“It’s late though.”
He glanced at the mantel clock. “I know. But we need to discuss this immediately. I’ll go telephone them.”
Audrey and Friedrich spent the better part of an hour working through the possibilities until Ludwig, Claus, and Aldous arrived.
Audrey peered out the window, checking that their late visit hadn’t drawn attention, but the street was deserted. She twitched the curtains closed, then nodded at Friedrich.
“We’ll get straight to the point,” he said. “Hitler will be giving a speech Saturday after next, in Hanover. At the Opera House.”
All three of them froze for a fleeting moment, then Ludwig let out a low “Yes!” Claus looked excited, Aldous impassive.
“How did you learn this?” Claus asked.
Friedrich smiled at Audrey. “Audrey can explain.”
Ludwig crossed his arms over his chest as Audrey recounted what had happened that evening, hesitating when she relayed the news about the event being a gathering of the Hitler Youth. The charge of excitement hanging over the room dissipated like smoke in a cold wind.
“Children?” Claus asked. His eyes pierced Friedrich’s, and Audrey knew they were in for a fight. “We can’t attack him with children in the line of fire, Fred. Come on now.”
“Why not?” Ludwig challenged him.
“Do we seriously need to have that conversation?” Claus rolled his stalky shoulders back, and Audrey remembered he had a family. “We’re not doing this.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re children, Thurman,” Claus said.
“We could try to make sure we aim for him when he’s not near them,” Friedrich said. “Audrey—”
“We may not get another chance like this,” Ludwig interrupted. “We’ve had a valuable leak, and we need to use it. There’ve been a slew of attempts, and the bastard keeps evading death. We have a responsibility to act!”
“We have a responsibility to not kill kids, Lud.” Claus shook his head in disbelief. “Listen to yourself.”
Friedrich raised his voice. “Gentlemen!”
“What do you care?” Ludwig fired at Claus.
“I’m not in the business of killing children, you prick.”
“Do you know how many children the Reich has already sent to their deaths?” Audrey challenged him.
Claus’s nostrils flared.
“She has a point,” Aldous piped up. “But I do think we need to consider—”
“Consider what? This is madness,” Claus snapped. “We’re not doing it. I can’t build a bomb that won’t have collateral damage. It just cannot be done.”
“Other people are going to die, Claus,” Ludwig shouted, and Audrey winced, hoped to God he wouldn’t wake Daniel. “Unless you want to try to snipe him. But I’ll remind you that we’ve been over that option before. None of us is a precise enough shot to guarantee it, and the shooter is certainly going to be killed by Hitler’s security team. Pointing a gun at the Führer’s fucking head is pretty obvious. Planting a timed bomb in advance and walking away—less so.”
“What do you propose we do, Fred?” Aldous asked, turning from Ludwig. “Did you have a plan in mind?”
Claus scoffed. “You all just want—”
“Yes, we do.” Audrey cut across Claus, but shot him a conciliatory look. “I think there might be a way to do this that would drastically decrease the likelihood of collateral injury to the children.”
The room was silent, skeptical. Then Aldous spoke.
“Let’s hear it.”
“I know the Staatsoper Opera House in Hanover,” she said. “I saw performances there when I was younger. I remember the layout and the area around it reasonably well. It’s in an old quarter of the city, so I doubt much has changed in a decade.” The men looked at her, listening, and she ploughed on. “As Ludwig says, shooting him isn’t a viable option. What we need is some distance on the kill, to keep ourselves and any potential bystanders safe. I propose we avoid trying to reach him at the pulpit or anywhere else on the actual premises where the children are likely to be,” she said, gaining confidence with her plan as she spoke. “I say we target his motorcar. It’ll be parked on the street outside, either in front or behind the building. From what I remember of the Opera House, they’ll probably park the car behind the theatre, as opposed to the front, which would be too exposed. The car will still be surrounded by security, of course, but if we can place a bomb underneath the vehicle at some point during the speech, it will go off after he’s left in the car.”
Aldous was nodding. “This could work,” he said.
Ludwig muttered something affirmative and poured himself a drink. Claus met eyes with Audrey, uncertain, but no longer angry.
“That means the likely casualties would only extend to his driver and body men,” Friedrich added. “Perhaps a few people on the street, or in a neighbouring vehicle, if they happen to have the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that’s negligible. The number of lives we would be saving after the fact are incalculable. This is worth the risk, worth the sacrifice.” He glared around the room. “And you all know it.”
Audrey felt a stirring of guilt at using Gerta Roth’s information to plan an assassination involving her husband. But this was bigger than any one man. As Friedrich had said, this was bigger than all of them.
“I agree,” Ludwig said. “We should proceed.”
The fact that he’d only agreed once Friedrich had given her proposal his support set Audrey’s teeth on edge, but she let the slight go with an exhale.
“How precise can you make your timer on the explosive device?” Friedrich asked Claus.
He thought for a moment. “Pretty damn precise. I’m good. How long would we need, do you think?”
Friedrich considered it. “We have no way of knowing where Hitler is headed once in the motorcar. But the timer would need to be at least, what, two or three minutes perhaps, from when he enters the vehicle to when it’s clear of the theatre. Add in the time in between planting it, to Hitler actually entering the vehicle…” He cocked his head. “I’d wager maybe twenty minutes?”
