The Shadowboxer (5 page)

Webber motioned. The second display card was unveiled.

Koln

9 January

M
OST CONSIDERATE
C
OMMANDANT
, Please forgive me for troubling you again about my son Martin Vetter, who is one of your prisoners, but as you know from my previous letters I am gravely ill. The doctors now say the road to recovery is off beyond all medical hope. I must prepare to die. Please tell Martin the truck keys are in the house of his Uncle Alfred. Please tell Martin Alfred promised he won't drive it, only guard it. Martin should call Alfred on his release and get it back. Please, I beg you, might I telephone Martin? I am ready for death, but hearing his voice would mean so much.

May God bless you and yours.

I
LSE
V
ETTER

c/o Harovatin

38 Hohenzollernring

Koln.

The ankle locks were chained to the brackets imbedded in the pulpit-balcony floor, the wrist irons to the rungs protruding from the wooden railing. The white-gloved guards stepped back. The Council gazed up at the first witness.

“Name?” asked Webber.

“Prisoner L224537.”

“Speak louder.”

“Prisoner L224537,” the intruder repeated in a somewhat stronger monotone.

“Prisoner from where?”

“Concentration Camp Gusen.”

“Before serving at Gusen had you also been a prisoner at both Bergen-Belsen and Dachau?”

“Yes.”

“Are you a member of a secret prisoner society at Gusen?”

“Yes.”

“Was the society known as the Weeping Nuns?”

“Yes.”

“Were they involved in the Vetter escape?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever seen this letter before?” Webber asked, pointing to the second easel.

“Yes.”

“Does it contain a secret message?”

“Yes.”

“From whom?”

“The Spangler Group.”

“Extract the secret message for us.”

“… Ready … telephone call … guard house … truck off road …”

“How was this message deciphered?”

3

The waiting line for the Prague Industrial Free Clinic began forming in the street at 5
A
.
M
. By dawn it stretched four and a half blocks, and newcomers were sent on their way. Rain started falling at six-thirty. At eight the first four dozen patients were allowed entry to the guarded outer lobby. SS processing was the first stage. Curfew permits, work identification cards, passports, food ration books, work leave-of-absence permits and transportation passes were all inspected, recorded and temporarily confiscated. The group was reassembled and shuttled on to the Medical Processing Section with their clinic permits.

“Name?” asked the Czech volunteer nurse.

“Grebic, Anatol.”

“Middle name?”

“No middle name.”

The woman looked up into the wide, flat face of deep-set black eyes, thick nose and bushy red mustache. “Every Czech has a middle name.”

“This one doesn't.”

“No insolence or you'll be sent to the end of the line.”

“Forgive me, but I was born without a middle name.”

The woman returned to the application form. “Factory?”

“Kulitz Works.”

“Position?”

“Foreman, hand-grenade inspection, Division Two.”

“Type of permit?”

“Dental.”

“Priority?”

“Blue.”

“What doctor are you to see?”

“Sadarski.”

Sadarski set the alarm clock for nine minutes and began pumping the foot pedal. The drill burrowed into the second molar. He leaned closer to Grebic's ear. “Word has just been received over the Goliath Line,” the dentist said softly in Russian. “The Germans believe that Vetter was intercepted by a man named Erik Spangler. This Spangler has been raiding their concentration camps for some time under various aliases, but he's never taken out a political prisoner before.”

Sadarski stood up and glanced down the long row of dentists working on their patients. No one was watching. He leaned forward and resumed the drilling. “The Germans had known very little about this Spangler until the Vetter escape. The tighter security around political prisoners seems to have provided their first tangible information. A secret meeting of the Council for Extreme Security was called yesterday to consider it. The session took place in Munich. Von Schleiben presided. Carrol was provost. The four permanent members in attendance were Platt for Gestapo, Zieff for Abwehr, and Frankel and Lenz for Sipo-SD and Kripo respectively. Six alternate delegates were also present—Waffen-SS, Totenkopf, Frontier Police, Alpine Detachment, Luftwaffe Supply and the subcommandant of Oranienburg.

