Gregory smiled back. 'Herr Reichsmarschall, I am more grateful than I can say for your clemency and kindness. If I succeed in getting back to Erika and tell her of this she, too, will always bless your name. I only wish, though, instead of idling here for the next few months I could be of some use. I mean, play even a small part in bringing about the cessation of hostilities.'
For a long moment Goering remained silent. Then his eyes lit up and he leaned forward. 'Teufel nochmall I believe you might if we played our cards cleverly. The Fьhrer will listen to no-one these days except the astrologers and fake magicians with whom he surrounds himself. Their predictions are the one things which can still influence his decisions. Gott im Himmel! This is an idea! Stupendous! Kolossal! I'll make him a present of you and your Turkish mountebank.'
24
The Devil's Court
GREGORY jerked back his head as though he had been hit between the eyes and held up a hand in protest. `God forbid! I'd rather you had me shot here and now than send me to the Fьhrer’s headquarters.'
The Reichsmarschall's eyebrows arched into his broad forehead. `What an extraordinary thing to say. As a secret agent you must be used to acting a part and I thought you to be a brave man. Why are you so terrified of coming face to face with the Fuehrer?'
`I'm not,' Gregory replied sharply. `But, as his headquarters is now in Berlin, if I stay there for any length of time all the odds are that I'll run into Gruppenfьhrer Grauber. It was I who bashed out one of his eyes. With the other he would recognize me in a second. He has threatened that if ever he gets me he'll keep me alive in agony for a month before what's left of me gives up the ghost. That's why I'd prefer a bullet now.'
`One does not have to be a coward to dread such an end,' Goering admitted. `And from what I've heard of Grauber he enjoys doing that sort of thing. But you needn't worry. Grauber is now on the Russian front.'
`What in the world is he doing there? Is he no longer the head of the Gestapo Foreign Department, UA-1?'
`No. I assume he saw a good chance of getting a step up when his Chief became an Army Commander. He did, too. He got himself promoted to Obergruppenfiihrer, and Himmler took him with. him as his Chief of Staff when he moved to Russia.'
`But he can't know the first thing about running an Army Group.'
`Of course not, but he is just the man to carry out Himmler's ideas of fighting a war. He has decreed that the commanding officer in any town or village who fails to hold it is to be shot. And behind the lines he has mobile squads of S.D. troops whose job it is to shoot out of hand any officer or man they come upon who is walking away from the front.'
`What an insane way to treat one's troops. But I thought you said that Himmler's Army Group was in the West.'
`So it was until about a week ago. As you know, in the latter part of January the Americans launched their counter offensive in the Ardennes. To relieve the pressure on our troops, von Rundstedt proposed an attack against Strasbourg. The Americans were weak there and the city might quite well have been retaken, but Himmler made a hopeless mess of things; so the Fьhrer kicked him upstairs and gave him command of a more vital sector, our front on the Vistula. General Hausser was ordered to take over in Alsace, but Himmler did not bother to wait for him and tell him what was going on. He cleared out bag and baggage with his staff, leaving only a dirty laundry basket full of unsorted reports for Hausser to make what he could of.'
`This becomes more and more fantastic.'
`Oh, it's the truth all right. Can you wonder that I've long since washed my hands of the whole business? Anyhow, Himmler is now on the Russian front and Grauber with him. All through December the Russians had been quietly preparing one of their great offensives. They launched it on January 12th. Within ten days they reached the Baltic coast east of Danzig and cut off another twenty-five of our divisions that the Fuhrer had forbidden to retreat. Guderian, the Panzer expert, who is now Chief of Staff, wanted General Weichs to command the last troops of the Replacement Army that were being sent to fill the gap that had been torn in our front; but in such a crisis the Fьhrer decided that Himmler was the only man he could trust, so der treue Heinrich got the job.'
`You feel confident then that I shan't run into Grauber if, as you suggest, you send me to the Fuhrer's headquarters in Berlin?
'I'm sure you won't. I have a highly competent Intelligence service of my own that keeps tabs on all my dear colleagues. If any fish as big as Grauber is moved to another job I am informed of it at once. I would warn you if you are likely to be in any danger and you could come back here.'
`But do you really think there is the least chance of my being able to influence the Fьhrer.
Goering shrugged. `It is impossible to say. But it is an indisputable fact that the only things he takes any notice of these days are Bormann's poisonous whispers and the predictions of his astrologers. I've no great hopes that you could persuade him to ask for an armistice; but you never know… Since the bomb plot his health has been steadily deteriorating. He still rules the roost because everybody is terrified of him. But mentally he's gone to pieces. He eats practically nothing and is kept going only on drugs. He lives in constant fear of assassination and is harassed by the belief that everyone except a handful of his toadies is scheming to betray him. The strain upon his mind must be appalling and at times he must long to free himself from it. That's why I feel there is just a chance that a determined man like yourself, who can make use of this occult hocus-pocus, might succeed in tipping him over the edge and getting him to put an end to it all.'
`How about the astrologers?' Gregory asked. `It's certain they'll do everything they can to prevent a newcomer breaking through their ring and getting at him.'
`Yes. That is a problem. The jealousy and hate of the people who make up the Fьhrer’s court have to be seen to be believed. And my stock with him is so low that he may not take my word for it that you are a wizard of the first order; so refuse to see you.'
`Perhaps then it would be better if I were not presented as an occultist, but was sent to him in some other capacity; then, out of the blue as it were, make some startling prediction that comes off a few days later. That is, if Malacou can provide me with one.'
`That is certainly an idea. You are a shrewd fellow, Sallust.' Goering picked up the magnum, saw that it was empty, dropped it back into the ice-bucket and said, `I don't think I'll order another. We've talked enough for tonight, and to good purpose.- The more I think about this plan the more I feel that there is a lot to it. We'll go to bed now; but we must both put our wits to work on how to make you Adolf's new blue-eyed boy. We'll talk again tomorrow.'
When Gregory got to the room he shared with Malacou he found him asleep, so did not disturb him. Next morning he told him how Goering had, after all, recognized him but spared him, and of the Reichsmarschall's idea of sending them to Hitler's headquarters.