Free Storm Front (Twilight of the Gods Book 1) by Christopher Nuttall

like us doesn't mean they think like us.”
     
    Andrew nodded.  He’d seen what passed for education in German schools.  It was long on physical exercise and quasi-military training, short on teaching boys and girls how to be anything other than interchangeable cogs in a machine.  He still shuddered at visiting a school, one day, and watching the children mouth their hatred of non-Aryans.  The only good thing about the whole affair was that the pictures they were shown of Jews were so horrifically caricatured that the children wouldn't recognise a Jew if they saw one.
     
    “See what else you can gather from your sources,” the Ambassador added.  “Maybe we can find a way to let them down gently.”
     
    “They’d hate us for making the offer,” Knox said.
     
    “They’re already placing orders for more computers and other advanced electronics,” Hamilton added.  He looked at Penelope.  “How long can they pay for them?”
     
    “Unknown,” Penelope said.  “But the Reich’s stockpile of foreign currency is quite low.  I’d advise the sellers to make sure they get cash in advance.”
     
    Knox scowled.  “Does that not present a threat to us?”
     
    “Possibly,” Andrew said, before Penelope could say a word.  “But you try convincing the corporations that they shouldn't sell their outdated crap to the Germans.”
     
    The Ambassador finished his coffee and rose.  “I’ll see you all after I speak with the President,” he said, checking his watch.  It was nearly midnight.  “Until then, goodnight.”
     
    Andrew smiled as he departed, followed by Knox.  The military attaché would have his own report to write; Andrew, thankfully, could put his off until the following morning, when he’d had a chance to think about what he’d seen.  Hamilton finished his own coffee, then headed for the door himself.  Andrew watched him go, then looked at Penelope.  She looked tired and cross-eyed.
     
    “I plan to go for a walk in a couple of days,” he said.  He wasn't asking for a date, although he knew that some people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  “Do you want to accompany me?”
     
    Penelope hesitated.  Andrew understood.  No real harm would come to them, they’d been warned when they accepted the posting, but the SS sometimes harassed American visitors to Berlin.  It was no great secret that spies were based in the embassy, even though Andrew, Hamilton and Penelope herself had cover stories that should explain their activities.  The SS might hope that harassing the Americans would lead them to German traitors.
     
    “It might be fun,” she said, finally.  She understood what they’d be really doing, all right.  A young couple out on a stroll would attract less attention than a man on his own.  “Why not?”

Chapter Six
     
    Albert Speer University, Berlin
    20 July 1985
     
    Walking into the Albert Speer University for the first time, Gudrun recalled as she walked towards the doors, had been like taking a breath of fresh air for the first time in her life.  Like every other child in the Reich , she had endured fifteen years of schooling where she’d been expected to regurgitate answers and otherwise do exactly as she was told.  She’d quite lost count of the number of times she’d been forced to run laps around the school, stand in the corridor or undergo other humiliating punishments for daring to actually question the teacher’s words, let alone the letters they’d sent home to her parents.  And yet, despite that, university had seemed a more attractive option at seventeen than trying to become a nurse, a housewife or entering one of the few careers open to women.  It had been a surprise when she’d been told that the traits that had got her in trouble at school were precisely the traits the university wanted from its students.
     
    “You have not been taught to think ,” her first tutor had said, when he’d addressed the class on the very first