

## The German Connection

### Ben Goetz

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © Ben Goetz 2013

<http://bengoetzauthor.wordpress.com/>

All rights reserved.

PUBLISHED BY:

Nine Bob Note Publishing

No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, or any locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover Design: The Racquet Lounge

Edited By: Morissa Schwartz

### Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. West Germany

Chapter 2. Washington DC

Chapter 3. Don't Tell

Chapter 4. The Spider

Chapter 5. Bavaria

Chapter 6. Uncle Martin

Chapter 7. Promised

Chapter 8. Secret Agent

Chapter 9. Berlin

Chapter 10. Loan Sharks

Chapter 11. Back To The Beginning

Chapter 12. The Israelis

Chapter 13. The New York Times

Chapter 14. Buenos Aires

Chapter 15. Suicide

Chapter 16. South America

Chapter 17. Contact

Chapter 18. Smart Dress

Chapter 19. Making Sure

Chapter 20. Meeting An Old Friend

Chapter 21. Rude Awakening

Chapter 22. No Show

Chapter 23. Right Wing Party

Chapter 24. Family Reunion

Chapter 25. Safe Passage

Chapter 26. Walking Stick

Chapter 27. Get Going

Chapter 28. Welcome

Chapter 29. Fingerprints

Chapter 30. Identity

Chapter 31. Thinking

### Introduction

**The first part** of my assignment was to create a new identity for myself, under the tutelage of Josh Levin, a respected go-getter at the agency. A placement under Josh was considered to be fortunate, he had an excellent track record of bringing along new agents quickly, and training them to be very competent. I was just starting my career as an agent, but because of my background and the strong recommendation from Josh, "basically, he's the only guy we have capable of doing the job," I was a shoe in for this particular assignment. Forging a new identity is much harder nowadays because of advances like easy access to information on the Internet, face recognition software, fast access to fingerprint databases, et al. Back in the late 80's however, when I was starting out, it was much easier to be whoever you wanted to be, all you needed were the right papers and a well produced back-story.

How I got here is...complicated.

### Chapter 1. West Germany

**My dad** , a former agent himself; raised me because my mom had unfortunately died while giving birth to my younger sister. When I was a child he was obsessed with keeping our identities safe. My sister and I were never allowed to tell anyone who was not approved by our dad where we lived or what our names were; we kept our destinations secret and tried to prevent any photos being taken of us. We also could not reveal any personal information about ourselves, and my dad always made sure we understood the rules; there was no room for mistakes. Maybe that's why even today I do not own a smart-phone or have a Facebook account.

My dad was not one to talk too much about what he did, but when we got older, he explained why he was so secretive about our personal information. He said that his job was top secret and that the people he dealt with would like nothing more than to get access to one of his family members, and take them hostage or possibly kill them to get at him, so this is the way it had to be...always.

We spent a lot of time in West Germany when we were growing up, because my dad was posted there; we went to an International school, but we had many friends who were locals in the Berlin suburbs. My best friend was a German kid called Johann Adler. We were together most evenings after school and at weekends, and to make us feel at home, his family often spoke to my sister and I in English, as well as German.

Many of the foreign kids I went to school with did not mix with the locals; they didn't venture far away from the Military bases or their homes, so their German was poor compared to mine. Once I had lived there for a while, I spoke to the locals only in German, it lead to my school friends calling me "the kraut," because I spent all my spare time with the German kids. The upside was that I learned to be one of them and blend in, my German friends taught me their slang and treated me like one of them.

I realized at a young age that I was a good mimic, I could hear someone speak and instantly do a decent impression of them. I could do a flawless one of my friend Johann; we also looked very similar, so we would often pretended that we were brothers just for fun. Unfortunately, as with most jobs abroad, my dad's time in Germany eventually came to an end and we moved back to Washington DC, just after my 18th birthday.

### Chapter 2. Washington DC

**I stayed in contact** with Johann but did not see him for almost three and a half years, then one day out of the blue he announced that he was coming to America in the summer to visit my family and I. This was great news, I had been having a hard time adjusting to living back in the US. I had already spent three years at Georgetown University, but still did not feel as though I fit in. I was pretty much a loner the whole time I was there, except for the three girls that I dated, none of which lasted more than six months.

