The 34th Degree

68

W hen Andros opened his eyes the next morning, he found himself lying on a green divan in what he discerned by the architecture to be an old Turkish house in the Plaka district. The living room bay protruded over a lonely street like the poop of an ancient galleon, affording the man who had knocked him out an unobstructed view on three sides of the neighborhood.

He remembered the night before in the Royal Gardens: the meeting with the shoeshine boy, the fight with the German soldiers, his capture by the Gestapo, and the rounding up and shooting of innocent Greeks. Their haunting cries echoed across his conscience. He could also feel a throbbing pain where the butt of a Schmeisser had crashed against his skull.

“Bastards,” Andros said, touching the cold, wet cloth wrapped around his head.

The man turned from the window. “Like I said last night, we bastards just saved your life,” he said in English. “Good thing our uniforms put the fear of God into them. They didn’t see your face.”

Andros sat up. The dawn’s early light revealed a land of saddle rooftops covered with crumbling brown tiles, clotheslines that crisscrossed over twisted alleys, and the whitewashed facades of houses with yellow oak doors and green-shuttered windows. He looked at the man. “British?”

“SOE. The name’s Jeffrey. Burger to the Germans. Have some tea. The others will be in shortly.”

“I see.” Andros felt his head and looked resentfully at Burger, or rather Jeffrey, who now poured some tea from the tray on the table. “You make a rather realistic Nazi.”

“Thank you. And you were rather dumb. Your little escapade in the Royal Gardens made the morning papers.”

Andros picked up the copy of Eleftheron Vima on the table. The front page carried an official notice by the German garrison commander whom Andros had seen at von Berg’s party. During the night of May 29-30, two German sentries were slain in the National Gardens by unknown terrorists. A strict inquiry is being instigated and the perpetrators will be punished with death. The German military authorities have endeavored to act in every respect favorably to the Greek people. On the basis of the facts and ascertainments set forth above, the conduct of the city at large toward the German armed forces has again become less friendly. Furthermore, the press and public opinion among all classes are still sympathetic to resistance workers and British agents who are in hiding. Cooperation will be sought to locate and punish the instigators. In the event the orders of the German armed forces are not obeyed, the severest sanctions will be regretfully imposed. Athens, 30 May 1943.

Andros was still reading when a voice said, “Next time don’t try to help orphans and widows. Do your job, and nobody else will get hurt.”

Andros looked up to see Brigadier Andrew Eliot walk in from the kitchen, again dressed as a priest on this quiet Sunday morning. With him were the other former Gestapo agents, now dressed as peasants. They sat down around the coffee table.

“And how are you feeling this morning?” asked Eliot.

Andros heaved a heavy, heart-aching sigh. “Considerably better than those poor souls in the Royal Gardens last night.”

“An unfortunate consequence of your bloodlust against the Germans. I gather you derived some pleasure from your first enemy kill of the war?”

“None,” he replied as he absently rolled up his left sleeve.

“What’s wrong?”

Andros looked down at the floor and around the coffee table. “I lost a cuff link.”

“You’ll survive,” said Eliot. “Lose anything else?”

“Nasos,” said Andros, suddenly remembering his driver. “He was waiting for me.”

“We had a man dressed like you get into the car just before the mess started,” Eliot said. “Nasos drove him to Kifissia and heard the full story on you along the way. Later this morning he’ll take our man to Piraeus, where you’ll already be inside the Andros Shipping offices. You’ll walk out as yourself, and our man will walk out as a dockworker. Tonight Nasos will be integral to your escape from Baron von Berg’s Red Cross gala.”

“So you know about it?”

“Know about it? You made us break out in hives with that reckless move of yours to hand von Berg the ring box.”

“So you were listening.”

“All the way to the bank-or, more precisely, von Berg’s safe,” Eliot replied. “He opened it again a few hours later.”

“And?”

“We were all ears. Here’s the combination.”

Eliot handed Andros a slip of paper with four double-digit numbers. Andros memorized it and handed it back.

“What’s the word with the girl? Will she help?” Eliot asked.

Andros said, “I think so.”

“Good God, man, you can’t think. You must know.”

“I know she’ll see to it that the outside door to von Berg’s office is open. I also know she’ll delay one of his guards from getting to his post, long enough for me to slip in and out. What I don’t know is if we can pull it off undetected.”

“Which is why you’ll need this.” Eliot handed Andros what looked like a gold cigarette lighter but opened to reveal a camera lens. “Just in case the Maranatha text isn’t there but something else is. All you do is point and click. We don’t want von Berg to discover anything missing if we can help it.”

“Just tell me how Aphrodite and I are going to get out of here alive.”

“After the reception, Nasos will appear to drive you straight home,” Eliot explained. “But along the way, you’ll switch cars, and we’ll take you to Piraeus. There, the same ship that brought you from Italy, the Independence, is scheduled to make a supply run to the Luftwaffe air base on the island of Kythira at eleven P.M. About halfway there, it will make an unscheduled stop off the east coast of the Peloponnese, near Monemvasia. During that time you’ll cast off in a lifeboat. A reception committee of andartes will be waiting onshore to escort you back to the National Bands base.”

“Captain Tsatsos knows about this?”

“Both Captain Tsatsos and your uncle Mitchell know only that an agent code-named Sinon will be leaving Athens for the National Bands base. Neither has the foggiest idea who Sinon is, so you’ll have to identify yourself to them later this morning.”

“That should prove amusing.” Andros smiled at the thought and then grew serious. “Will Captain Whyte be waiting for me at the base?”

Eliot nodded. “Landed last night. You’ll hand her everything you’ve got and wait for your submarine pickup tomorrow night.”

“What about Aphrodite and our families?”

“We’ll stow them away aboard the Red Cross ship, the Turtle Dove, before it returns to Istanbul tomorrow.”

Andros shook his head. “It’s too risky for them to wait until I’m gone before they escape.”

“It’s too risky for us if they disappear before you.”

“Prestwick said they were coming with me.”

“I don’t know what your American superiors told you, Andros. But here in Greece, the British are in charge, and I’m not going to let anything jeopardize your escape.”

Andros leaned back and crossed his arms. “I’m not leaving without her.”

Eliot looked at his watch and sipped his tea. “It is now almost six A.M., and the Turtle Dove is due to arrive in Piraeus in a few hours. If you’re not at quayside to oversee the distribution of Red Cross consignments, if von Berg has even the slightest suspicion that it was you who killed those two sentries last night, then we’re all in trouble. You, your beloved, and her brother included. Andros, you’ve tried it your way. I bailed you out. Now it’s my turn. You’ll do as you’re told.”