Willi and Arno Baatz almost tripped over each other. They exchanged glares. "Grofaz," Willi said again, defiantly. If the Fuhrer was so fucking smart, how come they were going backwards? Pretty soon, even Awful Arno would start wondering about things like that. Wouldn't he?
Chapter 23
Sailors threw lines from the U-30 to the men waiting on the pier. The other ratings caught the ropes and made the U-boat fast. "All engines stop," Julius Lemp called through the speaking tube.
"All engines stopped," the reply came back, and the diesels' throb died into silence.
Lemp sighed. Especially since the Schnorkel had come to let the diesels run almost all the time, that throb had soaked into his bones. Doing without it felt strange, unnatural, wrong. He sighed again. "Wilhelmshaven," he said to no one in particular. "Home port."
"Sounds good to me," Gerhart Beilharz declared.
"Well, sure it does," Lemp said. "You won't have to wear your iron pot all the time."
"No, and I'll probably clonk myself a couple of times when I don't have it on," the tall engineering officer answered. "Too goddamn many doorways aren't made for people my size, and sometimes I forget to duck."
"That is a bad habit for a U-boat officer," Lemp said with mock severity.
"I'll try to unlearn it." Beilharz stretched. The space right under the conning toward was the only one in the boat where he could do that without clouting somebody. "Be good to get my feet on dry land again, even if it'll feel like it's rolling under me for a little while."
"They'll probably pin an Iron Cross First Class on you for the snort," Lemp told him. "It did us some good, no two ways about it."
"I'm glad you think so, Skipper. I know you had your doubts when the technicians installed it."
That was putting things mildly. Lemp didn't feel like rehashing it, though. All he said was, "We've earned some time ashore."
As the sailors trooped off the U-boat, a commander nodded to Lemp and said, "Admiral Donitz's compliments, and he would like to speak with you at your convenience. If you would care to come with me…"
At your convenience plainly meant right this minute. And if Lemp didn't care to go with the commander, he damn well would anyway. Two unsmiling sailors with rifles and helmets behind the officer made that obvious. "I am at the admiral's service, of course," Lemp replied, which meant just what it said.
Donitz sat behind a broad desk piled high with papers. He had a broad face that tapered to a narrow, pointed chin. But for a thin beak of a nose, his features were rather flat.
"Well, how do you like the Schnorkel?" he asked without preamble.
"Sir, it's more useful than I thought it would be," Lemp answered. "It's given less trouble than I expected from an experimental gadget, too. And Beilharz does a fine job of keeping it healthy. He's a good officer."
"He didn't fracture his skull inside the boat?" Donitz inquired with a smile. Lemp blinked. Did the admiral keep every junior lieutenant in his mental card file? Maybe he did, by God.
"A couple of flesh wounds. Nothing worse," Lemp said after a beat.
"That's good. And it's good you sank a Royal Navy destroyer. We're going to win the Scandinavian campaign, even if England and France haven't quite figured that out yet," the admiral in charge of U-boats said.
"I'm glad to hear it, sir. I know we've hurt the Royal Navy badly."
"Yes, mostly with U-boats and land-based aircraft, though the big ships did get that one carrier," Donitz said. "They've hurt our surface forces, too, and we have less to spare than they do. But we dominate the waters in the eastern North Sea, and that's the point." His telephone rang. "Excuse me." He picked it up. "Donitz here."
Someone gabbled excitedly in his ear. Lemp was astonished to see his jaw drop. Donitz was for the most part an imperturbable man. Not today.
"What?" he barked. "Are you sure?… What is the situation in Berlin?… Are you sure of that?… Well, you'd better be. Call me the minute you have more information." He slammed the handset into its cradle.
"What's up, sir?" Lemp asked. "Anything I need to know about?"
Donitz took a deep breath. He's going to tell me to get lost, Lemp thought. What the devil was going on? But the admiral didn't do that-not quite. "Maybe you and your men should stick close to barracks for the next couple of days," he said.
"Sir, we just got in after a cruise," Lemp protested. "The boys deserve the chance to blow off some steam. It's not as if-" He broke off.
"As if you'd sunk the Athenia again?" Donitz finished for him. Lemp gave back a miserable nod. That was what had been in his mind, all right. Admiral Donitz went on, "No, this isn't your fault. But they should do it anyhow, for their own safety. Things may get… ugly." He seemed to pick the word with malice aforethought.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" Lemp asked.
"Only that it's political," Donitz replied. "Listen to the radio. You'll probably piece things together-as well as anyone can right now. Oh, and don't be surprised if you find the barracks under guard."
That raised more questions than it answered. Lemp chose the one that looked most important: "Political, sir? What do you mean, political?"
"What I said." Donitz seemed to lose patience with him all at once. "You are dismissed." Lemp saluted and got out. He hadn't closed the door before the admiral grabbed for the telephone again.
The commander was waiting in Donitz's anteroom. "What's up?" he asked when he got a look at Lemp's face.
"Ask your boss… sir," Lemp said. The commander looked impatient. As best he could, Lemp recounted what had gone on after the phone rang.
"Der Herr Jesus!" the other officer said after he'd finished. "Something's gone into the shitter, all right. You'd better do what the admiral suggested. Things are liable to get nasty in a hurry."
If he didn't know what was going on, he had his suspicions. "What do you mean?" Lemp inquired.
"Just sit tight. I hope I'm wrong," the commander said, which only frustrated Lemp more. Instead of giving him any answers he could actually use, the other officer hurried into Donitz's sanctum.
"Why don't you do what Commander Tannenwald says, sir?" one of the armed ratings said. Now Lemp had a name to go with the face. The fellow with the Stahlhelm and the Mauser should have had no business giving him orders. His muscle, and his friend's, and their weapons, were very persuasive. The two of them escorted Lemp back to his crew.
A few minutes after he got to the barracks, rifle shots and a short burst from a machine gun rang out not nearly far enough away. "What the hell is going on?" Peter demanded. No one answered. No one could-no one else knew, either. The helmsman turned on the radio in the barracks hall. Syrupy music poured out of it. That was no help.
When the tune ended, the announcer said, "Remain obedient to duly constituted authority." Then he played another record.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lemp asked. He got no more answer than Peter had.
More gunfire came from the edge of the naval base. The lights outside the barracks hall suddenly went out. One of the guards stuck in his head and said, "The watchword is 'Heil Hitler!' Remember it." He shut the door before anybody could ask him any questions. Lemp wasn't sure what to ask anyway. And if people were running around with guns, the wrong question was liable to have a permanent answer.
Lieutenant Beilharz took him aside and spoke in a low voice: "Skipper, I think some kind of coup is going on. What do we do?"