“Very well, thank you, Herr Sturmbannführer,” she said, warily. Peis understood her lack of enthusiasm. But she wasn’t the reason for his call today.
“Do you know where I can find your father?” he asked.
He heard her suck in her breath, and it was a moment before she spoke again. She was carefully considering her reply. Peis knew that she would have preferred that Peis direct his attentions toward her not because she liked him (she despised him), but because as long as Peis liked her, her father stayed out of the KZ.
“He’s at the university,” she said finally, with a slight tremor in her voice. “Is there something wrong, Herr Sturmbannführer?”
“Where exactly at the university?”
Gisella Dyer considered that, too, before she replied.
“In his office, I imagine,”she said.“He doesn’t have another class until four this afternoon.” She paused, then asked again, “Is there something wrong?”
“Official business, Gisella,” Peis said, and hung up.
It would be useful for Gisella to wo
rry a little, Peis thought. She tended to be arrogant, to forget her position. Periodically, it was necessary to cut her down to size.
Peis found Professor Friedrich Dyer where his daughter had said he would be, in his book-and-paper-cluttered room in one of the ancient buildings in the center of the university campus. He was a tall, thin, sharp-featured man; and he looked cold, even though he was well covered. He wore a thick, tightly buttoned cardigan under his many-times-patched tweed jacket and a woolen shawl over his shoulders. The ancient buildings were impossible to heat, even when there was fuel.
Professor Dyer looked at Peis with chilling contempt, but he said nothing and offered no greeting.
“Heil Hitler!” Peis said, more because he knew Dyer hated the salute than out of any Nazi zeal of his own.
“Heil Hitler, Herr Peis,” the professor said.
“I wasn’t aware you are acquainted with Reichsminister Albert Speer, Professor,” Peis said.
“I gather he’s here,” Dyer said.
The professor was not surprised, and this surprised Peis.
“You were supposed to meet him at the station,” Peis said.
“No,” the dignified academic said simply. “The telegram said only that the Reichsminister would be here and wanted to see me.”
“What about?”
“I really have no idea,” Professor Dyer said.
Is that the truth? Peis wondered. Or is the professor taking advantage of his association with the head of the Todt Organization and trying to impress me?
“He is at the Fulmar Electric Plant,” Peis said. “I am here to take you to him.”
Professor Dyer nodded, then rose and with difficulty put his tweed-and-sweater -thick arms into the sleeves of an old, fur-collared overcoat. When he had finished struggling into it, the two top buttons would not fasten. He shrugged helplessly, set an old and shaggy fur cap on his head, and indicated that he was ready to go.
The university was in the center of Marburg atop the hill, and the Fulmar Elektrisches Werk was about ten minutes north of town. It was an almost new, sprawling, windowless, oblong building with camouflage netting strung across it. The netting was intended to blend the plant into the steep hills around Marburg to make it invisible from the air.
The plant had no guards now, but that was to change, Peis knew, as of the first of December. (The coming change sparked considerable curiosity in Peis: What were they going to make in there that required all that security? ) The local SS-SD office (that is to say, Peis) had been ordered to dig up before December enough “cleared” civilians to handle the security job. If he could not provide enough “cleared” civilians, the police would have to provide the guard force, at the expense of whatever else they were supposed to be doing.
Meanwhile, a substantial guardhouse had been built. And a nearly completed eight-foot fence, topped with barbed wire, surrounded the plant property. At hundred-yard intervals there were guard towers, with flood-lights to illuminate the fence.
Peis found Reichsminister Albert Speer and his party by driving around until he discovered the little convoy of “borrowed” automobiles.
Speer was inside a work bay. The bay was half full of milling machines and lathes, and there were provisions for more. As soon as he saw Peis and Professor Dyer, Speer walked over to them. He was smiling, and his hand was extended.
“Professor Doktor Dyer?” Speer asked.