The summer came and Johann arrived, he stayed at our summer house in Lake Barcroft, Virginia with my dad, my sister and me. We went out on our little motorboat, swam in the lake and did the usual fun, summer stuff, including getting drunk on the illicit beers we sneaked in when my dad was not around, everything was pretty much perfect.

On one of the last days that we were there, Johann and I went fishing together and got really drunk. By the time we started to walk back to the house the sun was going down and we were very much the worse for wear. We began talking about our days in Germany, and how secretive my dad was with us. We laughed about the silliness of it all and about some of the kids we used to hang out with, I could still do fairly accurate impressions of many of them. After about 20 minutes of walking and reminiscing, Johann said that he had a story about his own family that he would like to share with me.

### Chapter 3. Don't Tell

**Johann began his story** , "The way things were for your family with your dad's insistence on secrecy would probably be strange to most people, but not to me. I too have some family secrets of my own."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I can only tell you this because I trust you, if you tell anyone it could endanger my life, and possibly my family."

I calmed his fears and told him that he knew me better than that; I would never betray his trust, unless he was a serial killer or something crazy like that, then maybe I would!

He laughed in his booming German tone and said, "No, I have never killed anyone, but maybe some of my family has?" he spoke the last few words very quietly, just above a whisper.

"The family that you know as mine, they are not my real family, and Johann is not even my real name."

"Are you joking? What the hell is your name then, were you adopted or something?"

"No," he replied, "Well, sort of. When my parents had me my father was much older, and unfortunately a drunk driver killed my mother. My father was left to bring me up, which he did for a few months, but it became impossible because of all the traveling involved in his work, so the Adler family took me in. They owed my father a great debt so they agreed to raise me as their own. My real name is Klaus Schreiber."

I was shocked, I would never have guessed they were not a real blood related family, they even looked similar.

"Wow, so neither of us knew our real mothers, at least I know my real dad, but what about yours?" I asked.

"He was still in my life, he used to take me out on trips to very high brow parties, reunions with his old work friends, the Opera and Museums. He told me he was a soldier in the war, and he showed me his medals and many old pictures, he took me to Spain on several occasions in the summertime."

Johann stopped when we reached a clearing at the edge of the woods, we took a seat on an old tree stump and cracked open our last two beers, and then he continued.

"As I got older, my father told me more stories with more detail; he would always stop at a certain point and ask me what I thought about the things he had just told me. I think he was trying to gauge how much he should tell me, and to see if I was shocked or upset by what he had said.

This is where it gets a little more interesting." He took a deep breath and smiled at me.

### Chapter 4. The Spider

**Johann carried on** with his story. "My father told me that he mainly worked in Spain for an organization called Die Spinne (The Spider). They helped what he called, 'old soldiers' retire to South America after the war, which explained why he had spent so much time there during my early childhood.

Once I was old enough to comprehend what he was telling me, which was probably when I was around 13 or so, he went in to much greater detail. He was very proud of what he had done during the war, he told me that I should be wary of believing the history books that I read at school, they were just propaganda written by the enemy. He said they only served to make the victors look heroic, by making the German people look bad."

I interrupted, "That must have been a bit of a shocker, to hear your dad talking like that and being so proud about something so horrible?"

"He made it all sound like they were just soldiers defending their homeland, but that is just the tip of the iceberg."

I took another sip of beer and listened intently. I didn't know it at the time, but Johann was just getting warmed up.

"At a certain point, my father obviously thought that he could really trust me, because one evening he came clean about everything, it was just before we went to a party at a huge castle in Bavaria.

He told me that he had been a Nazi in the SS, but even more shocking was at the end of the war he was one of Hitler's personal assistants, and present in Hitler's Bunker (or, 'Führerbunker,' as he called it), in Berlin."

This was becoming quite a story, but I was not totally shocked. Many of the parents and grandparents of the local kids we knew in Berlin were soldiers during the war, but I do not remember any of them professing to know, or to have even met, Hitler himself.

I had to ask him, "Did your father commit any atrocities?"

"No," he said firmly. "He was never at a concentration camp or anything like that, but he served one of the most evil men who has ever lived, that's not something I would want on my resume'."

