Storm Warning. Jack Higgins

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СКАЧАТЬ point of view; for which I can only hope they’ll forgive me when they know the facts. But we don’t really have any choice.’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘The Brazilians are starting to play a more active part in the war. Last month they sent troops to Italy. I think things could get much more difficult for us here.’

      ‘And the other reason?’

      ‘You think I have one?’

      She waited, hands folded, saying nothing. Berger shrugged, opened the drawer of his desk and took out a wallet. He extracted a snapshot and passed it across. It was badly creased and discoloured by salt water, but the smiles on the faces of the three small girls were still clear enough.

      ‘Your children?’

      ‘Taken in forty-one. Heidi, on the left, will be ten now. Eva is eight and Else will be six in October.’

      ‘And their mother?’

      ‘Killed in a bombing raid on Hamburg three months ago.’

      She crossed herself automatically. ‘What happened to the children?’

      ‘Herr Prager got word about them for me through our embassy in the Argentine. My mother has them in Bavaria.’

      ‘Thank God in his infinite mercy.’

      ‘Should I?’ Berger’s face was pale, jaw set. ‘Germany is going under, Sister, a matter of months only. Can you imagine how bad it’s going to be? And my mother’s an old woman. If anything happens to her …’ A kind of shudder seemed to pass through his body and he leaned heavily on the desk. ‘I want to be with them because that’s where I’m needed, not here on the edge of the world, so far off that the war has ceased to exist.’

      ‘And for that you’ll dare anything?’

      ‘Including five thousand miles of ocean dominated completely by the British and American navies, in a patched-up sailing ship that hasn’t been out of sight of land in twenty years or more. An old tub, that hasn’t had a refit for longer than I care to remember. An impossible voyage.’

      ‘Which Herr Richter, your bosun, is apparently willing to make.’

      ‘Helmut is a special case. The finest sailor I’ve ever known. He has invaluable experience under sail. Served his time as a boy on Finnish windjammers on the Chilean nitrate run. That may not mean a lot to you, but to seamen anywhere …’

      ‘But according to Herr Prager there are another twenty men in your crew who are also willing to make this so-called impossible voyage.’

      ‘Most of them with a reason roughly similar to mine. I can think of at least seventy men in Rio who would gladly stand in their shoes. They held a lottery for the last ten places in a German bar on the Rio waterfront two weeks ago.’ He shook his head. ‘They want to go home, Sister, don’t you see? And for that, to use your own words, they’ll dare anything.’

      ‘And my friends and I are different, is that it? We too, have families, Captain, as dear to us as yours. More than that, because of what lies ahead, home is where we are needed now.’

      Berger stood staring at her for a moment, then shook his head. ‘No. In any case, it’s too late. You’d need Swedish papers, that’s an essential part of the plan. Prager’s arranged them for all of us.’

      She got to her feet, opened the cabin door and called, ‘Herr Prager!’

      He moved in out of the rain. ‘What is it?’

      ‘My papers, please. May I have them now?’

      Prager opened his briefcase. He searched inside, then took out a passport which he dropped on the desk in front of Berger.

      Berger frowned. ‘But this is Swedish.’ He opened it and Sister Angela stared out at him from the photo. He looked up. ‘I wonder if you’d be so kind as to step outside for a moment, Sister. I’d like a few words with my good friend here.’

      She hesitated, glanced briefly at Prager, then went out.

      Prager said, ‘Look, Erich, let me explain.’

      Berger held up the passport. ‘Not something you can pick up at twenty-four hours’ notice, so you must have known about this for quite some time. Why in the hell didn’t you tell me?’

      ‘Because I knew you’d react exactly as you are doing.’

      ‘So you thought you’d leave it until it was too late for me to say no? Well, you made a mistake. I won’t play. And what about this mission station they’ve been operating? Is it suddenly so unimportant?’

      ‘The Brazilian Department of the Interior has changed its policy on the Indians in that area; moving them out and white settlers in. the mission was due to close anyway.’

      ‘They’re a nursing order, aren’t they? Surely there must be some other outlet for their talents up there.’

      ‘They are also Germans, Erich. What do you think it’s going to be like when those first Brazilian casualty figures start filtering through from Italy?’

      There was a long pause. Berger picked up the Swedish passport, opened it and examined the photo again. ‘She looks like trouble to me. She’s been used to getting her own way for too long.’

      ‘Nonsense,’ Prager said. ‘I knew her family from the old days. Good Prussian stock. Her father was an infantry general. She was a nurse on the Western Front in nineteen-eighteen.’

      Berger’s astonishment showed. ‘A hell of a background for a Little Sister of Mercy. What went wrong? Was there some sort of scandal?’

      ‘Not at all. There was a young man, I believe. A flier.’

      ‘… who didn’t come back one fine morning so she sought refuge in a life of good works.’ Berger shook his head. ‘It’s beginning to sound like a very bad play.’

      ‘But you’ve got it all wrong, Erich. The way I heard it, he simply let her think he was dead. She had a breakdown that almost cost her life and was just coming out of it nicely when she met him walking along the Unter den Linden one day with another girl on his arm.’

      Berger held up both hands. ‘No more. I know when I’m beaten. Bring her back in.’

      Prager went to the door quickly and opened it. She was standing outside talking to the bosun.

      Berger said, ‘You win, Sister. Tell Richter to have you taken ashore to collect the rest of your friends. Be back here by two a.m. because that’s when we leave, and if you aren’t here, we go without you.’

      ‘God bless you, Captain.’

      ‘I think he’s got enough on his plate at the moment without me.’ As she moved to the door, he added, ‘Just one thing. Try not to let the crew know before they have to.’

      ‘Are they likely to be disturbed by our presence?’

      ‘Very СКАЧАТЬ