“The evidence on Spangler was presented by an SD-Ausland colonel named Webber—”

The patient pushed the drill away. “What is SD-Ausland doing on a camp case? The camps are under Gestapo jurisdiction.”

The drill was replaced by a chisel. “Too many new camps are being built. Too many guards are being called to the front. Escapes are increasing. It is too much for the Gestapo alone. SD-Ausland went on the Spangler case two months ago. Webber was operations chief.”

The chisel was set aside, the cavity examined by the mirror explorer. The drill went back into action. “Webber presented the council with a letter addressed to the commandant of Gusen. It was received several days before Vetter's escape. It was supposed to have been written by Vetter's mother, asking permission for something or other. Letters like this are never seen by the commandant, nor are they ever answered. They are read by prisoner secretaries and then burned. Two of these prisoner secretaries were members of the Weeping Nuns, a Catholic secret society at Gusen. The Weeping Nuns were Spangler's contact. The two secretaries and a third Weeping Nun, the man who led Vetter to the fence, were captured shortly after the escape. They appeared as witnesses at the council meeting. They confirmed the SD-Ausland claim that the letter from Vetter's mother contained a secret message. They demonstrated how the message text was extracted from the letter text. Then they—”

Grebic again pulled the hand from his mouth. “How was it done?”

“The key was in the return address on the back of the envelope, in the numeral part of the address,” the dentist answered as he drilled. “If the address was 28 Ringstrasse, then the message was made up of the second word in the first line of the letter, the eighth word in the second line, the second word in the third line, the eighth word in the fourth line and so on. If the address began with an even number, then you started with the first line of the letter and worked down. If the address began with an odd number, then you began with the last full line, the bottom line, and worked up. Apparently the letter-to-the-commandant method of communication was used only by Spangler. The two Weeping Nun secretaries identified incoming Spangler mail by the names over the return address. ‘Tannen,' ‘Heyman,' ‘Warwick' and ‘Harovatin' meant the letter contained a secret message from Spangler.”

The drill was replaced by the chisel. “Testimony at the council stated that the Weeping Nuns found out we were planning to free Vetter—”

The dentist's hand was again pulled away. “Were any names given?”

“Yes, comrade. Both ‘Kerensky Circle' and ‘Kuprov' were mentioned.” The mirror explorer and pick began probing the open mouth. “It was the Weeping Nuns who learned we were coming for Vetter. They contacted Spangler, and the intercept was arranged. The witnesses claimed that Spangler, or what they called the Spangler Group, was one of the three outside organizations they had contact with. They had never seen Spangler or any of his organization. They knew nothing about his operation other than that he contacted them through letter-messages. They claimed that Spangler was their only outside contact specializing in escapes. They said that three weeks prior to Vetter's escape they received word from Spangler that he was interested in political prisoners. It was because of this that the Weeping Nuns notified him about our intention to bring out Vetter. The Weeping Nuns killed our man inside Gusen, replaced him with one of their own and convinced Vetter you were waiting for him beyond the fence. The Weeping Nuns claimed they had no part in the explosions of the guard towers. The witnesses stated they had no idea how it had been arranged.”

The dentist switched back to the drill. “SD-Ausland was trying to use the Gusen letter to cross-identify a series of secret messages they had intercepted at Oranienburg in the last week and a half. Three messages were found. All were contained in newspaper crossword puzzles like the ones being sold on the camp black market. The puzzles were found in a drop at three-day intervals. SD-Ausland photographed each and returned them to their original hiding place. The messages were in simple cipher and read ‘Miss Aïda,' ‘Long for Aïda' and ‘Alert Aïda.' SD-Ausland cryptologists interpreted these to mean ‘Am interested in Aïda,' ‘Prepare Aïda' and ‘Alert Aïda.' All three messages were smuggled into Political Detention and delivered to Friedrich Tolan's daughter, Hilka. SD-Ausland is certain that Hilka Tolan is Aïda and that Spangler is coming for her.”

