“It should be safe to talk in here,” Horst said, once they were in the car. He started the engine as Gudrun buckled herself into the passenger seat. “Quite a bit has happened since you were arrested.”
Gudrun listened in growing disbelief as he outlined the end of the strike. “They just… they just surrendered?”
“I very much doubt it,” Horst said. “They were surprised, of course, when mothers and wives came out onto the streets in a mass protest. So many people walked away from their jobs that the city literally ground to a halt. The government might have had to make concessions, just to get the city moving again, but they won’t let it rest.”
“No,” Gudrun agreed. “They’ve been humiliated.”
“A bit more than merely humiliated,” Horst said. He gave her a sidelong look. “How did they treat you?”
Gudrun felt her body starting to shake. They’d stripped her naked, seen her most private places… they could have done worse, far worse, and she knew it. She’d been helpless, defenceless, she could have vanished into the prison system and never been allowed to emerge… she could still feel their hands on her, turning her into a helpless piece of meat. She was barely aware of Horst parking the car as she curled up in the seat, then flinched in surprise as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to give what comfort he could. But he couldn’t understand what she’d been through. How could he?
“Badly,” she said, finally. She wanted to keep it to herself, but she had a feeling that talking about it would help her to overcome the sense of bitter helplessness. “They stripped me, inspected me… like a doctor, only worse.”
“But it’s over now,” Horst said.
“It’s not over,” Gudrun said. “You said it yourself. The government isn’t going to give up just because it lost this round.”
“No, it isn’t,” Horst said. He looked nervous. “Gudrun… I have something important to tell you.”
Gudrun looked up at him. Konrad had sounded similar, very similar, when he’d asked for her promise of marriage. And Horst… did he want to ask her to marry him? Or…?
“I’ve been keeping a secret from you,” Horst confessed, slowly. He slowly released her shoulders. “They sent me to spy on you.”
It took Gudrun a moment to put it together. When she did, she slapped his face as hard as she could. Horst recoiled backwards, one hand going to his face; Gudrun flinched herself as she realised what she’d done. She’d slapped an SS officer… she’d just got out of one dingy prison cell and now she’d go straight into another, if he didn’t just throw her into the camps and gas her. And yet, if he was an SS officer, why wasn’t she dead? Horst knew the names and faces of every one of the Valkyries.
“I suppose I deserved that,” Horst said, finally. “But please don’t do it again.”
He rubbed his face as Gudrun stared at him. She’d left a nasty mark on his right cheek, just indicative of a handprint. He didn’t sound particularly hurt… but then, he wouldn’t. Kurt had told her far too much about military training, including being taught how to take a blow and recover. Horst had probably been slapped worse in basic training… if he’d had basic training. How much of what he’d told them had been a lie?
“You didn’t betray us,” she said. She wondered, vaguely, if he’d want to slap her back. “I… why not?”
“Konrad was a good man,” Horst said. “I read his file. He was on the fast-track for promotion. And yet, the moment he’s wounded, they betray him and his family just to conceal the simple fact that the war isn’t going as well as they claim. Everything he’s done for them, everything his father has done for them, no longer matters. They betrayed someone who served them faithfully.”
Gudrun eyed him sharply. “And that’s why you didn’t report us?”
“I believed what I was told,” Horst said, after a moment. “It never crossed my mind that a person like Konrad could be betrayed by his own superiors. I… I knew I might be abandoned myself, but I knew the risks when I started. Konrad was Waffen-SS. They should have kept faith with him as he kept faith with them.”
He could have betrayed us, Gudrun thought. She’d never suspected him, not once; hell, she’d liked him. As bad as being stuck in jail for a night had been, it would have been far worse if the police had known who they’d caught. And if he’d betrayed us, we would all be dead by now.
“I believed in the ideal of the SS,” Horst added. “A body of men, the black knights of the iron cross, who would fight for the Vaterland and never surrender. I saw them in their uniforms, back in the east, and knew I wanted to be one of them. And then I discovered that my superiors were prepared to betray their own people, just to preserve their power.”
“The SS has done terrible things,” Gudrun said.
“Crushing the enemies of Germany isn’t a terrible thing,” Horst said. “But betraying its own people… yes, that’s terrible. And so I decided to help you.”
“Rather than report us,” Gudrun said. She wondered, idly, just what would happen to Horst if his superiors ever found out. Gudrun and her fellow students might be mere dissidents, but Horst had actively betrayed his oaths. “Why did you tell me now?”
Horst looked down at the steering wheel. “That bungling idiot of a spy…”
Gudrun had to smile. “Which one?”
“Krabbe,” Horst said. He sounded as though he wanted to say something worse. “That bungling buffoon approached me when I was with Sven and Leopold and, if that wasn’t bad enough, gave an excuse that wouldn’t fool a drunken husband. I should have shoved him down the stairs and sworn blind it was a terrible accident.”
“So they may know what you are,” Gudrun said, slowly. “What do you want to do about it?”
“I’m going to put together a cover story, but I don’t know how well it will hold up,” Horst said, thoughtfully. “I don’t think I could rely on that idiot to count to eleven without taking off his shoes, let alone stick to the script. Still, if someone raises concerns about me, could you deflect them? I think we’re going to have a lot of work to do in the next few months.”
“I’ll do my best,” Gudrun said. “The mere fact you didn’t betray us should count in your favour.”
“I hope so,” Horst said. “But undercover groups have torn themselves apart before, just because one member became suspicious of another. That’s what did in the French Resistance.”
“I’ll do my best,” Gudrun repeated. She looked up at him, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. “You’re braver than me, Horst.”
“I’m trained for this,” Horst said. “I wasn’t joking when I said I learned to carry and use a gun almost as soon as I could walk. The insurgents made sure of it. I came under fire a long time before I joined the Hitler Youth. The SS only gave me better training. You… you weren’t taught how to be anything but a housewife. No one would have thought any less of you if you’d married at sixteen and concentrated on turning out babies. You’re far braver than I am.”
“Perhaps,” Gudrun said. “Would you teach me? To fight?”
Horst blinked. “It wouldn’t be easy to teach you how to fire a gun,” he said. “The handful of private shooting ranges in the city are closely supervised.”
“But you could teach me how to fight hand-to-hand,” Gudrun said. “If everyone in the east fights, doesn’t that include the women?”