"It was handled as a routine inquiry. I asked for a crew list of the U-19. I also contacted an old friend in Munich—a World War I aviation buff—and asked him if he knew of any flyer by the name of Bruno von Till. The replies were most interesting. A von Till actually flew for the German Imperial Air Service all right. But you claimed to have flown with Kurt Heibert in Jasta 73 out of the Xanthi aerodrome in Macedonia. The real von Till flew with Jasta 9 in France from the summer of 1917 until the Armistice in November of 1918; he never left the Western Front. The next intriguing tidbit was the first name on the U-19's crew roster—a Commander Erich Heibert. Being an inquisitive cuss, I didn't stop there. I radioed Berlin again, this time from the ship, and asked them to send all available information on Erich Heibert. That did it—I couldn't have created a bigger stir with the German authorities if I'd resurrected Hitler, Goering and Himmler all in one swoop."

"Sheer babble—he's delirious." The shrewd, calculating Fu Manchu look had returned to the old German's face. "No one in their right mind would believe such a ridiculous fairy tale. A model submarine—hardly a valid connection between me and Heibert."

"I don't have to prove anything. The facts speak for themselves. When Hitler took power you became his devoted follower. In return for your loyalty, and in recognition of your previous valuable combat experience, he promoted you to Officer Commanding Transportation Fleet; a title you held throughout the war until just before Germany's surrender when you seem to have vanished."

"That has nothing to do with me," von Till said angrily.

"You're wrong," Pitt returned. "The real Bruno von Till married the daughter of a wealthy Bavarian businessman who, among other interests, owned a small fleet of merchant ships—ships that sailed under the flag of Greece. Von Till knew a good thing when he saw it. He took out Greek citizenship papers and became Managing Director of Minerva Lines. Financially the company was a loser, but he built it into a first-class carrier fleet by smuggling arms and essential war materials into Germany in direct violation of the Versailles Treaty. That's how you knew him, you helped engineer the operation. You both had a good thing going, but von Till was no mental retard. He figured the Axis powers would lose in the end. So he threw his lot with the Allies early in the war."

"You fail to make a connection," Darius said. Pitt had his interest, but it could just as easily fade at any moment.