Something then ripped at his right foot, and there immediately came a burning sensation.

Then suddenly he was jarred to a stop, and felt a great burning as the webbing of his harness dug into his thighs.

And then he was hanging in the dark, with all quiet.

And then the burning in his foot became intense.

And then he passed out.

VI.

[ONE].

OSS London Station Berkeley Square London, England 1020 31 May 1943 "Pull that door shut, please, Helene," Chief of Station David Bruce said, standing by the window of his office and sipping at a steaming china mug of coffee, "and see that we're not disturbed."

"Yes, sir, Colonel," Captain Helene Dancy, Women's Army Corps, replied over her shoulder as she left carrying the tray that had held the fresh coffee service.

The door clicked shut, and Bruce looked at Lieutenant Colonel Ed Stevens, who wore his usual perfectly tailored worsted uniform and sat on the couch and poured coffee.

Bruce walked over to his desk, picked up a sheet, and handed it to Stevens.

"Wolfgang Augustus Kappler," Bruce announced, pronouncing each syllable pointedly. "Until yesterday, I had hardly known the man. And now he is suddenly the focus of everything I'm supposed to do?"

Stevens took a sip of coffee as his eyes went to the message:

TOP SECRET.

OPERATIONAL PRIORITY.

31MAY43 0810.

FOR OSS LONDON -- COL BRUCE.

OSS ALGIERS -- CAPT FINE.

COPY OSS WASHINGTON -- GEN DONOVAN.

FROM OSS BERN.

BEGIN QUOTE.

DAVID AND STANLEY,.

AS PROMISED IN MY MESSAGE OF 30MAY43, I SHARE WHAT I HAVE JUST LEARNED FROM MY MEETING WITH WOLFGANG KAPPLER. TO WIT:.

1. FRITZ THYSSEN. WE KNEW THAT THYSSEN FLED GERMANY WITH HIS FAMILY AND THEN HITLER NATIONALIZED HIS STEEL WORK INDUSTRIES. WE NOW KNOW THAT FRITZ IS NO LONGER HEADED TO ARGENTINA, THAT INSTEAD VICHY FRANCE TURNED HIM AND HIS WIFE OVER TO THE GESTAPO, THAT HITLER HAS HAD THEM LOCKED UP IN A BERLIN ASYLUM, AND THAT THEY SOON WILL BE INTERNED IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP.

2. WOLFGANG KAPPLER. MARTIN BORMANN HAS ESSENTIALLY THREATENED KAPPLER WITH SAME FATE AS FRITZ. TO START, HITLER HAS NATIONALIZED HIS CHEMISCHE FABRIK FRANKFURT. AND BORMANN HAS THREATENED HARM TO KAPPLER'S FAMILY IF HE TRIES TO FLEE GERMANY AND/OR HIS DUTIES TO THE THIRD REICH. THE WIFE AND DAUGHTER -- HANNAH, 53, AND ANNA, 19 -- ARE LIVING IN BERLIN. SON OSKAR, 32, AN SS-OBERSTURMBANNFUHRER, IS SECOND IN COMMAND AT SS PROVISIONAL HQ IN MESSINA. I OFFERED -- AND WOLFGANG DECLINED -- FOR OSS TO GET WIFE AND DAUGHTER OUT OF GERMANY. KAPPLER WORRIES THAT SHOULD THAT HAPPEN, BORMANN WILL TARGET SON. IT IS CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF WOLFGANG'S MISSION THAT HE NOT WORRY ABOUT THE SAFETY OF HIS FAMILY. TINY IS REACHING OUT TO SON TO GAUGE HIS COMMITMENT TO NAZISM. IF IT IS DETERMINED THAT SON MUST BE TERMINATED -- WE COULD LAY BLAME ON SS OR ITALIAN SECRET POLICE -- SO BE IT. TO THAT END I AM REQUESTING (A) THAT DAVID PUT TOGETHER A CONTINGENCY PLAN THAT WOULD HAVE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER DISAPPEAR TO SAFETY AND (B) THAT STAN PUT TOGETHER SAME FOR SON -- AND HIS POSSIBLE TERMINATION -- IN SICILY. BOTH OPS SHOULD BE ACTIONABLE WITHIN SEVEN (7) DAYS OF THIS DATE.

3. SS-STURMBANNFUHRER KLAUS SCHWARTZ. KAPPLER SAYS HE WORKED FAITHFULLY FOR HIM AS CHIEF CHEMIST AT CHEMISCHE FABRIK FRANKFURT FOR TEN YEARS BEFORE HIMMLER QUOTE POISONED HIS MIND UNQUOTE AND SCHWARTZ RADICALLY EMBRACED NAZISM. WITHIN LAST WEEK SCHWARTZ WAS KNOWN TO BE TRAVELING UNDER ORDERS OF HIS BOSS, WERNHER VON BRAUN, BUT HIS WHEREABOUTS ARE BEING KEPT QUIET DESPITE INQUIRIES BY TINY'S SOURCES. KAPPLER IS LOOKING INTO WHAT IF ANY UNUSUAL PROJECTS SCHWARTZ MAY HAVE HAD WORKING AT CHEMISCHE FABRIK FRANKFURT BEFORE HE LEFT TO ASSIST VON BRAUN.

