Herr Doktor Traupman off to a bunker in the Black Forest. I'd say we've got one shot and it had better work. So we wait, we study, and make sure it's our best shot."
"It's the waiting that bothers me, Stosh."
"The prospect of failure bothers me a lot more," said the colonel.
Suddenly a low, trilling sound erupted from Witkowski's jacket. He reached in and pulled out a small portable phone supplied by the German branch of the [email protected]
"Yes?"
"Sorry I'm late for breakfast" were the English words spoken in a pronounced French accent over the line.
"I'm only a short distance from the cafe and should be there in a few minutes."
"We'll reorder your eggs, they're cold by now."
"Thank you very much. Cold poached eggs are no eggs at all."
The colonel turned to his colleagues around the table.
"One of Moreau's men will be here in a couple of minutes. Karin, would you mind going to the desk and bringing him here?"
"Not at all. What's his name and cover?"
"Ahrendt, associate professor, University of Nuremberg. I?
"I'm on my way." De Vries rose from her chair, walked to the door, and left the room.
"That lady is something," said the young commando, Lieutenant Anthony.
"I mean, she's really into history and the arts-"
"We know," Latham broke in dryly.
The man Karin returned with looked like an average German bank teller, medium height, well dressed in well pressed off-the-rack clothing of medium cost. Everything about him was medium, which meant he was a superior operative for the spiderlike [email protected]
"No names are required, gentlemen," he said, smiling sweetly.
"Even false names-they get so confusing, don't they? However, for convenience sake, just call me Karl, it's such a common name."
"Sit down, Karl," said Drew, gesturing at an empty chair.
"I don't have to tell you how much we appreciate' your assistance."
"I only hope and pray it will be helpful."
"The praying makes me nervous," interrupted Drew.
"You don't sound terribly confident."
"You've embarked on an extremely difficult task."
"We also have extremely competent assistance," said Witkowski.
"Can you aad anything to the report?"
"Quite a bit. Let me start with what we've achieved since the report was sent to Paris. Traupman funnels the majority of his personal business through the office of the hospital's immensely wealthy chairman, a politically and socially connected man-it's an ego trip for Traupman, as if the chairman were at his beck and call."
"That's a little weird, considering who Traupman is," said Gerald Anthony, the scholar.
"Not really, Gerry," Christian Dietz disagreed.
"It's like the secretary of defense ordering up an aircraft by way of the Oval Office. He may be a big man on campus, but there's no one bigger than the President. It's actually very German."
"Exactly." The man who called himself Karl nodded.
"And since those instructions are recorded so as to avoid error or blame-also very German-we compromised a hospital clerk into relaying Traupman's instructions to US."
"Wasn't that dangerous?"
"Not if he was convinced by a uniform that it was Polizei security."
"You fellows are good," said Dietz.
"We'd better be or we're dead," said Karl.
"At any rate, Traupman has made a reservation for six at the garden terrace of the Gartenhof restaurant for eight-thirty this evening."
"Let's try it." Lieutenant Anthony was emphatic.
"On the other hand, our man at the airstrip informed us that Traupman has ordered his plane to be ready at five o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Destination Bonn."
"A neo meeting on the Rhine," said Dietz.
"The water's best, I know it."
"Easy, Chris," countered the lieutenant.
"We screwed up on the north beach in Kuwait, remember?"
"We didn't screw up, buddy, the cowboy SEALs did. They were so hyped, they plugged up the engine returns.. Anyway, we saved their asses by crawling over the sides and-"
"History," Lieutenant Anthony interrupted.
"They got the medals and they deserved them. Two of them got wasted, I hope you remember that too."
"It shouldn't have happened," said Dietz quietly.
"But it did," added Anthony, even quieter.
"So we have two opportunities," said Latham firmly.
"Tonight at the restaurant, and tomorrow on the Rhine. What do you think, Karl?"
"Both are equally treacherous. I wish you well, my friends."
In the discarded, obsolete airfield north of Lakenheath, in the cut down meadows of County Kent, the two huge reconditioned Messerschmitt ME 323 gliders had been assembled. It remained only for the powerful jets to sweep down, their engines cut at ten thousand' feet so their descents would make minimal noise. Water Lightning would take place within one hundred hours.
In the flattest expanse of bank land between the Dalecarlia reservoir and the Potomac River, two other mammoth reassembled ME 323 gliders-having first been stripped and