“Yes, sir. That’s what I’m getting to. I started thinking about that. They had what they thought was a good reason to blow the castle up. That raised two questions. What was the reason? And since they had made the decision to blow it up, why had they failed?
“I began to give that some serious thought. Neither von Dietelburg nor Burgdorf were run-of-the-mill Nazis. Von Dietelburg was Himmler’s adjutant. I suspect he was a lot more than that, but I know that if he was Himmler’s adjutant, he was privy to ninety-plus percent of Himmler’s secrets—including, of course, being up to his eyeballs in the Church of Saint Heinrich the Divine.
“And SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Burgdorf wasn’t a run-of-the-mill Nazi big shot either. He was dispatched by Himmler himself to Peenemünde to make sure that there was nothing of value left when we got there. I suspect he wasn’t sent there until whoever was first sent had failed.
“That gives us two really top-drawer Nazi officials. Which raises the question of how come they failed in blowing up an old castle?
“Answer: Because they—for a number of reasons I’ll get into later—didn’t want to destroy it. They just wanted it to look like they had tried to demolish it.”
“Interesting reasoning,” White said, thoughtfully.
“Once I s
tarted down that road, sir, a lot of other things began to fall into place. As Colonel Cohen first found, Sergeant Johann Strauss isn’t who he says he is. He was left behind at the castle to tell whichever Americans showed up that all the goodies—the secret relics, the death’s-head rings, the contents of Himmler’s safe, et cetera—were long gone when he got there.
“It probably would have worked with anyone else, but Colonel Cohen smelled a rat—although he didn’t say so out loud—from the beginning.”
“What’s this got to do with my Fourteenth Engineers?” White asked.
“Sir, the only way von Dietelburg and/or Burgdorf are going to believe Cohen’s people have left Wewelsburg is for Cohen’s people to actually leave Wewelsburg.”
“General,” Cohen put in, “I’ve made it clear that that will happen over my dead body.”
White made a gesture which Cohen instantly understood was an order to shut up. Then he gestured for Cronley to continue.
“Sir, in my scenario, as Cohen’s people move out, the Fourteenth Engineers move in.”
“And do what?” White asked, suspiciously.
“Sir, the first thing they do is prepare signs on four-by-eight sheets of plywood. The one hanging over the main entrance would read ‘Welcome to the U.S. Constabulary NCO Academy.’”
“I don’t think you are trying to be cute, Cronley,” White said, “but it damn sure is starting to sound like it.”
“Sir, I’m dead serious. If nothing else works, at the end of this, the Constab will have a first-rate NCO Academy.”
“Define ‘nothing else,’” White said.
“Yes, sir. If the Fourteenth Engineers are unable to discover hidden passages and tunnels, and the like, in Castle Wewelsburg as they build this NCO Academy. Or if we’re unable to bag some von Dietelburg underling visiting the castle to see what we’re up to.”
“Why do you think he’ll be interested?”
“I think he took—takes—the dignity of the SS seriously. It’s like a religion to him. We know Wewelsburg was intended for the SS elite, the SS’s Generals Corps. And here we are, turning it into a school that will turn PFCs into corporals. I think that’s going to piss them off. All of them.”
White abruptly changed the subject.
“Cronley, I know what happened in Berlin. At the safe house. Including what happened to Mrs. Moriarty.”
“Yes, sir?”
“My wife thinks that you and Mrs. Moriarty were more than good friends from your college days. That you had something going on. True?”
Cronley felt his anger immediately build.
That’s really none of your fucking business, General.
However, I damn sure cannot tell you that.
But neither am I going to lie about it.