September 16th – 1935 Berlin.
The Headquarters of the State Police was busy as always, with plain-clothed agents, ‘uniformed’ clerks and black-clad SS officers everywhere in the halls.
Beyer was indifferent to the ordinary chaos around him, although he did notice that it seemed somewhat subdued today, as he walked down one particular hallway and entered the office of his superior, Kriminaldirektor Keller and nodded to the secretary.
“Is the Director available Steffi?” He asked the young woman, who seemed incredible tense, as she sat, straight-backed at her table, her eyes focused on her typewriter. Usually, Steffi, as most people called her, was more than willing to chat for a few moments, but today all he got was a brisk headshake and a quick look, which told him that she was very nervous for some reason. He looked at her for a few moments, mentally trying to deduct what could possibly have gotten her so worked up, but then the door opened and as he looked up at who was leaving, he instantly snapped to attention and raised his arm in salute.
“Heil Hitler!” He barked, his face blank. Had he been a lesser man, he probably wouldn’t have been able to prevent his eyes from following the officers leaving the room, but to his credit and making him feel quite proud all things considered, he managed to look his gaze straight ahead.
The first of the men didn’t spare him so much as a glance, although he did raise his arm into the salute used by the highest of nazi officials.
The other one, the younger of the two momentarily looked at Dietrich, their eyes almost locking for just an instant. He made what sounded like a satisfied grunt and left the office, a young agent closing the door behind him. Dietrich exhaled, not even realizing he had held his breath. He glanced at the secretary, whose face had gone absolutely pale, probably not for the first time today as actually seeing those two men enter the office would have had to have been quite a shock for her. Neither man was the type to go visit offices and certainly not those of their underlings. Dietrich wondered briefly what could possibly have enticed them down to this level of the building. His line of thought was brought up short, when the Director called for him. He took a deep breath to calm himself and then went in.
“Good morning Beyer.” Director Keller said, motioning for him to take one of the opposite chairs.
As he sat down, Dietrich noticed that Keller was looking at him rather curiosly.
“I don’t know how you do it Beyer.” Keller said, “Having Obergruppenführer Heydrich and the Reichführer himself enter my office nearly made me mess up my pants.” He shook his head and then fell silent, as he seemed to think of something. “That however makes you the perfect man for the job.
”He looked at Beyer again and a smile slowly lit his face up. “Yes indeed, the right man for the job.”
Dietrich, having a sinking feeling in his stomach already, nodded anyway. “What’s the job sir?” He asked, not entirely certain he really wanted to know the answer, since it had to be what had brought the two Nazi heavyweights down to the ground floor. If he was unlucky, this might spell disaster on himself and his family. Still, it was his duty as a German and an officer of the state police, and Dietrich took that duty very seriously.
“I can’t really tell you that much at the moment Beyer, but it seems we may have a group of foreign spies in our midst.” Dietrich relaxed somewhat. If it was only that, he had dealt with spies before. “The problem is though, that they seem to be involved somehow, with several different state departments.” Once more, Dietrich felt a sinking feeling once more. Several different state departments sounded ominously like; way out of his league, whatever he did.
“You can read the rest in this file.” Keller held out a brown file towards Dietrich, who took it cautiously.
“Everything in that file is strictly ‘need to know’ Beyer. Don’t tell anyone anything beyond the absolute minimum, is that understood?” Dietrich nodded, hesitated for a few moments and then, looking straight at Keller, spoke once more.
“Are you sure about this sir?” He asked, apologetically, “Don’t misunderstand me, I will do my duty whatever it is, but I am an Inspector, nothing more. Is that enough under the circumstances?”
Keller nodded. “Look at the last page Beyer, everything has been thought of.” Dietrich opened the file, quickly leafed to the last page and glanced at it. Then he stopped, his breath caught in his throat and all color slowly draining from his face, as he read through it one more time. He slammed the file shut and stared, wide-eyed at Keller, uncertain what or even if he could speak at all.
“I, I.” He stammered, for the first time shaken beyond what the limits of his usual iron-bound will could handle. He looked down at the file in his hand again, as if half expecting to see Hell itself reach up to claim his soul. He sank once, then again, then a third time. Then slowly, holding the chair with one hand to steady himself, he rose and faced Keller. Unsure of how to do anything else, he lifted his gaze, looking at the large picture hanging on the wall behind the Director’s chair and saluted.
“Heil Hitler!”
Then without further words and in truth none were really necessary, he turned on his heels and marched from the office.
As he closed the door behind him, Keller picked up his phone and dialed a number.
“Hello? Keller here. Beyer took the case. What? Yes sir, he will do quite nicely.”
He listened for a moment and then smiled. “Of course Herr Reichführer, I will see to it personally.”