Seeing the uncomprehending looks, Von Seeckt explained. “That is what those on the inside called Himmler: the Black Jesuit.” He paused and closed his eyes. “The SS was very much a religious order. They had their own ceremonies and secret rites and sayings. If I was asked by an SS officer why I obeyed, my verbatim answer must be: ‘From inner conviction, from my belief in Germany, the Fuhrer, the Movement, and in the SS.’ That was our catechism.
“There was much whispered talk of Himmler and the others at the top. Of how they believed in things most did not believe in. Did you know that in the winter of 1941 our troops were sent into Russia without an adequate supply of cold weather equipment? But not because we didn’t have cold weather gear sitting in supply depots in Germany, but rather because a seer told Hitler that the winter would be very mild and he believed that. It turned out to be one of the most brutal on record, so tens of thousands of soldiers froze and died because of a vision.
“So my colleagues in the scientific community saw a ridiculous task and they sent the junior man. Ah, but the men I linked up with to carry out this mission, they did not think it a ridiculous task. They had information that they did not share with me. There was no mistaking the seriousness with which they set out to pursue the mission.”
Von Seeckt smiled. “I myself got very serious when I found out where our mission was taking us: Cairo, behind enemy lines. All I was told was to be prepared to find and secure something that might be radioactive.
“We traveled by train south to Italy. Then we were taken by submarine across the Mediterranean to Tobruk, where we were put on trucks and given local guides. The British Eighth Army was in disarray and in retreat so it was not as difficult as I had feared for us to infiltrate their lines and make it to Cairo, although there were a few adventures along the way.”
Turcotte took a sip of his now cold coffee. The story was interesting but he didn’t see how it helped them much with their present situation. And he could tell Kelly was very disturbed by Von Seeckt’s revelations about his past. Turcotte himself wasn’t happy about the SS connection.
Von Seeckt could admit whatever he wanted, but that didn’t make it clean as far as Turcotte was concerned. Confession didn’t make the crime go away.
“A Major Klein was in charge,” Von Seeckt continued.
“He did not share his information with us. We went to the west bank of the Nile and then I saw our destination: the Great Pyramid. I was very much confused as I carried my radioactivity detector into the tunnel in the side of the pyramid in the dead of night. Why were we here?
“We went down, and Klein kept turning to a man who had a piece of paper he consulted. The man pointed and Klein ordered his men, a squad of SS storm troopers, to break through a wall. We went through the opening into another tunnel that sloped down. We went through two more walls before we entered a room.”
“The bottom chamber,” Nabinger said. “Where I found the words.”
“Where you found the words,” Von Seeckt repeated as a tractor trailer loaded with cattle roared past.
“What did you find in the chamber?” Nabinger asked.
“We went down and broke through the final walls into the chamber. There was a sarcophagus there — intact. Klein indicated for me to use my machine. I did and was surprised to see a high level of radiation in the chamber. Not dangerous to humans, but still, it should not have been there. It was much higher than what would be normal background radiation. Klein didn’t hesitate. He took a pick and levered off the lid.
“I was stunned when I looked over his shoulder. There was a black metal box in there. I could tell the metal had been carefully tooled and was not the work of ancient Egyptians. How, then, could this have gotten in here? I asked myself.
“I had no time to think on it. Klein ordered me to take up the box and I did, putting it in a backpack. It was bulky but not overly heavy. Perhaps forty pounds. I was much stronger in those days.
“We left the pyramid the same way we had come in. We linked up with our two trucks and headed west while we still had darkness to cover our movement. At daylight we hid in the dunes. We had the two Arab guides that had stayed with the trucks to show us the way and they took us west.
“On the third night they led us right into an ambush.” Von Seeckt shrugged. “I do not know if it was deliberate. The Arabs — they always worked for whoever would pay them the most. It was not uncommon for the same guides to be working for both sides. It does not really matter.
“The lead truck took a direct hit from a British tank. There were bullets tearing through the canvas sides of the truckbed I was in. I dived down next to the box. That was my job — protect the box. Klein was next to me. He pulled out a grenade, but he must have been shot before he could throw it because he dropped it and it fell next to me. I pushed it away — out of the back onto the sand, where it exploded. Then there were British Tommies everywhere. Klein was still alive. He tried to fight, but they shot him many times. They took me and they took the box.”
Turcotte interrupted. “Klein didn’t drop that grenade.”
“Excuse me?” Von Seeckt was out of his story momentarily.
Turcotte was looking out the door down the road, where the cattle truck was a disappearing spot on the horizon.
“Klein was under orders to kill you and destroy the box.”
“How do you know that?” Von Seeckt asked.
“It might have been fifty years ago, but many things don’t change. If they couldn’t get the box home safely, then they most certainly didn’t want the other side to get it or the knowledge you possessed. That’s the way any mission like yours would have worked. The British did the same thing when they sent specialists over to look at German radar sites along the French Coast during the war. Their security men had orders to kill the specialists rather than allow them to be captured because of their knowledge of British radar systems.”
Von Seeckt nodded. “After all these years, do you know, that never occurred to me? It should have, after all I have seen since.”
“All that is fine and well,” Nabinger said impatiently, “but not important right now. What is important is — what was in the box?”
‘The box was sealed when we found it and Klein refused to allow me to open it. As my friend Captain Turcotte so aptly has noted, Klein was a stickler for following orders. The British took me, and the box, and I was hustled away. First back to Cairo. Then on a plane…” Von Seeckt paused. “Suffice it to say I eventually ended up in England in the hands of the SOE.”
“SOE?” Nabinger asked.
“Special Operations Executive,” Kelly said.
Von Seeckt nodded. “Quite correct, as the English would say. They interrogated me, and I told them what I knew. Which wasn’t much. They also checked the box for radioactivity. And got a positive reading.” He looked at Kelly, sensing her change in mood. “You know something of the SOE?”
“As I said earlier, my father was in the OSS. The American counterpart to the SOE.”
Von Seeckt stroked his beard. “That is most intriguing. The SOE turned me over to the OSS. Apparently radioactivity was the Americans’ province.”
“The British didn’t open the box either?” Nabinger was trying very hard to control his patience.
“They couldn’t open the box,” Von Seeckt corrected. “So they shipped me off to the United States. The box was on the same plane. After all, the British did have a war to fight and apparently more important things to attend to. Also, as I was to find out, radioactivity was the province of the Americans.”