They Used Dark Forces (14 page)

‘
Herr Major
, I had hoped to see you here. Sit down and have a drink. How goes the fishing?'

‘
Danke Ihnen,
' Gregory replied with a smile. ‘I'm doing very nicely and as I give all I catch to the landlady she's looking after me very well. Although I expect I owe that partly to my first lunch here being with you.'

‘Good. I should like to return today that lunch you stood me, and we will have some of your fish. Feeling pretty sure I'd find you here, I booked the table in the window recess so that we can discuss our business without any risk of being overheard.'

Greatly intrigued, Gregory had a drink with them, then they
went in to lunch. When they had ordered, Hauff said, ‘It's about that batman of yours. What is his native language?'

‘He is a Ruthenian. They come of the same stock as Ukrainians and speak a form of Russian.'

‘Enough to understand ordinary Russian?'

‘Oh yes. Sabinov is a quite well-educated man and a diehard anti-Communist, but he could easily pass as a Russian if he wanted to.'

‘Do you consider him trustworthy?'

‘Certainly. As the Ruthenians were a minority and oppressed by the Czechs, he hates their guts and joined up as a volunteer soon after we went into Czechoslovakia.'

‘Could you do without him for a while?'

‘I could if I had to,' Gregory hedged. ‘Of course, he's had a pretty idle time lately, just polishing my boots and buttons and helping me with my boat. But I'm not at all anxious to part with him.'

‘We'd fix it for someone in the hotel to do the polishing for you,' Hauff said quickly, ‘and surely you could manage your boat on your own?'

‘Yes, at times I go out without him. But I've had him with me for over a year. He's a good fellow and greatly attached to me. Still, what do you want to borrow him for?'

Hauff's senior, who ranked as a Brigadier, leant forward and said in a low voice, ‘I will take on from here. My job,
Herr Major
, is Chief Security Officer at Peenemünde. It's no secret that the Todt Organisation has many hundreds of Russian prisoners of war working there. Naturally, as they are kept on a very low diet they are lethargic and ordinarily my men don't have much trouble with them. But recently there have been certain indications that the prisoners in Camp C are plotting a mass break-out.'

The Oberführer took a drink of wine and went on, ‘What these miserable creatures hope to gain by that, heaven knows. They couldn't possibly get away and we'd shoot them down like rabbits. But I don't want a number of my men to be taken by surprise and murdered, or to have to eliminate a valuable labour force; so I'm trying to find out who the ringleaders are; then I'd be able to have them shot and nip this business
in the bud. I've got a few stool-pigeons working with the prisoners, but I'm anxious to put more of them on the job and it's devilish hard to find Germans who speak Russian well enough to pass as Russians. Hauff, here, happened to recall that you had a Ruthenian servant, and since you tell us he is a reliable man I want you to lend him to us for this work.'

Gregory had difficulty in concealing his elation at being presented with such a God-given opportunity to get Kuporovitch right inside the Experimental Station, but he did not wish to appear too eager to co-operate, so he said:

‘To agree is obviously my duty,
Herr Oberführer
, and I do so willingly. But how Sabinov will take this proposal I can't say. Obviously he'll have to live and work among the prisoners and that's a pretty tough assignment. Of course, I could order him to do as you wish. But that wouldn't be much good if he is unwilling. Even for a short time such a life would amount to severe punishment; so from resentment he would probably keep his mouth shut about anything he did find out, just to spite you.'

‘He would be well rewarded,' put in Hauff.

‘
Ja, ja!
' added the Oberführer. ‘I agree that such a task calls for sacrifice and fortitude; but he will be well paid for it, and if he is successful I'll see to it that he gets an Iron Cross, 4th Class.'

‘Very well,' Gregory nodded, ‘I'll put it to him.'

‘When could you give me his answer?'

‘I'll speak to him after lunch, but I think we ought to give him an hour or two to think it over.'

‘That's reasonable. All right, then. I'll return here about six o'clock, and over a drink together you can tell me his reaction.'

