The Valhalla Exchange - Jack Higgins [16]
'The French,' Bormann said. 'So romantic'
'The wife was thought to be involved. There was a radio at the house. She insisted she knew nothing about it, but Security was convinced she could well have been working as a - pianist?'
He looked up, bewildered, and Bormann smiled. 'Typical English schoolboy humour. This is apparently the British Special Operations Executive term for a radio operator.'
'Oh, I see.' Rattenhuber returned to the file. 'Through marriage, she is related to most of the great French families.'
'Which is why she is at Arlberg. So - who's next?'
'Madame Claudine Chevalier.'
'The concert pianist?'
'That's right, Reichsleiter.'
'She must be seventy at least.'
'Seventy-five.'
'A national institution. In 1940 she made a trip to Berlin to give a concert at the Fuhrer's special request. It made her very unpopular in Paris at the time.'
'A very clever front to mask her real activities, Reichsleiter. She was one of a group of influential people who organized an escape line which succeeded in spiriting several well-known Jews from Paris to Vichy.'
'So - an astute old lady with nerve and courage. Does that dispose of the French?'
'No, Reichsleiter. There is Paul Gaillard to consider.'
'Ah, the one-time cabinet minister.'
'That is so, Reichsleiter. Aged sixty. At one time a physician and surgeon. He has, of course, an international reputation as an author. Dabbled in politics a little before the war. Minister for Internal Affairs in the Vichy government who turned out to be signing releases of known political offenders. He was also suspected of being in touch with de Gaulle. Member of the French Academy.'
'Anything else?'
'Something of a romantic, according to the security report. Joined the French Army as a private soldier in 1915 as some sort of public gesture against the government of the day. It seems he thought they were making a botch of the war. Flirted with Communism in the twenties, but a visit to Russia in 1927 cured him of that disease.'
'What about his weaknesses?'
'Weaknesses, Reichsleiter?'
'Come now, Willi, we all have them. Some men like women, others play cards all night or drink, perhaps. What about Gaillard?'
'None, Reichsleiter, and the State Security report is really most thorough. There is one extraordinary thing about him, however.'
'What's that?'
'He's had a great love of skiing all his life. In 1924 when they held the first Winter Olympics at Chamonix, he took a gold medal. A remarkable achievement. You see, he was thirty-nine years of age, Reichsleiter.'
'Interesting,' Bormann said softly. 'Now that really does say something about his character. What about the Englishman?'
'I'm not too certain that's an accurate description, Reichsleiter. Justin Fitzgerald Birr, 15th Earl of Dundrum, an Irish title, and Ireland is the place of his birth. He is also 10th Baron Felversham. The title is, of course, English and an estate goes with it in Yorkshire.'
'The English and the Irish really can't make up their minds about each other, can they, Willi? As soon as there's a war, thousands of Irishmen seem to join the British Army with alacrity. Very confusing.'
'Exactly, Reichsleiter. Lord Dundrum, which is how people address him, had an uncle who was a major of infantry in the first war. An excellent record, decorated and so on, then in 1919 he went home, joined the IRA and became commander of a flying column during their fight for independence. It apparently caused a considerable scandal.'
'And the earl? What of his war record?'
'Age thirty. DSO and Military Cross. At the beginning of the war he was a lieutenant in the Irish Guards. Two years later a lieutenant-colonel in the Special Air Service. In its brief existence his unit destroyed 113 aircraft on the ground behind Rommel's lines. He was captured in