The Spymasters (Men at War 7)

“Do you have any information on my properties?” he said as he scanned each image. “Thyssen and Krupp had their steel plants closest to the dams.”

Here it comes, Dulles thought.

Kappler flipped back to the photograph showing the torrent of floodwater reflecting the morning sunlight.

“Judging by how high the water is on the church steeples,” Kappler said, “the flooding stream appears to be some ten meters deep.”

He looked up at Dulles.

“That is the disturbing news I mentioned,” Dulles said. “To the best of our knowledge, all but two of your plants were lost.”

“All but two? I lost five manufacturing facilities!”

Dulles nodded solemnly.

“Possibly others,” he said. “Krupp lost everything it had in the Ruhr, including what was previously Thyssen’s. Because, as you note, they were all closest to the dams.”

“Everything?”

Dulles nodded again.

“That floodwater was powerful—more than three hundred million tons. For fifty miles downstream, it flooded mines and wiped out more than a hundred factories, a thousand houses, and rail lines, roads, bridges. Farms were washed away—crops, livestock, everything.”

“And people?” Kappler asked, but it clearly was an obvious statement.

Dulles nodded solemnly.

“Ach du lieber Gott!” he again whispered.

“It is our understanding,” Dulles said, glancing at Gisevius, “that the German reports are listing casualties of nearly thirteen hundred killed, most French and Belgian POWs and forced laborers.”

Kappler crossed himself.

“Sorry that you lost your sklavenarbeiter?” Gisevius said, his tone caustic.

“Hans!” Dulles snapped.

Dulles had heard Kappler complain about having to witness the cruelty inflicted on the slave laborers, and had written reports on them that he had sent to General Donovan, who then shared the information with President Roosevelt and others in the OSS.

Gisevius went on: “No more exploitation of slave labor for your mines? Fear not. The SS will bring more.”

“That’s enough!” Dulles sai

d.

“I do not exploit!” Kappler said, his voice rising. “One cannot be found guilty of a crime when another holds a gun to his head forcing him to cause such an act! I have no choice but to use them because the SS demands both the money I pay for them and the increased productivity they provide.” He paused, then added: “I will have you know, however, that we are, as delicately as possible, running the plants far from peak production. Delicately, because anyone even remotely suspected of intentional slowage—and especially sabotage—is dealt with immediately by the SS.”

“And,” Dulles put in, “I can vouch that Wolfgang has seen many of the Jewish slaves smuggled out.”

“Many?” Gisevius challenged.

“More than a hundred in the last six months,” Dulles said.

“How do you know that?”

“Beyond saying that the OSS has provided their false papers, I cannot tell you more at this time.”

Gisevius grunted.