Amerika by Lally Paul

Author:Lally, Paul [Lally, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2015-03-06T08:00:00+00:00

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

- Carl von Clausewitz

Faial Island in the Azores is like a life preserver.

Without its bounty of food, water and supplies, countless clipper ships would have never made it across the South Atlantic. Today the Yankee Clipper’s needs were much the same as the sailing ships of old, as the ground crew serviced her in Horta’s sheltered harbor.

While this was taking place, passengers and crew, via a conga line of taxicabs, made their way up the steep hillside dotted with scrub trees and sparse vegetation, heading for what had been called the Pan Am Club, before Trippe’s deal with Lufthansa.

Deplaning had gone off without a hitch. No broken bones on the bobbing and heaving sponson, but plenty of frowns and pursed lips from the compliance officers as they navigated the slippery walkway leading to shore. God only knows what kind of information those jokers were lugging around inside their black leather briefcases. But from the way Hitler had deployed these people to industries all across the United States, supposedly to ‘observe, note and report’ any deviations from the neutrality agreement, I figured they were doing a bang-up job of industrial espionage while they were at it.

And why not? On the surface, they were in America to make sure we weren’t building bombers for Britain on the sly, or tanks for Russia on the cheap. But while they were doing so, it became the perfect opportunity to cherry-pick our latest manufacturing processes and haul them back to Germany. Forget about the fox being in the henhouse. These guys were wolves. And that guy Bauer? The more ordinary and simple he acted the more suspicious I got. I had to admire his easy-going, off-putting style, but I shudder to think how many poor suckers fell for it only to discover they were trapped in his sticky, Gestapo web.

I was having these thoughts for a good reason, because by luck of the taxi draw, the detective sat beside me, wet shoulder to wet shoulder, as our cab waited in line to let us out at the white painted, single-story club. Sheets of rain buffeted its arched glass entrance while scores of attentive, umbrella-toting doormen appeared as if by magic to escort the passengers and crew inside.

‘Hear they’ve got a nice breakfast spread,’ I said amiably as the rain thundered on our roof like gravel.

Bauer chuckled and patted his stomach. ‘I am still full from last night.’

‘How did you sleep?’

‘Not a wink.’

‘Sorry to hear that.’

He grinned like a little boy. ‘Actually, I was too excited to sleep. I’ve never flown on a clipper before.’

‘How do you normally travel?’

He closed his eyes and shuddered. ‘They send me on catapult mail ships. One minute we’re motionless, the next...BANG!’ He smacked his hands together, ‘We’re in the air flying. It’s miserable.’

‘I thought they didn’t use those anymore, now that you’ve got planes that can fly to America non-stop.’

‘The Luftwaffe is using them for military operations. All that remains are those loathsome catapult planes and your beautiful Boeing clippers to do the job.

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