Traitor's Gate Read Online Free PDF Page B

replied, his words slurred by the split lip. ‘I can’t possibly remember what I was doing on that day.’
    ‘Let me make it easier for you,’ said Klaus. ‘It was your second night in Berlin on leave from Moscow. Does that help?’
    Joachim hesitated, and then spoke quietly. ‘I didn’t know that was his name, but I do remember that meeting.’
    ‘And did you indulge in unnatural acts of a homosexual nature with Bayern Seppl?’ Klaus asked. According to Meisin­ger’s file, he had been spotted by a former male prostitute and blackmailer who had been happy to talk.
    Joachim nodded. ‘Yes, I did.’
    Klaus smiled to himself. This was going to be easy. He ran through three other hurried liaisons that Joachim had been involved in during his brief periods of leave from the Moscow embassy. Klaus had to admire Meisinger’s thoroughness. Joachim denied none of them.
    ‘Excellent,’ said Klaus. ‘Now, tell me about this plot to over­throw the Führer.’
    Joachim licked some blood from his split lip. ‘Certainly. I heard a rumour in Moscow that a plot was afoot. I was curious, so when I returned to Berlin, I asked my friends.’
    ‘I see,’ said Klaus. ‘And from whom did you hear this rumour?’
    ‘From Vassily Dashkov in the Soviet Foreign Office.’
    ‘Not from Johann von Herwarth?’
    ‘No. Certainly not. I never discussed the matter with him.’
    ‘Do you have any details about this plot? Who would be involved?’
    ‘None,’ said Joachim. ‘And I don’t know who would be involved. The army, presumably, upset by the way the Gestapo set up General von Fritsch.’
    ‘General von Fritsch was not set up by the Gestapo,’ Klaus corrected him.
    ‘Forgive me,’ said Joachim. ‘Of course not.’
    ‘Who in the army?’
    ‘I have no idea,’ said Joachim. ‘That was why I was asking Hertenberg the other night. I thought he might know some­thing, but if he did, he wouldn’t tell me.’
    ‘What are the army planning to do?’
    ‘Once again, I have no idea.’
    Klaus raised his eyebrows. ‘You realize that given what you have admitted about your activities over the last few years, we can place you in “protective custody” for violating Article 175 of the Reich Penal Code?’
    ‘Protective custody’ was the legal mechanism whereby the Gestapo could lock someone up without formally charging him. The fiction was that the suspects had to be taken into custody to prevent them from committing future crimes. The prisons of the Third Reich were full of convicted criminals, the concentration camps with citizens in protective custody. All in all it was probably better to be a convicted criminal.
    ‘I know that,’ said Joachim, somehow managing to inject a note of defiance in his voice.
    Klaus was puzzled. This was not going as he had expected. By now Joachim should have been willing to cut a deal. He should have been eagerly explaining exactly who had told him what, and probably throwing in some useful titbits for Meisinger’s files at the same time.
    But he wasn’t doing that. He was holding out. And from the look of defiance on his face he would hold out for some time longer. He was hiding something – something more than a rumour, Klaus was sure of it.
    Klaus asked more questions, about the Moscow embassy, about the rumoured plot against Hitler, about Johnnie von Her­warth, about General von Fritsch, about Conrad de Lancey, about Theo von Hertenberg, with no result. The guards on either side of Joachim were itching to hit him again, but they knew Klaus wouldn’t let them, at least not yet.
    Klaus realized the time had come to exert more pressure. ‘Can you swim, Mühlendorf?’
    ‘Yes,’ the prisoner answered cautiously.
    ‘Excellent. Have you ever found yourself in trouble – you know, out at sea, or in the middle of a large lake far from the shore?’
    ‘No.’ Still cautious.
    ‘So you don’t know what it’s like to drown?’
    ‘No,’ said Joachim, and Klaus thought that he caught