I was eager to hear more. How many times in your life does your best friend tell you that his dad knew Adolf Hitler, as bad as that may sound...

"So what happened to your real dad, where is he now?"

"He is still alive; he now lives in Austria, he is retired from the organization. I see him several times a year and we talk once a week on the telephone, he is well looked after by his old comrades and the younger members of The Spider."

I was surprised, "You mean the organization still exists?"

"Yes, they are still strong and operating, there are still old Nazis alive in South America, the USA and many other countries. The organization continues to look after them and protect their identities and their families. There is still a lot of money to be made from these old Nazis and their contacts and family friends, they have helped many leaders to get into power by funding them, and when any of the old guard retires, their offspring take over."

It was hard to believe that there were Nazis were still around, but doing the math made it obvious many of them could easily still be alive. It just all seemed so long ago, so, in black and white.

### Chapter 5. Bavaria

**Johann continued** , "On the day of the party my father took me into town and bought me a new suit. I was surprised how well known he was, people bowed and shook his hand, and called him sir. Many of them refused to take payment for things that we bought, they all insisted that they were gifts and that serving him was an honor. To a young boy this was very impressive. I felt as though my father was a very important man, and that as his son I was also special, it was easy to get caught up in it all.

That night a limousine picked us up from our hotel and whisked us to the party through the quiet, still, Bavarian night. The venue was a huge castle all lit up on the top of a hill. When we got closer I could see armed guards patrolling outside, checking the cars entering the castle.

When we arrived a man opened our limo door and showed us to the entrance, we walked inside into a reception area. The interior was as grand as the outside had suggested. We were checked in and guided down a long hallway decorated with lots of old looking artwork. There were many other guests wandering around, holding drinks doing the usual party type stuff, many of them said hello or nodded and smiled to my father, some came up and shook his hand.

We reached the end of the hallway and entered into a magnificent ballroom, there was an ensemble playing Wagner on a stage at one end of the room, and there were 50 or so people standing around drinking and talking to each other. We were formally announced at the door, it seemed like the whole room turned to look at us, there was a hubbub of excitement. A uniformed man lead us through the crowd, and many more people came up to greet my father. We went to the far side of the room and settled near a grand fireplace in a cordoned off area. This kept everyone away from us except a few other select guests. I may not have been sure who my father was at the time, but everyone else seemed to know him.

Then another man arrived, his announcement seemed to bring as much excitement to the room as my father's did. He also came into the private section and greeted my father warmly, like a long lost brother, he introduced himself to me as Wilhelm. He stood and spoke to my father for 20 minutes, joking and laughing, while I gazed around the room marveling at all the rich looking people having a good time. To a kid from the less salubrious suburbs of Berlin, everything seemed fantastic, I was certainly not used to such opulence.

Eventually we sat down to dinner at the head of a long table in the middle of the dinning hall. We ate a sumptuous five course dinner and then sat and listened to some speeches; my father was mentioned and praised in a few of them.

Dinner finished and my father left me in the main hall, so he could go and speak with some of his friends and their families. While I stood there I noticed my stepfather, Mr. Adler, in the crowd, so I went up and asked him what he was doing at the party?

He explained that my father had helped his family after the war, he said he was indebted to him and had come to pay his respects and to help raise funds for the old soldiers.

I remembered overhearing many conversations about old soldiers and money between Mr. Adler and a man who often visited our house. He was always asking for 'donations for our old comrades.' Mr. Adler could never afford to pay him, even though it seemed as though the man looked after Mr. Adler's father. He always eventually gave in and usually handed the man a stack of American dollars from his safe."

### Chapter 6. Uncle Martin

**At this point** Johann (or Klaus, as I guess he now was) and I stood up and started walking toward the lake-house again, we had been out there a while and it was beginning to get cold. Klaus continued telling the story as we walked along.

"A few minutes after Mr. Adler had left the room, my father came back and said he wanted to take me to meet someone very important. We went upstairs to a smaller room that was guarded by two armed men, they saluted my father and let us go in. We walked in and I saw a large table with a throne like chair behind it and four other chairs facing it on the other side. Three of the chairs were occupied by old men, one of whom was Wilhelm. They all stood up and saluted my father, and shook his hand. My father sat down on the one remaining chair and told me to stand next to him and be quiet.

