Hitler's Peace by Philip Kerr

Author:Philip Kerr
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780399152696
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Published: 2004-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

XVII

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20-

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1943,

TUNIS - CAIRO

IT WAS MIKE REILLY, the head of the White House Secret Service detail, who decided that I was telling the truth. But it took him a lot of frowning and several fingernails to arrive at the conclusion that if I really had been a German agent then I’d had ample opportunity to take a pop at Roosevelt while I was on the Iowa; or in the president’s study back in Washington. I was beginning to see why the U.S. Treasury wanted to keep the service a secret. It wouldn’t have done to let the Germans know that the president’s safety depended on cheeseheads like Rauff and Pawlikowski.

“I’m sorry about that, Prof,” Reilly told me when his two men had gone. “But they’re paid to be overzealous.”

“I understand. So am I.”

We were meeting on Saturday evening in the magnificent dining room at La Mersa. As soon as Rauff and Pawlikowski left for La Casa Blanca, Reilly had the Joint Chiefs join us, and I told them what I had heard on Radio Berlin.

“Is this confirmed?” asked Admiral Leahy, who was FDR’s personal representative on the Joint Chiefs.

“Yes, sir,” said Reilly. “I took the liberty of radioing the American legation in Cairo and was told that while they had no knowledge of what the Germans were broadcasting, the president’s imminent arrival in Cairo is an open secret. They would be very surprised if the Germans didn’t know about it.”

“So what are the British saying?” General Marshall asked. “This is supposed to be their sphere of influence.”

“They’re saying that eight squadrons of fighter aircraft have been concentrated in Cairo for the protection of the president and Mr. Churchill,” said Reilly. “And that there are more than a hundred antiaircraft guns on the ground, to say nothing of three infantry battalions.”

“And Churchill? What’s his opinion?” asked Admiral King.

“Mr. Churchill is still en route from Malta aboard the HMS Renown,” Reilly said. “He’s not due in Alexandria until tomorrow.”

“And Eisenhower?”

“General Eisenhower is well aware that security in Cairo has not been the best, sir.”

“That’s a considerable understatement,” General Arnold said.

“If you remember, it was Ike who proposed the conference be moved to Malta.”

“No, Mike, Malta’s no good,” Arnold answered. “There are no decent hotels in Malta.”

This was the kind of diplomacy I could understand. Good hotels made for good foreign policy.

“There’s no decent food and not much water,” Leahy added.

My mind was made up. I didn’t want to go to Malta any more than Arnold.

“Maybe we’re making too much of this,” said Arnold. “Okay, the secret’s out. We were aware of that on the Iowa. All that’s changed is that we know for sure that the krauts are in on the secret. If they were planning a surprise bomber attack, then they’d hardly tell the world on Berlin Radio that they know all about the conference. I mean, that would just put us on our guard. No, they’d say nothing at all about it.”

“What do you think, Prof ?” asked Reilly

“I think General Arnold makes a good point.

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