Perverse? Most certainly though he could live with that truth. All across Berlin, in the Reich's most august offices, were the other high priests of the demonic New Order: Hermann Goring, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolph Hess, Martin Bormann alcoholics, drug addicts, occultists, and degenerates the very epitome of that gross irrationalism which Wilson so much abhorred. There too the Gestapo butchers, the drilled ranks of the SS, and all the torture and murder that went on every day in the bas.e.m.e.nts. Wilson had to accept it. Science could not moralize. Those irrational brutes were no more than the means to achieving his ends. Progress needs its trampled bones. Death gives way to more life. Evolution knows neither right nor wrong and transcends ephemeral matters. So, he would work with them. In doing that, he could use them. And glancing out at the snowy slopes, then returning his gaze to Himmler, he felt nothing but hope for the future, the glow of fulfilment.

'Why did you wish to see me, Reichsfhrer?'

'I wish to take you on a little walk that I think will be instructive to you. But first, I would like to be informed about the progress of Projekt Saucer.'

'Now that the rocket teams have left for Peenemnde and we can use their facilities, we're making quicker, more definite progress. As you know, I decided to stop work on the larger flying saucer prototype and instead concentrate all our efforts on making a miniature version of it, which can be used as an anti-aircraft weapon. The final drawings for that smaller saucer will soon be completed in the next week or so.'

'Good,' Himmler said. 'And you think this smaller version will actually fly?'

'I know it will,' Wilson said firmly.

'What kind of anti-aircraft weapon will it be?'

'As a miniature version of the larger prototype, it'll be a small, flat, circular flying machine, powered by a turbojet engine. It can be used as an anti-radar device that, by flying in the vicinity of an aircraft in flight, will over-ionize the atmosphere surrounding it and, by so doing, subject its radar to the adverse action of powerful electrostatic fields and electromagnetic impulses.'

'And if it works '

'It will, Reichsfiihrer.'

' you can then construct a larger version without fear of it failing.'

'Exactly, Reichsfhrer.'

'And who contributed most to this final design? You, or the officer nominally in charge of Projekt Saucer: Flugkapitn Schriever?'

Wilson thought carefully before answering.

He was aware that his greatest innovations were likely to be stolen from him and pa.s.sed on to the rocket scientists now at Peenemnde and other, even more secret SS research establishments. He understood, also, that Rudolph Schriever, who had more arrogance than scientific talent, was spying on him for Himmler and would, while doing so, also try to take credit for his achievements. For this reason, while pretending to be open with Schriever and his fellow engineers, Wilson had actually showed them only selected parts of his great work

just enough to convince them, and thus Himmler, that he was worth keeping on. Also, by letting them steal relatively minor aspects of his work to utilize in their own, otherwise largely worthless designs and by then praising them individually, secretly, for those designs he was subtly setting them against one another, which kept him in control.

Naturally, because Himmler trusted his young flugkapitn, Wilson could not inform him of this fact and instead said, 'I must confess that Flugkapitn Schriever was surprisingly innovative and contributed greatly to the final designs. He's an excellent physicist.'

Clearly pleased that he had chosen correctly, Himmler asked: 'And the others? How are they faring?'

'No problems,' Wilson replied, not wishing to show his contempt for his fellow scientists, but being careful not to praise them too highly either. 'Of course Habermohl and Miethe are only engineers, but their designs for various parts of the saucer have been quite helpful. Miethe designed the outer sh.e.l.l for the latest model and deserves a commendation for that alone.'

'I will see to it,' Himmler said, then gave a light sigh, unclasped his hands, and pushed his chair back. 'So,' he said, standing upright, 'let us go for our short walk.'

So saying, he led Wilson out of the room and into the heavily guarded, crowded lobby of the rustic pension. Glancing across the room, Wilson saw the handsome, uniformed architect, Albert Speer, sitting on a settee and discussing the architectural plans spread out before him and his a.s.sistants. Himmler nodded coolly at him, then, when four uniformed SS guards had closed in around him, he led Wilson across the busy lobby and out of the pension.

'Is the Fhrer here?' Wilson asked, having noted the strong contingent of armed guards inside and now noting the many more outside.

Himmler nodded in the direction of nearby hills, where Wilson saw a figure in lederhosen walking through the snow, accompanied by a woman, whom he a.s.sumed was Eva Braun, and guarded by half a dozen armed SS troops.

'He's staying in the pension,' Himmler explained with pride, 'while renovations are made to the Berghof. Come! This way, Wilson.'

Followed by the four SS guards, he led Wilson to a jeep that was parked right in front of the pension. When they were both seated in the rear, one of the armed guards climbed into the front and drove toward the majestic, snow-covered slopes of the Kehlstein Mountains.

Soon leaving the village behind, they pa.s.sed through the guarded gates of an area closed off by barbed-wire fences. Waving one hand airily, to indicate the ugly dormitory barracks clinging to nearby slopes, Himmler said, 'Those barracks house hundreds of construction workers. This was once a solitary, very beautiful mountain valley, but it's now the auxiliary headquarters of our beloved Fhrer. In order to make this conversion, Bormann tore down centuries-old farms and numerous votive churches, despite the protests of the parishes. Also, despite further protestations, he confiscated state forests and made this a private area that extends from the floor of the valley to the top of the mountain, covering approximately two and a half square miles. Finally, with no regard to the exceptional beauty of the area, he turned forest paths into paved promenades, laid a network of tarmac roads through the formerly lovely landscape, and erected barracks, garage buildings, a hotel, a manor house, a complex for our growing number of workers, then, finally, those ugly barracks desecrating the once-virgin slopes.' He glanced around him with satisfaction, adjusting the pince-nez on his nose and squinting into the sun. 'As a lover of beauty, do I disapprove of this?' he asked rhetorically. 'No, of course not! It's the German genius to do what's necessary, no matter the cost. Do you understand, Wilson?'

'Yes, Reichsfhrer, I do.'

Himmler nodded. 'Good!' The sound of explosions reverberated around the valley as the jeep took a corkscrew bend, away from the Scharitzkehlalm ravine, then took the steep, winding road up the side of the Hoher Gll.

'They're dynamiting,' Himmler explained when Wilson glanced in the direction of the explosions. 'When war breaks out, as it must, Bormann intends having underground quarters for the Fhrer and those most important to him.'

'Very wise,' Wilson murmured.

The five-mile road that ran up to Hitler's Teehaus had been hacked out of the side of the mountain with the sweat of slave labour. It stopped at an underground pa.s.sage blasted out of the mountainside, just below the summit. Following the armed guard, Himmler climbed down from the jeep and led Wilson along the underground pa.s.sage, until they arrived at a copper-lined elevator, its shaft, about four hundred feet deep, hacked out of the solid rock. That elevator took them down to an immense, high-walled gallery, supported by baroque Roman pillars. At the end of the gallery, also hacked out of the mountain, was a dazzling, gla.s.sed-in, circular hall.

Standing in that great hall, looking out through an exceptionally tall, wide window, Wilson saw only the other snowcapped mountains and a vast, azure sky an overwhelming experience.

'The impossible made actual,' Himmler whispered proudly, indicating with a gentle nod of his head that extraordinary view. 'If our dreams are grandiose, our actual achievements are more so the achievements of men who can make the impossible commonplace. Come! Follow me!'

He led Wilson across to the panoramic window, from where they could look down on the snow-covered earth, with Berchtesgaden and Salzburg clearly visible in a mosaic of brown and white.