After Alex had fried up some eggs and bacon and toasted a few slices of stale bread, they all stood around the kitchen eating off china from Carinhall, Hermann Göring’s castle-like home northeast of Berlin. Alex had offered to let them dine at a table once used by Hitler, but Patton demurred, wishing they could eat their overcooked eggs off paper plates. Ruthie kept near Patton during the meal, and Patton wondered how Ruthie would react when the time came for them to part. They needed to keep Ruthie in their camp not just intellectually but emotionally, so Patton supposed a goodbye kiss of some magnitude was in order. She found herself excited by this prospect.

After breakfast, they adjourned to the room in which Ruthie had used the Enigma machine. The machine still sat on the table and as Nemo spread out a map of Munich and the surrounding area that Alex had given him, the collector returned Enigma to its glass case.

“You know this table was once used for—” began Alex, but Patton cut him off.

“Don’t tell us. Seriously. We’d rather not know.”

“What did you mean earlier,” said Ruthie to Nemo, “when you said we have everything we need right in this room?”

“Well,” said Nemo. “Patton did not deny it when I accused her of being retired from army intelligence nor did she deny being an intelligence systems analyst. And as I’m sure you know if you have tiptoed around the American military at certain points in your career as I have, one of the jobs of an intelligence systems analyst is the placing, monitoring, and retrieving of surveillance equipment.”

“I thought you were a librarian,” said Ruthie.

“Surprise,” said Patton with a shrug.

“And I’m guessing Alex knows what this catalog looks like,” said Nemo, “since he tried to buy it.”

“I have a written description and a photograph from when it was on the black market,” said Alex. “It’s a ledger about fourteen inches tall bound in red leather with the word ‘Accounts’ on the spine in gold. Probably Himmler used a standard account book. Oh, and there’s a swastika on the front cover.”

“Lovely,” said Patton.

“And as far as the cash and the chutzpah,” said Nemo, “you don’t get far in my line of work without a good supply of both.”

“But that still leaves the problem of sending Weiss misleading information that will make her abandon her headquarters,” said Ruthie.

Nemo smiled across the table at Patton. “You want to field this one?” he said.

“While some of us were losing our heads over the car accident last night—”

“What car accident?” said Alex.

“Long story, I’ll tell you later,” said Patton. “Anyway, while some of us were in a state of shock or panic, Nemo kept his cool and removed two small black bags from the back seat of the car.”

“You noticed that, did you?” said Nemo.