Free Shadows of War by Michael Ridpath

visitor.
    They were ushered straight into a massive room, at the far end of which was an oversized desk under a portrait of Prince Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian who had unified Germany.
    The Führer himself was walking towards Bedaux, clad not in the brown tunic which he had habitually worn before the outbreak of war, but in a simple field-grey uniform with a swastika on his arm and an iron cross at his chest.
    Bedaux stood to attention and thrust out his right arm. When in Rome salute as the Romans do. ‘ Heil Hitler! ’
    Hitler acknowledged the American’s salute, and smiled. ‘Welcome to Berlin, Mr Bedaux. Thank you for coming. I am most anxious to hear what you have to report.’

10
    Leiden
    Theo sat in the café and ordered his third cup of coffee. At least they still had decent coffee in Holland, compared to the muck that had been served in Germany for the last couple of years. He had the perfect seat, back to the wall with a clear view through the window to the Rapenburg Canal and the gates of the old Leiden University Academy on the other side.
    He should spot Conrad approaching the building. More importantly, in the five minutes or so it would take Conrad to find Professor Hogendoorn and be guided back to the café, Theo would be able to check whether Conrad was being followed.
    If Conrad showed up. Theo would be patient. Professor Hogendoorn was trustworthy, in his way. He was pro-German and, although he was not actually a member of the Dutch National Socialist Party, pro-Nazi, which was why he was willing to help the Abwehr. Theo would have to be very careful that Hogendoorn never overheard Theo or Conrad’s true views on the Party.
    It was vital that Theo get to Conrad before he met Schämmel. Conrad hadn’t specified the timing of his rendezvous with the fake captain, and Theo just had to hope that the British hadn’t betrayed Theo’s fellow conspirators already. Ironically, Conrad himself was the most vulnerable to Schellenberg’s stratagem. Neither Payne Best nor Stevens would know anything about the real Wehrmacht officers’ conspiracy against Hitler, whereas Conrad probably knew as much as anyone in Britain. He knew names, and he knew many of the details of the carefully planned coup of the previous year. Theo was glad that he had warned Conrad about the leaks in the British Embassy and Passport Control Office. Indeed the Abwehr had just received a report about the arrival of Conrad in Holland via their man in the British Embassy.
    But Schellenberg was a wily operator, at least according to Canaris, who should know. Until Theo had the opportunity to warn Conrad that Schämmel was bait, he couldn’t be sure that Schellenberg wouldn’t tempt something out of him. Theo wondered what the British would do once they knew they were being played by the Gestapo. The obvious thing would be to break off negotiations right away. But intelligence services didn’t often do the obvious thing. If Canaris were in charge, he would probably entice Schellenberg to London, and then expose him as a Gestapo spy there. Theo smiled. Schellenberg was dangerous: that would be the perfect way to get rid of him.
    It was good to be working with Conrad again. They had had a lot in common when they met at Oxford. Theo came from a long line of soldiers who lived in a rural corner of Prussia where honour and duty to the Fatherland were paramount. But rather than go straight into the army, he had won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He had loved it there: he was a social success; he charmed men and women alike. With Conrad he had argued late into the night about social injustice, Indian independence and peace. After the crash of 1929 it was clear that the world was broken and Conrad and Theo were determined to fix it, once they had thrashed out exactly how.
    After Oxford their paths had diverged. Although they were both disillusioned by the idealism they saw all around them, be it Nazism in Theo’s case, or socialism in