Wilson had already used him, then, and would do so again... for something much more important.

'You have that faraway look in your eyes, Herr Wilson. What are you thinking about?'

'Nothing, Reichsfhrer.'

'You never think of nothing, Herr Wilson. You think all the time.'

'I was just thinking about the flying saucer,' Wilson lied, 'and wondering if we'll succeed.'

'I never thought you'd doubt yourself for a moment. I am truly surprised.'

'I have doubts occasionally,' Wilson lied again. 'All human beings do.'

'You're not as human as most, Herr Wilson. You think too much and feel too little.'

Wilson nodded. 'Perhaps.'

'And yet you have doubts.'

'Yes,' Wilson lied for the third time, not wanting Himmler to know and fear his invincible arrogance.

Himmler placed his empty cup on the small table beside him, then stared steadily through his glittering pince-nez. 'In the words of our beloved Fhrer: "One must listen to an inner voice and believe what it tells you." Would you not agree, Herr Wilson?'

'If the inner voice is self-conviction, then, yes, I agree.'

'I do, too,' Himmler said. 'Which is precisely why nothing can stop me.'

'You're a resolute man, Reichsfhrer.'

'And you aren't?' Stoll asked.

'Only average, Captain Stoll.'

Stoll's smile showed a degree of dry amus.e.m.e.nt. 'I think not, Herr Wilson. In fact, you're a man so resolute, you'd stop at nothing to get what you want. Now isn't that so?'

Be careful, Wilson thought. 'No, I don't think so.'

'There are rumours,' Himmler said, ostentatiously studying his immaculate fingernails, 'that the dearly departed Dr Belluzzo did not deserve the fate he received. What do you think, Herr Wilson?'

'I'm afraid I haven't thought about it,' Wilson said, 'apart from a.s.suming that when the SS decided to arrest him, they had their reasons.'

'Are you aware of what those reasons were?'

'His superior officer, Flugkapitn Schriever, believed Belluzzo to be mentally incompetent and possibly dangerous.'

'Did you share that view?'

'I can't remember if I discussed it with Schriever or not, but I have to confess that if I'd been asked, I would have been bound to agree with him.'

'But you had no direct hand in Schriever's report?'

'No. None at all.'

Himmler spread his hands in the air and smiled frostily. 'Good,' he said. 'That's all right, then. After all, no one is going to miss Belluzzo, who was not even German.' He then clasped his hands together, stopped smiling, and added softly: 'It's just that one worries if one suspects that one's staff are becoming too ruthless in their ambitions.'

'Naturally, Reichsfhrer.'

He stared steadily at Himmler, giving nothing away, but knew that the Reichsfhrer was aware of what he had done and would not forget it.

'I appreciate a man of initiative,' Himmler said, 'so long as it doesn't make him too ambitious.'

'I understand perfectly.'

'Good,' Himmler said. Realizing that he had gained Himmler's wary admiration, Wilson stared across the broad expanse of the hangar, to where the Schriever flying saucer, about to be test-flown for the first time, was being prepared. It was resting on a large steel platform that could be wheeled out of the hangar. Forty-two meters wide and thirtytwo meters high, it looked immense in the enclosed s.p.a.ce. Indeed, raised up on the steel platform, it cast its shadow over the coveralled engineers working around it, including Habermohl and Miethe. Schriever himself was being helped into his flying suit, since he was the test pilot.

It was a completely circular aircraft, shaped like a gigantic, inverted steel bowl and supported on four thick, hollow legs that housed the gas-turbine rotors which, it was hoped, would give it its vertical-rising capability. Another four gas-turbine rotors were positioned horizontally at equal distances around the rim of the circular body, for control of horizontal flight. It was lamentably primitive, Wilson knew. It would fly enough to satisfy Himmler and keep Schriever pleased with himself, leaving Wilson free to get on with the design of the real, vastly more advanced machine.