“Everybody?”
“Father J-for-Jack McGrath, Max Ostrowski, and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Williams. Plus, of course, Ginger and the baby.”
“Who is this Colonel Williams?”
“I’m surprised you don’t know. More than once I thought I’d been reliably informed that the NKGB knew all.”
That earned him a glare from Serov.
Cronley went on. “Actually, he’s a lieutenant colonel. He’s number two in Berlin CIC.”
“Sergei,” Serov ordered, “go to the maître d’hôtel, tell them we have unexpected guests, and then ask James’s people to join you in the dining room. I need a moment alone with James.”
Alekseevich stood up, acknowledged the order with a curt nod of his head, and left the bar.
“I have two tidbits of new information,” Serov then said. “Burgdorf and von Dietelburg have escaped from the AVO.”
“Jesus Christ!”
“What is it you’re always saying, James? Money talks? Colonel Alekseevich was able to get the Hungarians to turn them loose with a remarkably small gift.”
“What the hell was the purpose of turning them loose?”
“Both were prepared to die as martyrs to the Church of Saint Heinrich the Divine rather than give up Odessa. I confess I was sorely tempted to let them, but then I thought they just might interpret getting free of AVO as an act of God and run right to Odessa, or at least to some high-ranking member of Odessa.”
“You are a really devious bastard, Ivan. I say that with all due admiration.”
“They sneaked across the Hungarian border into Austria and then across the Austrian border into Germany. They made no attempt to contact anyone during their journey. They’re now in Wiesbaden, in Hesse. My people tell me they will probably make their way to the Autobahn at Helmstedt, on the American–Russian Zone border, where they will bribe a truck driver to carry them through East Germany to Berlin.”
“Bribe a truck driver? Where did they get the money to do that?”
“I can only assume they stole it from the AVO guard they overpowered when he went unaccompanied into their cell, reeking of Slivovitz. It will take them at least three days, possibly as many as five, to make it to Berlin. So, we’ll have that much time in case our plans during that time bear no fruit.”
“And what are our plans?”
“His Eminence Cardinal von Hassburger, under the aegis of either John Jay McCloy or General Clay, possibly both, is to tour the Kaiser Wilhelm Church at ten-hundred hours tomorrow, which will give him, or a member of his entourage, at least the chance to meet with someone from Odessa, if not pass a briefcase to him.
“I think we should be there, don’t you, James? By we, I mean your people and mine.”
“Let me see if I can fit it into our schedule.”
“Wonderful! Now let’s go to lunch. They serve a marvelous sauerbraten here.”
VII
[ONE]
The Adler Room
Kempinski Bristol Hotel
Kurfürstendamm 25
Berlin, International Zone of Occupation, Germany
1410 20 April 1946
“Apfelstrudel is the appropriate finish for a meal like this,” Serov said. “And that strudel was marvelous.”