That was true, of course. And the other truth was that Canidy had just played his hole card, and it was an ace.
There was no question in Stevens’s mind or, apparently, in the chief of station’s, that it was going to be necessary to send Eric Fulmar into Germany. If Canidy was relieved, it was entirely possible that Fulmar’s reaction would be to refuse to go to Germany. They couldn’t order him in, he really had to be a volunteer. And he could not be replaced with another Germanspeaking agent.
Stevens wondered if Canidy had thought this all through. It was certainly entirely possible that he had. Or whether the outburst had been as spontaneous as it had appeared.
Whichever it was, Canidy had offered David Bruce just two options, The chief of station could laugh at the whole thing. Or else he could pay the price of demanding polite, unquestioning obedience to his authority. He had elected to laugh, and in doing so, earned himself Stevens’s respect.
OXE] 44-46 B–r sstranne Berlidzehlendorl The three-story stucco villa the von Heurten-Mitnitz family had built in the upper-class suburb of Zehlendorf in 1938 was never intended to be home. It was a pied-a-terre for those times when Graf and his wife–or the brothers and their wives–happened to be in Berlin. Otherwise, they preferred their Pomeranian estates and traveled to Berlin only rarely.
The downstairs, including the kitchen, had been designed to entertain large numbers of people in a way that would reflect the stature of the family. Any one could rent a ballroom at the Adlon or the Hotel am Zoo for a dinner dance. Only a few could feed fifty at a sit-down dinner in their private residence.
The entrance foyer, designed to hold one hundred people for cocktails, was just inside the front door. It was illuminated by an Austrian crystal chandelier hanging from a roof beam. On either side of the far wall, over the double doors that led to the dining room, were curving stairs leading to the apartments upstairs. The host and his wife could make an impressive entrance down the stairs.
Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz didn’t like the house. The apartment he lived in there reminded him of a lesser suite in a second-rate hotel.
But there were few decent apartments to lease in Berlin, and besides, living in the house would give him greater freedom of movement than an apartment or a suite in a hotel would.
He checked his appearance in the mirror in his bathroom, He was wearing a well-fitting gray suit, one of the last three he’d gotten from London before the war started. Next he patted his pockets to make sure he had his cigarette case and wallet, then started down the curving stairs to the foyer.
Halfway down, he called out, “How good of you, Herr Standartenfuhrer!” Johann Muller was standing in his overcoat beside von Heurten-Mitnitz’s housekeeper just inside the foyer. Melting snow from his boots formed small puddles on the tile floor.
“My pleasure, Herr Minister,” Muller replied.
“Nevertheless, I am grateful to you,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said.
“I really don’t know how I would get to the office before noon otherwise.”
“My pleasure,” Muller repeated.
The housekeeper went to the foyer closet and took a fur-collared overcoat and a homburg from it. She handed von Heurten-Mitnitz the homburg first, and he put it on before a mirror over a radiator, then held his arms behind him so she could help him with the coat.
“Thank you, Frau Carr,” he said.
He made a courteous gesture, waving Muller through the foyer ahead of him. An Opel Admiral sat at the curb.
“New car, Johnny? “he asked as he got in.
“New to me, “Muller said. “It’s got ninety thousand kilometers on the meter. And I don’t know how practical it is,” he added as he climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. “It’s conspicuous.
Someone in my line of work should not be too conspicuous.”
“You look well in it,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said, then, “Why don’t we take the Avus?” Muller nodded and headed for the superhighway.
“Frau Carr, you know,” Muller said, “has reported you for listening to the BBC. I saw the Zehlendorf SS report for the week.”