Five Past Midnight - James Thayer [164]
As if in answer, Cray moaned. His arm moved a fraction.
Müller said, "I'm going to take care of this son of a bitch right now."
"I want to talk to him," General Eberhardt said, his voice muffled by the mask. "See how he got this far, and—"
"Your job is over, Eberhardt," Müller cut in. He yelled over his shoulder, "Koder, get in here."
The RSD general returned the bust of Frederick to the pedestal. "My Führer, an interrogation . . ."
"I'm not interested in what the American has to say, General. The commando is now Müller's." Carrying the oxygen mask, Hitler turned back to the blue sofa. He said over his shoulder, "And now that you've got the American, tell the TeNo to stop dawdling and put out the fires. It's a little warm in here."
Rudolf Koder rushed into the room and bent to grab Jack Cray's legs to pull him away. Dietrich put his pistol into his belt. When Cray's eyes fluttered open, Müller viciously kicked him in the head. An SS guard stepped into the study to take Cray's other leg. He and Koder dragged the American through the study's wreckage and into the smoky corridor, pulled him over the bodies of two guards and an SS colonel, sliding him across the blood-soaked rug. Smoke hid even the near walls. A team of guards was using a sledgehammer on the door to the vent room, the sound a rhythmic ring of metal on metal. Speer was sitting on the sofa, wearing a detached expression. The shrapnel had missed him entirely.
General Eberhardt stepped into the hallway. He called to the guards, "The assassin has been taken. Let the TeNo crews in to work on the fire and smoke."
Gestapo Müller followed Koder and the SS guard as far as the antechamber. Carrying fire-fighting equipment, TeNo men again flowed into the bunker.
Müller ordered Koder, "Do it near the south end, near the wrecked offices. A bullet in his head. Take the body to a pit in the Tiergarten." He turned back into the bunker's central corridor and was quickly lost in the smoke.
Agent Koder paused in the antechamber, pulled his Walther to check the load. He loudly snapped the clip back into the handle.
He and the guard pulled Cray feet-first up the stairs, the American's head bouncing on each step, the gas mask around his neck. Limping from the shrapnel wound, Otto Dietrich followed them up, leaving behind the bunker's turmoil.
General Eberhardt gulped air through his gas mask. He had done his job, by God. Had caught the American commando. It had been close, sure. The American had made it close. But the Führer was as alive today as he was yesterday. Eberhardt's only role in the war had been to keep Germany's leader alive, and he had just succeeded in his mission. Eberhardt was giddy with relief.
Cray had turned into the Führer's room, was bringing his pistol around, and hadn't seen Eberhardt standing near the pedestal bust hard to Cray's right. Eberhardt had fired his pistol, but the general had never been much of a shot, and Cray was moving fast and had spun out of the way, and in the smoke the general had entirely missed. Cray's knife hand swept out, catching Eberhardt's arm and sending the general's pistol across the floor. And then—enraged that he had failed and there stood the cocky American, in the safest, most secure spot in the Reich— damned if Eberhardt hadn't simply snatched the bust and lashed out at the commando. Smashed it twice into Cray's head. And down went the American. Eberhardt would have laughed aloud had the wound on his arm not hurt so much.
A sofa had caught fire, and was pumping black smoke into the green-gray haze generated by the grenade. Eberhardt stepped over the body of a TeNo man toward the ventilation room door. The guard captain was overseeing the crew trying to pry open the steel door Gestapo Müller was now there, an SS guard at his elbow, pointing a Schmeisser at the door.
Müller said to the RSD general, "The ventilation technician is going to meet the American's fate up in the garden. Just as soon as we open this goddamn door."