Dennis Wheatley: Faked Passports

"I don't care who she is or what she's done," Charlton cut him short. "We're not going back."

"We must Von Pleisen was a splendid fool. Instead of taking the advice of most of his officers and mowing down the sons of Siegfried before they had a chance to utter he insisted that they should be given an opportunity to surrender peaceably. Von Pleisen's chivalry cost him his life and gave the Nazis just the breathing space necessary to draw their guns. A lot 'of them fought their way out of the trap and were able to rally their men. When I left Berlin the streets were running with blood, but it's anybody's battle; and Hitler escaped the bomb in Munich."

Gregory’s head was aching dully but his brain was moving now, and he went on speaking slowly but firmly. "If the Gestapo get the upper hand there'll be a more terrible purge than anything that even Nazi Germany has ever witnessed. Every officer Who’s in this thing, and hundreds of others who are only suspected, will be shot; their families will be proscribed and thrown into concentration camps. Erika will be right at the top of the list and God knows what those swine have in store for her."

"Easy, easy," Charlton murmured, "you're letting your imagination run away with you."

"I'm not l You must believe me! Grauber, the Chief of the Gestapo Foreign Department, U.A. 1, bagged her just before the Putsch and it was only by the luck of the devil that she was till alive when I reached and freed her."

"Well, since she is free, what are you worrying about?"

"Damn it, man, Grauber's aware of the part she played so he’ll put scores of his agents on to hunt her down again. If I can join her there's a sporting chance that I might get her out of he country. If I can't, I could at least shoot her myself, and I’d rather do that than have her fall into his hands; if he gets her he'll kill her by inches. I've got to go back I've definitely got to "

"Now look here, old chap," Charlton turned his head again and spoke in a more reasonable tone, "I do understand what you're feeling. You're in love with her. That was as plain as a pike staff although I only saw the two of you together for a few minuets. Naturally it hurts like hell to have to leave her behind in such a sticky spot, but what the devil could you do, wounded as you are, even if you were able to rejoin her?"

"The wound's not much. Grauber got me in the fleshy part of the shoulder but fortunately there's no bone broken and the bullet went out the other side. I only fainted from loss of blood and I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't had to go on fighting and chasing about all over Berlin for an hour or more after I was hit. It'll be all right in a day or two."

"That's as maybe, but if you want it to heal quickly you'll have to lie up, and you can't do that while searching Berlin for your girl friend. Another thing: if this Gestapo man you speak of shot you himself he presumably knows who you are."

Gregory started to laugh but choked and began to cough violently. When he got his breath back he replied:

"Know me? By God he does We've been up against each other for the last two months. He darned nearly murdered me in London and I near as dammit laid him by the heels in Paris about a fortnight ago; but he got away to Holland and the authorities there put him in prison for travelling on a forged passport. Thinking that he was safely out of the way I impersonated him when I did my second trip into Germany and went swaggering round the country as Herr Gruppenführer Grauber in the smartest all black uniform you've ever seen. Lord, how they kowtowed to me 'Yes, Herr Gruppenführer.' `No, Herr Gruppenführer: 'May it please Your Excellency.' 'Will you honour us by accepting this damned good meal while we sit here and starve?' The poor saps But Grauber turned up in Munich to spoil my little game. I had the last laugh, though, when I cornered him in a bedroom at the Adlon this evening. My gun was empty so I hurled it in his face and smashed his left eye to pulp."

Fine " murmured Charlton. "Fine! But hasn't it occurred to you that Grauber will be a little peeved about losing that eye of his; and that with the whole of the Gestapo behind him it's he would have the last laugh instead of you if I landed you again in this accursed country,"

Gregory straightened himself. His head was clearing with the cool night air and he was feeling distinctly better. "To hell with that! I'm prepared to chance it. If they get me that's my affair; the one thing that I flatly refuse to do is to go back to England while Erika is left to fend for herself in Berlin."

"It's not a matter of your refusing; you have no option. I've made eleven of these secret trips successfully since I set you down outside Cologne two months ago and now I'm well away with this one I'm not going to risk losing one of Britain's planes and, though I sez it as shouldn't, one of her ace pilots by coming town again because you've fallen in love with a German girl." Gregory tried to control the urgency in his voice but every minute the plane was taking him three miles further from Erika. `It's a lot to ask, I know," he said persuasively, "but there's too much trouble going on in Berlin to night for the anti aircraft look outs to be active. They'll all have heard of the Army Putsch by now and will probably be fighting among themselves. Anyhow, they'll be far too busy swapping rumours. and hanging on for the latest news to bother about checking up on a stray plane."

"Perhaps; but even if I were willing to take you back I couldn’t. You remember how we landed outside Cologne just one window of the farm house was left uncurtained to light me in. The same drill is followed at the secret landing ground east of Berlin but those windows are left uncurtained only for a short period on certain nights, and at stated times, by arrangement. There won't be any light showing from the farm house now in fact, it won't be showing again until ten o'clock next Sunday; and this is only Wednesday. So you see, it's absolutely impossible or me to attempt another landing there to night."

"All right, then; land me somewhere else I don't care where any place you like so long as it's inside Germany. Then '11 make my own way back to Berlin."

"How the hell can I, with the whole country blacked out? You must see for yourself that without a single thing to guide me in it's a hundred to one that I'd crash the plane on a hillside or in a wood."

"How far D’you reckon we are from Berlin?"

Charlton glanced at his dash board. "I managed to pick up few lights way out on our left, through a break in the clouds, a few minutes ago. and as I know this country like the back of my hand I'm certain they were in the town of Brandenburg. In another few moments we shall be passing over the Elbe so we're somewhere about sixty miles due west of Berlin by now."

"That's not so bad." Gregory murmured; "the province of Brandenburg is flattish country, mostly sandy wastes and farmland which is very sparsely populated. With a bit of luck we night find a spot where you could land me without much likelihood of running into trouble. Be a sportsman and go down low, just to see if you can make out the lie of the land."

"No, Sallust; it would be absolutely suicidal. The antiaircraft people hereabouts haven't had much to do during the first few months of the war so normally they're pretty sleepy but, as you say yourself, they'll be on their toes to night waiting lot the latest news from Berlin; and this is a prohibited area. I never feel safe until I've climbed to over 3o,oo and we're miles from that height yet. Even up here, if the Nazis pick up the note of my engine in their listening posts, they may start blazing off at us. We're still well within range and I happen to know their orders. `Fire first and ask questions afterwards ' "