We waited for around ten minutes, the three men all chatted to my father about money and some other people they all knew. All of a sudden the door opened and four men dressed in all black, armed with machine guns, came into the room, behind them was a man walking slowly with a stick, he was a short man, very rotund, and very serious looking.

Wilhelm walked over first and greeted the man, 'Party Chancellor Bormann, finally, I cannot begin to convey how happy I am to see you after all this time.'

The man smiled and shook his hand, my father then walked up to him and he gave him a warm embrace and heartily shook his hand. He said, 'This is the man we should all be happy to see, without him we would have lost many of our comrades, he has saved so many, and made it possible for me to be here tonight to once again breathe the pure air of the fatherland.'

He shook the hands of the other two men and sat down on the big chair behind the desk. He ordered his guards to leave, and it was then that he spotted me, 'Who is this fine young man then?' he asked.

'This is my son, Klaus, Herr Chancellor. I was hoping that he could also have the honor of meeting you this evening?' My father replied.

'Of course, I love to meet the new generation, how are we ever going to get anywhere without them, after all, we are just tired old men now.'

The others laughed and he called me over, 'Come here boy, I want to meet you.'

I went over and saluted him like I had seen the others do, I said, 'Hello, Chancellor Borman, it is a great honor to meet you.'

I knew who Bormann was, I had read about him in history books at school, he hadn't been caught at end of the war and was presumed to be dead or in South America on the run. He was not on the run tonight however, he was here right in front of me. He looked a lot older than the pictures I had seen, and with less hair, but it was undeniably him.

He laughed, 'To you, from now on I am always uncle Martin. If you are ever in trouble, you can call on uncle Martin for help, OK Klaus?'

'Yes, sir, of course, thank you.' I replied.

'I told you, not sir,' he smiled. 'Uncle Martin, don't ever forget.'

With that, my father told me to leave the room and wait downstairs for him, so I said goodbye to them all and left. About an hour later he came and met me downstairs and we left the party. He spoke to me on the drive back to the hotel and made me swear to never tell a soul about that night. He told me that I was a lucky boy and that I should never tell anyone about the man I had met. I promised, and to this day I have kept that promise, you are the only person I have ever told."

### Chapter 7. Promised

**I was stunned** , Klaus's story sounded like some spy novel...Martin Bormann? There is no way it was him; I can believe that Klaus's dad knew some ex-Nazis, but Bormann, it sounded like a mixed up kid's fantasy to me.

I said, "Are you sure, Johann? Sorry, I mean Klaus. Bormann by most accounts died at the end of the war, how do you know it was him, and how did he just show up in Germany undetected after all those years?"

"I know it sounds like bullshit," he said forcefully, "but it's true; my father has spoken about that night many times to me since then, and he still does whenever I meet him. He is a serious man, he would never joke about something like that."

"What a story," I said, "so where do you think Bormann is now then?"

"I am pretty sure he is in Argentina; that night was the last time he ever set foot in Germany. It would be far too risky for him to go back there again. Even though it was only a few years ago, the Nazis still had a lot of ex-comrades and sympathizers ready to turn a blind eye. I do know however, that my father has been to see him several times in South America since that night at the party."

Klaus finished his beer and tossed the empty can into a green trashcan fixed to a telephone pole.

He continued. "Bormann had a lot of money after the war; he set up Swiss bank accounts in various names and siphoned off funds from German industry, as well as Hitler's own money. He used it to enable his escape and also the escape of several of his friends, he bought favors in South America, namely Argentina, and ensured that he would never be discovered there. People like my father who were set free after the war have kept him supplied with money and protection ever since."

I was at a loss for words, but I could only think of one thing.

"You have to tell the authorities, Klaus. Bormann is a monster responsible for the death of thousands, if not millions of innocent people, he needs to be brought to justice before he dies."

This clearly troubled him. "I know what you say is right, but I would have to betray my father. Besides, no one really cares about these old Nazis anymore. Even the Israelis would have trouble deporting him because their country was not in existence when he committed these crimes."

