The Sixth Key Read Online Free PDF Page B

he was given the task of fine-tuning the
Reichsführer’s genealogy because this meant he had to travel to Switzerland.
Once there, he was seized by a sudden overwhelming sense of liberty. He wanted
desperately to see mountains again, hawks flying overhead and caves below. He
had sorely missed the villages, the lakes and the cool freedom of being awake
beneath a pure, early morning sky.
    On impulse he looked up an old Swiss friend,
Alexis La Dame, but learnt from La Dame’s mother that he was working at the
university in Paris. Rahn hadn’t seen him for almost two years but La Dame was
the sort of friend who remained close despite distances and the vagaries of
fate. They shared a love of the mountains, caves, detective novels, mysteries,
music and, during their potholing days in the south of France, had both
developed a taste for brandy.
    Full of excitement, he secured a certificate
from a Swiss doctor to lengthen his stay, citing exhaustion. He then set about
petitioning the French Embassy for a new passport, all the while writing to
Himmler lies of the wonderful book he was writing, a great tome some two
thousand pages long.
    The day he was denied entry to France he was
feeling particularly low and his spirits became decidedly lower when a German
officer arrived at his door wearing plain clothes. He was carrying orders from
Weisthor, signed by Himmler. A new assignment was waiting for him, something of
great importance, and he was to leave with the man immediately. At this point
Rahn realised his situation – he was not a free man.
    When he returned to Berlin he waited cheerlessly
for Weisthor to call him to his office and to give him the particulars of his
mission, but the days passed with no word. To make things worse, while working
on his own genealogy, to fulfil the requirement for racial acceptability, he
discovered something alarming. His mother’s maiden name was Hamburger,
apparently a name frequently used by European Jews, and to top it off, his
grandfather’s real name was Simeon! Rahn’s ignorance of these particulars did
not surprise him. What parent discussed such things with their children? But
now he was in a mess and the situation grew even more acute when Gabriele
called him one night to warn him that the Gestapo was secretly investigating
Schmid – the mathematician who had worked with him on the De Mengel
article. Rahn took himself to Schmid’s apartment and found the door unlocked
and Schmid gone. Everything was still in its place and even the table was set
expectantly, waiting for a dinner that now lay cold and rotting on the stove.
Rahn made discreet enquiries about Schmid but to no avail – the man had
disappeared without a trace.
    The day Rahn confronted Weisthor on the
matter, he was feeling rather unwell from a bout of the flu and this made him
incautious. Weisthor heard his words in a blank silence and afterwards remained
quiet, as if undergoing some internal debate.
    When he spoke his voice was serious and
conspiratorial. ‘Tell me, Rahn, are you the sort of chap whose ears are
disposed to hearing extraordinary things?’ He blinked and blinked at Rahn,
quite full to the brim with a fierce form of enthusiasm.
    ‘I would like to think so,’ Rahn said, blowing
his nose.
    ‘Well then, close the door, dear boy. Sit down
and listen.’ He regarded Rahn heavily. ‘I like you, I think you know that,’ he
said. ‘I feel that when I talk to you I am speaking to an intellectual equal.
You’re different from the empty-headed puppets that walk about this place and
so I want to tell you something that might save your life. Can I trust you to be
discreet?’
    Rahn nodded, trying to appear the very model
of prudence.
    ‘In the coming months, Rahn, you must get used
to the idea that Germany is going to have to kill an inordinate number of Jews.
But not just Jews,’ he said. ‘You must get used to the idea that the master
race has no time for the sick and the ailing and the degenerate. Do you