`Yes. I lure them with a little food, throw my coat over them and carry them to the nearest bombed out church, then offer them up by strangling them with the garrote.'
`Good God, how revolting,' Gregory exclaimed.
`Your scruples are foolish,' Malacou retorted sharply, `and this is no concern of yours. Be content to make use of my contacts with the Timeless Ones to bring to ruin our common enemy.'
By then they had reached the Air Ministry. As Gregory started to turn into it the Satanist wished him an abrupt good night and walked on.
For a few moments Gregory remained there and was almost sick at the thought of the bestial act that the colleague whom fate had forced upon him was about to commit. He was in half a mind to follow and stop Malacou; but the thing that mattered above all else was to put an end to Hitler and, if these ghoulish rites performed during the hours of darkness might contribute to that, he realized that his duty to humanity lay in ignoring them. Sick at heart, he went down to the basement of the Air Ministry.
Next day Hitler again sent for Gregory to walk with him in the Chancellery garden, and again questioned him about reincarnation.
Had Gregory been talking to anyone else, he would have said that with every life in which a person's good deeds exceeded their bad ones they progressed; and, although at times they might be sent back to hardship and poverty in order to learn humility or some other special lesson, as a general principle they were born into a higher status where they would have greater responsibilities. And that, on the other hand, should they abuse their powers to inflict grief and suffering on others, in their next several incarnations they were sent back to face situations in which they would be the victims of similar tyrannies themselves.
But he was no unorthodox, though true, priest making a forlorn last minute bid to save Hitler's soul; so he couched his replies in accordance with his secret objective. Using unctuous flattery he told the megalomaniac who was limping along beside him that, with every life a personality lived, it acquired more knowledge and consequently power: that the Fьhrer had been perhaps in ancient Egypt a minor official, in Rome a Centurion, in the Middle Ages the Abbot of a rich monastery, in Venice a wealthy Senator, in the eighteenth century the ruler of a small Principality, until by his accumulated abilities it had been decreed that he should become the Leader of one of the greatest nations in the world.
Seeing himself in all these roles Hitler readily agreed, then asked, `But what now? How, in my next incarnation, can I go yet higher? It seems to me that in this one I have already achieved the limit.'
`By no means, mein Fuhrer,' Gregory replied. `Our earth is only one of ten thousand worlds. Science has shown us that the stars are as innumerable as the sands of the sea. With the exception of the handful of Planets in our own solar system, every star is a sun and most of them have their own system of Planets revolving round them. Science has told us, too, that all the heavenly bodies are composed of more or less the same materials and that all of them, like everything else in the universe, are subject to growth and decay. They begin life as molten bodies and through the aeons gradually cool until they become extinct. Yet in their long lives there is, compared to ours, a single moment of time when they have cooled sufficiently for their crust to harden and produce first vegetable then animal life. In view of the incalculable number of heavenly bodies in the universe there must, at this moment, be at least several hundred of them that are passing through the same stage of development as this world of ours. Their inhabitants may not resemble us physically, but it would be unreasonable to suppose that they do not possess intelligence, in some cases almost certainly superior to ours.'
`I see; I see,' Hitler muttered. `Then you think that when personalities here can progress no further, their next incarnation takes place on another world?
'Exactly, mein Fuhrer. And I feel no doubt at all that when the time comes for you to leave your present body you will be born again in a world where you will be given opportunities to become an even greater ruler than you have been in this.'
`You interest me greatly,' Hitler declared excitedly. `But I have walked enough for today. I am tired now. I must go down and rest.' On that this second private conversation ended.
Considering it unlikely that the Fьhrer would send for him three days running, on the 7th Gregory decided to risk a visit to Sabine. When he arrived at the villa she was delighted to see him but soon began to reproach him bitterly for his neglect, of her.
To excuse himself he told her that there had been several casualties among the staff in the Air Ministry Map Room and replacements for them could no longer be spared; so those remaining had to do longer hours and now, like sailors, had been put on four-hour watches. As, in the present chaotic condition of transport, it took four hours to come out to the villa and return, that had put a visit to her out of the question until that day, when he had persuaded two colleagues each to take half of his watch for him. He added that he had hoped by this time to find that she had left Berlin.
She shook her head. `I'm better, much better, but not completely cured yet and I won't go until I am.'
`How soon does your doctor think that will be?' he asked.
`Another week or so. Perhaps a fortnight.!
'But my dear girl,' he protested, `the Russians will be here in a fortnight. They have just launched another of their great offensives. Within three weeks they will have captured Berlin. I'm certain of it. You positively must go before there is any danger of the city being surrounded and all escape routes cut.'
`Yes, that's what Kurt says.'
Gregory raised his eyebrows. `So he's turned up again?
'He has been to see me several times. As I told you he is genuinely in love with me; so he too is anxious for my safety. Naturally, I've continued to refuse to let him come back and live here, but I let him spend Sundays with me.'
`I thought you found him a bore, so were glad to be rid of him.'
She gave a bitter little laugh. `It is I who am bored these days. For the past five weeks I've seen hardly a soul and it has been getting me down terribly. Anyhow, it was only as a lover that I found Kurt unsatisfactory; he is always interesting to talk to.'
Later they had a meal together, and before leaving Gregory, again endeavoured to persuade her to leave for the south; but he could not move her from her decision to remain until she was completely cured.
When he was only half-way back to central Berlin a major air-raid began. The thunder of the ack-ack guns was deafening, the sky a great, twinkling carpet of bursting shells, bombs rained down, mostly on the northern part of the city and soon, from the many fires they started, the streets were almost as bright as by day.
During the next few days the situation began to look desperate. Colonel-General von Vietinghoff, who had taken over from Kesselring in Italy, reported that General Alexander had launched a full scale offensive and that without big reinforcements it would not be possible to continue to hold the Gothic Line. General Model's encircled army in the Ruhr was losing thousands of men in killed and prisoners every day. In Czechoslovakia and Austria two more great armies, consisting of the survivors of the scores of divisions sent to South Russia, the Balkans and Hungary, were cut off. In Holland the Army Group under von Blaskowitz had its communications with Germany threatened by the Canadians. The British armour was driving towards Hamburg and that of the Americans towards Leipzig and the Elbe. In the north the Russians had taken Stettin, outflanked the German line and were overrunning Mecklenburg; while in the centre they were launching attack after attack against the Oder, which was the last line of defence for Berlin. It was now clear to everyone in the bunker that only a miracle could save Germany from being completely overrun by her enemies.