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Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. FIELD GRAY
  3. ALSO BY PHILIP KERR
  4. FIELD GRAY
  5. Copyright
  6. Epigraph
  7. Dedication
  8. FIELD GRAY
  9. Contents
  10. 1
  11. 2
  12. 3
  13. 4
  14. 5
  15. 6
  16. 7
  17. 8
  18. 9
  19. 10
  20. 11
  21. 12
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. 16
  26. 17
  27. 18
  28. 19
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. 23
  33. 24
  34. 25
  35. 26
  36. 27
  37. 28
  38. 29
  39. 30
  40. 31
  41. 32
  42. 33
  43. 34
  44. 35
  45. 36
  46. 37
  47. 38
  48. 39
  49. 40
  50. AUTHOR’S NOTE

“No, I stayed on in Paris for a while, pretending to make further inquiries about Erich Mielke. A lot of other German communists and men from the International Brigade had volunteered for the French Foreign Legion to escape from the Gestapo in France. The Legion never paid much attention to a man’s past. You enlisted in Marseilles and served in the French colonies, with no questions asked. It was easy to suggest in my report to Heydrich that this was how he had escaped us. The truth is rather more interesting.”

“Not to me,” said Hitler. “What I’m rather more interested in is what you did about the officer who tried to murder you.”

“What makes you think I did anything at all?”

“Because I know men. Go on. Admit it. You got even with him, didn’t you? This Lieutenant Nikolaus Willms.”

“Yes, I did.”

Hitler was triumphant. “I knew it. You sit there with your kangaroo court, Robert Jackson questions, but underneath you’re no different from me. That makes you a hypocrite, Gunther. A hypocrite.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“So what did you do? Denounce him to the Gestapo? The same way you helped denounce that other fellow? The Gestapo captain from Würzburg. What was his name again?”

“Weinberger.” I shook my head. “No, that’s not what happened.”

“Of course. You had Heydrich take care of him. Heydrich was always very good at getting rid of people. Considering he was a mischling, he was an excellent Nazi. I suppose he felt he had to try that much harder to prove himself to me.” Hitler laughed. “That’s the only reason we ever kept him on.”

“No, it wasn’t like that either. I didn’t involve Heydrich.”

Hitler turned his chair around to face me and rubbed his hands. “I want to hear it all. Every sordid detail.”

I yawned again. I was feeling tired. My eyes kept on closing. All I really wanted to do was go to sleep and dream of somewhere different.

“I order you to tell me.”

“Is that a Führer order?”

“If you like.”

I gave a little jolt, the way you do when sleep takes you for a ride and instead you get the crazy idea you just died. This little death is a wonderful sensation. It reminds you why it is that breathing feels so good.

22

FRANCE, 1940