Five Past Midnight - James Thayer [151]
Dietrich added, "And we'll be there when he tries. We've left him five firing sites, three that look into the garden, and two that look onto the Voss Street Chancellery entrance. There is no site remaining that looks onto the Wilhelmstrasse motor gate."
Eberhardt knew all this, of course. He and Dietrich had overseen the destruction of fifteen structures that looked upon the Chancellery. Most of the buildings had already been damaged, and Eberhardt's crews had pulled down the buildings' husks.
Dietrich said, "Jack Cray will appear at one of those firing sites today. I am sure of it."
"So am I," Müller said. ''Those sites will be like hornet traps. Cray will find them easy to enter, but impossible to escape. We have ten troops at each one of them. Well armed, well trained, and hidden."
"And you are sure he is going to try for the Führer today?" Eberhardt knew Dietrich's theory, but he wanted to be convinced.
"The old lady told us so," Müller said.
Another Gestapo vehicle appeared out of the smoke — unmarked black vehicles with sufficient gasoline to move about were invariably the Gestapo these days — stopping across from the Funkwagen, near a burned-out delivery truck, the name of the vendor — BREMEN PRODUCE — just distinguishable under black soot covering the side panels. Rudolf Koder emerged from the car. He put his hands in his coat pockets and leaned against the front fender, eyeing Dietrich with disdain, and apparently waiting for Gestapo Müller.
General Eberhardt said, "Your man had no call to murder that woman, that countess, Müller."
"Would you rather have sacrificed the Führer's life? That was our choice, wasn't it? Either she talked, or the American would have been successful. Do you deny the logic of the choice?"
"Well, that doesn't mean you should—"
Müller cut him off. "Once again the Gestapo had to do your job for you, Eberhardt. You needed to know when Jack Cray was going to make his move, and you didn't have a clue. Now you do, thanks to Agent Koder over there."
"We still don't know." Dietrich felt the need to defend the RSD general. "Not really." The detective made a swift noise in his throat, angry at himself, and embarrassed. He did not have the courage to argue with Gestapo Müller, to argue that the murder of the countess was an outrage, or that the ends did not justify the means.
"Jack Cray said good-bye to the countess this morning, meaning he would not be sleeping at her apartment another night." Müller rocked on his heels. "Cray believed the countess's place to be secure. He wouldn't tell her he would not be returning if he were staying in the city any longer. Cray is going into action today."
Dietrich wished he could fault Müller's reasoning.
"And we think Cray's plan will begin with a bombing raid." Müller nodded along with his own words. "And the American planes always come between nine and noon. Any other time, we'd be suspicious."
Dietrich glanced again at Rudolf Koder. Blood rose in the detective's face.
Müller had a pavement voice. "General Eberhardt and Inspector Dietrich, your conclusion is a house of cards: Cray using a bombing run to try to chase the Führer from the bunker. But this speculation on your part is the best we have, as you say yourself."
Somewhere in the distance the wail of an air-raid siren began, a wavering tinny trill. Then another, and another, until the sound had rushed to every corner of the ruined city.
"Here come the Americans, then," Heinrich Müller announced needlessly. He started toward Koder's car without saying anything more.
"We'd better get belowground, Otto." Eberhardt walked toward the underground station, "If our theory is correct, these bombs are going to fall on the government quarter, all around