Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [303]
Because of his background he was put into the Labor Ministry. Public knowledge of his activities was deliberately kept vague by him. Even his own family knew little except that he was considered a fairly important official; both his income and privileged way of life proved that out.
The documents Sean read were sealed in Bruno Falkenstein’s own hand! He had planned and executed operations for the securing and shipment of tens of thousands of slave laborers from Poland for the Krupp and I. G. Farben industries. Bruno Falkenstein, by his own signature, was a Nazi criminal.
Sean set the folder on Blessing’s desk, glassy-eyed with confusion.
“I’ve been a cop for a long time, Sean,” Bless said. “There were times I had a prisoner who I knew should be free. Listen to me, Sean ... there is a time when a cop has to be judge and jury.”
“He deserves what’s coming to him ...”
“Sure he does, but you don’t and neither does Ernestine. Neither does his brother. Maybe they’ll throw the book at him just to prove he isn’t being protected by Ulrich Falkenstein. And don’t forget, he may be a bastard, but it’s her old man. Sean ... there’s thousands of these bastards getting away. This one won’t matter.”
Sean O’Sullivan sat in the darkness like an agonized Hamlet. Over their little room in Reinickendorf, British Hastings burst through the clouds into the snowfall, landing at Tegel.
What terrible forces were there that were making their love hopeless? They had struggled to overcome ... they had nearly succeeded. Once he had judged a man harshly for the same thing. He had re-created the sin of Dante Arosa the moment he hid the files on Bruno Falkenstein. He who had never been able to understand Dante Arosa’s human weakness.
Ernestine longed for a relationship that would bring Hilde back to the family. If Bruno Falkenstein were sent to prison the raging scandal and her own sense of guilt would make a life together impossible.
If he continued to keep the secret, he would have to ask her to begin life with a lie hanging over their heads that would grow instead of diminish. Sean’s own sense of right and wrong told him that God could not permit such a lie to remain hidden and untested.
She came to their room, brushing the snow from her. At that moment he loved her more than right or wrong ... more than his sense of duty. He wanted now only to survive for a month, a week, a day ... and he was filled with fear.
Chapter Thirty-eight
“COMRADE COLONEL,” MARSHAL ALEXEI Popov said to Igor, “one would gather that the Americans and British did not study your estimates of their collapse.”
When a political commissar harassed you that was one matter. When a marshal of the Red Army questioned your competence, it was another.
“If you will recall the conference of our decision,” Igor began his defense, “I explained at that time a great deal of the success or failure of the Airlift would depend on American determination. I was ordered to stick to mathematics.”
“And what about your assurances the Airlift would collapse this winter?”
“If our intelligence had supplied me with proper information about the high development of ground-controlled approach systems, I would have made a different estimate.”
It was, in fact, everyone’s blunder, but no one’s blunder. Popov realized that the faithful ally, General winter, had been beaten. The colonel was a good officer, Karlovy’s estimation of the situation had been echoed throughout the entire Soviet command.
“Make contact again with the American,” Popov said. “Inform him that I want to begin personal discussions with General Hansen.”
Igor felt the same amazement as everyone at Headquarters. With only half the days of the winter considered safe for flying, the Airlift was setting down five thousand tons every twenty-four hours. From time to time, the operation was closed for an hour or a day. At times, the Western Sector’s coal stocks dipped below a week’s reserve and food became so scarce that part of the city was a hairline away from starvation, total darkness,