Shadows of War by Michael Ridpath Read Free Book Online Page A

intelligence officer aboard the Dresden in the South Atlantic, he had used bluff and double bluff to stay one step ahead of the Royal Navy, were legendary. A model of the ship stood on his desk.
    ‘I know there have been some Gestapo agents operating in Holland,’ Theo said. ‘Mörz, for one.’
    ‘I’ll talk to Schellenberg, see if he knows anything.’ Canaris and the new young head of the foreign-intelligence section of the Gestapo were neighbours in the Berlin suburb of Schlachtensee, and occasionally rode together in the Tiergarten. Although Canaris held the Gestapo in contempt, he had some respect for Schellenberg. Theo had never met Schellenberg and found the Gestapo’s efforts at spying frustrating.
    ‘If it is a trap, we don’t want de Lancey caught in it,’ said Oster. ‘He knows too much about us.’
    ‘De Lancey won’t talk,’ Theo said. ‘I mean, he will talk, but not about us. He has outwitted the Gestapo before.’
    ‘That’s true,’ said the admiral. ‘But we don’t want to rely on anyone keeping quiet once Heydrich has his hands on them. Warn de Lancey to be careful, Theo, until we are sure who exactly this Schämmel is.’
    ‘Certainly, your excellency.’
    ‘And the other matter?’
    ‘I have been having some very interesting conversations with Mr Bedaux...’
    After the meeting, Theo followed Oster to his office.
    ‘Do you think Halder really will move on the fifteenth?’ Theo asked the colonel.
    ‘He’s trying to persuade Hitler that the weather will be too bad to launch an offensive,’ Oster said. ‘But Hitler won’t listen.’
    ‘So the coup will go ahead?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Oster. ‘I mean, if Halder really wanted to overthrow Hitler he would be urging that Case Yellow would go ahead.’ Case Yellow was the general staff’s plan to invade the Low Countries and attack France from the north. ‘That’s what we were all hoping for last year.’
    It was true. Theo remembered how the conspirators had prayed for Hitler to order the invasion of Czechoslovakia so they could launch their coup. When he had called it off at the last minute in response to Chamberlain’s peace overtures, they had all been devastated.
    ‘It’s more difficult now we are at war,’ Theo said.
    ‘It is,’ said Oster. ‘You know, Theo, strictly between us, in my view it would be a disaster for our country if France was knocked out of the war.’
    Theo trusted his superior. Oster was the driving force behind the conspiracy. Canaris left Oster, and through him Theo, to do the organizing. Canaris was careful to preserve the delicate balance of loyalty to the Fatherland and willingness to overthrow its leader. Oster had fewer qualms.
    Theo nodded. ‘I understand, Colonel.’ He also understood how Oster’s words would be seen as treason, not just by the Nazis, but by most German officers and by Admiral Canaris himself.
    Theo had intended to tell no one what he had told Conrad. But somehow telling Oster made what Theo had done less treasonable. Like Theo, Oster believed that the most important thing for Germany, the only thing for Germany, was to get rid of Hitler by any possible means.
    ‘I gave de Lancey the date of Case Yellow,’ Theo said.
    Oster looked at Theo gravely. And then a smile spread across his face. ‘And I told the Dutch military attaché last night that we would be invading his country next week. But let’s keep this to ourselves, eh, Theo? And now, isn’t it about time you went back to Holland?’

8
    Munich
    Fräulein Peters stared down at the Bavarian countryside flickering beneath the clouds below her and marvelled at her good fortune. It was her first time in an aeroplane and it ranked as one of the most exciting days of her twenty years. Not only was she a thousand metres up in the sky, but she was there with the Führer! Six months before, she would never have believed it. Then she had been transferred to the Reich Chancellery secretariat, and for the last three