The 34th Degree by Thomas Greanias

Author:Thomas Greanias
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2011-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

62

Aphrodite slipped away from the Red Cross food distribution center that afternoon, as instructed by the note Archbishop Damaskinos had passed to her. It took her half an hour to make her way from the Plaka district up the winding paths to Likavitos Hill, the highest point in Athens. At the summit was the white chapel of Agios Yioryios and a sweeping view of the city and the Saronic Gulf.

She stood there on the terrace, gazing out across the city, blinking in the setting sun. As children, she and Chris would meet here secretly, telling their parents they were going to Agios Yioryios to say their prayers. But times were different now. They were no longer children, and it was the Nazis they were eluding this time.

“You had no trouble getting here?” asked a voice.

She turned. It was Chris standing next to her, dressed in the same dark suit he’d worn that morning at the memorial service. He looked even better in the late-afternoon sun than the night before. It was their first time alone in four years.

“Eleni Lemnos covered for me at the distribution center,” she said. “I put on one of the donated dresses as a disguise and slipped out the back. I have only a few minutes before I’m missed.”

“One of von Berg’s men is watching you?”

“Helmut long ago tired of watching me distribute food and comfort grieving widows,” she replied. “The only things he watches in the afternoons are movies at the cinema down the block from the center. Still, there may be other eyes at the center that I’m not aware of.”

There was an awkward silence. Finally, Chris said, “I’m glad you came.”

“You’re surprised?”

“I had my doubts,” he said, rubbing his cheek. “That was some act last night. The slap across the face in particular—was it for real or just your flair for the dramatic? It was an act, wasn’t it?”

“That depends on what you say next.”

Chris paused to pick his words with care. “I know this insane war isn’t your fault,” he told her. “But seeing you with the Baron made me a little crazy. I’m sorry. I just want to know what happened.”

He had said all she could reasonably expect him to say. “I’ll tell you, Christos.”

She told him how she’d met the Baron in the hospital, how the Gestapo had come for her brother, Kostas, and how the Baron had moved into her family’s estate. The only thing she didn’t tell him about was the Baron’s retreat on Corfu. She remembered Ludwig’s dire warnings of doom should she ever reveal its location. Although it was Berlin that Ludwig seemed to fear more than Washington, she wasn’t about to put her family or Chris in any further danger over something as insignificant as the Baron’s personal taste for peace and quiet.

When she was finished, all Chris could say was “I’m sorry it was you and not me who stayed behind.”

She watched the sun melt over the blue gulf, turning the ruins of the Acropolis black against the Aegean sky.

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