Dennis Wheatley - Traitors' Gate

'Thanks for the kind remarks, Herr Gruppenführer; but I can't do that. There is still this question of identity to be settled. And, anyhow, I couldn't hand a prisoner over to anyone without a formal authorization.'

Stymied again, Grauber's small, pale eye darted swiftly from side to side. Gregory knew his mentality so well that he felt sure he could read the thoughts which were now flickering through that unscrupulous brain. He was assessing the chances of a snatch.

Many a time Gestapo agents had raided homes and hotels on foreign soil, dragged their victim from his bed, slugged him unconscious, carried him down to a car, and smuggled him back into Germany. In this case, counting out the victim, there were three of them to the one Hungarian. Going through the outer office they would have to deal with the Sergeant and the policeman on the door; but they had a car waiting outside. The element of surprise and the use of brute force without scruple might well enable them to pull off a kidnapping and break out.

Gregory moistened his dry lips with his tongue. His thoughts were moving as swiftly as Grauber's. They might take the Captain by surprise, but not the object of the snatch. He was neither in bed, nor asleep. If they thought they were going to carry him out like a sack of potatoes, they had better think again. He already had his eye on a wooden chair. At his enemy's first move he meant to snatch it up and charge him with it legs foremost. Tough as the pouchy German was, he must go down under such an assault. The two brawny thugs might then get the better of the battle in the room, but by the time they had there was a fair hope that the shindy would have brought half a dozen Hungarian policemen running to the outer office, and that the last word would remain with them.

Perhaps Grauber realized that too. Perhaps, even, he baulked at the idea of knocking out a Hungarian Police Captain, and forcibly abducting a prisoner from his Station. That was very different from kidnapping some unsuspecting person, and might cause quite a lot of tiresome correspondence between the Chancellories of Berlin and Budapest. After staring for a long moment at the Captain he switched his glance to Gregory, and said:

'Very well, I will leave you for the night in the custody of the Herr Hauptmann. But don't imagine you are going to get away with the story that you are a Frenchman. There are plenty of people in Germany who know you as Gregory Sallust, and if necessary I'll have witnesses flown in to support my identification of you.

'Anyway, when you are brought into court tomorrow morning, I mean to accuse you of the murder of Obersturmbann Führer Fritz Einholtz, and others, and to apply for a warrant for your extradition. When you have been handed over to me we'll talk again. First you'll tell me all about this conspiracy; then I'll take you back to Germany. In six months' time you will still be alive, but for five months and twenty-nine days you will have been wishing that you were dead.'

A Night of Surprises

Chapter 13

Even when Grauber and his two henchmen stamped angrily from the room Gregory could not be certain that the wily Gruppenführer would not suddenly turn on his heel and return to try some new trick for getting possession of him. But the sound of trampling feet across the outer office faded, and after a last minute of dreadful suspense he felt that temporarily, although only temporarily, by sticking to his bluff, he had got the better of his enemy. Turning to the Hungarian, he said in the heavily accented and faulty German that he had used since being brought into the Station:

'Captain, I cannot be sufficiently grateful to you for your protection from those thugs. It is appalling to think that in their own country they have the power to torture anyone they choose merely on suspicion. How good it is to find that here in Hungary you still maintain the same traditions of justice which we have for so long cherished in France.'

The Captain made a grimace. 'These Germans are beasts, but the Russians would be worse; so we must put up with them. Fortunately they are not our masters; so even if it were certain that you were an English spy I would not have allowed them to torture you. But make no mistake about it, if they can prove you to be the man they think, and demand your extradition for crimes committed in Germany, we shall have to hand you over to them.'

'God forbid that should happen! But it may.'

'Do you mean that you are, as they say, a British agent?' the Captain asked with a frown.

Gregory hated to have to deceive him, but in doing so lay his only chance to take advantage of the short respite that he had been granted. Throwing out his hands in a typically French gesture, he exclaimed:

'No! No! Do not think that, I beg. I meant only that I may have difficulty in persuading your magistrates that I am Commandant Tavenier. You have been more than a friend; so I will be frank with you. When I suggested that a telegram of enquiry about me should be sent to Vichy I was seeking only to gain time to save myself from being tortured there and then. If one were sent it would do me no good. It would confirm that I am Tavenier but declare me to be an enemy. The truth is that I am a de Gaullist. I served with the Free French Forces in England, and landed with the British when they made their raid on St. Nazaire. I was wounded and left for dead. De Gaullist sympathizers hid me until I recovered, but I am listed by Vichy as a traitor. That is why I made my way secretly to Switzerland and then to Hungary. You see, I dare not appeal to the French Government; and how, otherwise, can I prove that I am Tavenier? The thought that I may fail to prove my identity fills me with terror; but it means that the Germans' word will be taken that I am this man Sallust.'

The Captain nodded. 'I see. In that case your situation is certainly a most dangerous one.'

'If these accursed Germans once get hold of me they will tear me into little bits.'

'I fear you are right.'

'Yet I am innocent. My only crime is that I believed, like many thousands of my countrymen, that, for the honour of France, all of us who were able to do so should fight on.'

I appreciate that. It is tragic for you that a resemblance to another person should have landed you in this appalling mess.'

Having won the Hungarian's sympathy, Gregory felt that the time had now come to play a card that might just prove a trump. After a moment he asked, 'What exactly is the charge against me?'

'With having created a disturbance in a public place and inflicted bodily harm upon the Gruppenführer and a Captain Cochefert who was with him.'

'But it was the Gruppenführer who assaulted me.'

'That is a matter in dispute. It will be decided on the evidence of the washroom attendant when the case comes up before a magistrate in the morning.'

'As I understand it, then, the Gruppenführer has been charged too, and will have to appear in the dock with me?'

'Yes; and Captain Cochefert also, if after treatment in hospital the doctors consider him well enough to do so.'

'Why, then, should you have released the Gruppenführer and detained me?'

The Hungarian shrugged. 'Your circumstances are very different. He is a high official in the police force of an allied country. His word that he will appear when summoned is sufficient. You, on the other hand, are both a foreigner and a temporary resident here. If you were allowed to go free you might take the first train in the morning out of Budapest.'

'True, but the charge is only a civil one; surely your regulations enable you to release me against security for' my appearance?'

'Yes; normally I could do so.'

Gregory tried to still the beating of his heart as his hopes rose. 'Then why should you not? Fortunately I have a considerable amount of money on me in fact a very large sum, as I was too late to pay it into the bank today. I will willingly deposit the bulk of it with you as a recognizance.'