Kroeger spoke. “They’re Swiss accounts, my son. My only son. . . – They
contain milhonst Millionsl But there are certain conditions. Conditions
which you will learn to understandl When you grow older, you’ll know those
conditions have to be metl And you’ll meet theml . . . Because this power
is -the power to change the worldl The way we wanted to change itill
The man-boy looked at the deformed figure in the chair. “Am I supposed to
thsank you?”
“Oniday you will.”
Mathew Canfield had had enough. “This is itt April Red has his message. Now
I want itl What are you delivering?-
“It’s outside. Help me up and we’ll go to it.”
“Neverl What’s outside? Your staff members in leather coatsr,
11rhere’s no one. No one but me.”
Canfield looked at the wreck of a man in front of him and believed him He
started to help Heinrich Kroeger out of the chair.
,,wait here, Andy, IT be baWl
Major Matthew Canfield, in full uniform, helped the crippled mskn in brown
tweeds down the stain and onto the lobby floor. In the lobby, a servant
brought over the crutches discarded by -the Nazi when he first ascended the
staircase to his room. The American major and the Nan went out the front
door.
“Where are we going, Kxoeger?”
,,Don’t you think it’s time you called me by my right
352
name? The name is Scarlem or, if you wdl, ScariattLThe Nazi led them to the
rot off the driveway, into the gras&
“YOMV0 Heftwich Kroeger. Thafs all you are -to me.-
‘You reali=6 of course, that it was you, and you alone who caused our
setback in zurwX you pushed am time. table back a good two yean… No one
ever suspecte& … You were an assr Heinxich Krmgu isusbed. 4-per. haps it
takes an am to portmy an assl- He laughed again.
‘Vhm an we gohigr
“Jug a few hundred yards. Hold your pistol up, if y(m like. ‘Mexes no
one.-
‘Vhat are you going to deliver? You might as well tell IM”
“Why not? Youll have them in your bands soon enough.” Kroeser bobbled along
toward an -open field. “And when you have them, rm free. Remember that”
‘Ve have a deal. What is it?”
“nn Allies will be pleased. Eisenhower win probably give you a medall …
Youll bring back the complete plans of the Berlin fortification& Theyre
known only to the elite of the Germaii, High Command. . . . Under. pound
bunkers, irocket emplacements, supply depots, Oven the Fhbrees command P08L
Youll be a hem and rlI be nonexistent We’ve done well, you and L”
Matthew Canfield “ped.
The plans of the Berlin fortificauons had been ob. tained weeks ago by
Allied Inteffigenm
Berlin knew it.
Berlin admitted it.
Someone had been led into a trap, but it was not him, Dot Matthew Canfield.
The Nw! ffigh Comm-qnti had led one of its own into the jaws of death.
‘Tell me, Kroeger, what happens if I take your plans, Y-Dur exchange for
April Red, and don’t let you go? What happensthenr’
“Simple. Doenitz himself took my testimony. I gave it to him two weeks ago
in Berlin. I told bim everything. If rm not back in Berlin in a few days,
he’ll be concerned- rm very valuable. I expect to make my appear. ance and
then … be gone. If I don’t appear, then the whole world knowst”
Matthew Canfield thought it was the strangest of iro. nies. But it was no
more than he had anticipated. He had
353
written it all down in the original file, staled for years in the archives
of the State Department.
And now a man in Berlin, unknown to him except by reputation, had reached
the same conclusion.
Heinrich KXOeger, Ulster Stewart Scarlett-WIls I pendable.
Doenitz had allowed Kroeger-bearing his false giftsto come to Bern.
Doenitz, in the unwritten rule of war, expected him to be killed. Doenitz
knew that neither nation could afford this madman as its own. In either
victory or defeat. And the enemy had to execute him so that no doubts
existed. Doenitz was that rare -enemy in these days of hatreds. He was a
man his adversaries trusted. Like Rommel, Doenitz was a thorough fighter.
A vicious fighter. But be was a moral man.
Matthew Canfield drew his pistol and fired twice.
Heinrich Kroeger lay dead on the ground.
Ulster Stewart Scarlett was-at last-gone.
Matthew Canfield walked through the field back to the small inn. The night
was clear and the moon, threequarters of it, shone brightly on the still
foliage around him.
. It struck him -that it was remarkable that it had all been so simple.
But the crest of the wave is simple. Deceptively simple. It does not show
the myriad pressures beneath that make the foam roU the way it does.
It was over.
And there was Andrew.
Them was Janet.
Above aU, there was Janet.
354
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROBERT LUDLUM, whose work has been published in twenty-seven countries and
thirty-two languages, is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The
Osterman Weekend, The Matlock Paper, The Rhinemann Exchange, The Gemini
Contenders, The Chancellor Manuscript, The Road to Gandolfo, The Holcroft
Covenant, The Matarese Circle, The Bourne Identity, The Parsifal Mosaic,
The Aquitaine Progression, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Icarus Agenda. He
lives with his wife in Florida.