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“Certainty not,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said. “There is no suspicion that in any way reflects on your own loyalty.”

“Then… what?”

“It is considered possible that he will attempt to contact you, most probably through third parties, but perhaps in person,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said. “FEG is involved with much that is of interest to the Americans.”

“I must strenuously protest even the suggestion—”

“Herr Baron, there is no question whatever in my mind of your loyalty. But he is your flesh and blood!”

“If he is connected with American military intelligence,” the Baron said, “he is an enemy of the German state. That transcends anything else.”

“I am going to give you my private telephone number,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said. “And the private telephone number of Standartenführer Müller, who is handling this matter for the Sicherheitsdienst. If there is any attempt by your son to contact you, or if anything comes up that arouses your suspicions in any way, I want you to contact either of us immediately.”

“Yes, of course,” the Baron said.

Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz wrote the numbers on the back of another of the calling cards identifying him as Brigadeführer SS-SD, and handed it to the Baron.

“Thank you for giving me your time at this period of grief,” he said.

"I thank you for your understanding, Herr Brigadeführer,” the Baron said.

The Baron, von Heurten-Mitnitz thought, is fully prepared to denounce his son to the authorities if given the chance. And Eric von Fulmar and Colonel William J. Donovan of the OSS certainly had known he would. What, then, is the meaning of the postcard from Eric von Fulmar asking that his father be given his regards?

“One final question, Herr Baron,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said. “Are you acquainted with Professor Doktor Friedrich Dyer?”

He saw on von Fulmar’s face that the question struck home.

“I am not personally acquainted with him,” the Baron said. “But he is, at the request of Reichsminister Speer, serving as a consultant to our Marburg Werke.”

“So I understand,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said smoothly. “But you’re not personally acquainted with him?”

“No,” the Baron said.

Von Heurten-Mitnitz now understood that the answers to the questions posed by the Bad Ems postcard had to lie with Professor Dyer of the University of Marburg, his relationship with the Fulmar Werke there, and most important of all, his relationship with Albert Speer. Müller was going to have to go to Marburg, while he himself tried to find out why Reichsminister Speer was interested in an obscure professor there.

VI

Chapter ONE

The U.S. Navy

Bureau of Aeronautics

Washington, D.C.

31 December 1942

The second-ranking officer in the United States Navy was formally known as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (DCNO). The DCNO was a busy man.

When he had business, for example, with the Director, U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, the DCNO’s aide-de-camp would call the Director BUAIR’s aide-de-camp and tell him the DCNO wished to see the Director, BUAIR, and that if it was convenient, he would like to do so from, say, 1420 hours to 1445 hours on that day, or maybe the next. The DCNO’s aide-de-camp was very rarely told that the “suggested” time and date would be inconvenient.

The chain of command was considered very important to the smooth administration of the Navy Department in Washington. If the DCNO had business with a subordinate of the Director, BUAIR (which rarely happened) , the word would be passed through the Officer of the Director to the subordinate in question.

Lieutenant Commander Edwin Ward Bitter, USN, was aide-de-camp to Vice Admiral Enoch Hawley, USN, who was Chief, Aviation Assets Allocation Division, of the Bureau of Aeronautics. He was very surprised that the aide-de -camp of the DCNO would telephone his office at all, and even more surprised at the conversation that followed:

The DCNO wished to see the Chief AAAD as soon as it would be convenient. When would that be?

“I’m sure the admiral can be in your office in thirty minutes, Commander, ” Lt. Commander Bitter said. “Can you tell me anything that will help the admiral prepare?”