Flowers From Berlin

THIRTY- SIX

"You wouldn't have any tea, would you?" Whiteside asked. "Bloody cold out there all day. Last time I was in Washington was a July, I think. Nearly broiled."

"We've hit a cold streak for the last week," Cochrane said. He led Laura and Peter Whiteside into the kitchen and prowled through jars and cans that had been there since young Jenks had first assigned a housekeeper to the premises. He found a small square carton of Twinings. It was unopened.

"How's this?" Cochrane asked.

"Perfect."

Laura took over. She found a teapot, and soon had water boiling as Whiteside and Bill Cochrane sat down in the dining room. Laura kept an ear to the conversation.

Whiteside marked time at first, rambling pleasantly along about inconsequential topics, and Cochrane studied him carefully. Top of the line British intelligence officer; Cochrane could tell by the alertness and the eyes, as well as the accent and way he carried himself. As if on cue, when Laura appeared with three teacups, Whiteside began talking about the city of Birmingham in 1935. Not until Whiteside focused in on the topic of labor unrest and Communist marchers did Cochrane fully understand where the conversation was leading. By that time he was watching Laura more and more, wondering why he was thinking the thoughts he was about another man's wife, and fondly appreciating the way she crossed her slender legs beneath her skirt.

“…and it was when the marchers reached St. Chad's Circus," Whiteside continued, "that the first of two anti-personnel explosives was detonated." The sentence jolted Cochrane's attention back to where it belonged.

Explosives. Of course. That was what it was all about. Bombs. Sabotaged ships. A threat to the life of President Roosevelt.

Now Cochrane hung on every word that passed Whiteside's lips, and gradually the missing pieces of Siegfried came into view. The story took an hour, with several refills of tea, and if there were any details lost, Cochrane did not miss them.

The grand design was before him. The footnotes, such as why a man like Stephen Fowler would embark on a career as Hitler's disciple in America, could wait.

Which leaves me with Otto Mauer, Bill Cochrane thought. There has to be a way to tie it all together. How, for example, did a pipe bomb in a sock arrive under my bed?

Cochrane recalled a detail from Mauer's story in the Pennsylvania farmhouse: "Tell me about B.A. 1," Cochrane said out of the blue.

Whiteside looked considerably surprised. "Pardon me?"

"B.A. 1," Cochrane said confidently. "And a Major Richards, if I remember correctly. Based in London, charged with double-crossing of German and Italian agents."

Whiteside was silent.

"It's not enough just to talk," Cochrane insisted. "You have to answer questions, too."

"What about B.A. 1? It's part of M.I. 5, as I'm certain you know."

"I have a defector named Otto Mauer," Cochrane said. "He passed through the hands of Major Richards in London. Surely you know all about it."

Another pause. "Surely, I do," Whiteside said at length.

"If my guess is any good," Cochrane said, "you can tell me about Mauer's wife and child, also."

"Your guess is good," Whiteside answered. "Why is it so good?"

"Because I know Bureau tactics," Cochrane said. "They flashed the man a photograph of his wife and son in Spain. But they couldn't deliver the goods. If they could have, they would have brought them here and shown them around. So someone else is holding them. If the Nazis grabbed them in Spain, then Mauer's been feeding us bad information from the time he arrived here. But I don't think he is. So the only other possibility is M.I. 5."

"That's correct."

"Then you have them?"

Another pause and Laura eyed Peter Whiteside with considerable suspicion.

"That's correct," Whiteside said again.

"Where?"

"Is it relevant to Siegfried?"

"It's relevant if you want any cooperation out of me."

"The precise location is classified," Whiteside said. "But we moved them from Spain.

They're safe. And nearby."

"How far away? In days?"

"Two. Maybe three, depending on transport."

"So your people took their picture in Madrid and turned it over to the Americans, right?"

Whiteside nodded.

"Why?"

“We didn't know what to do with them, obviously," Whiteside said, as if it were self-evident. "We had them in inventory, so to speak, but there was no way to cash them in. So we offered them to the Americans. Free. Had to move them from Spain, anyway. Franco's national police run the country and are like this" – briefly Whiteside's hands clasped each other- "with the Gestapo."

Whiteside sipped some tea, which was now cool in his cup. Cochrane noticed through the window that the afternoon had faded and already the darkness of evening was upon Washington. He heard a car go by.

Whiteside continued. "We wanted to give them to the Americans. A favor for the future when we needed a favor in return. It was as simple as that. So we notified State Department. Got a man who used to sell cars in Colorado, but is now a career diplomat. Said he had pass the picture on to F.B.I., but that was all he could do. We never heard anything more."

Cochrane now sat leaning back, his arms folded across his stomach, his head forward and his clear eyes upon the Englishman. He had a sense of constantly being shown a moving picture-Mauer's story-with frames missing or out of order.

"Wait a minute," he finally interjected. "You've forgotten an entire step."

"Have I?"

"How did you know to intercept Natalie and Rudy to begin with?"

"We knew," Whiteside said cryptically. "We knew a major defection was under way.

Double guards of Gestapo, SS, and SD at all the rail and air terminals. We knew something was afoot. So we kept our eyes also on Major Asena in Gibraltar."

