The Nazi stirred and moaned. Cargraves turned him over. The man’s eyelids flickered, showing bright blue eyes. He stared up at Cargraves. “How do you do?” he said in a voice like a stage Englishman. “May I get up from here?”
Cargraves backed away and let him up. He did not help him.
The man looked around. Ross stood silently, covering him with a Garand. “That isn’t necessary, really,” the Nazi protested. Ross glanced at Cargraves but continued to cover the prisoner. The man turned to Cargraves. “Whom have I the honor of addressing?” he asked. “Is it Captain Cargraves of the Galileo?”
“That’s right. Who are you?”
“I am Helmut von Hartwick, Lieutenant Colonel, Elite Guard.” He pronounced lieutenant “leftenant.”
“Okay, Helmut, suppose you start explaining yourself. Just what is the big idea?”
The self-styled colonel laughed. “Really, old man, there isn’t much to explain, is there? You seem to have eluded us somehow and placed me at a disadvantage. I can see that.”
“You had better see that, but that is not what I mean, and that is not enough.” Cargraves hesitated. The Nazi had him somewhat baffled; he did not act at all like a man who has just come out of a daze. Perhaps he had been playing possum — if so, for how long?
Well, it did not matter, he decided. The Nazi was still his prisoner. “Why did you order my ship bombed?”
“Me? My dear chap, why do you think I ordered it?”
“Because you sound just like the phony English accent we heard over our radio. You called yourself `Captain James Brown.’ I don’t suppose there is more than one fake Englishman in this crowd of gangsters.”
Von Hartwick raise his eyebrows. “`Gangsters’ is a harsh term, old boy. Hardly good manners. But you are correct on one point; I was the only one of my colleagues who had enjoyed the questionable advantage of attending a good English school. I’ll ask you not to call my accent `phony.’ But, even if I did borrow the name `Captain James Brown,’ that does not prove that I ordered your ship bombed. That was done under the standing orders of our Leader — a necessary exigency of war. I was not personally responsible.”
“I think you are a liar on both counts. I don’t think you ever attended an English school; you probably picked up that fake accent from Lord Haw-Haw, or from listening to the talkies. And your Leader did not order us bombed, because he did not know we were there. You ordered it, just as soon as you could trace a bearing on us, as soon as you found out we were here.”
The Nazi spread his. hands, palms down, and looked pained. “Really, you Americans are so ready to jump to conclusions. Do you truly think that I could fuel a rocket, call its crew, and equip it for bombing, all in ten minutes? My only function was to report your location.”
“You expected us, then?”
“Naturally. If a stupid radarman had not lost you when you swung into your landing orbit, we would have greeted you much sooner. Surely you don’t think that we would have established a military base without preparing to defend it? We plan, we plan for everything. That is why we will win.”
Cargraves permitted himself a thin smile. “You don’t seem to have planned for this.”
The Nazi tossed it off. “In war there are setbacks. One expects them.”
“Do you call it `war’ to bomb an unarmed, civilian craft without even a warning?”
Hartwick looked pained. “Please, my dear fellow! It ill befits you to split hairs. You seemed to have bombed us without warning. I myself would not be alive this minute had I not had the good fortune to be just removing my suit when you struck. I assure you I had no warning. As for your claim to being a civilian, unarmed craft, I think it very strange that the Galileo was able to blast our base if you carried nothing more deadly than a fly swatter. You Americans amaze me. You are always so ready to condemn others for the very things you do yourselves.”