Greg Iles - The Spandau Phoenix

Stern asked.

Hess grimaced. "A British bullet. I had no access to a doctor until it

was too late." The old man jerked his finger away from his face. "This

is ancient history! I want to know what you hoped to accomplish by your

ridiculous deception, Jew. Other than suicide, of course."

Stern stared back with cold assurance. "I have come to take you back to

Israel to stand trial'for the crimes you escaped at Nuremberg-the crimes

for which your double served a life sentence in Spandau Prison."

Hess's laugh was hoarse and hollow, but frightening all the same.

"You should see a psychiatrist, Herr Stern. You suffer from serious

delusions of the paranoid type. I will arrange for my personal

physician to visit you."

Stern waved his arm, taking in the Nazi regalia that covered the walls.

"You're the one who's mad. If you believe you're going to raise some

kind of Fourth Reich in Germany, you're hopelessly senile."

Hess's eye brightened. "Is that what you think I want? A Fourth Reich

in Germany? I'm afraid the only people with whom you share that fantasy

are paranoid Russians and writers of pulp fiction." He glanced at

Smuts. "Perhaps a few German policemen," he added.

"What is it then? I'm sure you have some master plan for German world

domination."

Hess smiled. "Do you really think I need one? The postwar world has

evolved along the very lines the Fuhrer predicted. Germany-even when

divided-is the most powerful nation in Europe. America has assumed

Britain's imperial mantle and rules the seas in her stead.

Japan rules the Pacific and a lot more besides. Which brings us to the

Soviet Union.

How far are we, really, from seeing Russia as an economic colony of

Greater Germany? The Soviet economy is almost as weak now as it was

just prior to the 1917 Revolution.

How long before it explodes? When that explosion comes, it will be

Germany who rebuilds the country. We'll trade cash for raw materials

and gain access to the enormous markets that will be opened there. The

final step toward economic hegemony over Europe. We already hold the

purse strings to half the American national debt, and our power and

influence grow stronger every day. Reunification is inevitable."

"Then why destroy Israel?"

Hess scratched beneath the black eyepatch. "For the most pragmatic of

reasons, I assure you. In a way, I almost regret having to do it.

Sometimes I think you Jews learned more from the Fuhrer than anyone.

Have you ever seen Israeli soldiers at the Wailing Wall, Herr Stern?

Praying in formation?

It is a sight worth seeing. The Israelis have become the new Germans!

Isn't that a shock? Israel has become a supernationalist, expansionist,

Blood-and-Sacred Soil state with the best-trained army in the world. It

is surrounded on all sides by enemies, just as Prussia was. The Chosen

People, yes? Just as we Germans were chosen to lead the Aryan race!"

Stern stared in wonder at the man before him. "If you strike Israel

with nuclear weapons, you'll start a war that could wipe every country

off the face of the earth. Israel has her own bombs, Hess, and she will

use them."

The old man nodded excitedly. "I'm counting on Israel using her bombs,

Stern! I know exactly what the Zionists have in their arsenal, and more

importantly, I know where their missiles and 'black' bomber squadrons

are targeted.

More than half of Israel's warheads are aimed not at the Arabs, but at

the Soviet Union. Israel does this to prevent Soviet resupply of the

Arabs in the next Mideast war."

Hess's eye gleamed. "But times change, don't they, Stern?

Old men know that best of all. Right now the Israeli warheads point at

the Soviet Union. Ten years from now they will be aimed at Greater

Germany!"

"My God," Stern breathed, "you're trying to provoke Israel into

retaliating against Russia with nukes. When the Arabs wipe out Tel Aviv

or Jerusalem with a sophisticated bomb, the Israeli government will have

no choice but to respond in kind. And where will they respond?

Where could Arabs have procured such a weapon? From the Russians, of

course."

Hess smiled thinly. "I knew you'd appreciate the simplicity of it."

Stern's mouth went dry. "But you can't predict what will happen in a

situation like that! You could ignite a full-scale thermonuclear war!

There's no telling who might be drawn into it."

"It wasn't my original plan," Hess admitted. "But when the British

started trying to kill me last month, I was forced to improvise."

'The British are trying to kill you? They know you're aliveT' "Oh, yes.

Only tonight mI-5 sent men here to kill me-a force of filthy

Colombians." Hess smiled. "But ' I'm afraid they are all dead now."

He fiddled with a pen on his desk.

"I suppose I owe the British a debt of thanks. By rushing me, they

forced me to think creatively, and it was thus I came upon the Fuhrer's

old Palestirfe strategy. The v@ry same year I flew to Britain, Hitler

armed the Mufti of Jerusalem and bade him destroy the Jews of Palestine.

Only it turned out that the Jews had been better armed by their Zionist

relatives in America. I find that quite ironic, since it is ultimately

for the Americans that I now arm the Arabs."

"What?" Stern's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Yes, Jew. The Americans are the inheritors of the Fuhrer's work. Is

that so hard to see?"

"You really are mad. America is the most liberal democracy in the

world!"

Hess chuckled. "If all the Jewish tribe were so naive as you, my work

would be greatly simplified. The Americans are a strange people, Stern.

A violent people."

"They aren't Nazis."

Hess looked bemused. "The other day I was speaking with an American

businessman on the telephone. Do you know what he said to me?

He said, 'Hitler had the right idea, Alfred, he just had a poor

marketing strategy.' "

"An off-color remark is a long way from a fascist revolution."

"Is it really?. I suppose that depends on who's doing the talking. This

man happened to be the president of a Fortune 500 company." Hess drew

an imaginary line in the air. "A very thin line divides democracy and

anarchy in America, Stern. It is concealed by vast material wealth, but

it is there.

And the Americans can be pushed over it. They have been before, and

they will be again. Think about it. Whenever the Nordic American has

felt the existence of his values and race imperiled, he has steeled

himself and done whatever was necessary to insure his survival. Did

Americans shrink from interning thousands of Japanese during World War

Two? Did they shrink from ruthlessly hounding down thousands of

communists in the fifties? In the sixties they even found a way to thin

the ranks of the mongrel blacks, by sending them to die in Southeast

Asia. Ingenious, and so subtle it would put Goebbels to shame! And

what of their precious Constitution? To hell with it! In time of

crisis, Jew, expediency rules!"

Stern was silent. He had seen that principle in operation many times in

the political councils of Jerusalem.

"And what does he face today, the Nordic American?

Abroad, violent terrorism- Arab jackals run mad with power, drunk on a

great tide of oil which willrun out in two or three decades, but not

before the savages succeed in purchasing nuclear warheads and the

delivery systems necessary to threaten the civilized nations! At home

it's even worse! White Americans cannot even walk the streets of their