White Rose Black Forest(49)

“Unfortunate? He was the last person I had in this world, and you took him from me. And now you’re asking for my help?”

“The Nazis are your enemy, not the Allies. The bombers who came to Freiburg that night had no idea—”

“Are you going to tell me that they had no idea they were bombing civilians? What about the raids on Hamburg, Cologne, or Mainz? Thousands of innocents have died in firebombing raids.”

“As thousands have died in London, and Birmingham, and throughout the occupied territories.”

“But you imply that the Allies are the just cause? How can you justify the murder of hundreds of thousands of German civilians?”

“War is a foul beast. To tell the truth, I don’t think the lives of German civilians matter to the generals who send those bombers, just as the lives of British or Soviet citizens don’t matter to the Germans.”

“What about to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do they matter to you, John? You lived here once.”

“Franka, I see the newsreels of German citizens yelling allegiance to Hitler. Everyone back home did. The Allied bombing campaign is designed to break the will of the German people to fight.”

“Don’t you realize that the will of the German people doesn’t matter? The Nazis subjugated the will of the German people years ago. The phrase doesn’t hold any meaning anymore.”

“That may be the case, but the Nazis started this. They started the indiscriminate bombing of Warsaw and London before the US even entered the war. If the Nazis are using the German people as a shield, then that’s a pity, but that won’t hinder the Allied efforts to win.”

“Would you help me if German bombers had killed your father?”

“I don’t see how that could be possible.”

“But what if it did happen? What if your loyalties were torn between government and people? Would you go against the will of your government for the good of the people they’re meant to serve?”

“That could never happen.”

“No one thought it could happen in Germany—a modern industrial nation. A bastion of science and the arts.”

“If you’re asking me if I’d maneuver against my own government like you did, under pain of death, then the answer is that I don’t know.”

“Would you help a foreign agent against the apparent will of your own people?”

“If everyone I loved was dead because of them, and if they had warped the things that made America great, and noble, and just—yes, yes I would.”

“Robespierre said, ‘No one loves armed missionaries.’”

“I am not your enemy, Franka. You wouldn’t have saved my life and kept me here these past days if you believed I was. There’s a reason you took me in. Perhaps one day the German nation will grow to appreciate the efforts of the Allies.”

“If there’s a German nation left to consider the past.”

“It may seem ironic, but the Allies are the only hope left for Germany. Use me, Franka. Give me the chance to help rid this country of the Nazis on your behalf.”

Franka snatched the tray off his lap. A fork clattered onto the floor, and she had to bend down to grab it.

“I hate the Nazis. I don’t want to feel that, but it’s with me every day. I think about what they’ve done—”

John’s voice was sharp as he interrupted her. “Leave the hatred behind. Do something for the future of the German people, for your father, and Fredi.”

“I don’t know. What do you want me to do?”

“Something simple. Something almost any adult could do.”

“I need some time.”

She went to the kitchen and set the tray on the table. Her heart felt like a stone. She dipped her hands in the water pooled in the sink before bringing them up to rinse her face. She thought of all the people she’d known who’d been swept up and seduced by the National Socialists and their lies. She wasn’t like them. She was a criminal, a convicted enemy of the state, and now she was harboring another enemy. She couldn’t be any less of a Nazi. It was impossible. Turning him in wasn’t an option—she would rather die. So what then? She could let him go his own way and keep her silence as he slipped secretly into the belly of the Reich, but where would she go then? What would she do? Would she go back into the woods to finish what she started the night she found him? Or would she just do her best to survive the war? This man offered more.

“Continue your story,” she said as she walked back in. “Tell me why you’re here. If you want my help, I need to know everything.”

“The flak hit the plane I was in, and I bailed out over the mountains. Then you found me.” He paused for a long two seconds before continuing. “My mission is a man,” he said. The tension seemed to evaporate with every word. “His name is Rudolf Hahn. He’s a scientist—one of the most brilliant minds in the world. He’s pioneering work in a new field of physics, which could change the war in Germany’s favor. One of our German agents infiltrated his laboratory and made contact with him. Hahn agreed to defect to America. I’m here to get him out.”

“Why couldn’t the agent that contacted him do it?”

“He’s a diplomat, and not suited to the more dangerous elements of the task. The Gestapo seemed to be onto him, so he had to melt into the background. Hahn is still in place. They haven’t arrested him yet.”