“Well, what?”
“You said I might ask what brings you to Nuremberg.”
“I said you could ask, Ivan, but I didn’t say I would tell you.”
“Janice wanted to visit Wewelsburg Castle,” Cohen said, “and came to see if I could arrange that for her.”
Now what? Cronley thought.
“The Cathedral of Saint Heinrich the Divine? That Castle Wewelsburg?”
Cronley laughed.
“Is that what the KGB calls it?”
“That’s what I call it.”
“That one,” Cohen said.
“How many of those obscene rumors one hears about it are true?” Serov asked.
“That would depend on what rumors you’ve heard,” Cohen said.
“I’ve heard the one about it being the castle where Crown Prince Heinrich gathered his Knights of the SS around the Nazi Round Table. I found that one a bit hard to believe.”
“That one’s true,” Cohen said. “There’s even a thirteen-place round table.”
“And you’re going to write about this, Janice?”
“If it’s true—if half of it is true—it’s one hell of a story, Ivan baby,” she replied.
“And Colonel Cohen holds the keys to the castle?”
“Yes, I do.”
“That, you will understand, raises my curiosity. Dare I ask why the CIC is guarding a ruined castle?”
“Primarily to keep tourists from interfering with our search of the place.”
“Looking for what?”
“Two things in particular. One, to see what happened to the twelve thousand gold Totenkopfrings that Himmler ordered sent there . . .”
“You just confirmed, thank you, another rumor I have heard,” Serov said.
“. . . and to see if we can find out what was in the safe that Himmler built in the basement. When we got to the castle, it had been emptied under conditions that suggest it was emptied just before we got there.”
“Fascinating. Emptied by Himmler?” Serov asked.
“Not by him personally. And we just don’t know if the emptiers were acting on his orders, acting on their own, or even if they were SS. I presume, Ivan, you know what happened to Himmler after Hitler shot himself?”
“I know the official version . . .” Serov began.
“I don’t,” Cronley admitted.
“. . . but I would love to hear yours, presuming, of course, that you would not be revealing any state secrets.”
“So would I,” Janice said.