The Company of Strangers

‘No, no Captain Nein flew in there with SS General Sepp Dietrich and offered Speer a lift.’

‘Did Speer and the general…talk?’

There was silence at that probability and Voss moved across to some air force officers who were picking over the details of the crash.

‘He must have pulled the self-destruct handle.’

‘Who? The pilot?’

‘No, Todt…by accident.’

‘Did it have a self-destruct mechanism on board?’

‘No, it was a new plane. It hadn’t been fitted.’

‘What was he doing in a two-engined plane in the first place? The Führer has expressly forbidden…’

‘That’s what Todt was told yesterday. He was furious. The Führer waived it.’

‘That’s why they took the plane up for a practice spin.’

‘And you’re sure there was no self-destruct mechanism?’

‘Positive.’

‘There were three explosions…that’s what the flight sergeant said.’

‘Three?’

‘There must have been a self-destruct…’

‘There was none!’

Voss went to the decoding room to pick up any positional changes in the field. He took the decodes to the situation room. The corridor was silent. Hitler rarely moved before eleven o’clock, but on a day such as this? Surely. The apartment door stayed closed, the SS guards silent.

Weber was already working on supply positions in the Ukraine. He didn’t look up. Voss leafed the decodes.

‘SS Colonel Weiss was looking for you,’ said Weber.

‘Did he say what he wanted?’ asked Voss, bowels loosening.

‘Something about those boxes of files…’

‘Have you heard, Weber?’

‘About the plane crash, you mean?’

‘The Reichsminister Todt is dead.’

‘Were those files on board?’

‘Yes,’ said Voss, stunned by Weber’s insouciance.

‘Shit. Zeitzler’s going to be mad.’

‘Weber,’ said Voss, amazed, ‘Todt is dead.’

‘Todt ist tot. Todt ist tot. What can I say, other than it will brighten the Führer’s day not to have that doom merchant on his shoulder.’

‘For God’s sake, Weber.’

‘Look, Voss, Todt never agreed with the Russian campaign and when the Führer declared war on America, well…poof!’

‘Poof!?’

‘Todt was a very cautious man, unlike our Führer who is…what shall we say…?’

‘Bold.’

‘Yes, bold. That’s a good, strong adjective. Let’s leave it at that.’

‘What are you saying, Weber?’

‘Keep your head down and your ears out of that corridor. Do your job, don’t blabber, this is all that matters,’ he said, and drew a circle around himself. ‘You haven’t been here long enough to know what these people are capable of.’

‘They’re already talking about Speer. Goering taking over…’

‘I don’t want to know, Voss,’ said Weber, closing his hands over his ears. ‘And nor do you. You’ve got to start thinking about those files, how they got on that plane and why SS Colonel Weiss wants to talk to you, because if he wanted to talk to me after such a morning I’d have been in the toilet an hour ago. Start thinking about yourself, Voss, because here in Rastenburg you’re the only one who will.’

The mention of the toilet sent Voss out of the room at a brisk pace. He sat in one of the stalls, face in hands, and passed a loose, hot motion which, rather than emptying him, left his guts writhing.

Colonel Weiss caught up with him while he washed his hands. They talked to each other via the mirror, Weiss’s face disturbingly wrong in reflection.

‘Those files…’ started Weiss.

‘General Zeitzler’s files, you mean?’

‘Did you check them, Captain Voss…before you took them into your care?’

‘Took them into my care?’ Voss asked himself, chest wall shuddering at the impact of this implication.

‘Did you, Captain? Did you?’ persisted Weiss.

‘They weren’t mine to check, and even if they were I wouldn’t know why I would have to check a large amount of documentation irrelevant to me.’

‘So who filled those boxes?’

‘I didn’t see them filled.’