'It took a man like Caldwell to find it,' I said, turning to Mary. 'He had to play the stakes big. Fate had tossed down the odds three times before and each time he had lost. He was playing for everything.'
Rhennin was carried away: 'When I started on the Mazy Zed idea I spent months analysing the diamond returns of defunct German companies which first worked the shore deposits. I wanted some indication whereto begin…'
The words died on his lips. I had left the porthole to put down my glass on a low table. Incredulity and amazement showed in his face as his eyes fell on the opening in my shirt, which sagged open, buttonless, as I bent down.
The Knight's Cross hung on its golden chain.
He started forward and snatched it so that the chain broke.
'Where did you get this?' he managed to say in a strangled voice.
'Read the back,' I said.
His hands were shaking so that he could hardly turn it over.
'"Korvettenkapitan Dieter Rhennin. L7-68.. May 1942." Did… did you find Dieter's body?'
'No,' I replied. 'I didn't find a body. I found a graveyard, though. First I want to know who Dieter Rhennin was.'
'He was my brother. Is he dead?'
I told him about Shelborne's death-in-life acre overlooking the sea. He sat down hard on the desk chair. The strip lighting blanked out his right side, etching the left in severe, tired strokes. In the middle of what I started to say he got up and splashed three more brandies for us, without asking.
'What was Dieter Rhennin doing at Mercury?' I asked.
He said slowly, 'I was once a German Naval Intelligence officer. I mean to find out.'
'At the expense of the Mazy Zed project?'
'No,' he said. 'Let me tell you.' He ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes. 'I used to be personal staff officer to the Oberbefehlshaber der Marine — the High Command Number One. You get used to sorting things out.'
'But you didn't sort out your brother's death — that's why the sight of that gave you a shock. What has Dieter's death got to do with the Mazy Zed?'.' I demanded.
'I knew he was in the area. He and five U-boats. A whole U-boat Rudel, a wolf-pack as you call it.'
'What were they doing?'
He replied, 'Korventtenkapitan Rhennin was one of the most daring of the latter-day U-boat aces. He was too late for the great early battles in the North Atlantic, but still he won this…' He balanced the diamond-studded Knight's Cross in his hand. 'He had the same dash, the same intuitive flair for the Schwerpunkt as the great captains…'
'Schwerpunkt?'
He gestured with his hand. 'Our U-boat terms — the British and the Americans hardly understood them. The U-boat men used words which began as having one meaning and then, in the Western Approaches, the blood and the flames and sinkings passed into the words and they mutated. They had a name for diesel oil which meant death by choking, death by flame. Death could come via a crack in the casing under the depth-charges… There were delicate nuances of meaning… It could come through nothing more than a blurred periscope graticule…'
Mary prompted him: ' Schwerpunkt?'
'Ah, yes,' he replied. 'The centre of gravity, perhaps we might translate it thus.' The English term was bald and cold compared to the mystic savour he gave it; he had been at the heart of the U-boat offensive. 'A convoy, a port, a warship, any of these might be a Schwerpunkt. Not a target. A pivotal point, whose destruction might be success or failure. It takes a great captain to know where that centre of gravity is when everything is fire, explosion, sudden death.'
We waited. The air conditioner whined, the pumps thudded.
His words became a torrent: 'They gave Dieter four of the finest U-boat captains. He himself was the fifth; there was no doubt about the choice of leader. The boats were all new — the IXC class, all of them, eighteen knots on the surface, seven submerged; each had six torpedo tubes and a crew of forty-eight. They made up Gruppe Eisbar, the Polar Bear Group. They sailed to destroy the British round the Cape of Good Hope. My brother sent a signal. The attack was ready…'
I thought of the almost magical prognostications of the Submarine Tracking Room at the Admiralty.
They were all sunk,' I said.
He looked at the Knight's Cross. 'I wish to God I knew.' In his agitation he repeated himself. 'They rendezvoused and sent a signal. Then — Gruppe Eisbar vanished.'
Mary said, 'The British knew the rendezvous? Where was it?'
Rhennin's voice was thick. He waved to the porthole. 'Angras Juntas. The bay of the meeting of the captains.'
The old Portuguese name for the bay! Four hundred years ago Henry the Navigator's captains had gathered here to find a way to sail across the world. What had been Gruppe Eisbar's mission?
Mary was obviously mystified by the dramatic disappearance of the crack squadron.
Rhennin went on, 'There are four faces to the kill when the U-boat is hunting. Dieter — first, the awareness of the victim: tension, lips thrust forward, eyes leftwards under the Turcoman cap he always wore in action; second, close for the attack, cap gone, lips parted, death and pity, the eyes shadowed; third, the widening of the nostrils, the head thrown back, the desperate ticking of the seconds on the stop-watch while the torpedoes run; fourth, the smile, the relaxed smile of success.'
Mary was staring at him. I remembered Shelborne's symbols of life and death.
'You hear death in the noise of your own motor alternator when they've forced you 400 feet down, those British destroyers above with the ping-scratch of the Asdic. You've got to use the compass gyroscope and hydrophones in spite of the noise of that motor. You know it is death to use it; it might be death not to.'
It was fully a minute before I broke in, he was so carried away. 'Why Angras Juntas, Felix? There's more to this than meets the eye, — it's like Shelborne. Five U-boats… a powerful raiding force like Gruppe Eisbar does not simply disappear. There are signals, prearranged exchanges, orders between such a group and operations staff. It is still easy to check back: all the records of U-boat operations were published at the time of the Nuremberg trials.'
'Seekriegsleitung was a highly efficient machine,' replied Rhennin. 'I should know. I was at headquarters.'
'Why didn't Seekriegsleitung order Gruppe Eisbar to rendezvous on the high seas in the safe area south of St Helena? Dieter wasn't after shipping at the Cape, was he? Was he looking for what you are looking for: diamonds!'
A slight flush spread up Rhennin's face. For a moment I thought he would get up and thump the table in the best German officer manner, — instead he poured himself another stiff drink, tossing the Knight's Cross up and down in his palm.
'Yes, John, you are right, they were after diamonds. This is the story: it was a double mission. I'm speaking of June-July 1942. British shipping was pouring round the Cape in the build-up of men and supplies for the Battle of El Alamein. SKL — Seekriegsleitung — guessed that the British knew after they had sunk the Bismarck in 1941- that we had a refuelling rendezvous deep in the South Atlantic near St Helena. The British patiently gathered their information. Then they struck. I forget how many vital supply ships we lost when they did. So Seekriegsleitung decided to assign Gruppe Eisbar a land rendezvous. Angras Juntas would be safe, we reckoned. It was out of range of the land-sea patrols and the nearest radar was 300 miles away. There were no humans except a few Bushmen in the desert.'
Mary said, 'I remember the excitement in Cape Town when the U-boats came close.'
Rhennin smiled faintly. That must have been later. Before Gruppe Eisbar the U-boats had left the Cape route alone. Polar Bear was meant to be the big — the first — surprise. In June 1942 a convoy of fifty-three ships was to gather in Table Bay, headed by the Queen Mary, with a whole division of troops aboard. There was also the Mauretania, the Aquitania, the lie de France, all big ships. Gruppe Eisbar had orders to annihilate the convoy.'