Comfort to the Enemy (2010) Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, Do you know that south of McAlester, not far, is an army ammunition plant where they store bombs? The Committee wants you to blow it up. Do something for the fatherland for a change.
    I can tell who strung up Willi Martz. You want me to?
    "Be serious for a change."
    All right, how do I get inside th e p lace?
    You'll find a way.
    Do I have to activate the bombs?
    I said, see if blowing the place up is possible.
    Do you remember, Jurgen said, the train ride from Norfolk, Virginia to Oklahoma? How long it took, and we're still only halfway across the country? Let's say I find a way to do it. There is a tremendous explosion at this barren expanse of land in the middle of America. My only thought about it would be, 'So what.'
    I'll tell them you don't think it's feasible.
    No, tell them I've been thinking about a mass escape," Jurgen said, on the Fnhrer's birthday next April. Three-hundred and sixty thousand German prisoners of war, in all the camps in America, all walk out at the same time.
    Otto waited, looking at Jurgen. And do what?
    Nothing, Jurgen said and moved his shoulders, rubbing his back against the wall. Or they steal cars and drive around wherever they are, honking the horns.
    To what purpose?
    You need a purpose? All right, first to show that we can do it, Jurgen said. And second, to let them know we have a sense of humor. Americans don't think we do.
    How do you let all the camps know about the mass escape?
    Announce a special celebration planned for the Fnhrer's birthday.
    All the mail is censored, Otto said, and goes through our post office at Camp Hearne in Texas. How do you tell about the escape?
    We bring our people at the post office into the plan, Jurgen said. They know how to slip notes into letters already passed by the censor.
    They smoked their cigarettes and were quiet until Jurgen said, Why don't you come out with me sometime? I remember your girlfriend in Benghazi, the very pretty blonde Italian? I'm thinking Shemane could fix you up.
    The time they finally get tired of looking stupid and shoot you, Otto said, is the time I happen to be with you.
    *
    Last night after seeing Shemane, Carl went back to his dad's house. He told Virgil about Gary Marion, the one who wanted to be the new hot kid, how he took a swing at Jurgen and Jurgen laid him out with a chair.
    Gary wants to be like you, Virgil said, but didn't have your upbringing, learning the finer points of being a man.
    They were in the kitchen so Carl used the phone there to give the operator the number.
    Virgil said to Narcissa at the stove, the woman stirring tomato sauce in an iron pot, He's calling Kansas City.
    Ask him he wants to stay. We having his favorite.
    I think he's moved back, Virgil said, so he can call long distance and it won't cost him nothing.
    Who is he calling this time?
    Carl said, I want to speak to Teddy. Tell him Deputy U . S . Marshal Carlos Webster is waiting but won't wait too long. Understand?
    Virgil said to Narcissa, He wants to talk to that gangster, Teddy Ritz. Louly said th e w aitresses at his club had to wear teddies, that's all, and high heels.
    Carl said into the phone, Teddy?... Yeah, it's been a while. I hear you got thrown out of your job. It's what happens the guy you're working for goes to prison.
    Virgil said to Narcissa, You remember Pendergast? Ran Kansas City wide open till the serious people got down on him.
    Saying this while Teddy was telling Carl not to worry about him, his club was the hottest spot in town, wall to wall GIs.
    Carl said, I hear you're still being nice to Shemane, and waited while Teddy decided what to tell him.
    Shemane, Teddy said, I can talk to Shemane and know she's listening and gets what I'm telling her ... besides being the best ten minutes in bed I've ever had in my life. You been talking to her?
    I had to question her about a German POW she's seeing.
    She visits this guy?
    He busts out and visits her. Spends a couple of days at her house and gives himself up. Jurgen