‘I can’t tell you very much except to say that high officers of the Wehrmacht have been in contact with the British prime minister. As soon as the British give the order, the army will occupy Berlin and Hitler will be brought to trial.’

‘When will that be?’

‘As soon as Hitler invades Czechoslovakia the British will declare war. That will be the time. Our time, Bernie. Didn’t I tell you that Kripo would be needing men like you?’

I nodded slowly. ‘But Chamberlain has been negotiating with Hitler, hasn’t he?’

‘That’s the British way, to talk, to be diplomatic. It wouldn’t be cricket if they didn’t try to negotiate.’

‘Nevertheless, he must believe that Hitler will sign some sort of treaty. More importantly, both Chamberlain and Daladier must themselves be prepared to sign some sort of treaty.’

‘Hitler won’t walk away from the Sudeten, Bernie. And the British aren’t about to renege on their own treaty with the Czechs.’

I went over to the drinks cabinet and poured a couple.

‘If the British and French intended to keep their treaty, then there would be nothing to talk about,’ I said, handing Nebe a glass. ‘If you ask me, they’re doing Hitler’s work for him.’

‘My God, what a pessimist you are.’

‘All right, let me ask you this. Have you ever been faced with the prospect of fighting someone you didn’t want to fight? Someone larger than you, perhaps? It may be that you think you’ll get a good hiding. It may be that you simply haven’t got the stomach for it. You try and talk your way out of the situation, of course. The man who talks too much doesn’t want to fight at all.’

‘But we are not larger than the British and the French.’

‘But they don’t have the stomach for it.’

Nebe raised his glass. ‘To the British stomach, then.’

‘To the British stomach.’

Wednesday, 28 September

‘General Martin has supplied the information about Streicher, sir.’ Korsch looked at the telegraph he was holding. ‘On the five dates in question it would seem that Streicher was known to be in Berlin on at least two of them. With regard to the other two that we don’t know about, Martin has no idea where he was.’

‘So much for his boast about his spies.’

‘Well, there is one thing, sir. Apparently on one of the dates, Streicher was seen coming from the Furth aerodrome in Nuremberg.’

‘What’s the flying time between here and Nuremberg?’

‘Couple of hours at the most. Do you want me to check with Tempelhof airport?’