Blood of the Reich by William Dietrich Read Free Book Online Page A

man to deal with, but a great hunter. He brought down a magnificent ibex for the Berlin collection at four hundred yards. Crack shot.”
    “Do you know he’s returning to Tibet?”
    “No, we don’t correspond. We had a falling-out.”
    “Over a woman.”
    Hood frowned. “How do you know that?”
    “You saved her.”
    The zoologist looked uncomfortable. “It’s complicated.”
    “I’ll bet.” Hale took a puff again. “A new SS expedition left Genoa in mid-April. Passed through Suez, Colombo, and on to Calcutta. The British tried to hold them up in India but they couldn’t come up with a good enough reason, and now the Nazis have pushed ahead for the Himalayas. Trying to reach the Tibetan capital at Lhasa, from all reports. Why do you think the SS is sending men to Tibet?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “Did you know Raeder was a Nazi?”
    “He wasn’t overtly. Politics rarely came up.”
    Hale puffed again, considering. “Just the pair of happy hunters, were you?”
    “It was a scientific expedition, sponsored by this museum. Raeder had been to the Himalayas once before and was recommended. We didn’t always get along, but that’s normal among scientists. Why this interest in a German zoologist? Nazi or not, he’s hardly a prominent figure of Hitler’s regime.”
    Hale nodded, as if this was an entirely reasonable assessment. “Not yet.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “Hood, we have information that Raeder is being sent back to Tibet by none other than Heinrich Himmler himself, director of the German secret police. Exactly why is unclear. Hunting for Shangri-la, for all we know.”
    The mythical utopia, invented by the British author James Hilton, had become a popular Hollywood movie the year before—a nice antidote to the Depression.
    “Which is fantasy. Hilton’s never even been to Asia.”
    “So were El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth, but the Spanish still looked for them. The krauts are up to something , and my office thinks war is on the horizon. If it comes, we think the United States will be dragged into it, and not on Hitler’s side. We can’t allow the Nazis any advantages.”
    “Tibet is not a strategic power, Agent Hale.”
    “The hell it isn’t. It squats between India, China, and the Soviet Union. It’s more inscrutable than Fu Manchu. It’s the high ground of any Asian contest. And Himmler is sending Raeder there for a purpose.”
    “What purpose?”
    “That’s what we want you to find out.”
    “And how am I to do that?”
    “Roy Chapman Andrews tells me you like the outdoors as much as he does, and you’re about as content in this curio closet as a ferret in a bag. Said he had to give you this grand chamber here to keep you from wandering off to the Smithsonian or Philly.”
    How had Andrews known that? Hood had talked with rival museums but thought he’d kept it a secret.
    “The United States government, Mr. Hood, is offering to give you the necessary paperwork and introductions for your next trip to Tibet, including a reserved flight on the China Clipper , a genuine government-issue Colt .45 automatic, and letters of introduction to the Chinese government, such as it is. We’re giving you diplomatic status to go to Lhasa and, if possible, see this Buddhist pope I understand is cooped up there. Lama, they call him. I thought that was some goat in South America.”
    “The current lama is just a child. There’s a regent, the Reting Rinpoche, or the regent from the Rinpoche monastery.”
    “So we’ll help you see this Reting.”
    “If I track down Raeder and find out what he’s up to.”
    Hale nodded and stubbed out his cigarette on a side table. There was no ashtray; Hood didn’t smoke. “Exactly. Find him, learn what he’s after, and get it first for Uncle Sam. You get an excuse to get out of this mausoleum and serve your country.”
    “At Uncle Sam’s expense?”
    “Actually, we need you to help out with that, given your personal resources and presumed