The Scarletti Inheritance - By Robert Ludlum Page 0,103

hand and watched Hess. He replied quietly, authoritatively. To be masters of but Germany itself would be sufficient for us. To be able to defend our country is all we ask.'

'That will be the least of your guarantees from us, General.' Scarlett's voice rose no higher than Rheinhart's.

'It is the only guarantee we wish. We are not interested in the excesses your Adolf Hitler preaches.'

At the mention of Hitler's name, Goebbels sat forward in his chair. He was angered by the fact that he could not comprehend.

'Was gibt's mit Hitler? Was sagen sie über inn?'

Rheinhart answered Goebbels in his own tongue. 'Er ist ein sehr storener geriosse.'

'Hitler ist der Weg! Hitler ist die Hoffnung fur Deutschland!'

'Vielleicht fur Sie.11'

Ulster Scarlett looked over at Goebbels. The little man's eyes shone with hatred and Scarlett guessed that one day Rheinhart would pay for his words. The general continued as he unfolded the paper.

The times our nation lives through call for unusual alliances - I have spoken with von Schnitzler and Kindorf.

Krupp will not discuss the subject as I'm sure you are aware - German industry is no better off than the army. We are both pawns for the Allied Controls Commission. The Versailles restrictions inflate us one minute, puncture us the next. There is no stability. There is nothing we can count on. We have a common objective, gentlemen. The Versailles treaty.'

'It is only one of the objectives. There are others.' Scarlett was pleased, but his pleasure was short-lived.

'It is the only objective which has brought me to Montbeliard! As German industry must be allowed to breathe, to export unencumbered, so must the German army be allowed to maintain adequate strength! The limitation of one hundred thousand troops with over sixteen hundred miles of borders to protect is ludicrous!... There are promises, always promises - then threats. Nothing to count on. No comprehension. No allowance for necessary growth.'

'We were betrayed! We were viciously betrayed in nineteen eighteen and that betrayal continues! Traitors still exist throughout Germany!' Hess wanted more than his life to be counted among the friends of Rheinhart and his officers. Rheinhart understood and was not impressed.

'Ja. Ludendorff still holds to that theory. The Meuse-Argonne is not easy for him to live with.'

Ulster Scarlett smiled his grotesque smile. 'It is for some of us. General Rheinhart.'

Rheinhart looked at him. 'I will not pursue that with you.'

'One day you should. It's why I'm here - in part.'

'To repeat, Herr Kroeger. You have your reasons; I have mine. I am not interested in yours but you are forced to be interested in mine.' He looked at Hess and then over at the shadowed figure of Joseph Goebbels by the wall.

'I will be blunt, gentlemen. It is, at best, an ill-kept secret - Across the Polish borders in the lands of the Bolshevik are thousands of frustrated German officers. Men without professions in their own country. They train the Russian field commanders! They discipline the Red peasant army... Why! Some for simple employment. Others justify themselves because a few Russian factories smuggle us cannon, armaments prohibited by the Allied Commission... I do not like this state of affairs, gentlemen. I do not trust the Russians... Weimar is ineffectual. Ebert couldn't face the truth. Hindenburg is worse! He lives in a monarchial past. The politicians must be made to face the Versailles issue! We must be liberated from within!'

Rudolf Hess placed both his hands, palms down, on the table.

'You have the word of Adolf Hitler and those of us in this room that the first item on the political agenda of the National Socialist German Workers party is the unconditional repudiation of the Versailles treaty and its restrictions!'

'I assume that. My concern is whether you are capable of effectively uniting the diverse political camps of the Reichstag. I will not deny that you have appeal. Far more than the others... The question we would like answered, as I'm sure would our equals in commerce. Do you have the staying power? Can you last? Will you last?... You were outlawed a few years ago. We cannot afford to be allied with a political comet which burns itself out.'

Ulster Scarlett rose from his chair and looked down at the aging German general. 'What would you say if I told you that we have financial resources surpassing those of any political organization in Europe? Possibly the Western hemisphere.'

'I would say that you exaggerate.'

'Or if I told you that we possess territory - land - sufficiently large enough to