Deadly States (Seaforth Files by Nicholas P Clark Book 2) (39 page)

She reinforced the command by raising her weapon a little higher.
Jack
obeyed. She
moved to the head
of the bed. A
quick search under the first pillow revealed nothing. Jack looked very uncomfortable
when she pulled his gun out from under the second pillow.

“So much for trust, Jack,” she added, shaking her head.
“Trust is a two way process,” Jack replied.
“Once you
have listened to what I
have to say I will give you

your gun back. What happens from that point
on will be up to you.
Agreed?”

Jack nodded to confirm his agreement and then he took a seat on
the edge of the bed. The woman rocked to and fro nervously as she
prepared to explain herself. She knew who Jack was and she knew that
he would not be an easy man to win over. Jack was patient with her
as there was something about the look on her face which told of how
she was more sincere than most of the individuals who he encountered.
“Clearly I know who you are Jack. And I know why you are here. I
know that you have been assessing the situation in Russia, but I want
to tell you a little about those things that you didn’t find out whileyou
were in Moscow.”

“You could start by telling me the name of the bastard who knocked
me out and kept
me sedated for days. I am still recovering from that
wee episode,” Jack said, bitterly.

“I do not know which individual was personally involved in those
actions, but I do know a little about the group who they are working
for.”

“I suppose that will have to do.”

“First let
me introduce myself. I am
Alexa Shein. I am a Mossad
agent.”
“That would explain your accent. Though without sounding racist,
you don’t exactly fit with the popular idea of a Middle Eastern Jew.”
“That is the exact reason why they picked me for this assignment.
I can blend in more easily than some of
our
other agents. My family was from Germany. They bought their way to freedom before the
Nazis unleashed hell on our people. I have some relatives still living
in Germany. They returned to their homeland once the war was over.”
The heartfelt explanation was delivered in a very natural way but as

168

she settled into the second part of her story her demeanour changed.
It was almost as if she was ashamed.

“It is the events of the war that not
only brought my family to Israel, but they have also brought me here to you today.”
Jack sighed.
“If this is some hunt for long lost Jewish gold,
or a
modern Nazi
conspiracy, then I’m afraid I
don’t have time. My agency has wasted
many thousands of man-hours looking into such claims and we neither
have the time nor the resources to continue with it. The war
was terrible. Your people suffered in an unimaginable way. We should
never forget what happened but the world has moved on. We have to
focus on the next Hitler and spend less time dwelling on the ghosts of
the past. I’m sorry if that seems blunt.”
“Not at all. I understand completely. My father lost two brothers
to the camps. He spent
decades hunting for those responsible and he
brought several
of them to justice. Even when he had the men in the
dock I never
once got a sense that my father found any contentment.
He did it
because it was the just thing to do, and
only for that reason. So no, I wouldn’t waste my time with such things and I certainly
wouldn’t ask someone like you to help me with such a task.”
There was a short pause. Then she smiled. It was a beaming apology that instantly disarmed Jack.
“Now that I have promised you that my story will not contain any
Nazis I start by going back on that promise. But it is only to set a context. I promise.
As the war came to an end there was naturally chaos
all over Europe and beyond. For every war criminal who was arrested
and brought to justice, a thousand
others went free. With so many
people caught up in the madness of the Nazi years it was going to be
an impossible task to bring everyone to justice. The trials in Nuremberg were designed to provide a
bleeding world with the sense that
justice and the rule of law would always triumph over evil. The trials
also provided a focus for the anger
of hundreds
of millions. But most
importantly, the trials gave the defeated German population absolution. Those Nazi leaders and high-ranking SS who went on trial knew
what their final role was to be. Their sacrifice would allow thousands
of others to keep their national socialist dreams alive.”
Jack cut in as it was nothing that he had not heard a hundredtimes
before.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But this really is heading down a road that I
don’t want to head down.”
“Bear with me. I will get to the point shortly and I will prove to
you how these things do matter and how they have already impacted
on your life.
As I was saying, thousands
of unrepentant Nazis were
allowed to go free. That was the compromise that the allies arrived at.
Stalin wanted to round them all up and execute them; which was an
idea that the
Americans did not find entirely unattractive,
especially
if the Soviets were doing the killing, The British were having none of
it. Churchill argued that
kind
of retribution was something that the
Nazis themselves would have employed and that if they
did go down
that road then they would be as bad as Hitler. Perhaps
on this
one
occasion Stalin’s madness should have been allowed to play itself
out
fully?
“Anyhow, we are where we are and there is no point
on dwelling
too long on what ifs. From 1942 those at the highest levels in the Nazi
leadership knew that Hitler was walking them into defeat. They also
knew that the defeat would spell the end of Germany and they knew
that there was nothing that they could do to stop that from happening. Those men were highly adaptable and many years before the end
finally came they began to put in place a mechanism that would secure
the ideals of National Socialism. It was a philosophy that could easily
be transferred to other parts of the world—the occupations of the Second World War had shown that to be true. They knew that Germany
would be occupied for decades to come and that there would be little
prospect
of
ever rebuilding their Reich with Germany at its centre.
The uniforms and flags and street violence would also be consigned to
the history books. The new National Socialism would be more subtle,
more powerful, and more deadly. It would infiltrate governments all
over the world. It would be at the heart
of
big business and high finance—the plundered wealth of a continent would see to that.
Jack once again interrupted, though this time he felt a little guilty
about doing so. She was
obviously a believer in this nonsense and he
did not want to trample all over her beliefs.