I had to disagree. "This is different, this is not some low level camp guard, this is Hitler's right hand man, he was privy to everything Hitler did, and gave direct orders for the mass slaughter of men, women and children."

By this time the lake-house was in sight, we stopped to finish our conversation so that we did not take it inside in front of everyone else.

Klaus was adamant, "Look, he deserves to be hung for what he did, but my father will be sent to prison, I told you this in confidence, so you can't tell anyone about this, promise me."

I really didn't want to, but I had already promised Klaus before he started, so reluctantly I promised for a second time to never tell a soul about it.

"I promise, let us just drop this and forget you ever mentioned it, you are my friend and that is very important to me. I just have one more thing to ask, I have to call you Klaus from now on, yeah?"

"Yes, that is my name, but I will still be Johann to your family."

We embraced each other and started walking back to the house. I kept my word, and I never mentioned it to him or anyone else again.

### Chapter 8. Secret Agent

**When the summer ended** , Klaus went back home and I made plans to visit him in Germany once I had graduated, but fate did not allow it. I finished my degree and decided that I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps and become an agent.

I got accepted after college and started basic training. After only a month, I received some devastating news from my dad, Klaus had been killed in a car crash in Hamburg. His stepfather, Mr. Adler, had also been killed, apparently they were going to watch a soccer match and then going on to see Klaus's father, but something happened with the car and it spun out of control, and they were both killed.

The autopsy said Klaus was driving, and was over the legal alcohol limit, something that did not sit right with me. Klaus was an occasional drinker, but he always had a thing about not drinking and driving because a drunk driver killed his mother. I had seen him get into confrontations in bars, because he would take someone's car keys away from them and not let them drive if they were drunk. I decided to go to his funeral and see what I could find out.

I was given special leave by the agency because of the circumstances, a one week pass, and then I would have to catch up with the rest of my class. My dad had used his influence to pull some strings, but I really wanted to go, Klaus had been my best friend for a long time. I owed it to him and his family to pay my respects.

### Chapter 9. Berlin

**When I arrived in Berlin** for Klaus's funeral I was met at the airport by the Adlers, they were all in an understandably somber mood, they had lost their father and their stepson/brother, but when I got back to their home I saw someone that I didn't expect to see.

Sitting in the front-room were several family members, most of whom I remembered, except for an older man sitting in the corner. They introduced him as Klaus's biological father, I guess the secret didn't matter any more. At first I was slightly taken aback, but the man greeted me with a smile and said that he knew who I was, and that Klaus had told him all about me, his best friend. We talked for a while and then he asked if I would like to go out onto the patio and drink to his son's memory, of course I obliged.

He looked nervous as we walked out. He kept looking back towards the house as if to see who was watching us or who was in earshot.

Once we got outside he got straight to the point.

"You know, Klaus's death was no accident, he was killed, and they said it was drunk driving, but no way, not Klaus."

I agreed. "Yes sir, that was my first thought also. Klaus hated drunk driving more than anything, he told me about his mother, your wife."

He nodded and said. "Please, call me Erich, I feel like we are family, sir is so formal."

"Oh, of course, Erich."

He continued. "The trouble is, I think it is because of me that he was killed. I know he told you about who I am, and about some of my friends in South America, he told when he came back after visiting you this summer. He also told me that you could be trusted and would never tell anyone, did you tell anyone?"

I replied forcefully. "Absolutely not, I wanted to tell the authorities, believe me, but I promised him I would never tell anyone, and I never have."

He continued, "Because you know, if you did tell people about my comrades and I, that would alert certain people who do not like us, people who would try and get to me through him. I am old and I don't have long left; killing me is pointless, but killing my son is something my enemies know would torture me until I die, to me it is worse than death."

I countered back straight away, "Erich I told you, I did not tell anyone, I promised Klaus and I kept that promise, I walked away from that conversation the night he told me and I never mentioned it to him or anyone else ever again."

"OK, OK," he said. "I believe you, but the question is, who killed him and why? If it was because of me, how did they find out who he was, and what else do they know?"

I said, "The only other people who knew about you were the Adlers, and they loved Klaus as much as you do, and one of them is dead also."

