Buchanan laughed.
“It may be, Buchanan,” Fertig said, “that help is on the way. But I think it
more likely that you and I are sitting here with five ounces of Orfett’s pineapple white lightning in us, seeing things we want to see behind bushes that just aren’t there. I don’t want any of this to go any further than you or me.”
“No, Sir,” Buchanan said. And then he blurted, “But sooner or later, Christ, they’re going to have to do something, aren’t they?”
“Sooner or later,” Fertig said.
[SEVEN]
Batthyany Palace
Standartenfuhrer SS-SD Johann Muller came into the sitting room of the Countess’s apartment in Batthyany Palace and quickly glanced around the room, taking in Canidy and Ferniany, who were sitting on a couch before a gilt coffee table.
There was no expression on his face.
‘”Tag,” he said, then started to unbutton his black leather overcoat. He hung it carefully on the back of a Louis XIV chair and then moved the chair to a position near one of the two white porcelain stoves. Then he moved the chair a foot farther away.
“If you get it too close, it cracks and dries the leather,” he explained.
And then he looked at Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz, his eyebrows raised in question.
“Johann,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said in German, “this is Major Canidy of the United States Army.
“Pharmacist.”” Muller examined Canidy carefully, then did the same thing to Ferniany. He was subjected to the same kind of an examination by the Americans.
“And him?” Muller asked.
“Ferniany’s my name,” Ferniany said.
“Canidy’s man on the scene, I gather,” von Heurten-Mitnitz explained.
“Everybody speak slowly,” Canidy said.
“My German is pretty weak.”
“He was telling him who we are,” Ferniany said.
“I got that,” Canidy said.
“But go slow. I don’t want to miss anything.”
“Gott in Himmel!” Muller said, exasperated.
“They send someone in who doesn’t even speak the language!”
“It was necessary,” Canidy said.
“Why?”
“Eric Fulmar and Professor Dyer are in the Pecs city jail,” Canidy said.
This produced the first hint of excitement in Muller.
“And Gisellahe demanded.
“Fraulein Dyer?”
“She’s safe,” Canidy said.
“Safe where?”
“Cairo,” Canidy said.
“So what happened?” Muller demanded. He was back in control of his emotions, but there had been enough for Canidy to decide that there was more than a casual relationship between the SS-SD officer and Dyer’s daughter.
“The barge was boarded by the River Police and the Black Guard,” Ferniany said.
“They found a lot of money on Fulmar and decided he was a black marketeer.
They helped themselves to the money and arranged for them to get ninety days in the coal mines.”
“It’s only a matter of time until somebody finds out who they are,” Muller said.
“I had a teletype yesterday–addressed to me personally, not to the senior SS-SD officer–from Von Hymme, Hummer’s adjutant, telling me to personally make sure that ‘the investigation was being pursued with all diligence.”” “They think they’re here?”
“From the time they found the Gestapo agent’s body, they really closed down the borders of Germany to the occupied countries and to the neutrals.
Himmler’s mouth ran away with him again, and he said he could personally state that nobody got out that way. That leaves only here.”
“Another question,” Canidy said.
“Why all the interest?”
“It would be enough,” Muller replied dryly, “that the Reichsfiihrer-SS has showed his ass by not catching them long before this. And on top of that, our friend Eric used his knife on a Gestapo agent, which has the Gestapo in a rage.
And then he used it on Peis, the SS-SD commander in Marburg an der Lahn, which has the SS-SD upset.”
“Tell me about ‘pursuing the investigation with all diligence,”” Canidy said.
“After you round up ‘all the usual suspects,” which was done and which came up with nothing,” Muller said, “you start to recheck things like travel permits, hospital admittances, and jails. When I got the teletype, I ordered that done. I don’t know how long it will take them to check the Pecs jail, but it won’t be long. If I was doing it… instead, I mean, of having to ask the Black Guard for their cooperation… I would have them by now.”