Colonel Berry

Chapter Seven

David and Georg continued their discussion as they walked across the courtyard and around the wing of the schloss toward the carriage house. Along the way, George pointed down the slope. "The new vineyard is waiting only the end of frost risk before we begin planting. Bethia says it's usually safe after the middle of April, but it fell to minus two on Tuesday, so we've decided to wait until the end of the month just to be sure."

"That'll give you plenty of time for this project. What have the men been doing the past while?"

"Grafting the scions onto rootstock. They've become very proficient with it, developing a production line, and they now easily surpass their target of two thousand per day."

"Two thousand?" David tilted his head. "How many do they need?"

"The new vineyard is just under six hectares, so sixty thousand will do it. Rachel says the best spacing is a metre by a metre."

"How close are they to that now?"

"Less than ten thousand to go. They hit fifty Thursday."

"Good, so this project won't interfere."

Georg laughed. "Good God, Sir. The war is the priority. The men are doing this only as a cover for being here waiting for projects."

David laughed with him. "True." He motioned toward the door to the mess. "Let's go in and brief them."

Once the ten of them had settled around the table, David continued with his outline of the situation. "Stopping their ability to produce explosives is still our primary task. Those of you who were there in late January and early February saw how heavily they guard their synthesising plant at Oppau and the earth gas works at Pirmasens. Impossible to approach, so we're leaving both of those to the French fliers and their bombs. But besides Pirmasens, the Germans produce a large quantity of coal gas as a source of hydrogen for their ammonia synthesis."

David opened a manilla folder, chose a map and laid it out on the table then turned to Hans. "In February you identified the two coal gas plants on the river at Rheinau and Speyer. Rick and I confirmed those and found three more." He pointed at marks on the map. "We've plotted them here. Ideally, we need four more, so each of you can blow one."

The men all smiled, then Hans said, "We need to do them all at the same time, don't we? Like we did with the trains."

"Exactly!" David stroked his beard as he paused to think. "I propose that two of you drive up and play fuse salesmen again. Search the area along the river from Worms upstream to Karlsruhe. The coal barges will be a good clue, but also, the appearance of the plant." He spread out the sheets of drawings and photographs. "They'll look similar to these. Hard to miss with the smokestacks, pipes and tanks."

"Should we shoot photos?"

"Might be suspicious if you're seen, Hans. It's safer not to. Our prime objective in this first phase is to identify more plants and to determine which are the best nine to blow."

David allowed the men to absorb the information and to examine the pages of illustrations, then he continued, "Identify the critical parts of the plant, the ones to destroy." He pointed to the marks on the drawings and photos. "Think about ease of access and escape. A target is of no use to us if it is too difficult to access or awkward to escape afterwards."

"You comin' with us?"

"No, Manny, I'm in boot camp for another three weeks. You'll have this done long before I finish that."

"Boot camp?"

"Army basic training. Every Swiss man must take it when he turns twenty."

"You're well beyond twenty. Why'd they snag you now?"

"Part of my Swiss identity. I used the birth certificate of my wife's dead brother to enter the country and then to get my passport."

"So, will we all have to do it?" Greg shrugged. "We all have our Swiss papers now."

David blew out a deep breath. "I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. Georg did his initial training in 1891, and he's now exempted from refresher training. Manny, Dolf, Wolf, Günter and Otto have forged papers, and I don't know what sort of records might be triggered. I'm trying to find out while I'm at the Zeughaus."

"What about us?" Greg asked.

"You and Fred will turn twenty this summer, and Hans was twenty last month. I think it is wise for you all to report. The training is seven weeks long, and you'll need to play dumb and inexperienced. But we've taught you how to role-play, and you do it well."

David paused for a while as he examined the papers on the table, then he tapped the map. "But, back to this. Hans, you know the area from the last trip, and you know Frau Schneider for the hire car in Mannheim, Who do you want to take with you?"

"If we're snooping around near sensitive sites, it would be safer to have genuine papers." He picked up a deck of cards from the table, shuffled it and fanned it out face down in front of him. "High card comes."

Greg drew a four and slammed it onto the table in frustration. "Damn!"

Fred smiled, then with a big flourish, he hefted his crotch. "Get ready fraüleins, I'm on my way." He slid a card from the deck, flipped it over and sat shaking his head as he stared at the deuce. "Fuck!"

"Not this time." Greg chuckled as he pumped his fist up and down. "You'll have to settle for fist fucking for now."

"Right! Let's get back to the primary mission." David took an envelope from his pocket and gave them each two hundred Marks in gold and silver coins. "You two spend some time re-familiarising yourselves with the fuse mechanisms and their literature. They're your cover, and you need to be seen as competent salesmen."

"Should we stay in the same gasthaus as before?"

"There's no need. I had booked it in advance, but with so many away at the Front or working in factories, there's little travel. I've now seen there are rooms available nearly everywhere without prior arrangement."

"Can we leave tomorrow or should we wait until Monday?" Hans laughed. "That's a silly question, ain't it? Sunday means nothing to them anymore. We'll leave straight after breakfast." 

"Good. Next weekend is Easter, and I have leave from Friday noon. Bring me as much detail as you can, so it will be easier to plan the next phase." He smiled at the two men, nodding toward their crotches. "And don't forget to use protection."