The patient jerked the drill away. “Is Tolan still alive?”

“I have no idea, comrade,” said Sadarski, pushing the bit back into the cavity. “I can only pass on to you what Goliath relayed to me.” He pumped on the foot pedal, and the drilling resumed. “The problem with the Aïda messages is that no date for escape was given. Neither was there any identification in the messages' text to prove who they came from. This is why a comparison was used.

“The three Weeping Nun witnesses testified that the unique characteristic of Spangler's letter-messages to Gusen was that no dates for escape were ever provided. Secret messages usually came in series. After the prisoner was selected and the escape plan was given, the second-to-last message would establish either a final signal or a secondary and final signal. The last message would be the ‘ready' warning. From that point on, the Weeping Nuns would have to have the prisoner ready for transport at any time. They would have to wait for the final signals, but they never knew when they would come. In some cases they waited up to two weeks.

“In Vetter's situation two ready signals were employed. The first was a telephone call to the guardhouse stating that an incoming delivery truck had crashed nearby. A Weeping Nun prisoner who kept the guardhouse telephone logbook alerted his associates. Vetter was taken to the west fence to wait for the final signal, the second of two power failures.”

Sadarski glanced over at the alarm clock. Three and a half minutes were left. “SD-Ausland was trying to establish that the Oranienburg and Gusen messages were similar in three respects: the date for escape was never given, a final-ready signal system was used, and the sender was never identified in the message text. Since the Gusen letter-message was known to have come from Spangler, they concluded that the crossword-puzzle messages had also come from him.”

Sadarski swung the drill to the side. The chisel began its final scraping. “Two of the Weeping Nun witnesses did know of other organizations working on the no-date, no-identification, final-ready system. One witness remembered a group called the Rag Man who used this pattern in their communication with a secret prisoner society at Dachau. The messages had been conveyed in crossword puzzles. The second Weeping Nun claimed she remembered the crossword puzzle bearing no-date, no-identification, final-alert messages employed by the Tan Man when she was imprisoned at Mauthausen.”

Sadarski made a final probe of the cavtiy. “SD-Ausland produced three more witnesses and five depositions. Both testimony and statements came from former Weeping Nuns now at other camps. All verified that the crossword-puzzle-type messages were the trademark of either the Tan Man or the Rag Man. According to the revised German dossier on Spangler, both Rag Man and Tan Man are among his known aliases.”

The chisel was used for one final ridge. “According to Goliath, the SD-Ausland seems to have convinced the council that Spangler is coming after Hilka Tolan, but they are meeting resistance from the Gestapo. The Gestapo apparently cannot risk the humiliation of another organization solving in two months what they failed with for over a year. The Gestapo is trying everything they can to block the Council's approval of the SD-Ausland capture plan—the Webber Proposition.”

“Will they be able to?”

“It depends on this morning's meeting. If SD-Ausland can establish what day Spangler will be coming for the Tolan girl, then no, there's nothing the Gestapo can do but join in on the trap.”

Sadarski began mixing the silver-amalgam filling. The alarm clock rang. “I am afraid there is not enough time left to close up the tooth,” he said.

“Leave it as it is.”

“It will be very painful, especially in this cold. You have a long way to travel before you reach our lines.”

“Then pull it.”

Sadarski sighed, picked up his forceps and extracted the molar. A moment later the buzzer sounded. All the dentists stopped work.

“Get word to Goliath,” the patient said, spitting blood. “Say that I want an immediate meeting. Go by Situation Three. Also, get me a copy of that dossier.”

Comrade General Kuprov rose to his feet, fell in line with the fifteen other patients and marched from the room.

4

The Council looked up to the pulpit-balcony. The witness's striped uniform had been fashioned into a replica of the SS tunic and breeches. He stood unmanacled. An aura of shabby self-importance lingered.

“Name?” demanded Webber.

“Prisoner SP-M 32113, Herr Standartenfuehrer.”

“Prisoner from where?”

“Concentration Camp Breendonck, now on special assignment to SD-Ausland, Standartenfuehrer.”