Cochrane nodded.

"Major Asena is very capable and very able. Both sides play ball with him, we all know that. Not a major in anybody's army except his own. A mercenary, follow? Our sources in Gibraltar told us he was waiting for a woman and a boy. Germans, the sources said. At the same time, Norwegian intelligence shared with us the fact that one Otto Mauer, travelling alone, had passed through. So we watched the obvious route for the family of a German aristocrat and that meant Madrid."

Whiteside's eyes clouded. Cochrane saw a cunning that had previously escaped his notice.

"Now," Whiteside said, reckoning with the past, "figure, one: Major Asena is a mercenary. Sells to the highest bidder. Figure, two: if Mauer of the Abwehr knows him, other

Abwehr officers know him, also. Conclusion?"

"Natalie and Rudy could have been up for grabs. The Abwehr could have bought them back and forced Mauer to 're-defect.' He would have been in a position to serve massive disinformation to the F.B.I. just in the hope of seeing his family alive again."

Now Whiteside leaned back. "You understand quite well," he said.

"I'm learning," Cochrane answered.

"Well, that's exactly what was going to happen. As soon as Mauer hit Helsinki and defected, he was safe. He was in British and American hands every step of the way. But the Abwehr had already contacted Major Asena. They had reached an agreement to pay the major ten thousand American dollars to hold Mauer's wife and children if they crossed to Gibraltar."

Seeing Cochrane's intrigue, Whiteside purred soothingly. "Our source on that is excellent," Whiteside said. "That's all I can tell you, of course."

Your own infiltrator in the Abwehr, mused Cochrane. Good for the Brits.

"Congratulations," Cochrane said.

Whiteside went ahead. "So we picked up the missus and the boy in Madrid. I'd dare guess that we had every street man in town looking for them. It wasn't difficult," Whiteside smirked. "The bell captain at the Ritz was ours for several years. He's in London now so I can tell you that."

From there it was simple. Whiteside's people in Spain assigned a photographer within hours, took some nice touristy photographs of the mother and child in the Plaza Mayor to prove they had arrived there and were all right, then went back up to the hotel room and took some photographs for passports. The Mauers were moved to a British safe house the next morning and British passports were drawn by noon.

"And if I'm guessing right you had them out of the country within two days,"

Cochrane said.

"Within one day," said Whiteside. "Not that it was easy. The airports were being covered, Otto Mauer by now being considered a significant defector. There was Gestapo manpower and hardware everywhere. So we used a soft route by car into France. Then we moved them to Ireland from Bordeaux. It was the only route open at the time."

"But if they're close by, they're not in Ireland," said Cochrane. "You said you could have them here within three days. That's not Ireland."

"No it's not."

"That means Canada or one of the islands in this hemisphere."

"You're getting warm."

"Canada's not warm this time of year."

Whiteside laughed. Laura sat nearby, quietly taking it in, working on the cup of tea, holding it in her hand to preserve its warmth. For several minutes, Cochrane had all but forgotten about her.

"Let's say they're on a very safe island about three hundred miles off the coast of South Carolina. Very coral, very sunny, and very secure."

"Lucky them in Bermuda," Cochrane said.

"They're miserable. They want to be reunited. This is where you come in, Mr. Cochrane, you see. Your F.B.I. is holding Mauer and we haven't notion where he is. Further…” he began shrewdly.

"Further, you've invested a lot in the operation. You're holding a woman and a child to use as a lever. You want something in return."

"A vulgar but accurate way of putting it."

"What do you want?" Cochrane asked, ignoring the distasteful expression that Laura had made.

Whiteside drew a fatigued breath and turned unexpectedly to Laura. "Are you certain you wish to hear this?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm certain," she said.

Whiteside turned back to Cochrane. "We want Siegfried out of the operational picture," he said. "And we want whatever network goes with him."

"He's said to work alone," Cochrane tried.

"Poppycock. Somewhere there's a control. Or at least a guardian angel. He can do a lot of things on his own, but not everything. Look. You can arrest him here. I cannot. And so far SIS has no authority to take, shall we say, more physically forceful means of action on U.S. soil. We need the goodwill for the future, you understand."

"I understand," said Cochrane. And he did. Whiteside preferred that Siegfried be arrested or shot, perhaps preferably the latter, by his own countrymen. No use having an international flap among friends. The logic was sound, the situation a classic trade-off. Everyone in the room, even Laura, recognized that.

"Then there's the matter of your own Bureau," said Whiteside. "Seems they're handling the intelligence end of things on this side of the ocean. It would help us in the future if we knew how clean Mr. Hoover's Bureau is. Contacts we could trust, and all."

"We'll take care of Siegfried," Cochrane said. "As for the Bureau's bill of health and Siegfried's control, I need Natalie Mauer and her son for that. What can you arrange?"

"Where do you want them?"

"Philadelphia would be fine."

"When?"

Cochrane shrugged. "As quickly as possible."

"Two days," Whiteside promised. "Consider it done."

Whiteside offered his hand and the two men shook. "A gentlemen's agreement," Whiteside said gleefully. The words sent spasms of anxiety through Cochrane, as he remembered so well where he had heard a similar phrase before.