V2: A Novel of World War II by Harris Robert

Author:Harris, Robert [Harris, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, thriller, War
ISBN: 9781473558793
Amazon: 1473558794
Goodreads: 49376827
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Published: 2020-11-17T08:00:00+00:00

11

‘CHECK,’ SAID SEIDEL.

He lifted his fingers from his knight and sat back in his chair with a smile of satisfaction. Graf leaned over the table to inspect the board. His legs were wide apart, his forearms rested just above his knees. His fingertips tapped nervously against one another. ‘So, what do we have here?’ Normally he was the victor in these regular contests, but tonight his mind was not fully engaged and he had allowed his position to deteriorate. His queen was gone. His king, with its little band of weak protectors, was besieged by Seidel’s rooks and knights.

‘Do you concede?’ asked Seidel.

‘Not at all.’ Seidel was offering his knight to be taken by white’s king, but the sacrifice would give him checkmate in three moves. ‘There is always hope.’ Graf moved his king behind the line of pawns.

‘You do know you’re only prolonging the agony?’ But when the lieutenant leaned over the board again, he folded his arms and frowned, worried he might have missed something.

Graf settled back. The officers’ mess was on the first floor of the Hotel Schmitt, in a small lounge that faced towards the promenade. The sea was invisible but noisy in the darkness beyond the drawn curtains. The atmosphere was sombre. Some evenings Colonel Huber would play the piano – ‘The Gendarmes’ Duet’ or a selection from The Merry Widow were his stalwarts – but tonight he was sitting quietly with Lieutenant Klein and a couple of other officers. The gramophone was silent and untouched. The chair by the window where Lieutenant Stock liked to read his westerns had been left empty as a mark of respect. In the corner, Obersturmbannführer Drexler, smoking a cigar, was entertaining a pair of SS men who had driven over from their headquarters in The Hague. Sturmscharführer Biwack was with them. Occasionally he would glance over in Graf’s direction. At the post-mortem into the accident that afternoon, he had demanded to know why Graf wasn’t at the launch site when the missile exploded.

‘Why? Would you have preferred it if I was incinerated?’

‘Of course not. I merely wonder why an SS patrol reported that at the time of the accident you were in the restricted zone beside the sea some distance away.’

‘Obviously, I was signalling to a British submarine.’

When Seidel had tried unsuccessfully to suppress a snort of laughter, Biwack had rounded on him. ‘There’s nothing funny about this, Lieutenant!’

‘I’m aware of that. Stock was a friend of mine. I require no lectures from you.’

‘Leave it, gentlemen,’ ordered Huber. He explained to Biwack: ‘Dr Graf has been sent by Peenemünde as a technical liaison officer, because of the number of modifications to the missile. He is not required to attend every launch – it would be physically impossible.’

‘I’m not suggesting Dr Graf was responsible, merely that if he had been present, he might have noticed a fault in the missile. Plainly there was a fault, was there not? Is it possible there could have been sabotage?’

‘Most unlikely,’ said Huber. ‘Indeed, impossible.

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