for a moment. Vierhaus had recruited the colonel from the SD, the intelligence department of the SS, where he was considered too tall to be an effective field agent. It was an unfortunate loss to the SD for Ludwig was one of the shrewdest men Vierhaus had ever met. He was an honor graduate from the university in Berlin and an excellent judge of character. Vierhaus had put him in charge of training— or eliminating—the agents Vierhaus recruited and Ludwig had devised a program which was both physically and mentally exhausting, designed to break the toughest of men.
“Perhaps,” Ludwig said finally. “Perhaps a little longer. Just to make sure he’s perfect. After all, we originally planned the course for one year. It has only been seven months.”
“There is no rush,” Vierhaus said. “Any task, understand Ludwig, any task! He must be at ease in any task. How about attitude?”
“Cold as an iceberg. Nothing bothers him. He survived three weeks alone in the mountains and we set him loose with nothing but his weapons. I honestly believe he gained weight out there.”
“Weapons?”
“A remarkable marksman and he wields a knife like a circus performer. The Okinawan, Ashita, says Swan is the best jujitsu student he has ever had. The man has hands of iron.”
“Will he kill if the time comes?”
“In the blink of an eye. He would kill his own mother if it were expedient.”
“Interesting. And you think he will follow orders, this loner?”
“He will do whatever is necessary to complete his mission. Quite simply, he has turned himself into a machine.”
“And those things you cannot teach a man?”
“He is sly, wily, quick, dangerous. An adroit liar. And like I said, quite an actor. He is just paranoid enough to be properly cautious. And as you can see, not only an expert skier, but absolutely fearless. Quite a find, Herr Professor.”
“And the other one? Kraft?”
“He has his specialties. A quiet killer that one, but not as versatile as Swan. He is almost as good in some areas.”
“How canny is he, Ludwig?”
“Canny? Not in a class with Swan. Let me give you an example. We had an exercise—to blow up a warehouse which was very heavily guarded. Three of the men were caught trying to invade the building but as far as we could tell, Swan never went near the place. Then he came to me and told me to get the guards out of the place, it was going to blow up. Two hours later, boom! It was gone. Pulverized!”
“How did he do it?”
“A rat bomb.”
“Really?” Vierhaus said with surprise.
“You are familiar with the rat bomb?”
“I have heard of it,” Vierhaus said alter a moment.
“He crawled up the sewer line under the place and set the trap. He used Limburger cheese to make sure the rat would smell it. It worked like a charm.”
“Do any of the other trainees show Swan’s promise?”
Swan shot out of the thicket of pines at the foot of the mountain, leaning forward on bent knees to keep up his speed, moving soundlessly toward them.
“Nein. They are good, but not like this one coming here. I tell you, Professor, he is frighteningly efficient.”
“Does he scare you, Ludwig?” Vierhaus asked casually.
Colonel Ludwig smiled and shook his head. “Nobody scares me, Professor, I am beyond that. No, I marvel at him. He was only here a week and I realized he could bypass desensitization training. My God, he could teach it! He is the perfect SD officer. What the Führer dreams of, this man is.”
“Would you like to go up against him?”
Ludwig stared quizzically at Vierhaus for a moment or two before he nodded slowly. ‘Ja. An interesting challenge. He has an uncanny ability to focus on a single objective, to make instant decisions based on knowledge, instinct based logic, and react immediately. Most men I know in this business operate on gut instinct. Logic rarely enters into it.”
“Does he learn from his mistakes?”
“Swan does not make mistakes.”
“What are his weaknesses, Ludwig?’’
“His only weakness that I can determine is impatience. When he learns something he means to test himself immediately.”
“Hmm. That could be a serious problem. This man may be undercover for years before he is activated.”
“Then you will have to find other ways to keep him occupied. He has a taste for danger.”
Vierhaus began to chuckle.
“Is something funny?” Ludwig asked.
“I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be ironic if we have over trained him.”
“It isn’t possible to be overtrained, Herr Professor,” Ludwig said. “Kraft and the other three in training are excellent prospects but it would take two, three years for them to be in Swan’s class and by that time God knows how good he would be.”
“I congratulate you, Colonel,” Vierhaus said, shaking the tall man’s hand. “You are doing remarkable work here. So what is next?”
“A competition.”
“A competition?”
“Yes. I am going to pit Swan against Kraft on a very difficult climb and race.”
“Why?” -
Ludwig shrugged. “Just to see who comes in first. To see how they react in a challenge situation, under actual stress. There are some things even training can’t imitate. It should be quite revealing.”
“But dangerous, Colonel, if your training is as good as I suspect, they could be too keen on winning. They might take unnecessary chances.”
“I agree,” Ludwig said with a smile. “But that is part of it, Professor, to test their judgment. It is not just winning, it is a test of their skill and their judgment. It will certainly be interesting, don’t you think?”
“A bit diabolical.”
“Oh yes.”
“Do they know about this contest yet?”
“They never know anything in advance, Professor. Surprise is part of the training.”
“I wonder if Swan suspects that Kraft is being trained as his backup.”
“God knows what he suspects—or thinks.”