4. STATION CHIEFS LONDON AND ALGERS REQUESTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF THIS AND COMPREHENSION OF CONTINGENCY PLANS.

FONDLY,.

ALLEN.

END QUOTE.

TOP SECRET.

The tall, thin Stevens, after putting the message on the coffee table, leaned back on the couch and crossed his outstretched legs.

"With Kappler's connections in the High Command, I can understand why Allen seems anxious," Stevens said. He then chuckled and added, "Think we should tell him the reason they can't find Schwartz is because he's dead?"

"Who the hell does Dulles think he is, Donovan himself?" Bruce suddenly said, coldly furious.

Ed Stevens raised his eyebrows.

"'Station chiefs requested to acknowledge receipt'!" Bruce quoted, gesturing at the message on the table by Stevens. "'Ops actionable within seven days'! We're just supposed to drop everything? And he copies Donovan on the message so it in essence becomes an order, a fait accompli."

Bruce then looked thoughtful as he sipped his coffee.

"I suggest that he's playing to Donovan," Bruce said.

"In what way?" Stevens said.

"Clearly Donovan also floated his idea of an 'extra-legal' contingency plan with Dulles."

"Which is?"

"A code word for wholesale assassination. The elimination of Axis sympathizers, a hit list of those who would be the next Hitler. Starting with taking out the top one hundred Nazis. Summarily execute them. Donovan told us about it when he was just here. And if he told us, he certainly bounced it off Dulles, who now is running with his own version of it."

"Okay," Stevens said after a moment, reasonably, "I can see how that's playing to Donovan."

"It would not surprise me if Dulles has this industrialist Kappler, with all his connections, being groomed for something like that."

"I suppose that has to be considered."

"As Donovan joked-and I'm pretty sure he did not mean it seriously-'Shoot them all and let the Lord sort them out.' Because he then admitted that the downside of that was they wouldn't be tried as war criminals."

Stevens nodded, then said, "So, what do you want to do with this? We can get to Kappler's wife and daughter reasonably easily. But it's getting out of Germany-and especially out of Berlin-with two grown women watched by the Gestapo that's going to be the challenge."

Bruce nodded thoughtfully. He was about to open his mouth to speak when he heard a knock at the door.

"We are not to be disturbed!" Bruce said instead, his voice angry and impatient.

Captain Dancy's voice came from the other side of the door: "Harrison has an Operational Immediate Eyes Only for you, Colonel."

Bruce looked at Stevens.

"Oh, hell," he said, "now what?"

Stevens shrugged.

Bruce raised his voice. "Bring it in!"

Dancy opened the door and held it open as Captain Tom Harrison, the five-foot-one ninety-nine-pound thirty-two-year-old chief of the commo room, purposefully marched in and stopped before the desk. He saluted crisply.

"Colonel, sir," he said, "an Eyes Only Operational Immediate for you."

"So I hear. Let's see what you've got," Dulles said, gesturing impatiently with his right hand Let me have it.

Harrison first extended a clipboard with a sheet titled "Receipt for Classified Document." When Bruce had signed it, Harrison handed him a document with a TOP SECRET cover sheet on it.

"That'll be all, Harrison, thank you," Bruce said.

"Yes, sir, Colonel," Harrison said, saluted, turned on his heels, and marched out. Dancy pulled the door shut.

Bruce scanned the message, made a face, then thrust the sheet at Stevens.

Stevens took it and read:

TOP SECRET.

OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE.

X STATION CHIEF.

FILE.

COPY NO. 1.

OF 1 COPY ONLY.

31MAY43.

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OSS WASHINGTON.

FOR OSS LONDON EYES ONLY BRUCE STEVENS.

QUOTE.

1. OSS LONDON DIRECTED AS HIGHEST PRIORITY TO SUPPORT WITH ALL MEANS AVAILABLE OSS BERN'S REQUESTED CONTINGENCY RESCUE PLAN.

2. RESCUE WILL BE ATTEMPTED AT EARLIEST POSSIBLE TIME AT OSS BERN'S DISCRETION.

3. OSS LONDON ALSO DIRECTED TO SUPPORT OSS ALGIERS IN WHATEVER WAY POSSIBLE WITH ITS CONTINGENCY PLAN.

4. ADDITIONAL ORDERS TO FOLLOW THIS DATE.

5. STATION CHIEF LONDON WILL ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE.

END QUOTE.

DONOVAN.

TOP SECRET.