“I know that,” he said impatiently. “What else is there?”
“He’s a professor at the university, knows all about metal.”
“Personally.
What do you know about him?”
“Well, we caught him exporting money, for one thing,” Peis said.
“Is that what this is all about?” Muller ignored the question. “Tell me about that. Why wasn’t he prosecuted?” Peis, Muxer saw, was uncomfortable. He would have to find out why.
“You know how it is, Johann,” Peis said nervously. “Some you keep on a string.”
“What can he do for you?” Peis was made even more uncomfortable by the question.
“Family?” Muxer asked.
“One child,” Peis said. “His wife is dead.”
“And the one child is female, right? And you’re fucking her?” There was alarm in Peis’s eyes, proving that was indeed the case.
“We’re all human, Wilhelm,” Muller said.
“I… uh… the way it happened, Johann, was before the war.
We caught him shipping the money to Switzerland, and making anti-state remarks.”
“She must be one hell of a woman,” Muxer said with a smile. “This is almost 1943.”
“We had two students of official interest, two in particular, at the university,” Peis said.
“Who?” Muller asked.
“There was an Arab, the son of some Arab big shot–”
“What was his name?” Muxer interrupted. He had a very good idea, but he wanted to hear it from Peis.
“El Ferruch,” Peis said triumphantly, after he had dredged the name from the recesses of his memory.
“Sidi Hassan el Ferruch,” Muller said. “The son of the Pasha of Ksar es Souk. What about him?” Peis was uncomfortable but did not seem especially surprised that Muxer knew about el Ferruch.
“We had a request to build a dossier on him,” Peis said.
“And did you?”
“He was living with–”
“Eric von Fulmar, Baron Kolbe, ” Muser interrupted. “I asked you if you managed to build a dossier on el Ferruch?”
“Yes, of course I did,” Peis said. “I sent it to Frankfurt, and I suppose they sent it to Berlin after he left here.”
“What does this have to do with Professor Friedrich Dyer?” Muxer asked.
“His money business came up at the same time,” Peis said. “I called his daughter in for a little tallk, and used her to keep an eye on them.”
“And then, when they left, you kept her around for possible use in the future, right?” Muxer asked. “Wilhelm, you’re a rogue!”
“Well, you see how it is,” Peis said, visibly relieved that Muller seemed to understand.
“Wilhelm,” Muller said, “I’m going to be here for about a week. A week with my mother. Now, I love my mother, but a man sometimes gets a little bored. He needs a little excitement, if you take my meaning.”
“You just say when and where, Johann,” Peis said.
“I’ll say when,” Muller said. “And you say where.” [OIIIE] otor Pool, Illaval Elemout, sm8r Losdos, =sglasd 1600 Hours a4 December 1942 There were two white hats on duty in the small, corrugated-steel dispatcher’s shack when the tall, dark-haired lieutenant (j. g. ) pushed open the door and stepped inside. He was wearing an overcoat and a scarf.
His brimmed cap was perched cockily toward the back of his head.
The white hats started to stand up.
“Keep your seats,” the j. g. said quickly, and added, “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, sir,” the white hats said, almost in unison.
“My name is Kennedy,” the j. g. said. “They were supposed to call?”
“Yes, sir,” the older–at maybe twenty-two–of the white hats said.
“You need wheels?”
“That’s right,” Kennedy said.
“I hate to do this to you, especi’xy on Christmas Eve,” the white hat said.
“But look around, there’s nothing else.” There were three vehicles in the motor pool, a three-quarter-ton wrecker, a Buick sedan, and a jeep with a canvas roof but no side curtains.
Kennedy understood the jeep was for him. Lieutenants junior grade are not given Buick staff cars, especially at the brass-hat-heavy Naval Element, SHAEE “Anytime you’re ready, Lieutenant,” the other white hat said.
“Where we going?” “Atcham Air Corps Base,” Kennedy said. “In Staffordshire. You know where it is?”
“Only that it’s a hell of a way from here,” the white hat said.