Death at Nuremberg (Clandestine Operations 4)

“All right. What Schultz actually said was, ‘Cronley is a lot smarter than most people think. So give him what he wants and keep out of his way until he does something really dumb.’”

Wallace obviously regretted asking the question, but he didn’t reply directly, instead asking, “What did go on at this castle?”

“Prepared to be disturbed, Harold,” General Greene said. “Tell him, Morty. Just the high points. We don’t have time for the full lecture.”

“Yes, sir,” Cohen said. “Harold, this is where we are in looking into Castle Wewelsburg an

d what went on there, what we think is still going on. It now seems beyond doubt that Heinrich Himmler was trying to start—hell, started—a new religion using the castle as its cathedral . . .”

—

“And you believe this?” Wallace asked perhaps five minutes later when Cohen had finished.

“Yeah, I do,” Cohen said. “More important, Harold, so do the admiral and Schultz.”

“And you think Odessa is connected with it?”

“I think Odessa is an integral part of this. If we can shut down Odessa, we just might be able to shut down this cult. And the way to do that is to get our hands on SS-Brigadeführer Franz von Dietelburg. He’s the connection between Odessa and the cult. That’s what Cronley was doing in Strasbourg.”

“Tell me about that.”

“The floor is yours, Super Spook,” Cohen said.

“We now know my cousin Luther was sent to Strasbourg by von Dietelburg to set up an Odessa escape route through France. And we know he was in touch with Odessa—which means with von Dietelburg—recently because when we caught him he was trying to get SS-Brigadeführer Ulrich Heimstadter and SS-Standartenführer Oskar Müller across the border into France. That was an Odessa operation. We also know that Cousin Luther is into this new religion business. At least to a certain degree.”

“What do you mean by that? ‘To a certain degree’?” Wallace asked.

“He has so far resisted answering questions posed to him by Commandant Fortin. Fortin thinks Luther could only keep his mouth shut, quote, if he was answering to a higher court, close quote, which we think is the Himmler religion.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I told him that unless he gives me von Dietelburg by half past two today, I’m going to give him to Fortin.”

“Fortin already has him.”

“But has not applied his full arsenal of interrogation techniques, because Cousin Luther and I are kin.”

“What’s the full range consist of?”

“I don’t want to know, but at the end of the list, Fortin shoots the one being interrogated in the knees and elbows with a .22 and then tosses him in the Rhine to see how well he can swim.”

“And you’re willing to turn your cousin over to Fortin, knowing he’s going to do this?”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,” Cronley said.

“What I think we should do is bring him here and see if we can make him talk.”

“That’s Cronley’s call,” Greene said.

“Excuse me?”

“Harold, weren’t you listening when Cohen said Schultz told him to keep out of Cronley’s way until he does something really dumb?” Greene asked. “That sounded like an order to me.”

“Cronley’s a loose cannon,” Wallace said.

“Agreed. But a loose cannon out of whose way we have been ordered to get.”

“And you agree with Schultz?”