“Not at all,” I said, careful with my insolence now. “I don’t disapprove of anything that’s done for Germany.” I lit one of my own and let him fill in the double meaning and entertained myself with a mental picture of my fist connecting with the kid’s pointy jaw. “Have you got a name, or is that just for your friends? You remember those, don’t you? All the people who used to send you a birthday card? Always supposing you can remember when that is.”

“Maybe you can be my friend,” he said, smiling. I hated that smile. It was a smile that said he knew he had something on me. There was a sort of twinkle in his iris that came off his eyeball like the point of a sword. “Maybe we can help each other. That’s what friends are for, eh? Maybe I’ll do you a favor, Gunther, and you’ll be so damned grateful you’ll send me one of those birthday cards you were talking about.” He nodded. “I’d like that. That would be nice. With a little message inside.”

I sighed some smoke his way. I was growing weary of his hard act. “I doubt you’d like my sense of humor,” I said. “But I’m willing to be proved wrong. It might make a nice change to be proved wrong by the Gestapo.”

“I am Inspector Gerhard Flesch,” he said.

“Pleased to meet you, Gerhard.”

“I head up the Jewish Department in SIPO,” he added.

“You know something? I’ve been thinking of opening one of those in here,” I said. “Suddenly everyone seems to have a Jewish Department. Must be good for business. The SD, the Foreign Office, and now the Gestapo.”

“The operational spheres of the SD and the Gestapo are demarcated by a functions order signed by the Reichsführer-SS,” said Flesch. “Operationally, the SD is to subject the Jews to intense surveillance and then report to us. But in practice the Gestapo is locked in a power struggle with the SD, and in no area is this conflict more hotly contested than in the area of Jewish affairs.”

“That all sounds very interesting, Gerhard. But I don’t see how I can help. Hell, I’m not even Jewish.”

“No?” Flesch smiled. “Then let me explain. We have heard a rumor that Franz Six and his men are in the pay of the Jews. Taking bribes in return for facilitating Jewish emigration. What we don’t yet have is proof. That’s where you come in, Gunther. You’re going to get it.”

“You overestimate my resourcefulness, Gerhard. I’m not that good at shoveling shit.”

“This SD fact-finding mission to Palestine. Exactly why are you going?”