The Valhalla Exchange - Jack Higgins [27]
Hoffer said, 'But what does he want you for?'
'I expect I'll find that out when he sees me,' Ritter said. He nodded at the chessboard. 'And now, if you don't mind, it's your move.'
Just before midnight, Walter Wagner, a city councillor and minor official of the Propaganda Ministry, was hustled into the bunker under armed guard. Totally bewildered and still not quite believing what was happening to him, at approximately one o'clock in the morning he married Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The only other two people present were the witnesses, Martin Bormann and Josef Goebbels, Reich Minister for Propaganda.
A wedding breakfast was served immediately afterwards at which champagne was available in copious quantities. At approximately two o'clock, the Fuhrer went into an adjoining room to dictate his will and final political testament to one of his two secretaries, Frau Junge. Bormann, who had been waiting for an appropriate moment, seized his chance and left also.
Rattenhuber was waiting for him in the corridor. 'And now we've got that out of the way, I'll see Ritter,' the Reichsleiter said. 'Bring him to me, Willi.'
When Rattenhuber ushered Ritter into the office, there was a particularly intensive bombardment taking place. The Reichsleiter looked up as smoke and dust drifted from the ventilator. 'If that hadn't been happening for some days now, I'd be alarmed.'
'Not pleasant,' Ritter said.
'No place to be at the moment - Berlin - if it can be avoided.'
Rattenhuber took up his position beside the door. There was a long silence during which Bormann gazed up at the young SS officer calmly. Finally he said, 'You would like to leave Berlin, Sturmbannfuhrer?'
Ritter actually smiled. 'I think you may say that I would dearly love to, Reichsleiter, but I would not have thought it a possibility now.'
'Oh, all things are possible to men who are willing to dare anything. I had formed the opinion that you were of that breed. Am I right?'
'If you say so.'
'Good, we must see if we can accommodate you then. This man of yours - Hoffer. He is to be trusted?'
'With my life - yes,' Ritter said. 'I would not depend too much on his loyalty to any political idea, however - not at this stage.'
'In other words, a man of sound sense and judgement. I like that.' Bormann turned the map which lay before him. 'You know this area here, north-west of Innsbruck on the Inn River?'
'I know where it is,' Ritter said. 'Let's put it that way. My unit was in that general area when I left. Perhaps fifty miles away.'
'Not now,' Bormann said. 'What was left of them was wiped out by tanks of the American 6th Army Group a hundred miles or more from there yesterday morning.'
For a moment his voice seemed to fade for Ritter as he thought of the regiment, old comrades, Colonel Jager. He come back to reality to hear Bormann saying, 'I'm sorry - a bad shock for you.'
'No matter,' Ritter said. 'An old and tired story, repeated many times. Please continue.'
'Very well. This entire area, the triangle between Innsbruck, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, is still in our hands, but the situation is very fluid. The enemy are probing in with great care because they believe the stories they've heard of an Alpine fortress where we can hold out for years. Once they appreciate the truth of the situation, they'll be through to Berchtesgaden like a hot knife into butter.'
'And this could happen at any time?'
'Undoubtedly. So, to accomplish what I seek we must move fast.'
'And what would that be, Reichsleiter?'
Bormann picked up a pencil and drew a circle around Arlberg. 'Here at Schloss Arlberg on the Inn, you will find five important prisoners. What we call prominenti. One of them is the American general, Canning. Who the others are needn't concern you at the moment. It's enough to know that they are all