The 34th Degree

75

A ndros closed the report and looked outside to the gardens, recalling that Heydrich never made it to Berlin. Czech assassins had ambushed the Protector’s green Mercedes as it made a hairpin turn outside Prague. The exploding grenade had fatally wounded Heydrich. It took him over a week to die at Bulovka Hospital.

All great stuff for the OSS, but no Maranatha text.

He put down the V ON B ERG file and picked up the H USKY file. At last he’d found what he was looking for-copies of an ancient Greek text, juxtaposed with mathematical formulas.

The accompanying report, curiously, was written in…English.

English? Andros took a closer look and suddenly found himself staring at the Allied plans for invasion of Sicily. The plans said the Americans would be landing in the Gulf of Gela and from there would advance up the west coast of the island. The British were to land near the southwest tip of the island and move quickly to take Syracuse. The plans even detailed the movements of General Patton’s Seventh Army-to which he and Hayfield had been assigned at West Point.

Sicily! According to the report, Greece was only a cover.

Von Berg’s handwritten notes in the margins said that the Americans would never make it beyond the beaches. Hermann Goering’s panzer division would move down toward Gela from its positions around Caltagirone and would be waiting to greet them.

Andros thought of Hayfield and knew he couldn’t allow this scenario to happen.

He also thought of something else: Prestwick and Donovan lied to me.

His heart started to race as everything sank in. His own life, not to mention Aphrodite’s, seemed less certain with each passing second.

Andros set the folders on von Berg’s desk and pulled out his camera. He had to move fast, he realized, and switched on the desk lamp only to find Werner seated behind the desk, pointing a Ceska at him.