Free the Valhalla Exchange (v5) by Jack Higgins Page A

Hoffer entered. He looked around the canteen, then came across quickly, his face pale with excitement.
    'I saw a hell of a thing a little while ago, Major.'
    'And what would that be?'
    'General Fegelein being marched along the corridor by two of the escort guard, minus his epaulettes and shoulder flashes. He looked frightened to death.'
    'The fortunes of war, Erich. Get yourself a glass.'
    'Good God, Major, a general of the SS. A Knight's Cross holder.'
    'And like all of us in the end, clay of the most common variety, my friend - or at least his feet were.'
    'We shouldn't have come here to this place.' Hoffer glanced about him, his face working. 'We're never going to get out. We're going to die here like rats and in bad company.'
    'I don't think so.'
    There was an immediate expression of hope on Hoffer's face. 'You've heard something?'
    'No, but all my instincts tell me that I shall. Now get yourself a glass and bring that chessboard over here.'
    Bormann and Rattenhuber, watching from a doorway at the rear of the room, had observed the entire scene. Rattenhuber said, 'His mother was a really big aristocrat. One of those families that goes all the way back to Frederick.'
    'Look at him,' Bormann said. 'Did you see the way he handled that drunken swine?
    And I'll tell you something, Willi. A hundred marks says he hasn't raised his arm and said Heil Hitler for at least two years. I know his kind. They salute like a British Guards officer - a finger to the peak of the cap. And the men, Willi. Shall I tell you what they think, even the men of the SS? Would you imagine they'd still follow old peasants like you and me?'
    'They follow.' Rattenhuber hesitated. 'They follow their officers, Reichsleiter. They have discipline, the Waffen-SS. The finest in the world.'
    'But Ritter, Willi. A man like him, they'll follow into the jaws of hell, and you know why? Because men like him don't give a damn. They're what they are. Themselves alone.'
    'And what would that be, Reichsleiter?'
    'In his case, a very gentle perfect knight. You see, Willi? All that reading I do - even English literature. They think me Bormann the boor, Goebbels and company, but I know more than they do - about everything. Don't you agree?'
    'But of course, Reichsleiter.'
    'And Ritter - fine Aryan stock, like one of those idealized paintings the Fuhrer loves so much. A standard impossible for the rest of us to attain. Forget the nasty things, Willi. The rapes, the burnings, the camps, the executions. Just think of the ideal. The finest soldier you've ever known. Decent, honourable, chivalrous and totally without fear. What every soldier in the Waffen-SS would like to imagine himself to be, that's what Ritter is.'
    'And you think these Finnish barbarians we discussed earlier would concur?'
    'The Knight's Cross, Willi, with Oak Leaves and Swords? What do you think?'
    Rattenhuber nodded. 'I think that perhaps the Reichsleiter would like me to bring him to the office now.'
    'Later, Willi. Now I must go to the Fuhrer. The news of Himmler's defection and Fegelein's cowardice have considerably angered him. He needs me. You speak to Ritter, Willi, when he's had a drink or two. Judge if it's changed him. I'll see him later. After midnight.'
    The shelling increased in intensity, the thunder overhead continuous now, so that the walls shook constantly and in the canteen behaviour deteriorated considerably. The place was crowded with a noisy, jostling throng, here and there a drunk lying under the table.
    When Rattenhuber returned a couple of hours later, Ritter and Hoffer were still at the table at the rear of the room, playing chess.
    Rattenhuber said, 'May I join you?'
    Ritter glanced up. 'Why not?'
    Rattenhuber winced as a particularly thunderous explosion shook the entire room. 'I didn't like the sound of that. Do you think we're safe here, Major?'
    Ritter looked at Hoffer. 'Erich?'
    Hoffer shrugged. 'Seventeen point five calibre is the heaviest they've got. Nothing that could get