Greg Iles - The Spandau Phoenix

a two-front war. He had publicly proclaimed such a war unwinnable. So

why did he do it?"

Ilse blinked. "Do you know?"

Natterman nodded sagely. "I think I do. There are dozens of complex

theories, but I think the answer is painfully simple: Hitler had no

choice. I don't believe he ever intended to invade England.

Russia was his target all along; his own writings confirm this.

Hitler hated Churchill, but he had tremendous respect for the English as

a people-fellow Nordics and all that. I think Hitler put off invading

Britain because he believed-right up until it was too late-that England

could be neutralized withoutfiring a shot. I think certain elements of

the British government were prepared to sign a peace treaty with Hitler,

so that he would be free to destroy Communist Russia. And I believe

Rudolf Hess was Hitler's secret envoy to those Englishmen. The moment

Hess's presence in England was made public, Joseph Stalin accused the

British of conspiring with Hitler. I think Stalin was right."

The professor's eyes blazed with fanatical conviction.

"But neither Stalin, nor all his spies, nor a thousand scholars, nor I

have ever been able to prove that! For nearly fifty years the truth has

lain buried in the secret vaults of the British government.

By law the relevant Hess files are to remain sealed until the year 2016.

Some will never be opened. What are the British hiding? Whom are they

protecting? A secret cabal of highly placed British Nazis?

Were there powerful Englishmen-even members of the royal family-who were

so afraid of communism that they were ready to climb into Hitler's bed

for protection, no matter how many Jews he slaughtered?"

Natterman punched a fist into his palm.."By God, if these Spandau papers

end up proving that, the walls of Parliament will be hard put to

withstand the firestorm that follows!"

Ilse stared at her grandfather with astonishment. His passion had

infected her, but it could not blot out the worry she felt for Hans.

Yet somehow she couldn't bring herself to confess her fears to the old

man. At least debating the fine points of conspiracy theories helped to

pass the time quickly.

"But if the prisoner was a double," she.said, "how could he fool his

Allied captors? Even an actor couldn't hold out under interrogation."

Natterman snorted scornfully. "The British claim they never

professionally interrogated him. And why should they? They knew Hess

was a double from the beginning.

They held him incommunicado in England for the first four years of his

captivity, and they've been playing this ridiculous game ever since to

cover up the real Hess's mission.

The American government supports Britain's policy right down the line.

And the French have never made a fuss about it. They have their own

skeletons to hide."

"But the Russians," Ilse reminded him. "You said Stalin suspected a

plot from the beginning."

"Perhaps the double didn't fool them," Natterman suggested.

"Then why wouldn't they expose him!"

Natterman frowned. "I don't know. That's the conundrum, isn't it? It's

the key to this whole mystery. There are reasons that the Russians

wouldn't have talked in the early years.

One is that certain alleged Anglo-Nazi intrigues-between Hess and the

Duke of Windsor, for example-took place on Spanish and Portuguese soil.

If such meetings did actually occur, Moscow would have known all about

them"Natterman grinned with glee-"because the mI-6 officer responsible

for the Spanish desk at that time was none other than Kim Philby. What

irony! The Russians couldn't reveal the Windsor-Hess connection without

exposing the PhilbyKGB connection! Of course that only explains the

Russian silence up until 1963, the year Philby fled England. The real

mystery is what kept the Russians quiet during the remaining years."

Ilse was shaking her head. "You make it sound so plausible, but it's

like a huge house of cards.... It's just too complex."

"I'll give you something simple, then. Why did the British never use

'Hess' for propaganda during the war? They locked him away from the

world and refused even to allow him to be photographed. Think about

that. England and Germany were locked in a death struggle. Even if

'Hess' had refused to cooperate, the British could easily have released

statements criticizing Hitler that were supposedly made by Hess. Think

of the boost that would have given English morale. And the negative

effect on the German people! Yet the British never tried it. The only

possible reason I can see for that is that the British knew they didn't

have the real Hess.

They knew if they tried to use 'Hess' against the Nazis, Joseph Goebbels

could jump up and say, 'Fools! You've got a bloody corporal in your

jail!' or something similar."

"If that's true, why wouldn't the Nazis have said that from the

beginning?"

Natterman smiled enigmatically. "Hitler's reasons I cannot divine. But

as for the other top Nazis-Goring, Himmler-they were only too glad to be

rid of Hess. He was their chief rival for Hitler's favors. If the

Fuhrer, for his own reasons, was content to let the world believe that

his lifelong friend and confidant had gone insane, and was a prisoner of

the British, Hess's chief rivals would have been only too glad to go

along." Natterman rubbed his hands together.

"Yes, it all ties up rather neatly."

"So says the great professor," Ilse said dryly. "But you've missed one

thing. Even if the Allies had reasons to keep quiet, why in God's name

would the double@yen if he had agreed to such a mission-keep silent for

nearly fifty years?

What could anyone threaten him with? Solitary confinement in Spandau

Prison must have been a living death.

Natterman shook his head. "You're a clever girl, Ilse, but in some ways

frighteningly naive. Soldiers aren't asked to agree to missions;

they're ordered. In Hitler's Reich refusal meant instant death. You

saw the word Sippenhaft in the papers?"

She nodded. "What does it mean? 'Clan punishment"?"

"That's close enough. Sippenhaft was a barbaric custom that Himmler

borrowed from the ancient Teutonic tribes. It mandated that punishment

be visited not only upon a traitor, but upon his 'clan.' After Graf von

Stauffenberg's abortive attempt on Hitler's life, not only the count but

his entire family was executed. Six of the victims were over seventy

years old! That is Sippenhaft, Ilse, and a more effective tool for

ensuring the silence of living men has yet to be devised."

"But after five decades ... who would be left to carry out such a

sentencet' Natterman rolled his eyes. "How about one of those bald

neo-Nazi psychopaths who roam our streets at night with brickbats? No?

Then how about these 'soldiers of Phoenix' that Number Seven mentions?

He certainly seems terrified of them. And don't forget this: at the end

of the war, close@ to forty divisions of Warren SS remained under arms

throughout the world. That's more than a quarter of a million men! I

don't know how many Death's-Head SS survived, but what if it were only a

few hundred? Just one of those fanatics could wipe out a man's family,

even today. I fought in the war, and I could easily shoot someone down

in the street tonight." Natterman glanced at his watch. "And that is

my final word on the subject," he announced. "I must go."

"Go?" Ilse said uneasily. "Where are you going?"