The Other Side of Silence

“Need I remind you both that putting out a signal without encoding it using a Scherbius Enigma machine would be a court-martial offense? For which she could easily be shot as a spy. Or worse. You’re asking her to break the very first rule of being a signals auxiliary.”

“No, no, no,” said Koch. “My authority as Prussian gauleiter supersedes all local military and naval codes and protocols. There would be no chance of this even getting near a court-martial.”

“There are going to be as many as ten thousand people on that ship, Gunther,” said Hennig. “Civilians. Women and children. Wounded German soldiers. The Russians might not care for them. But they would never attack if they thought by doing so they’d be destroying the famous Amber Room.”

“Is it them you’re worried about?” I asked. “Or these priceless bits of tree resin?”

“That’s a little unfair,” said Hennig. “This is, by any definition of the word, a great historical treasure.”

“Then it beats me why you don’t just give an order to our Marine War Office commanders in Kiel and have them put out a signal.”

“For the simple reason that they’re in Kiel,” said Koch, “and more than seven hundred and fifty kilometers away from my authority.”

“Besides,” added Hennig, “if the Russians were to intercept an unencrypted naval communication from Kiel they’d assume it was some kind of trap. On the other hand if it comes from a small and, let’s face it, unimportant naval station here in Konigsberg, they’ll conclude it’s not been authorized by the Marine War Office and then be inclined to take it more seriously. That the person sending the message is someone desperate to prevent the loss of thousands of lives.”

“And what happens if this cultural blackmail of yours doesn’t work? What if the Russians aren’t as keen on amber as you are, sir? What if they’re not interested in preserving a national treasure? Let’s face it, they haven’t shown a great deal of care for anything else in this damn war. Haven’t you heard of Stalin’s math? If there are ten Russians and one German left alive at the end of this war he will consider it to have been won. They now own the international patent on scorched earth.”

“Nonsense,” said Koch. “Of course they don’t want to lose the Amber Room. It was the fucking Ivans who disassembled it for transport to some Siberian shithole in the first place. They must think it’s valuable. Our men got there only just in time to prevent that and shipped it back here to Konigsberg instead.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry gentlemen. But I won’t do it.”

“What the fuck do you mean, you won’t do it?” said Captain Hennig.

“I won’t. It’s a monstrous thing to ask of a girl like that.”

“Says who? You? Fuck you, Gunther. This isn’t just any beer cellar Fritz who’s asking you for a favor, this is the governor of East Prussia.”

“She’s only twenty-three years old, for Christ’s sake. You can’t ask a girl like that to disobey strict orders and take a risk not just with her own life but with the lives of thousands of people.”

“You dumb idiot,” said Hennig. “Call yourself an intelligence officer? I’ve seen scum in my toilet that’s more intelligent than you.”

“It’s all right, Harold,” said Koch calmly. “It’s all right. Let’s be civil here. Is that your final word, Gunther?”

Suddenly I felt tired-too tired to care much what happened to me now; it might have been the schnapps; then again the whole war felt like a lamppost that had been tied around my neck. Only, maybe it would be my neck tied to the lamppost.

“Yes it is, sir. I’m sorry. But I simply can’t ask her to do this.”

Koch sighed and pulled a face. “Then it looks as if you’re not going to be a captain again, after all.”

“I suppose I really don’t care what happens to me.”

Hennig sneered. “It also looks as if you’re walking back to town.”

“Gentlemen? After what I just heard? I could certainly do with some fresh air.”

I didn’t tell Irmela what had happened. I thought it best not to worry her. It’s not every day in Nazi Germany you turn down a man as powerful as Erich Koch, and part of me expected that I might be arrested at any time and thrown into the concentration camp at Stutthof. They hadn’t threatened me, exactly, and, more important, they hadn’t threatened her, but I hardly thought they would just give up. Somehow I had to think of a way of preventing them from intimidating Irmela, and soon, too.

“Do you have to go to work tomorrow?” I asked her that night.

“Why?”

“I’m just asking, that’s all. I was thinking maybe we could spend the time here together, alone.”

“I’m on duty. You know that. I can’t not just turn up. This is the naval auxiliary we’re talking about here, not a Salamander shoe shop. Besides, they’re relying on me. In case you had forgotten, there’s a lot happening right now in the Baltic Sea.”

We were in bed at the time, and sharing the cigarette now lying in the cheap imitation amber ashtray that was balanced on my chest.

“I understand.”