“Colonel Cohen, who runs the CIC at the Tribunal, arranged it.”
“He’s the guy who dubbed you ‘Super Spook’? El Jefe likes him. What’s his interest? Just being a nice guy?”
“No, Clete. The Germans, the Nazis, were—Himmler was—trying to start a new religion.”
“A new religion?”
“And Cohen thinks that when we hang Göring and the others, the Germans will think they’re martyrs, not criminals, hung by the Jews just because we won the war.”
“A new religion? Sounds like bullshit to me.”
“It’s not. They even have a Saint Heinrich Himmler Cathedral. Castle Wewelsburg. Cohen showed it to me. Cousin Luther was even married there in a New Nazi Religion ceremony.”
“Tell me all about it.”
“As much as I would love to, I don’t have time. I’m off to the Compound.”
“Goddammit, Jimmy, tell me about it.”
“You’ve got four of Gehlen’s guys there. Okay, three with Niedermeyer here. I’ll bet at least one of them—probably all three—knows all about Castle Wewelsburg. I know Gehlen does, and that he agrees with Cohen.”
“I never heard anything about this Nazi religion from them. Why not?”
“Probably because they didn’t think you’d believe it. Unless I’d seen Castle Wewelsburg myself, I wouldn’t believe it. Ask them to tell you all about it.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Nice to hear your voice, Clete. Tell von Wachtstein I said ‘Howdy.’ Break it down, Fulda.”
[THREE]
The South German Industrial Development Organization Compound
Pullach, Bavaria
American Zone of Occupation, Germany
1255 26 February 1946
There was a BITTE NICHT BELÄSTIGEN!! sign on the closed door of the Senior Officers’ Mess in Kaserne Two.
Cronley said, “Shit!” under his breath and then opened the door.
General Reinhard Gehlen, former colonels Ludwig Mannberg and Otto Niedermeyer, former major Konrad Bischoff, Colonel Harold Wallace, and Major Anthony Henderson were sitting at a table about to begin their lunch.
“What’s that expression?” Mannberg asked. “‘Speak of the devil’?”
“You’re just in time for lunch,” Gehlen said.
“I thought you knew enough German to know that bitte nicht belästigen means ‘Please don’t disturb,’” Wallace said.
“Major,” Cronley said, ignoring Wallace, “if I’d known you were coming here, you could have flown up with me.”
“I had the staff car,” Henderson said. “I don’t think that would fit in your airplane.”
“Henderson and I were briefing General Gehlen on the assassination attempt. Trying to make sense out of it,” Wallace said.
“Sit down and have some lunch,” Gehlen said. “Or have you eaten?”