Five Past Midnight - James Thayer [150]
After a moment—always just long enough to irritate him— Sergeant Fischer threw the bolts and opened the door.
Kahr shouted above the whir of the fans, "We've got to keep company with the dry goods Orders."
Fischer did not understand much, but he understood orders. He said sullenly, "First it's canaries, and now it's the stores."
Kahr lowered the sack to the floor, then pushed it against the base of a generator. When he left the room to return to the pantry, Fisher locked the door behind him.
The sergeant made five more trips to the pantry. Helena flirted with him a little each time, and the SS guard at the circular stairs tasted a sample from each bag. At the end of his labors, Kahr had moved 180 kilograms—about 330 pounds—of flour into the generator room, Sergeant Fischer's scowl deepening with the start of each of Kahr's journeys back to the pantry because he was anxious to escape the bunker.
When Kahr finally relieved Fischer and locked himself into the generator room, he noticed that his exertions with the bags—throwing them off his shoulder onto the concrete floor—had resulted in a fine veil of flour on the generators. The sergeant pulled out a rag and began wiping down his machinery: those big Benz generators and the fan boxes and the air purifiers, and all the red and green pipes. He knew it was to be — one way or the other — the last time he would ever do so.
17
RSD GENERAL EUGEN EBERHARDT stepped down from the Funkwagen, the cordoning-off order in his hand. He had overseen security for all of the Führer's public appearances and at his residences and headquarters for thirteen years, and the guiding principle had always been the same: erect a wall of guards between the Führer and potential trouble. In years past, tens of thousands of Germans would flock to any wreath-laying or Knight's Cross ceremony, and SS troopers would be stationed at such small intervals that each could grip the belt locks of the men to his left and right. Three other cordons would also be established, using the SS and RSD, the BDM, and Hitler Youth, even the Female Police Auxiliary Helpers. Eberhardt understood and was comfortable with these massive shows of force. But today's cordoning-off order was new entirely. It was less an impenetrable wall than it was a knotty scheme. Eberhardt didn't like it.
Otto Dietrich was waiting for him on the street. The detective's driver, Egon Haushofer, was leaning against his car's fenders, a dandelion cigarette in his hand, burned down almost to his knuckles.
Eberhardt waved the four-page cordoning-off order as if he were about to throw it away. "Otto, I never thought you'd side with the Gestapo, goddamn them, anyway. Not after the knock they gave your head."
The back of Dietrich's head hurt so much he could not wear a hat. "This plan is better, General."
Eberhardt stared at the order another moment. Smoke drifted by in long and winding loops. A tire plant upwind was burning, and the scent was foul and inescapable.
His voice as mournful as an undertaker's, the general said, "You know, Otto, there was a time early in my career when I thought protecting the Führer was simply an all-out, full-blown effort, and that all I had to do was to stop a bullet or defuse a bomb. But I learned quickly— and I'm reminded again today—that it involves endless negotiations, and that politics and appearances and territories must be accounted for. And now .. ," He held up the cordoning-off order. "And now this goddamn mess of an order."
Dietrich exhaled quickly against the new and caustic scent of ammonia. So the terror bombers had found—somehow and against all odds—a working factory, this one a chemical plant—to destroy. Berlin- ers found no irony in the bombers' Germanic thoroughness.
Dietrich said, "Preventing Jack Cray from attempting to assassinate the Führer won't be enough, because Cray will try and try again. He must be caught."
"He must be killed." The new voice belonged to Gestapo Müller, who moved into their circle as if he'd been invited. "I agree with the inspector. If we cordon off the