A Traitor's Loyalty: A Novel Read Free Page A

and build ‘em up with worn-out tools
    —Rudyard Kipling, “If—”

CHAPTER I
Préveza, Greece
    QUINN JERKED up in bed at the alarm clock’s shrill shriek. His left hand fumbled about on the bedside table, his fingers probing till they found the clock, and it abruptly fell silent. He lay back in bed, a little disturbed at how on edge his body seemed to be. His heart pounded in his chest; his hands felt clammy; he was sweating and breathing shallowly.
    He swung himself out of bed and moved across his cramped cabin into the tiny lavatory. He flicked the light switch on, blinking in the sudden harsh, colorless florescent light. He turned on the tap and splashed some cold water on his face to help wake himself up, then stared at his reflection in the mirror. A pair of sharp mahogany eyes stared back at him beneath a head of disheveled black hair, but it was the prominent nose that dominated his face. Quinn ran a hand over his chin. He needed a shave, but it could wait. He ran his fingers through his hair to straighten it, then flicked off the lavatory light.
    A glance at the clock as he came back into his cabin showed that the time had just reached seven. A small chest of drawers stood against one wall. Quinn opened the top drawer and took out a small shortwave radio. He extended the antenna and flicked the radio on, to be greeted by a burst of static. The radio was tuned to the correct frequency, so Quinn took a slow step to the side to find the signal. From the static emerged the sound of chimes fading away. A voice followed a moment later.
    “
You are listening to the BBC World Service,” the announcer said. “The time is oh-six-hundred Greenwich Mean Time, oh-seven-hundred British Summer Time, Tuesday, the 27th of May, 1971. And now, the news.” A pause. “Our top story: The German Government announced this morning that Adolf Hitler, Führer and Chancellor of the Greater German Reich, has died in Berlin at the age of eighty-two.
”
    Quinn had been holding onto the radio with one hand while the other slid another drawer open and rifled through it for some clothes, but now he stopped and gave the radio his full attention. He held onto it with both hands and straightened up. The news commentator’s voice erupted into static at the movement, and Quinn straightened his arms and held the radio a little higher to regain the signal.
    “—
reveal the exact cause of death, but Western experts have believed for some time that Herr Hitler suffered from Parkinson’s disease. As the German nation mourns, the greatest question arising from his death regards the Nazi succession. Herr Hitler has made no public provision for his heir since the death of his previous designated successor, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, in 1947. His wishes are believed to be contained within his last will and testament, which, by his own order, will not be unsealed until following his funeral, set to take place in three days’ time, on Friday, in the city of Linz in the German province of the Upper Danube. Who will be responsible for the administration of the German government in the meantime remains unclear at this time. We’ll have more, including the reaction to Herr Hitler’s death in Berlin, London, and Washington, later in the broadcast
.
    “
In other news, fierce fighting continues around the city of Kharditsa in northern Greece, where British positions are under heavy attack from Croatian and Italian divisions. A Greek armored battalion
—”
    Quinn switched the radio off. For a moment he continued to stare at it, then, shaking himself slightly as if waking from some deep meditation, he collapsed its antenna, tossed the radio onto the bed and went back to the clothes drawer.
    He dressed in a plain grey sweater, denim jeans, and a black leather jacket hung on a peg on the back of the cabin door. When he was dressed, he returned the radio to the top drawer and took out a small, snub-nosed pistol that he slid into his jacket’s inside