Luciano's Luck Read Online Free PDF Page A

and Greece. Any attack on Sicily will be diversionary.’
    There was a heavy silence. General Walther said, ‘We'd be interested in your opinion. Feel free to speak.’
    ‘What can I say, Herr General.’ Koenig shrugged. ‘Miracles do occur on occasions, even in this day and age. Presumably this British Major's being so conveniently washed up on a Spanish beach where our agents could have a sight of the letters he was carrying, was one of them.’
    ‘But on the whole,’ Kesselring said, ‘you don't believe in miracles.’
    ‘Not since I stopped reading the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Herr Field Marshal.’
    ‘Good.’ Kesselring was all business now. ‘Give me your personal assessment of the situation here.’
    Koenig stood up and moved round to the map. ‘As regards partisan activity, two important groups. The Separatists, who want an independent Sicily, and the Communists. We all know what they want.
    ‘They cut each other's throats as cheerfully as they do ours.’
    ‘General Walther was explaining to me about this Mafia movement,’ Kesselring said. ‘Are they a force to be reckoned with?’
    ‘Yes, I think they have very real power under the surface of things and again, they are peculiarly Sicilian. Mainland Italy and Mussolini mean nothing to them.’
    ‘And if an invasion comes, they will fight?’
    ‘Oh, yes, I think so.’ Koenig nodded. ‘All of them. Our main worry would be the Italian Army itself.’
    ‘You think so?’ Kesselring asked.
    Koenig took a deep breath and jumped in with both feet. ‘Frankly, Herr Field Marshal, I think the fact must be faced that the Italian people as a whole, have lost any interest they ever had in the war and all enthusiasm for Mussolini.’
    There was a slight pause and then Kesselring smiled. ‘An accurate enough assessment. I wouldn't disagree with that. So, you think invasion will come to Sicily?’
    Koenig ran a finger along the road south from Palermo to Agrigento. ‘Here is the most vital road in the whole of Sicily, passing through the Cammarata, one of the wildest and most primitive places in the island. There has been considerable partisan activity in that area recently. According to our informants, a number of American agents have been dropped by parachute during the past few weeks. So far, we haven't succeeded in catching any of them.’
    Kesselring picked up a folder from the desk. ‘And yet you almost had this man.’ He opened the file. ‘Major Harry Carter, in charge of the Italian desk at Special Operations Executive in Cairo. You had him, Koenig, and let him slip through your fingers.’
    ‘With respect, Herr Field Marshal,’ Koenig corrected him firmly, ‘my task was to provide backup forces on the ground. The affair was in the hands of the Geheimefeldpolizei and Gestapo. And I would remind you, sir, that thanks to Russia, I have only thirtyfive men remaining in what was once a battalion. Not a single officer is left on the strength except myself.’
    ‘The capture of Carter would have been an intelligence coup of the first order and Berlin, in the person of Reichsführer Himmler, is not pleased. To that end he has ordered the transfer of one of his most trusted intelligence officers from the Rome Office to work with you here.’
    ‘I see, Herr Field Marshal,’ Koenig said. ‘Gestapo?’
    ‘Oh, no,’ Kesselring told him gravely. ‘Rather more important than that.’ He turned to Walther. ‘Show Major Meyer in.’
    The man who entered was broad and squat with a flat Slav face and cold blue eyes. Koenig recognized the type at once for the security service was full of them; expolice officers, more used to the criminal underworld than anything else. He wore SS field uniform and his only decoration was the Order of Blood, a much coveted Nazi medal specially struck for those who had served prison sentences for political crimes in the old Weimar Republic. The most interesting fact about him was his cufftitle which carried the