The Valhalla Exchange. Jack Higgins

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СКАЧАТЬ white, the great scar glowing angrily. Birr said gently, ‘He does have a point, Colonel.’

      Hesser said, ‘I could put you gentlemen on short rations and confine you to your cells, but I won’t. Under the circumstances and considering the point in time at which we all stand, I shall have you returned to prisoners’ section and your friends. I hope you will respond in kind to this gesture.’

      Schenck placed a hand on Canning’s arm and the general pulled himself free. ‘For God’s sake, Max.’ He leaned across the desk, voice urgent. ‘There’s only one way out for you. Send Schenck here in search of an Allied unit while there’s still time. Someone you can surrender to legally, saving your own honour and our skins.’

      Hesser stared at him for a long moment, then said, ‘Have the general and Lord Dundrum returned to their quarters now, Schenck.’

      ‘Herr Oberst.’ Schenck clicked his heels and turned to the two men. ‘General?’

      ‘Oh, go to hell,’ Canning told him, turned and walked out.

      Birr paused. For a moment it was as if he intended to say something. Instead, he shrugged and followed. Schenck and Schneider went after them. Hesser went back to the cabinet and poured himself another drink. As he was replacing the bottle, there was a knock on the door and Schenck came back in.

      ‘Would you care for one?’ Hesser asked.

      ‘No thank you, Herr Oberst. My stomach takes kindly only to beer these days.’

      He waited patiently. Hesser walked across to the fire. ‘You think he’s right, don’t you?’ Schenck hesitated and Hesser said, ‘Come on, man. Speak your mind.’

      ‘Very well, Herr Oberst. Yes, I must say I do. Let’s get it over and done with, that’s my attitude. If we don’t then I greatly fear that something terrible may take place here, the results of which may drag us all down.’

      ‘You know something?’ Hesser kicked a log that rolled forward back into place in a shower of sparks. ‘I’m inclined to agree with you.’

      Canning and Birr, followed by Schneider, two soldiers with Schmeissers and Magda, crossed the main hall and mounted the staircase, so wide that a company of soldiers could have marched up line abreast.

      ‘I was once shown over MGM studios by Clark Gable,’ Birr said. ‘This place often reminds me of Stage Six. Did I ever tell you that?’

      ‘Frequently,’ Canning told him.

      They crossed the smaller, upper landing and paused at an oaken, iron-bound door outside of which stood an armed sentry. Schneider produced a key about a foot long, inserted it in the massive lock and turned. He pushed open the door and stood back.

      ‘Gentlemen.’ As they moved in he added, ‘Oh, by the way, the upper section of the north tower is out of bounds and, in future, there will be two guards in the water garden at all times.’

      ‘That’s really very considerate of you,’ Birr said. ‘Don’t you agree, General?’

      ‘You can play that vaudeville act all night, but I’ve had it,’ Canning said and started up the dark stone stairway.

      Birr followed him and the door clanged shut behind them. They were now in the north tower, the central keep of the castle, that portion to which in the old days the defenders had always retreated in the last resort. It was completely isolated from the rest of Schloss Arlberg, the lowest window fifty feet from the ground and heavily barred. It made a relatively secure prisoners’ section under most circumstances and meant that Hesser was able to allow the inmates certain freedom, at least within the confines of the walls.

      Madame Chevalier was playing the piano, they could hear her clearly – a Bach prelude, crisp and ice-cold, all technique, no heart. The kind of thing she liked to play to combat the arthritis in her fingers. Canning opened the door of the dining hall.

      It was a magnificent room, a high arched ceiling festooned with battle standards from other times, a magnificent selection of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century armour on the walls. The fireplace was of baronial proportions. Gaillard and Claire de Beauville sat beside the log fire, smoking and talking quietly. Madame Chevalier was at the Bechstein.

      At the sight of Canning and Birr, she stopped playing, gave a howl of laughter and started into the ‘Dead March’ from Saul.

      ‘Very, very humorous,’ Canning told her. ‘I’m splitting my sides laughing.’

      Claire and Paul Gaillard stood up. ‘But what happened?’ Gaillard said. ‘The first I knew that there was anything amiss was when men arrived to lock the upper tower door. I’d just come down after securing the rope.’

      ‘They were waiting for us, that’s what happened,’ Birr said. ‘Dear old Schneider and Magda panting eagerly over Hamilton as usual. He’s become the great love of her life.’

      ‘But how could they have known?’ Claire demanded.

      ‘That’s what I’d like to know,’ Canning said.

      ‘I should have thought it obvious.’ Birr crossed to the sideboard and helped himself to a brandy. ‘That gardener, Schmidt. The one you got the information about the drainage system from. Maybe a hundred cigarettes wasn’t enough.’

      ‘The bastard,’ Canning said. ‘I’ll kill him.’

      ‘But after you’ve had a bath, Hamilton – please.’ Claire waved a hand delicately in front of her nose. ‘You really do smell a little high.’

      ‘Camembert – out of season,’ said Gaillard.

      There was general laughter. Canning said grimly, ‘The crackling of thorns under a pot, isn’t that what the Good Book says? I hope you’re still laughing, all of you, when the Reichsführer’s thugs march you out to the nearest wall.’ He walked out angrily during the silence that followed. Birr emptied his glass. ‘Strange, but I can’t think of a single funny thing to say, so, if you’ll excuse me …’

      After he’d gone, Gaillard said, ‘He’s right, of course. It isn’t good. Now if Hamilton or Lord Dundrum had got away and reached American or British troops, they could have brought help.’

      ‘Nonsense, this whole business.’ Claire sat down again. ‘Hesser would never stand by and see us treated like that. It isn’t in his nature.’

      ‘I’m afraid Colonel Hesser would have very little to do with it,’ Gaillard said. ‘He’s a soldier and soldiers have a terrible habit of doing what they’re told, my dear.’

      There was a knock at the door, it opened and Hesser came in. He smiled, his slight half-bow extending to the three of them, then turned to Madame Chevalier.

      ‘Chess?’

      ‘Why not?’ She was playing a Schubert nocturne now, full of passion and meaning. ‘But first settle an argument for us, Max. Paul here believes that if the SS come to shoot us you’ll let them. Claire doesn’t believe you could stand by and do nothing. What do you think?’

      ‘I have the strangest of feelings that I will beat you in seven moves tonight.’

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