For the rest of the meal they talked about the war and Gregory related some of his mythical experiences in Norway. Then, as soon as the two Nazis had left, he found Kuporovitch and took him into the garden at the back of the hotel. Having told him about Langbahn's proposal, he said:

‘This is a marvellous break for us if you're willing to play, Stefan. But there's no getting away from the fact that it would mean hell on earth for you as long as you remain in that camp. The ordinary guards won't be told that you are a stool-pigeon, so you'll be treated just like the other prisoners. It's certain that you'll be starved and beaten, and if your fellow prisoners
rumble you they might quite possibly do you in. So I'll think no worse of you if you regard it as asking too much, and somehow I'll get myself smuggled in on a train.'

‘
Ventre du Pape
! You'll do nothing of the kind,' the Russian replied stoutly. ‘If you did you would like as not get caught and anyway that wouldn't give you half as good a chance as this will give me of finding out what's going on there. I'm quite tough enough to take care of myself; and to bitch Hitler's last chance of winning the war I'd willingly spend a year down a coal mine on bread and water.'

‘Good for you, Stefan,' Gregory smiled. ‘I felt sure that would be your answer, but I hate the thought of your having to go through the mill like this while I'm just idling around fishing.'

‘Don't give that a thought, dear friend. But this means we shall be separated, and I will not be able to take the wireless in with me. If I do get on to anything really worth while how the devil am I to let you know about it?'

Kuporovitch's question presented a very difficult problem, but after having discussed it for some ten minutes they agreed on a line for Gregory to take when he saw the Oberführer again that evening.

Langbahn arrived soon after six, and when they had ordered drinks Gregory said, ‘Sabinov is willing to play, if you'll agree to certain conditions. He says that earlier in the war he spent some time as a guard in a Russian prisoner-of-war cage and that half of them died from starvation. I told him that the labour gangs at Peenemünde wouldn't be as ill-fed as all that, but he insists that he should be allowed out one day a week to eat his head off. Rations being what they are, two or three ordinary meals wouldn't be much good; but no doubt if you had a word with the landlady here she'd fix things so that he could stuff himself to the eyebrows. He realises, too, that he'll be letting himself in for a very tough time, so he wants to set himself up each week by a day of real relaxation. There is nothing he enjoys more than going out with me when I'm fishing, so if you're prepared to let him come back to me on Sundays, and arrange for him to have a real blow-out, he's all yours for the rest of the week.'

For a moment Langbahn considered these terms, then he
said, ‘I fully appreciate his point of view and I've nothing against his requests in principle. But it would look very fishy to the other prisoners if one of them were removed from their gang every Sunday, so make them suspicious of him and defeat our object.'

‘That is a snag,' Gregory admitted. ‘But surely there must be scores of gangs and quite a number of deaths that make it necessary to fill them up from time to time with new arrivals. Couldn't you place him with a different gang each week?'

‘I'm afraid that's no good. In six days he wouldn't have been long enough with any set of men to win their confidence.'

Feeling that he now had to take a chance unless Kuporovitch's opportunities of securing information were to be rendered useless, Gregory said, ‘The deal is off, then. He really dug his toes in about being given a break now and again.'

‘Now and again,' Langbahn repeated. ‘That's rather different. If he'd be willing to stick it for spells of a fortnight I'd agree to his terms.'

Gregory nodded. ‘I might be able to persuade him to do that. Particularly if I were able to offer him some additional inducement. How about telling him that instead of a day a week he can have both Sunday and Monday off at the end of each fortnight?'

‘That's fair enough.' The Oberführer finished his drink and stood up. ‘I must be off now. Please put this new proposal to him this evening. If he agrees tell him to come to the Town Commandant's Office tomorrow morning at nine o'clock and report to me.'

