Greg Iles - The Spandau Phoenix

Disposition of the Phoenix Case. Schloss Bellevue, West Berlin

[Present: (US) Colonel Godfrey Rose, Chief of Military Intelligence,

West Berlin; US Undersecretary of State John Taylor/ (USSR) Colonel Ivan

Kosov' Grigori Zemenek, Chairman of KGB/ (UK) Sir Neville Shaw, Director

General mI-5; Peter Billingsley, Special Counsel to Her Majesty/ (FRG)

-Senator Karl Holer, Aide to the Chancellor; HansDietrich Muller,

Director of Operations for the BND (West German Intelligence) Meeting

chaired by Undersecretary Taylor] Following passage excerpted from the

questioning of Julius K. Schneider, Kripo Detective First Grade:

[Taylor] Detective Schneider, is it your opinion, then, the Russians

will carry through with their purge of Stasi officers who are listed on

Captain Hauer's list?

[Zemenek] I strenuously object, Mr. Undersecretary! I have assured

this council that all appropriate measures are being taken.

[Taylor] Then you should have no objection to Herr Schneider answering

the question.

[Schneider] I believe the Russians will vigorously pursue such a purge.

(pause) It's the political members of Ph@nix I worry about, sir, on both

sides of the Wall. I doubt that Captain Hauer's list contained a

full [Miiller] Objection! There is no evidence whatsoever that the

Phoenix cult has influence in the political hierarchy of the Federal

Republic! If there is such evidence, our Russian comrades should force

the Stasi to open their infamous blackmail files, so that we may see who

is vulnerable to coercion.

[Hofer] I do not think that will be necessary, gentlemen. The

Chancellor has full confidence that our colleagues in the BND can root

out whatever remains of this atavistic, but entirely anomalous reversion

to the Nazi period of Germany's history.

[unintelligible grumbling on all sides] [Taylor] Gentlemen, I understand

the ramifications of the Phoenix matter. What I'm having difficulty

accepting is that Rudolf Hess actually survived the war and lived until

just a few days ago. The man would have been over ninety years old.

[Rose] (laughter) Ever watch the Today show, Mr. Undersecretary ?

[Taylor] I don't follow you, Colonel.

[Rose] Every morning Willard Scott flashes up pictures of people having

their birthdays. Every picture he puts up is of someone over a hundred

years old. Hell, Prisoner Number Seven only died six weeks ago!

[Billingsley] (clears throat) Gentlemen, I am loath to waste Detective

Schneider's valuable time with trivialities. If I may, I would like to

return to the question of the Hess material. The security of the

Spandau papers, the Zinoviev papers, and other related artifacts. Her

Majesty's government is most concerned to know that all such material is

now in the possession of the United States government, particularly, in

Colonel Rose's Military Intelligence office here in West Berlin.

Detective Schneider?

[Schneider] Sir?

[Billingsley] Is it your opinion that all tangible evidence of Rudolf

Hess's actual mission in 1941 has now been suppressed? That no physical

artifacts remain?

[Schneider] Artifacts?

[Billingsley] Photocopies, photographs, tapes, et cetera?

[Schneider] (lengthy pause) To the best of my knowledge, that is true.

[Shaw] Frankly, I'm much more concerned about the Russian promise.

For the record, I want us all to be absolutely clear on that. In

exchange for the list of Phoenix members compiled by Captain Hauer, the

Soviet government will drop all public pursuit of the Rudolf Hess case.

[Kosov] (burst of unintelligible Russian) [Zemenek] Colonel Kosov!

I apologize, gentlemen. Yes, that is the agreement. My signature

carries the weight of the Politburo.

[Billingsley] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And we are agreed,

then-unanimously-that the Israeli government will not be informed of the

contents of any of these documents?

[Rose] From what we've learned about the secret Israeli/ South African

nuclear agreements, and the involvement of Rudolf Hess, I doubt the

Israelis would make the story public even if they knew.

[sounds of agreement] [Taylor] Well, then, gentlemen. If we've finished

with Detective Schneider, may I suggest that we adjourn for lunch?

We can resume at two Pm.

[Abstract concluded] 1.45 Pm. Martin Luther Hospital. British Sector,

West Berlin Professor Natterman looked up in surprise from his hospital

bed. Framed in the doorway was the huge, hatted figure of the Kripo

detective whom Natterman had last seen killing a Russian in a South

African hotel room. Natterman shook his head to clear the fog of pain

medication.

"Guten Abend, Professor," Schneider said.

Natterman nodded.

"You look worse than you did in South Africa."

"Infection," Natterman explained. "By the time I reached a hospital

here in Germany, sepsis had set in. They say I'll be cured in two weeks

or so."

Schneider smiled. "Good for you." He removed his hat and overcoat and

stepped closer to the hospital bed. "You know, Professor, I just came

from a meeting where a lot of Allied officials asked me a lot of

questions about the Hess case."

Natterman looked suddenly wary.

"They wanted to know if any evidence of the truth remained. If there

were any photocopies, tapes, anything like that. You know? When I

thought about it, I did seem to remember some photographs Captain Hauer

had in the hotel room. Or negatives."

Natterman lay still as a stone.

Schneider sniffed the hospital air with distaste. "I hate these

places," he said. "Whenever I come, people I know seem to die." He

laid an arm on Natterman's shoulder. "I told those bureaucrats nothing

survived. To hell with them, you know?"

Natterman said nothing.

"But I've been thinking," Schneider went on, "about what should happen

to evidence like that. If it really existed, of course. Should it be

trumpeted in the press, or in a book?

Rehashed for the millionth time like all the other Nazi history?

Or should it be buried, like the Allies want it to be?"

After a long silence, Natterman said, "I've been doing some thinking

too, Detective. I've decided that the decision should not be up to us.

To Germans."

Schneider nodded slowly.

"Help me out of bed," Natterman said suddenly.

"What? The doctors said I couldn't visit you more than ten minutes. You

can't get up."

Natterman's face contorted in pain as he pulled something from beneath

his bedclothes. An envelope. "I've got something I need to deliver,"

he said. "And I want to make sure you take it where I want it to go.

So, help me up."

"How do we get past the doctors?"

"You're a policeman, aren't you?"

Schneider put on his hat and overcoat, then lifted the old man out of

bed as if he were a child.

At the Wilmersdorf post office, Schneider took a final glance at

Natterman as he walked into the building. The old historian's face,

framed in the open window of the taxi, was flushed by the freezing wind.

Inside the post office, Schneider withdrew Natterman's envelope from his

coat pocket. When he saw the address scrawled on the paper, he smiled.

Schneider suspected it had taken a great act of sacrifice on the

professor's part to give up what this envelope contained. If it

contained what Schneider thought it did. Unable to resist the

temptation, Schneider took a small knife from his pocket, slit open the

envelope, and looked inside.

He saw several strips of black-and-white photographic negatives.