The Berkut Read Online Free PDF Page B

In all probability, even the residents didn't suspect what they lived on top of.
    In the middle of the block, Brumm entered a walkway between two. of the brick structures. He opened the back door to a house, using a key that hung from a lanyard around his neck, and went into the flat. Spreading the Valkyries out to cover doors and windows, he left them and went directly to a back bedroom on the ground floor, where he entered a large closet. Closing the door tightly behind him, he loosened a hinged clothes dowel, which was a concealed lever. Pushing it down, he activated a small hydraulic system, and the room began to move downward. Aher a few feet it stopped and a gruff voice challenged him. "Wolf," Brumm said, and the descent began again, the lift's electric motor humming. At the bottom was a steel door. When the lift settled, the door slid back and he stepped into a well furnished room whose mahogany paneling and soft yellow lights created a feeling of comfort.
    Brumm found himself staring down the barrel of a machine pistol.
    "Just in case. Damned Russians are all over the place. You're late," the man said good-naturedly. Brumm could tell he had been worried.
    Sergeant Major Hans Rau had long blond hair and full reddish facial hair, hence his nickname, "Beard." He was dressed in civilian clothes, but was in fact, like Brumm, a commando. "Everything is fucked up," he complained. "Russian snipers are scampering all over the city, shooting at everything that moves. They're terrible shots! It's pure luck that this street is still standing. At the rate they're throwing in shells, it won't last for long. I've heard a Werewolf transmission from the Elbe: the Americans have stopped their advance."
    Brumm froze and stared at his sergeant. "Stopped?"
    "Dead in their tracks. Looks like they're going to let the Russians have Berlin."
    "Bastards," the colonel swore loudly. "A sellout." "How does it affect us?"
    "We anticipated that the drive to Berlin might spread the Americans out and provide more seams in their lines for our breakout. Now they'll be clustered along the river, covering all the crossing points, which will make it more difficult for us. Where is our Alpha?"
    Rau motioned toward a nearby door and winked. "He's in there, filling an accommodating Fraulein with his final seed." He made a curvy line in the air with his gun barrel. "The Alpha is ready and anxious to do his duty for his Reich and FUhrer-just as soon as he's finished." He laughed loudly and smacked his thigh.
    "What about the bunker? Do you know what's going on over there?"
    "The listening devices are working. They're beginning to clear out.
    Several have been dispatched to Admiral Doenitz, with the FUhrer's final will and testament."
    "Who did he send?"
    "Johannmeier, Zander and Lorenz left at noon. Boldt, Weiss and Freytag von Loringhoven will go later." These were all aides or assistants of Reich officials; Brumm knew them well. But there was one, more than all the others, he was concerned about. It was Hitler's young Luftwaffe adjutant who concerned Brumm most; they needed him out of the Chancellery area.
    "What about von Below?" "They haven't mentioned him."
    "The Fü hrer will see to it that Colonel von Below leaves. He's too dangerous to let linger. Besides, he's Hitler's favorite. Like many of our pilots, that one is a reptile, an iceman. He would see what was going on."
    The sergeant major nodded as he pulled an unopened bottle of cognac from a wide drawer in a marble-topped table. They toasted each other silently and held the fiery liquid in their mouths, enjoying its intensity.
    "The Americans aren't the only surprises today," Brumm said seriously. "My friend, how do you feel about women in the SS?" A smile crept over his face.
    "Bitte?" Rau said. It was not like his colonel to make jokes.
    7 - APRIL 30, 1945, 1:45 P.M.
    Adolf Hitler sat quietly at the table, picking at a small dish of spaghetti. Now and then he munched a small leaf of wilted lettuce,