Canidy looked back at the Gooney Birds. "And so you had these painted, too. Interesting. Anything else?"

"Flame dampeners on the engine exhaust. And . . ."

Darmstadter started walking toward the tail of the one on the right.

He stopped near the rear of the left side of the fuselage, at the troop doorway. The door had been removed. He pointed inside.

Canidy followed him and looked.

"Jesus!" he said. "A Browning?"

"Yeah, I wanted a fifty-cal but could only get my hands on the thirty-cal," Hank said. "It's a modified M1919."

"Who modified it?"

"Who do you think? I added a heavier barrel for full-auto-that's five hundred rounds a minute. And I mounted it on this quick-release track, so it's easy to move out of the way for jumps, then move it back in place. There's a second Browning onboard as backup."

As they walked out of the revetment, Canidy surveyed the aircraft and nodded appreciatively. "That is one helluva special bird."

They pulled the netting back in place.

"No one beyond Stan Fine knows that I have them. I brought them in after midnight, and only take them up after oh-dark-hundred."

"How do you avoid not getting picked up on radar? You don't-"

"Stay on the deck? Sure. Sometimes. Why not? But I've got another trick."

Darmstadter got in behind the wheel of the jeep.

"Which is?" Canidy said, as he and van der Ploeg hopped in.

Darmstadter engaged the starter and the engine ground to life.

"You'll see tonight. Your bags are packed, right?"

Canidy nodded. "Just waiting on you."

[THREE].

OSS Bern Station Herrengasse 23 Bern, Switzerland 2345 27 May 1943 Wolfgang Kappler, uncharacteristically, raised his voice: "I asked, Allen, a proper candidate for what?"

Allen Dulles made a dismissive motion with his hand in the direction of Gisevius.

He said, "Before we get into that . . ." and took the manila envelope stamped TOP SECRET from the round marble table. He pinched its brass clasp, then opened the flap.

"My old friend," Dulles then said, "the reason I asked you here tonight was to share some important, but possibly upsetting, information."

"What upsetting information?" Kappler said.

Dulles pulled out a stack of black-and-white eight-by-ten-inch photographs and handed the top few to Kappler.

"And these are?" Kappler said as he looked down.

"Photographs shot only days ago, before and after Operation Chastise. We received them this afternoon. The ones you hold were taken by a photo-recon Spitfire aircraft at first light two days before the mission."

Kappler noted that the first photograph had a time stamp in the lower right-hand corner. It read: 0715 14 MAY 43. The photograph showed the bold rays of the early morning sun painting the bucolic valley in warm tones. The low angle of the sun cast long, dramatic shadows from the tall trees and church steeples.

"Yes, the Ruhr is wonderfully peaceful at that hour," Kappler said. "Before the war, it was among my favorite times, simply sitting and enjoying my strudel und kaffee mit creme as the day came to life. I very much miss it."

Dulles then handed him another few photographs.

"These were taken three days later," he said simply.

Kappler looked, quickly turned them toward the light for a better look-and caught himself in a gasp.

"Ach du lieber Gott!" he whispered.

Under the layer of industrial haze, what looked like a blanket of morning fog, with only the treetops and steeples rising above, was actually the morning sunlight reflecting on a torrent of floodwaters.

"The western Ruhr Valley, it is flooded!"

"Yes. The dams were bombed."

"How is this true? How did they get past the German defenses? And past the underwater torpedo netting that protects the dam itself?" He paused, then added, "And why have I not heard about this?"

Gisevius answered: "The British used a new 'bouncing bomb' dropped from specially modified Lancaster Mark III aircraft."

"'Bouncing bomb'? How do you know of this?"

Gisevius, with a flip of his hand, gestured for Dulles to answer.

Dulles explained: "As I understand it, somewhere around twenty Royal Air Force bombers descended almost to the surface of the reservoirs, and then released these new bouncing bombs, after first spinning them backward, so that they skipped stone-like across the surface until they hit the dams. The Lancasters managed to get in and out of German airspace by flying at treetop level to avoid being picked up by radar or spotted by antiaircraft. Which of course was extremely hazardous; at least one aircraft crashed after striking power lines. Three of the Lancasters in the first wave of eight either were shot down or crashed."

"It is unbelievable," Kappler said.

"That is what the Nazis want everyone to think," Dulles said. "But, as you see, the mission was highly successful."

"And," Gisevius said, "that is why you have not heard about it. It is a black eye for Hitler that they want kept quiet."

Dulles added, "Beyond the success of bombing of such critical German assets-once considered untouchable-this act also keeps Hitler on the defensive, holding back troops that could be put, for example, on the offensive in Russia."

And on the French coast, Dulles thought but would never mention, in anticipation of a cross-channel invasion.

Kappler nodded, then turned to the next photograph.

