Five Past Midnight - James Thayer [82]
He was silent, glancing over his shoulder every few steps. He licked his lips. Again he ducked his head as army officers passed. Katrin led him across Tiergartenstrasse and into the park. They walked toward the East- West Axis. The park resembled the dreadful, grainy newsreels she had seen of the Great War's trench lands; craters, uprooted trees, stones strewn about, lawns hidden under debris, nothing untouched by high explosives.
She conducted him toward a bench that had been blown backward. He stood mutely while she righted it, then swept dampness from the seat with her hand before sitting down. After a moment Becker joined her on the bench.
"You ignored the message I left in the milk box," she said. "You recruited me, and now you've cut me off?"
"You have no idea what has been happening." Becker refused to look at her, staring at a bank of lilac bushes. Like a tortoise, he kept his head tucked back in his collar. He nervously dabbed at nothing at the corner of his mouth. "My superior, General Etzdorf, has been arrested, and so have two others in my office. And many others in my branch. A purge. The general and I..."
"He is a member of your group?"
"There is no group," he snapped. "The general and I have . . . have worked together on certain matters. He was arrested, and he may soon implicate me. He is in a cell somewhere, and I know they'll come for me if he starts to talk, and ... "
Fear had loosened Becker's tongue. His words gushed forth like water from a broken pipe. Katrin sympathized with him. She knew fear. All Berliners did. She patted his arm, just as she'd patted Artur's.
The gesture stopped Becker mid-sentence. He inhaled hugely. He
turned on the bench and finally looked at her. "Why have you come to me?"
"I need your help."
He shook his head sorrowfully. "That is impossible, Mrs von Tornitz. I am no doubt under suspicion. Perhaps we are being watched right now, as we sit here."
They were partly hidden by azaleas and lilacs, and could see only glimpses of trucks passing on Tiergarten Street.
He went on, "I have ceased all activity in this regard I no longer… no longer have the courage or strength to do those things." Katrin removed a handkerchief from a pocket and passed it under her nose. She had had a cold for months. "Colonel, I'm in over my head."
"Aren't we all?"
"I need your help."
"No longer," he said quietly, averting his eyes. "I can't… simply can't."
"You work in the office of army administration. You can easily get what I want."
He shook his head.
"I need the roster for the soldiers and SS troopers assigned to the Chancellery."
Judging from his reaction, she might as well have tried to set him on fire. Becker's eyes widened, his breath rattled in his throat, and he chopped the air with his hand, as if swatting away the absurd notion. Then he tried to rise, but she dug her fingernails into his arm and pulled him back down.
"You can get the Chancellery roster, can't you?" "Impossible. I'm already a suspect."
"You don't know that for sure."
"They will break General Etzdorf and then they'll come for me, and then…" His tone carried an undignified pleading, and he clamped shut his jaw.
Her voice was a study in reason. "Colonel Becker, you don't understand how important this is."
He rapidly shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I'm through with all that."
With histrionic embellishment, Katrin reached to scratch the top of her head. So apparent was this a signal that Becker leaped from the bench and started toward the street.
He made only three steps. As if by sleight of hand, Jack Cray appeared in front of Becker, perhaps from the lilacs, and gently pushed him back to the bench.
The colonel's face blanched.