Thomas Wilde. Spahn cross-checked the name and discovered that Professor Wilde had crossed the path of the Abwehr and the SD on more than one occasion. He was an enemy of the Party, there was no doubt about that. Typical academic. To hell with the shitty professors and all the other self-proclaimed intellectuals. The Party had been absolutely right to burn all those books. Treacherous bastards, the lot of them. But he wanted to discover why Kalt – and therefore Martin Bormann – was so interested in discovering the identity of this particular example of the breed.

He must have Kalt followed, but just as importantly, he needed to bring Vanderberg in for questioning – and diplomatic immunity be damned.

*

Kalt knew he had a tail as soon as he left 8 Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. He would have done the same thing to Spahn. He knew, too, that Spahn would probably discover the identity of the man he was looking for. But this was unavoidable. Jung had told him to use his SD contacts, so he had. Now, he needed to stay one step ahead, get the information to Jung without delay. He called the number in Schalhagen.

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

In the milling crowd at Berlin’s busiest station, the Potsdamer terminus, under a vast arching roof of glass, Jim Vanderberg stood a few metres away from Romy Dietrich so that no one would imagine they had anything to do with each other. His colleagues at the embassy, along with press friends and others, had wanted to come to the station for the customary farewell drinks and a sing-song to wish him bon voyage, but he had dissuaded them. The last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself.

The huge train crept slowly along the long, central platform, clouds billowing from its stack, whistles blowing, all steam and coal smoke and iron power. It was already five hours late and he had started to fear it would never come. Now he could not wait to get aboard, well aware that this was likely to be his last chance of a train out of the country. Everyone knew that America would be at war with Nazi Germany within days, if not hours. The attack on Pearl Harbor had made that inevitable. And when that happened, everyone at the embassy was likely to become a permanent guest of Adolf Hitler. Vanderberg did not relish the prospect.

He was not really worried for himself, however. He would survive internment if it happened. And there was always the possibility of some sort of exchange with German diplomats in America. But if Romy Dietrich didn’t get out, her hopes of survival were minimal. If a police check discovered that her exit papers were forged, she would – at the very least – end up in a concentration camp. That is, if her pursuers didn’t kill her first.