W E B Griffin – Men at War 1 – The Last Heroes

“Who’s he?”

“Fulmar Elektrische Gesellschaft,” Freddie Dietz said. “He was at Marburg with my brother.”

Fulmar Elektrische Geselischaft, FEG, was a medium-sized electrical equipment manufacturing concern in Frankfurt am Main. That explained why the young German, who looked like a recruiting poster for the Waffen-SS, was not in uniform. Baker noticed a tendency on the part of the Germans to excuse the sons of industrialists, particularly those who had early on supported the National Socialists, from military service.

As they left the restaurant, they had passed the other table. Dietz had spoken to Fulmar, and introductions had been made all around. Fulmar introduced the Arab as “His Excellency, Sheikh Sidi Hassan el Ferruch” and the other girl as a Frdulein Somebody.

In their cab on the way to the Left Bank, Freddie Dietz further identified the Arab.

“I recognize him now. He’s the son of a Moroccan pasha,” he said. “He was at Marburg with my brother and Fulmar.”

“What’s he doing in Paris?”

“Causing trouble.” Dietz laughed.

“How?

“He’s buying racehorses, in direct competition with some very highly placed people. There are, you know, some people who had hoped to take advantage of the… shall I say ‘depressed market’?… to improve their stables. Fulmar’s friend has destroyed many happy dreams. He has annoyed some very important people, one very important Hungarian in particular, but mostly Germans. I’ve also heard he’s into other things–of doubtful legality. But the word is out to leave him alone. The Foreign Ministry doesn’t want trouble with his father.”

Baker could imagine what these doubtful legal things were. He had heard some very interesting stories about the German inability SHOES held gold, Swiss amd American curto stop the flow of privately rency, investment-quality precious stones, and time art out of both occupied and Vichy France. it had been decreed tthat gold and fore to be exeign currency must be deposited in banks, where tffiey wer changed for French francs. The export of jewel sttones and fine art was forbidden except by permit, which was rarely, issued.

Short of conducting house-to-house searches, of France, there was no way to make the French turn in their gold aand hard currency for exchange. And many wealthy french@ who hioped one day to leave German-occupied France, wefe trying everyy possible means to send their assets, which often included paintingss and objets d’art, out ahead of them.

A highly placed Moroccan who could freely rn,iove in and out of France on some sort of official passport could mowe fortunes in his luggage if he was so inclined.

“That being the case,” Baker said, “I suppose –it’s a good thing we didn’t go after the girls.”

“A great pity,” Freddie Dietz said, “but it wouild have been ill advised.” scinating, Baker found the Moroccan and his American friiend fa even more so after he checked his List of Americams Known to Be Living in Germanoccupied France and found no JFULRNAR on it.

Baker dispatched, that same nightg a report olf the encounter. Item #1 on the report was the most significant iternl he knew: If Generalmajor von Handlernanbitburg was in Pariis with his wife and daughter, it was unlikely his division would be folding its tents it to load on trains for movement to the eastern front.. Item #2, that was likely a Gernian-American named Eric Fulnizar was successfully smuggling valuables out of occupied France in consort with Sidi Hassan el Ferruch, elder son of the pasha of Ks-ares Souk, was not, obviously, of importance. But it was the solirt of thing that should be on file somewhere.

The idea of recruiting Fulmar as ati agent had, olf courses immediately occurred to Baker. He was an American wit1h highly placed German friends and contacts. His friendship with the Moroccan could prove valuable. The problem was that Fulmar would probably not look with favor at any attempt to recruit him. Agents often live shorter lives than other people. And Fulmar did not seem to Baker eager for a short life.

He would, of course, make the attempt to feel Fulmar out, but he was not at all optimistic. And if he went too far, Fulmar was entirely capable of telling his German friends that Baker was more than a caretaker for the empty U.S. embassy.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *