The Nazi's Engineer: A James Acton Thriller Book #20 by Kennedy J. Robert

Author:Kennedy, J. Robert [Kennedy, J. Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781981583720
Amazon: 1981583726
Goodreads: 40954606
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2017-12-16T08:00:00+00:00

33

Vogel Residence

Berlin, Nazi Germany

January 31, 1945

Vogel sat in the chair normally reserved for him in his lonely apartment, the Allies pounding the city once again in the distance. The darkness he sat in was complete, the blackout curtains doing their job. He fished out an extra cigar Gruber had given him, and a box of matches. Striking one of the sticks in the dark, the flare briefly illuminated the room, and he lit the cigar, shaking out the matchstick before tossing it on the side table, something his wife would have snapped at him for if she were here.

But she wasn’t.

This isn’t living. It’s existing.

He was still doing his job, and it was an important one when times were normal. But now, with people desperate for food, terrified of what was soon to come, he wondered if the crimes he still investigated were of any importance.

They had to be.

Crime was crime, and the victims deserved justice.

Victims like Lang and Maier, and the other victims like their wives and now fatherless children.

He sighed, wishing he had some of Gruber’s cognac to enjoy. He had made a deal with the devil, though he was quite certain he’d never be called upon to deliver. He’d be dead before the war was over, and if he weren’t, Gruber would be. The Russians were coming, and he had little doubt anyone associated with the Reich, whether a Party member or not, would be executed.

He stared into the darkness at the closet containing his uniforms, now rarely worn.

Will they spare me because I was just a police officer doing his duty?

He doubted it, not if the broadcasts were to be believed.

He flinched as someone knocked on the door.

“Herr Vogel?”

It was Erika Lang.

He ignored her, as she was ignoring the note he had slipped under her door. It had explicitly said to talk to no one, including him. It was a set of instructions telling her exactly what to do and when, a nearly identical note slipped by him under Frau Maier’s door earlier in the evening.

Gruber was extracting them tonight, right under the noses of the Gestapo, then he would likely never see them again. He just prayed it was because they were safe.

Perhaps after the war.

There was no reason. He wasn’t sure if he’d like to know what really happened to them. If he never knew, he could imagine they were reunited with their families, and had survived the war, living out their days in peace.

But should he find out differently?

He’d rather live with the fantasy.

He had already sent his family to southwestern Germany, where the Americans and their side of the fight would be arriving shortly, not the bloodthirsty Russians. He hoped once Germany was liberated, he’d join them should he survive the final onslaught.

Liberated.

It was an odd word to associate with the conquering of one’s country, yet it was how he felt. At first, he had supported Hitler, like most had, but then it had turned to something different than simple national pride. It had become a cult of personality that he simply couldn’t support.

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