Griffin W.E.B. - Honor Bound 03 - Secret Honor

Before leaving Berlin to personally supervise the retribution to be visited upon the Czechs for Heydrich's murder,

Himmler called von Deitzberg into his office to tell him how much he would have to rely on him until a suitable replace ment for the martyred Heydrich could be found.

Meanwhile, von Deitzberg was faced with a serious problem.

With Heydrich's death, he had become the senior officer involved with the confidential fund and the source of its money, and he had never learned from Heydrich how much

Himmler knew about it.

He quickly and carefully checked the records of dispersal of money, but found no record that Himmler had ever received money from it.

It was, of course, possible that the enormous disburse ments to Heydrich had included money that Heydrich had quietly slipped to Himmler; that way there would be no record of Himmler's involvement.

Three months later, however, after Himmler had asked neither for money nor information about the status of the confidential fund, von Deitzberg was forced to conclude not only that Himmler knew nothing about it but that Heydrich had gone to great lengths to conceal it from the Reichspro tektor.

It was entirely possible, therefore, that Himmler would be furious if he learned now about the confidential fund. The

Reichsprotektor had a puritanical streak, and he might con sider that Heydrich had actually been stealing from the

Reich, and that von Deitzberg had been involved in the theft up to his neck.

When von Deitzberg brought the subject up to Raschner,

Raschner advised that as far as he himself knew, Himmler either didn't know about the fund-or didn't want to know about it. Thus, an approach to him now might see everyone connected with it stood before a wall and shot.

They had no choice, Raschner concluded, but to go on as they had… but taking even greater care to make sure the ransoming operation remained secret.

No one was ever found to replace Heydrich as Himmler's adjutant.

In von Deitzberg's view, Himmler was unwilling to bring a stranger, so to speak, into the office of the Reichsfiihrer-SS.

And besides, he didn't have to, since von Deitzberg was obviously capable of taking over for Heydrich. It would have been additionally very difficult to keep Heydrich's replacement from learning about the confidential fund.

The thing to do now was make sure that no one was brought in. In what he thought was a fine example of thinking under pressure, von Deitzberg had never mentioned that he, a relatively lowly Obersturmbannfiihrer, had been placed in the shoes of a Gruppenfiihrer, which was of course a fitting rank for the Adjutant of the Reichsfiihrer-SS.

Von Deitzberg recognized that when Himmler considered this disparity, he would conclude that anyone privileged to be of such high-level service to himself should be at least a

Standartenfuhrer (colonel)-a promotion for which von

Deitzberg was eligible-and that he would in fact be pro moted long before he would otherwise have a chance to be.

A week later, Himmler took him to the Reichschancellery, where a beaming, cordial Adolf Hitler personally promoted him not to Gruppenfiihrer but to Oberfiihrer, one grade higher, and warmly thanked him for his services to the SS and himself personally.

The risk of someone new coming into the Office of the

Reichsprotektor and learning about the confidential fund seemed to be over.

Von Deitzberg immediately arranged for Goltz to be pro moted to Sturmbannfuhrer, Raschner to Hauptsturmftihrer and, six months after that, to Sturmbannfuhrer. During that period, Goltz recruited a man-Sturmbannfuhrer Werner von Tresmarck-to be sent to Montevideo, Uruguay, osten sibly as the Embassy security officer, but actually to handle the affairs of the ransoming operation.

Later, when Operation Phoenix was put in motion, von

Deitzberg had recommended Standartenfuhrer Goltz as the man to set up and run the project in Argentina. This would also put him in a position to handle the South American end of the confidential fund. For several reasons, he was more capable, and more reliable, than von Tresmarck.

If Goltz did as well as von Deitzberg expected, his promotion to Oberfuhrer could be arranged; and if that happened, he could subtly remind Himmler that his own promotion to

Brigadefiihrer would be appropriate.

In that event, the risk of Himmler finding out about the confidential fund would have been even further reduced.

But that hadn't happened. Goltz was now dead, and there was a real possibility that when von Tresmarck was ques tioned, he would blurt out everything he knew about the confidential fund to save his own skin.

And who, von Deitzberg wondered, is going to fill in for him while he is gone? One of his men? Or someone who will eagerly try to fill the vacuum? And might that man come across a clue that would lead him to the confidential fund?

"I'm going to miss you in the office, Manfred," Himmler said as the Mercedes rolled down the Kurfiirstendamm.

"I will do my best to see that you are properly served in my absence, Herr Reichsprotektor."

"But I think you and Raschner are the right team to send over to get to the bottom of this."

"I will do my best, Herr Reichsprotektor."

"My feeling, Manfred, is that there are three possibilities."

"Which are, Herr Reichsprotektor?"

"One, someone has betrayed us. Two, Canaris is right, and the Argentine army is responsible for the murders of

Goltz and Grilner. And three, that the American OSS is involved."

"I agree, Sir."

"But the most important thing for you to find out is how much the Argentines and the Americans know about Operation

Phoenix-and I hope they know nothing. Operation

Phoenix is the priority, Manfred. That must go forward!"

"I understand, Herr Reichsprotektor."

"To that end-if I have to say this-you have my authority to do whatever you think is necessary."

"I understand, Herr Reichsprotektor. I am honored by your trust."

"Whatever is necessary, Manfred."

"Jawohl, Herr Reichsprotektor."

Ill

[ONE]

Office of the Director, Abwehr Intelligence

Berlin

0930 28 April 1943

"Korvettenkapitan Boltitz, Herr Admiral," Admiral Wilhelm

Canaris's aide announced.

Canaris looked up from the work on his desk and saw the two young naval officers standing in his open door. He didn't reply, but made three gestures. First, with his index finger he beckoned Boltitz into the office; then he signaled him to close the door; and lastly he pointed to a chair placed squarely in front of his desk.

After that, he returned his attention to the report on his desk; he didn't look up again for five minutes.

When he had finished reading, he raised his eyes toward the ceiling. After a moment he nodded his head, as if in agreement with something, exhaled audibly, lowered his eyes to the desk, reached out for a pen, and wrote something quickly on the report before him.

A moment later, his aide-de-camp opened the door to his office.

There's probably a button on the floor, Boltitz thought.

Canaris again signaled three times with his hand without speaking. He motioned the aide into the office, pointed to the report, which the aide came and took, and gestured a final time for the aide to close the door.

Then he looked at Boltitz, who started to raise himself from the chair.

Canaris held out his hand to signal him to remain seated.

Boltitz sat back down.

Canaris almost visibly gathered his thoughts.

"There is always difficulty, Boltitz, when gathering intel ligence that interests more than one agency; it becomes a question of priorities. Agency A, for its own reasons, is very interested to learn facts that are of little-sometimes no- interest whatever to Agency B, which, for its own reasons, is interested to learn a set of entirely different facts. I'm sure you're aware of this."