Now we both talked and I knew that he knew that he'd won. He said:

"He was seen in Berlin a week ago."

"Who saw him? "

"A witness at the trial."

"I'll talk to him then."

"He fell from the tenth floor of the Witzenhausen Hof the day after he had told us."

"Olbricht?"

"Yes."

"He could have been mistaken."

"He knew Zossen well. You know that."

"Is that part of the search area, then? Zossen? "

"It has become part of it."

"So you're roping me in."

"Yes."

"Because you know I'd like to see him on trial. No go. They don't hang them any more." I suddenly said a terrible thing, because I believed Pol was genuine and my guard was down. "Give me a rope, though, give me a rope and ask no questions."

His silence was disapproving.

I said: "I'm tired, that's all."

"Of course. After sixmonths' work -"

"Don't talk to me like a bloody nurse."

He was silent again. The hum of voices was loudening under the domed roof as the people left the bars and went back to their seats.

"Come on then, Pol – you haven't got long. Finish me off."

He said immediately as if I'd switched on a tape: "There are thousands of Nazis still living in Germany with false papers and even the Federal Intelligence Services are riddled with them. The U.S. Gehlen Bureau quietly released hundreds of Army and SS officers from internment when General Heusinger dictated his terms to NATO andthey have since reorganised the German Army, which is now the largest and best equipped in Europe.