lunches and dinners, we've fed him hundreds of names French German, English, American."
"What names?" Traupman interrupted impatiently.
"Those men and women in Germany and abroad who silently support us, who contribute heavily to our causein essence, people of influence and power who actually work for the Brotherhood."
"Are you mad?"
"Among this silent, unrevealed elite," continued Kroeget, overriding Traupman's vehement interjection, "are American congressmen, senators, and captains of industry and the media. Also, members of the British establishment, not unlike the Cliveden set that gave Hitler his supporters in England, including clandestine policymakers in British intelligence-"
"You've lost your mind-" "Please, Hans, let me finish.. .. In Paris we have influential sympathizers in the Quai d'Orsay, the Chamber of Deputies, even the secret [email protected] Bureau. And finally in Germany itself, a number of Bonn's most prestigious authorities. They yearn for the old days before the Fatherland was polluted by the screaming weak who want everything but contribute nothing, the inferior bloodlines that corrupt our nation. Latham has all of this information, all the names. As a trained deep-cover intelligence officer, he'll report the vast majority."
"You are certifiable, Kroeger! I will not permit it!"
"Oh, but you must, Dr. Traupman. You see, except for a small number of legitimate, supporter who are expend- 9
able for establishing credibility, everything that Harry Latham carries out of our valley is false. The names he has in his head and concealed in his codes are, indeed, vital to us, but only in the sense that these people be discredited, even destroyed. For, in truth, they deeply oppose us, many stridently vocal in their opposition. Once their names are flashed secretly to the global intelligence networks, the witch hunts will begin. As the most sincere among them fall through official suspicion and manufactured innuendo, the resulting vacuums will be filled by many of our own .. . yes, disciples, Hans.
Especially in America, the most powerful of our enemies, for it is also the most susceptible. One has only to recall the frenzied Redbaiting of the forties and fifties. It became a nation paralyzed by fear, thousands upon thousands tainted with the Soviet brush, whole industries caving in to the paranoia, the country weakened from within. The Communists knew how to do it; Moscow, as we have learned, secretly funneled both money and ersatz information to the zealots.. .. One man can start this process for us. Harry Latham, code name Sting."
"My God!" Traupman sank back in the chair, his voice barely above a whisper.
"It is brilliant. For he's the only person who's penetrated the core, found the valley. They'll have to believe him everywhere
"He will escape tonight."
einrich Kreitz, German ambassador to the Republic of France, was a short, slender man of seventy years .Hwith a gaunt face, silk like white hair, and sad hazel eyes, perpetually creased. For years a professor of European political development at the University of Vienna, he had been plucked from academia and recruited into the diplomatic corps, due mainly to his numerous papers detailing the history of international relations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These lengthy articles were combined into a book entitled, quite naturally Discourse Between Nations, a staple for diplomats in seventeen languages, as well as a foreign services text in universities across the civilized world.
It was 9:25 in the morning and Kreitz, seated in front of the American ambassador's desk, stared in silence at Drew Latham, who stood to the left of Ambassador Courtland. Against the wall, on a couch, sat the Deuxieme's Moreau.
"My shame is my country's guilt," said Kreitz finally, in his voice a sadness that matched his eyes, "the guilt of having permitted such monsters, such criminals, ever to have ruled our nation. We will increase our efforts, if that's humanly possible, to root them out and destroy whatever nucleus they have. Please understand, gentlemen, my government is dedicated to exposing them, to eliminating them, if it means building a thousand new prisons to contain them. We, above all, cannot afford their existence, surely you know that."
"We know it, Monsieur lAmbassadeur," said Claude Moreau, from the couch, "but it seems you have a strange way of going about it.
Your Polizei are aware of the leaders of these disrupting fanatics in a dozen cities. Why are they not incarcerated?"
"Where violence can be proved against them, they are. Our courts are filled with such indictments. But where mere dissent is concerned, we are also a democracy; we have the same freedom of speech that permits you your peaceable strikes, the Americans