Gregory too came to his feet and they exchanged a smart ‘
Heil Hitler
'. But, having turned away, Langbahn suddenly swung round and said, ‘One other thing. If he agrees I shall send him straight over to the island, so you won't see him again until Sunday week. When he has his days off I don't want him to come to and fro on the ferry, because there is just a chance that he might cross with a new batch of prisoners; and if one of them remembered his face afterwards they would tumble to it that he was a stool-pigeon. To avoid that I'll arrange for him to have a pass enabling him to go back and forth by the gate in the wall that we've built to screen Peenemünde. It's much nearer the camp, too. As you have a boat
you can fetch him off at nine o'clock on alternate Sunday mornings and on the Monday evenings you must see to it that he's back through the gate before midnight. Will that be all right with you?'

‘Yes. I'll miss him, of course, but I've nothing against such an arrangement,' Gregory replied truthfully. Then he added with a smile, ‘I'll bring some cold food with me so that the poor fellow can make a hearty breakfast.'

That evening Gregory told Kuporovitch of this most satisfactory arrangement; and on the following morning, with very mixed feelings, he watched his friend march off to report at the Town Commandant's Office.

During the fortnight that followed, Gregory derived little pleasure from his fishing. He could not get his mind off what the loyal Russian must be going through and was in a constant state of anxiety about him. Only one event cheered him a little. As he was now able to receive the B.B.C. news bulletins on his wireless set without danger he listened in to them at various hours once a day; and on the evening of Saturday, July 10th, the successful landing of the Allied Armies in Sicily was announced.

From that he assumed that Churchill had finally lost his battle with the Americans and they had definitely vetoed his cherished plan for liberating Europe by a full-scale invasion of the ‘soft under-belly of the Axis'. Had that not been the case the assault would obviously have been launched in the Adriatic, against the Balkans, or the first landings made in Sardinia as a stepping stone to the gulf of Leghorn and the classic road taken by Napoleon into Austria. The latter, Gregory knew, was the plan that bad always been favoured by the Joint Planning Staff.

The Americans, on the other hand, had always wanted an invasion direct from Britain into France. It seemed evident now that they had got their way, and the operation against Sicily had only the limited objective of relieving Malta and freeing the Mediterranean so that Allied convoys could again be sent through it and thus be saved the long haul round Africa.

Throughout the next week Gregory listened eagerly to the bulletins and since the die was cast it comforted him to learn that in Sicily the Allies were sweeping all before them.

On Sunday the 18th he set out early up the creek in his
motor boat, praying that no ill had befallen Kuporovitch. To his relief the Russian appeared on time, and he brought interesting news.

As he devoured the
Brötchen
Gregory had brought he declared that during the past fortnight he must have lost at least a couple of stone, and that the conditions under which the prisoners had to live were indescribable. They were forced to labour from dawn to dusk filling sandbags with earth and making thick walls with them to screen the buildings in which the scientists were working, they were brutally flogged by their Nazi overseers if they showed the least sign of shirking and fed only on coarse bread and soup made from potato peelings. Daily, numbers of them died from exhaustion or malnutrition and the huts in which they were quartered were pigsties, because they were too feeble at night to attempt to clean them out.

But he had seen the giant rockets, both from the distance on the ground and during several trials when they had been fired. They were, he estimated, as large as had been reported, but more than half those fired had exploded prematurely. It had not, however, been possible to judge the size of the warheads they would carry when they became operational, for these gave only a feeble bang before falling back to earth or into the sea, which showed that the charges in them had been only small ones.

His real news was about another form of secret weapon that was being developed. This was a much smaller type of rocket that had wings and looked like a pilotless aircraft. They also sometimes miscarried and, having circled round, nose-dived into the sea. But there were many more of them and, from their performance, Kuporovitch judged the state of their development to be more advanced than that of the larger rockets.

So that no coded message sent out might be associated with his release from the camp, they decided not to send one till the following afternoon; and when they did send it they did so from far out in the big bay to the south of Wolgast.

On Monday evening, at about half past eleven, Gregory landed Kuporovitch at Peenemünde and watched him disappear through the gates there to face a further twelve days' gruelling ordeal.