Lehrter Station by David Downing

Author:David Downing
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781906964764
Publisher: Old Street Publishing
Published: 2012-05-05T02:26:47.109000+00:00

A last game of chess

Russell was still wondering why as he worked his way round the flak towers and down past the Zoo. Why had Geruschke – or someone else – decided he needed killing? And what had changed his mind?

He was waiting for a bus on the Ku’damm when he remembered Fritsche’s young colleague. Luders might have useful things to say about the way these people operated, and Fritsche should have his address. The café he used as an office was only a short walk away.

Fritsche was sitting in his usual seat, hands resting intertwined on the table, staring into space. He looked up with a jerk when Russell loomed over him, and the momentary flash of fear was hard to miss.

‘Has something happened?’ Russell asked.

‘It’s Luders. He was beaten up in the street last night. Badly. An arm and a leg broken. He’s in the hospital.’

‘Christ. Does he know who it was?’

‘No, but he can guess.’

‘Has he – has anyone – brought the police in?’

Fritsche managed a wan smile. ‘The hospital doctor insisted, but he needn’t have bothered. There’s nothing to go on, and even if there was…’ He shrugged.

‘How is he?’

‘In a lot of pain. They’re low on morphine at the Elisabeth – only the very worst cases are given any. Half the ward seemed to be screaming when I went in this morning – it sounded like the end of a battle.’ Fritsch seemed to take in Russell’s appearance for the first time. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost yourself.’

‘My own.’ He told Fritsche what had had happened that morning: the news of Kuzorra’s death, his own abduction and unlikely reprieve.

Fritsch shook his head in wonder. ‘Someone up there likes you. But the men who took you – they sound like American gangsters. They take people for “rides”, don’t they?’

‘So did the Gestapo.’

‘True. So who have you annoyed?’ Fritsche wondered out loud.

Russell felt reluctant to name him. ‘The same bastard as Luders, I think. Maybe I should go and see the boy in hospital, compare notes.’

Fritsche grunted. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. If anyone’s watching it’ll look like a council of war, and Luders can’t even sit up in bed, let alone defend himself. Once he’s back on his feet I’m sure the young idiot will be happy to join forces. The two of you can sign a mutual suicide pact.’

‘I’d rather not.’

‘Good. Walk away, that’s my advice. Situations like this, all sorts of diseases are bound to be rife. And there’s precious little you can do about it until the situation changes. As long as you have a black market you’ll have people like Rudolf Geruschke. Once it disappears, so will he.’

‘And in the meantime?’

‘In the meantime, we live with the guilt of watching better men go down in flames.’

Russell admired the clarity, but not the world-view.

Back on the pavement, he found his knees were still shaky, and spent a few moments leaning against a convenient lamp post, wondering what to do next.

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