To Catch a King by Jack Higgins Read Free Book Online Page A

took the folded copy of the Windsor report from her stocking.
    “I was put on temporary duty in the copying room today. I had to make copies of this for Heydrich. It's a report of a meeting between Schellenberg and Von Ribbentrop concerning a plot to kidnap the Duke of Windsor.”
    The kitchen door swung open and Hannah stepped into the room. Irene Neumann turned pale. “Oh, God!” she said.
    “No, Irene—it's all right.” Max squeezed her hand reassuringly. “This is my niece, Hannah. Completely trustworthy, I assure you. Now, let me have a look at this.”
    He read it quickly, then passed it to Hannah. “So—now you know. Go on—read it. This is the sort of thing that keeps me here.”
    Her brain seemed to be dulled with the shock of it. She started to read the report and at the same time was aware of Irene Neumann and her uncle speaking in low tones.
    As she finished, she heard the woman say, “Will Moscow be interested?”
    “Perhaps. On the other hand, I might be able to pass it on through the American Embassy. Difficult, though. The Gestapo have forty or fifty men watching the place constantly. You'd better go now. How did you come in?”
    “By the stage door.”
    “Leave the same way.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Look after yourself, Irene. I'll be in touch.”
    When Irene Neumann left by the stage door it had started to rain. She paused to button her overcoat and found an old beret in one pocket which she pulled on.
    There was a street lamp bracketed to the wall at the end of the alley, giving the SD man, on surveillance duty inside the delivery truck parked on the corner, a clear view of her as she walked toward him. He managed to take several photos of her before she turned into the main street and disappeared into the evening crowds.
    “Uncle Max—you're a Communist?”
    “Labels,” he said, “are meaningless these days. The only question that matters is which side are you on. Look, try and understand. In New York, after twenty-five years, I owned a hotel and two nightclubs. Everything paid for and I had half a million dollars in the bank I didn't know what to do with. I was bored. So, I got involved with a Zionist organization that was trying to do something about what was happening to our people in Germany. Your mother knew nothing about it. I came back here in thirty-seven to help organize an escape line for Jews. I gradually got drawn into the other side of things. The only people who are really doing anything worth doing are the Socialist Underground, and by their very nature their links are with Moscow.”
    “And Frau Neumann?”
    “Irene is a dedicated Communist. Not a card-carrying member. What they call a sleeper. Available to party orders since she was a seventeen-year-old student. She really believes Karl Marx walked on water and she loathes the Nazis. She's a clerical worker at Gestapo headquarters. There are people like her in positions of trust all over the country. You'd be surprised.”
    “And this?” She held up the report.
    “I told you Schellenberg was important, didn't I?”
    “But this business about trying to win the Duke of Windsor over to their cause. It's nonsensical. He'd never do such a thing.”
    “I agree, but Schellenberg's instructions seem real enough. If necessary, he's to kidnap the Duke and Duchess. It's as simple as that.” He smiled. “You see, Liebchen. It's now more important than ever that you leave here Monday and make your way to Lisbon.”
    “Taking this with me?”
    “You'd probably do better to memorize it.”
    Suddenly, she was filled with a fierce exhilaration. “You know, Uncle Max, being a Jew never really meant all that much to me until I came here and saw how Jews were treated. It was all right for me. Good clothes, position, an American passport. But I've had to walk by while old ladies with yellow stars on their coats have been kicked into the gutter by animals in uniform. God, but it would be nice to hit back for a