“And I think I have General Burgdorf,” Zielinski called back.
Tom Winters and Charley Spurgeon, both carrying Thompsons, ran down the alley toward them.
“Pat him down, Tom,” Cronley ordered, “while I deal with the valets.”
There came the sound and the muzzle blasts of a Thompson firing short bursts.
“What the hell?” Cronley called.
“Spurgeon just took out two guys who appeared out of nowhere carrying Schmeissers,” Zielinski called.
“If von Dietelburg tries to get away, Tom,” Cronley ordered, “kill him.”
He turned to the valet.
“On the ground. On your belly. If you move before we’re out of here, you’re dead.”
He went to the first car in time to see Charley Spurgeon first examine the corpses of the men he had killed and then throw up on the closest one.
Cronley looked at th
e corpulent man behind the wheel of the first car.
“Out, General,” he ordered, and then to the second valet, “On your belly on the ground!”
“You’re making a mistake,” the corpulent man said.
Zielinski grabbed his arm and jerked him out of the car and began to pat him down. He came up with a revolver, and showed it to Cronley.
“A Smith & Wesson .38,” Cronley said. “Favorite weapon of Nazi big shots. Göring had one. So much for the famed Luger Parabellum.” Then he raised his voice. “Charley, when you finish tossing your cookies, your services are required. We need the adhesive tape!”
“I’ll drive this one with Spurgeon,” Zielinski said. “And you the other one with Tom. Okay?”
“Do we adhesive-tape Chubby here or after we get him in the backseat?”
“He’s not going to fit in the backseat. He’ll have to go in the trunk.”
Spurgeon appeared.
“Sorry,” he said, and then made sort of an explanation. “The one I threw up on had his eyes open and looked surprised.”
“Tape him good, Charley, and then put him in the trunk.”
Not more than three minutes later, both Mercedeses drove to the end of the alley, turned right, and wound their way through several alleys until they emerged on Kaerntner Ring, where they turned left and headed for the Schwechat airport.
[FOUR]
The South German Industrial Development Organization Compound
Pullach, Bavaria
American Zone of Occupation, Germany
0405 4 March 1946
There was no air-to-ground radio link between the two Storchs and the Compound airstrip, which meant Cronley and Winters could not ask for the runway lights to be turned on. It was necessary to make several low-level passes before the lights flickered on.
Cronley was therefore not at all surprised, as he taxied up to what served as combined control tower and base operations, to find Colonel Harold Wallace and several members of his staff waiting for him. He also saw General Gehlen and former Obersten Ludwig Mannberg and Otto Niedermeyer. They were not standing with Wallace.