W E B Griffin – Men at War 3 – The Soldier Spies

“Perhaps Obersturmfuhrer Peis can help you. Peis!” Peis marched over and saluted.

Speer smiled at Peis. “There was supposed to have been a message sent–” he began.

“I sent it, Herr Speer,” the woman said.

Speer nodded.

“–requesting Professor Friedrich Dyer to meet with me.”

“I have received no such message, Herr Reichsminister,” Peis said.

“But I think I know where he can be found.”

“And could you bring him? ” Speer asked.

“If I may be so bold as to suggest, Herr Reichsminister?” Peis said.

“Of course,” Speer replied.

“While you and your party accompany the Gauleiter, I’ll see if I can find Professor Dyer for you and take him to the Fulmar plant.”

“Good man!” Speer smiled and clutched Peis’s arm. zit’s quite important.

I can’t imagine what happened to the telegram.”

“I’ll do my best, Herr Reichsminister,” Peis said.

Peis hurried to the stationmaster’s office and grabbed the telephone.

He dialed the number from memory.

Gisella Dyer, the daughter (and the only reason Professor Dyer was not making gravel from boulders in a KZ somewhere), answered the phone on the third ring.

“How are you, Gisella?” Peis asked.

“Very well, thank you, Herr Sturmbannfuhrer,” she said, warily.

Peis understood her lack of enthusiasm. But she wasn’t the reason for his call today.

“Do you know where I can find your father?” he asked.

He heard her suck in her breath, and it was a moment before she spoke again. She was carefully considering her reply. Peis knew that she would have preferred that Peis direct his attentions toward her not because she liked him (she despised him), but because as long as Peis liked her, her father stayed out of the KZ.

“He’s at the university,” she said finally, with a slight tremor in her voice.

“Is there something wrong, Herr Sturmbannfiihrer?”

“Where exactly at the university?” Gisella Dyer considered that, too, before she replied.

“In his office, I imagine,” she said. “He doesn’t have another class until four this afternoon.” She paused, then asked again, “Is there something wrong?”

“Official business, Gisella,” Peis said, and hung up.

It would be useful for Gisella to worry a little, Peis thought.

She tended to be arrogant, to forget her position. Periodically, it was necessary to cut her down to size.

Peis found Professor Friedrich Dyer where his daughter had said he would be, in his book-and-paper-cluttered room in one of the ancient buildings in the center of the university campus. He was a tall, thin, sharp featured man, and he looked cold, even though he was well covered.

He wore a thick, tightly buttoned cardigan under his many-times-patched tweed jacket and a woolen shawl over his shoulders.

The ancient buildings were impossible to heat, even when there was fuel.

Professor Dyer looked at Peis with chilling contempt, but he said nothing and offered no greeting.

“Heil Hitler!” Peis said, more because he knew Dyer hated the salute than out of any Nazi zeal of his own.

“Heil Hitler, Herr Peis,” the professor said.

“I wasn’t aware you are acquainted with Reichsminister Albert Speeg Professor,” Peis said.

“I gather he’s here,” Dyer said.

The professor was not surprised, and this surprised Peis.

“You were supposed to meet him at the station,” Peis said.

“No,” the dignified academic said simply. “The telegram said only that the Reichsminister would be here and wanted to see me.”

“What about?”

“I really have no idea,” Professor Dyer said.

Is that the truth? Peis wondered. Or is the professor taking advantage of his association with the head of the Todt Organization and trying to impress me?

“He is at the Fulmar Electric Plant,” Peis said. “I am here to take you to him.” Professor Dyer nodded, then rose and with difficulty put his tweed-and sweater-thick arms into the sleeves of an old, fur-collared overcoat. When he had finished struggling into it, the two top buttons would not fasten. He shrugged helplessly, set an old and shaggy fur cap on his head, and indicated that he was ready to go.

The university was in the center of Marburg atop the hill, and the Fulmar Elektrisches Werk was about ten minutes north of town. It was an almost new, sprawling, windowless, oblong building with camouflage netting strung across it. The netting was intended to blend the plant into the steep hills around Marburg to make it invisible from the air.

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