“And yet it is hard to see how else good order is to be maintained in this city,” said Hennig. “Iron discipline is the only way we are going to hold out for any longer.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’m very glad to have left behind the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse way of doing things. The Gestapo, I mean, with their torture chambers and knuckle-dusters. To be quite frank, I was never cut out for all that heavy stuff. Even with the law behind you, it’s not for me.”

His eyes glanced momentarily at me and I wondered if he’d forgotten how my partner, Bruno Stahlecker, and I had been obliged by him to fetch Captain von Frisch from Gestapo HQ after Hennig and his thugs had finished beating the old man half to death. But even if he hadn’t forgotten about this and knew that I hadn’t either, it was probably best I didn’t mention it now. No one likes to be told that he’s a loathsome piece of shit in front of a beautiful woman.

Hennig looked perfectly at ease, however, as if he’d been recalling his days with a student society given to displays of unruly behavior. He thrust his hands in the pockets of his riding breeches and pushed his chair back so that it stood on only two legs, rocking to and fro, and continued in this somewhat expansive mode, as if he was someone used to being listened to.

“But whatever you think of summary executions, my dear, I can promise you that the Russians will do much worse than we are capable of. I think it’s only now that it’s beginning to dawn on people just what we’ve been fighting for all along. The decline of the West faced with Slav barbarism. I mean, the historian Oswald Spengler was right. If anyone ever wanted proof of that, it’s right here. Or at least a hundred kilometers east of here. I fear for the whole of European civilization if the Ivans conquer East Prussia.” He chuckled. “I mean, I could take you to my office and show you a Soviet newspaper, the Red Star, with horrifying editorials that you could hardly credit might have been written. One in particular comes to mind now: ‘Kill the Germans. Kill them all and dig them into the earth. We cannot live as long as these green-eyed slugs are alive. Today there are no books, today there are no stars in the sky; today there is only one thought. Kill the Germans.’ That kind of thing. Really, it’s quite shocking just how filled with hate for us these people are. One might almost think that they intended to drink our blood, like vampires. Or worse. I expect you’ve heard the reports about cannibalism. That the Red Army has actually eaten burger meat made of German women.”