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"Also, have them secure the place and stand by in case of emergencies. Then
get onto the Fuhrer's headquarters and advise the commander that I wish to be
notified at once when the Fuhrer rises."
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Heydrich looked uneasy. "Wouldn't it be advisable to secure the plant now,
using the defense force that's garrisoned inside Valhalla, until the
reinforcements from Leipzig arrive?" he said.
Himmler shook his head. "I'd rather keep them where they are in case we're
wrong about these saboteurs entering through the plant. We would look very
foolish if they got in while our crack guards were elsewhere checking
workmen's passes. But make sure that they tighten up the entry procedures at
Valhalla."
Heydrich hesitated for a second and then nodded. "It will be as the
Reichsfuhrer orders,"
he said.
"Also, get somebody to contact the Todt Organization and have them locate the
engineers who were responsible for the structural changes. Bring them here,
with complete plans of what was done. I want details of every conceivable
means of entry"
Himmler glared at the Abwehr papers on Heydrich's desk. "It's inexcusable that
this information has been withheld from us for so long," he seethed. "I
suspect that our friend Admiral
Canaris has been scheming to aggrandize his department at our expense. But
this time he has meddled in more than he thinks." His eyes gleamed
malevolently behind his pince-nez. "He is becoming dangerous. We'll take care
of him later, after this other business has been resolved."
So this was it, Ferracini thought as he sat hunched in the back seat of Gustav
Knacke's
Fiat, moving with the early morning stream of vehicles, bicycles, and workers
trudging on foot toward the Weissenberg plant. The culmination of years of
intelligence gathering and planning back in his own world before 1975; the
construction of the system at Tularosa; the recruitment and training of the
Proteus team and its projection back in time; the setting up of Gatehouse; the
move to England and the preparations since then: all to bring four men-Warren
and Ryan had not made the one-week deadline-to this place on a clear, chilly
morning on the first day of April. By the end of the day, it would all have
been decided; either the incredible gamble would have paid a dividend worth
years of effort, immeasurable human dedication, and the risk of many lives; or
it would have failed.
The car passed the last of the workers' rowhouses on the outskirts of
Weissenberg and rounded a bend from where the plant was visible, its main
entrance only a half-mile or so away across flat, open ground dotted with
clumps of gorse. Apart from the Citadel, which was operated and guarded by the
SS, the chemicals plant was subject to no more than the normal level of
industrial security, and Gustav anticipated little trouble getting the team
in. The fenced-off compound enclosing the munitionsmaking area inside was
tougher, but that was of no consequence since the plan didn't require access
to it. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, the Ampersand group had decided
to infiltrate separately.
"Your friend isn't very talkative, Gustav," Julius said froi~ the front
passenger seat. He was a colleague who always rode t~ work with Knacke. "Or is
it the early hour, do you think?" :1, "Oh, I don't really know him," Knacke
replied. "He's justll started-over in PM-4, I think he said. Somebody
suggested I a spare seat and would be able to give him a ride. Well, you know~
how it is with this war economy-can't really refuse." Hel' glanced over his
shoulder "Is that right-you're in PM-4?"
"That's right," Ferracini answered. He had been speaking iri'( deliberately
broken German
"I start five days back on clean-thepipes"
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"What accent is that2" Julius asked
"Is Spanish. Weather here is not so Spanish-all rain and) fog."
"How come you're here2"
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