Horst Spahn stopped on the steps, looked right, then left. Damn, it was filthy weather. He wiped the sleet from his eyes. Ah, the car was approaching.

‘Now then, Baby-face, we are going to lift a man who I know to be an enemy of the state. He has been watched since yesterday and is holed up in a guest house in Alex. When we find him, I don’t mind roughing him up a bit, but we must take him alive, for there are questions for him to answer. All understood?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Good boy. If you have to shoot him, then go for the lower legs – calf or shin or knee. Always do that when you want to bring them in alive.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Their car was just pulling up. Baby-face stepped forward to open the rear door for his master.

It was only at the last second that Spahn saw Kalt and felt a spark of irritation. Where was his fucking tail? He’d kill the bastard for letting his target give him the slip. Spahn gave Kalt a welcoming smile, his left hand rising in greeting, his right going into his pocket, feeling for the grip of his Luger pistol.

‘Otto, old friend—’

They were the only words he got out. Kalt’s first bullet drove through the exquisite leather of Spahn’s greatcoat and into his narrow chest. The SD man’s eyes opened in astonishment. His hand went to the wound, then he crumpled forward. Kalt’s second bullet smacked into the nape of his neck, knocking his head forward into the pavement. A third bullet went through Spahn’s hat, into the top of his skull, and deep into the brain.

Blood spattered Kalt’s gun hand. He ignored it, fired a couple of shots in the general direction of Spahn’s companion and the driver of the car, then turned on his heel to run.

He was too slow. Baby-face had his own pistol out and calmly shot the assassin in the back. Even as he did so, he was aware that he had disobeyed Herr Spahn’s instruction that he was only supposed to shoot the man in the lower legs. As Kalt fell to the ground, Baby-face approached him, removed the pistol from the victim’s hand and felt for a pulse in the neck. Was he alive or dead? Baby-face wasn’t certain.

As an afterthought he shot him again, once in each calf.

*

The Harald had only one secret to reveal. The crew of the E-boat found the false bow and the empty space behind the panelling.

‘What’s it for, Schmidt?’ Jung demanded. He was carrying a length of old rope that he had found in the bilges. ‘Smuggling Jews out of Germany – or bringing in enemy spies?’

‘Insulation, Herr Jung. In summer, the space keeps the ship cooler and helps keep the herring fresh. In winter, it keeps us a little warmer.’