He made a face and shook his head in shock. The picture showed the 112-foot-tall limestone Mohne dam-and the enormous jagged gap in its middle. The three-thousand-acre lake, surrounded by gnarled oak and ash trees, looked to be at least half-drained. Water still cascaded over the lip of the hole.

"This breach in the Mohne," Kappler said softly, "it looks to be about eighty meters wide and at least that deep."

Kappler rapidly flipped through the stack.

"Do you have any information on my properties?" he said as he scanned each image. "Thyssen and Krupp had their steel plants closest to the dams."

Here it comes, Dulles thought.

Kappler flipped back to the photograph showing the torrent of floodwater reflecting the morning sunlight.

"Judging by how high the water is on the church steeples," Kappler said, "the flooding stream appears to be some ten meters deep."

He looked up at Dulles.

"That is the disturbing news I mentioned," Dulles said. "To the best of our knowledge, all but two of your plants were lost."

"All but two? I lost five manufacturing facilities!"

Dulles nodded solemnly.

"Possibly others," he said. "Krupp lost everything it had in the Ruhr, including what was previously Thyssen's. Because, as you note, they were all closest to the dams."

"Everything?"

Dulles nodded again.

"That floodwater was powerful-more than three hundred million tons. For fifty miles downstream, it flooded mines and wiped out more than a hundred factories, a thousand houses, and rail lines, roads, bridges. Farms were washed away-crops, livestock, everything."

"And people?" Kappler asked, but it clearly was an obvious statement.

Dulles nodded solemnly.

"Ach du lieber Gott!" he again whispered.

"It is our understanding," Dulles said, glancing at Gisevius, "that the German reports are listing casualties of nearly thirteen hundred killed, most French and Belgian POWs and forced laborers."

Kappler crossed himself.

"Sorry that you lost your sklavenarbeiter?" Gisevius said, his tone caustic.

"Hans!" Dulles snapped.

Dulles had heard Kappler complain about having to witness the cruelty inflicted on the slave laborers, and had written reports on them that he had sent to General Donovan, who then shared the information with President Roosevelt and others in the OSS.

Gisevius went on: "No more exploitation of slave labor for your mines? Fear not. The SS will bring more."

"That's enough!" Dulles said.

"I do not exploit!" Kappler said, his voice rising. "One cannot be found guilty of a crime when another holds a gun to his head forcing him to cause such an act! I have no choice but to use them because the SS demands both the money I pay for them and the increased productivity they provide." He paused, then added: "I will have you know, however, that we are, as delicately as possible, running the plants far from peak production. Delicately, because anyone even remotely suspected of intentional slowage-and especially sabotage-is dealt with immediately by the SS."

"And," Dulles put in, "I can vouch that Wolfgang has seen many of the Jewish slaves smuggled out."

"Many?" Gisevius challenged.

"More than a hundred in the last six months," Dulles said.

"How do you know that?"

"Beyond saying that the OSS has provided their false papers, I cannot tell you more at this time."

Gisevius grunted.

Dulles then handed over to Kappler another series of photographs. All were mostly black with vaguely recognizable landmarks that were faintly lit by moonlight.

"These recon shots were taken at night."

Kappler looked at Dulles, then asked, "The hydroelectric output from the dams-there were, I believe, a pair of five-thousand-kilowatt power plants . . ."

"Destroyed," Dulles said.

"Then it is with no surprise that the valley," Kappler said, his voice almost a whisper, "is completely without lights."

"And will be until the hydroelectric power returns. Also not surprising, there are of course crews already working to repair them."

Dulles passed another photograph. "The Eder dam also took hits."

"That's the largest masonry dam in Germany," Kappler said. "Its reservoir holds more than twice that of the Mohne."

Dulles nodded, then passed two more photographs.

"And also the Sorpe and Ennepe dams."

As Kappler looked at them, Dulles said, "Because the overall success of the mission will be a great morale booster for the Allies, the story is going to be widely reported beginning tomorrow." He gestured toward the Braun radio. "Landessender Beromunster, for example, will break the news in German and, using BBC reports, also in English. And it will run-with a map but not these photographs-in England's newspapers and in every other newspaper we can get to publish it."

He pulled from the envelope a copy of the Berner Zeitung.

"This is an early copy of tomorrow's edition," Dulles said.

Kappler took the Berner Zeitung and glanced at the front page. The largest headline read in German: BOMBERS DESTROY STRATEGIC GERMAN DAMS.

Dulles went on: "We also have prepared leaflets to drop in German-occupied countries reporting that the taking out of the dams has caused widespread panic. That there's no water available for anything from drinking to fighting fires should the Allies follow up with an incendiary attack. That without the electricity generated by the dam's power plant, homes are dark and industries idle. That there is hysteria over what little water remains being tainted and causing deadly diseases."

Wolfgang Kappler crossed himself again.