The Second Sight by Charles McCarry

Author:Charles McCarry [MCCARRY, CHARLES]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC006000/FIC031000/FIC037000
ISBN: 9781468300406
Publisher: Overlook
Published: 2011-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

7

AFTER PAUL WENT TO BED, HUBBARD RECOUNTED THE DETAILS OF their encounter with the secret police. “There wasn’t much to it, he said. “We were arrested by two men in leather coats in the Schlossgarten and taken to Gestapo headquarters. There the Dandy awaited us.”

The Christophers called Heydrich’s man Franz Stutzer “the Dandy” because that was what his surname meant in English and because he was always dressed entirely in black, like an actor playing Death in an arty movie—black Gestapo leather coat, black fedora, black kid gloves, black jacket, black breeches, black riding boots, black tie.

“What did he want?” Lori asked.

“It was very odd,” Hubbard replied. “I expected a lot of questions about night sails to Denmark with forbidden cargo. But all he wanted to talk about was Paul’s passport.”

“What about it?”

“He said that Paul’s American passport had no validity under German law. He kept repeating the same phrase over and over: ‘This child was born in Germany of a German mother, therefore he is a German citizen who must have German papers.’ “

“And what did you say in reply?”

“I asked him how anybody who was half American could be a German under the racial laws.”

“Oh? And what did he say to that?”

“He said that was a dangerous question because the racial laws applied to Jews. It made him wonder if there was Jewish blood on the American side.-‘That would explain a great deal,’ he said. Really, it was a comedy—the windowless room, the bright light on the desk shining in our eyes, Stutzer lurking in the shadows, the guard outside the door, the pointless questions. He kept saying the same things over and over again, as if he was killing time.”

“Maybe he was. What else did he say about Paul?”

“I told you. He only had one thing to say: His American passport is not valid in the eyes of the government of the Reich.”

Lori went to the open window and looked down into the street. Because it was very late, there was no noise at all, nothing for the ear to apprehend. Lamplight glowed through the linden trees, casting dappled shadows that created the illusion that they were living in an underwater city. Goethestrasse seemed to be empty. But was it? It was impossible to be sure.

“I think we should go out to dinner tomorrow night,” Lori said.

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