"That is very true, and I am making inquiries into the situation right now. I have some very enthusiastic young men working for me who can be very persuasive when they have to be, we will find out what happened to Klaus, so I hope you are telling me the truth."

Again, I assured him that I was telling him the truth. I told him that I was in town for a week and if he needed me for anything I would be staying with the Adler family.

He said goodbye and left. He may have been getting on in years, but he carried an air of arrogance and intimidation about him. I had no doubt that he would do whatever he had to do to bring his son's killer to justice.

The funeral service went ahead. Understandably, it was a hard day for all of us. A large group of Klaus's friends took me out with them drinking to a pub in town afterwards, we talked about him and celebrated his life, I have not been that drunk in a very long time.

### Chapter 10. Loan Sharks

**The morning after the funeral** I woke up with the hangover from hell. I spent most of the morning trying not to be sick in the Adler's house. At 11.30am I got a call from Erich, he said he had some news for me concerning Klaus's death and was sending a car over to pick me up, because he could not talk about it on the phone.

The car arrived about 20 minutes later, and I jumped in the back, there were two burly Germans sitting inside, one driving, and one in the back. The guy in the back did all the talking, as we pulled away he told me that I had to wear a blindfold, for my own protection, so I could not tell anyone where I had been.

I was obviously a bit wary at this point; a lot of things started racing through my mind. I knew that Erich had suspected me of telling people about him, and I was sure that killing someone like me probably wasn't going to bother an ex-Nazi, but I wanted to find out what had happened. I did as I was told and sat back for the 30 minute drive.

We pulled up and the two men helped me out of the car; they kept my blindfold on. They walked me along and I heard a metal sounding door open, once we were inside they removed the blindfold and I saw that we were standing in a spacious warehouse with several rows of wooden packing crates lined up. Erich was sitting on a chair, waiting, he got up and walked over to me.

"Sorry about the cloak and dagger, it is for your protection not ours, I hope the boys were gentle with you?"

They all laughed and he carried on. "Do not worry young man, you are in no danger, I know what you meant to my son, and I know you didn't tell anyone anything, you have nothing to fear from us. I want to ask you something, how badly do you want his killers caught and brought to justice?"

I had no doubt, "I would love that to happen, they need to pay for what they did."

He continued, "If I was to catch his killers and bring them to justice, outside the law, could I trust that you would not tell the Police, or anyone else?"

I wasn't sure why he was asking me these questions, surely he could take care of Klaus's murderers without consulting me? The way I was feeling, with the emotions of the funeral still very much alive inside of me, I felt as though I could easily pull the trigger on whoever killed Klaus. The reality of the situation was, that although I was not a cold blooded killer (it's one thing to think about it, or to think you want to do it, but another entirely different thing to actually kill a human being standing in front of you), if someone was going to, or had, harmed me or anyone close to me, I would not have a problem killing them.

I told him I could be trusted.

He asked me to follow him, and we walked into a second smaller room. Inside the room were two light brown skinned men, from my local knowledge I would guess that they were probably Turkish. One of them was tied to a chair with some rope, he was covered in blood and had several open wounds on his head and face. The second man was hanging from a chain around each wrist, attached to a metal rafter across the ceiling.

Erich explained, "These two pieces of shit are loan sharks from Hamburg. Adler borrowed a lot of money from them to pay his debts, but he could not pay them back. He made unsanctioned threats from our organization against them, and they killed him. He was not in Hamburg for the soccer, he was there to meet with these two, and then Klaus was going to bring him to me to ask for help. The meeting did not go well and they killed Adler and Klaus, then they made it look like a drunk driving accident using their local Police influence. Unfortunately for them, their influence does not run as deep as ours."

My emotions were mixed. On one hand I looked at the two men full of hatred for what they had done, I wanted them to pay. On the other hand, seeing signs of torture did not sit easy with me. If I was totally honest with myself, my conscience dictated that I would rather the Police dealt with them, but the time for that was obviously past.

Erich said, "So, we have been having a little conversation with these two for a few hours, to find out what happened, and now we have to decide on their punishment."

The man on the chair shouted, "He's lying; we didn't kill anyone, don't believe him."

One of the German men kicked him in the face with the sole of his shoe.

"I read somewhere that we live in a democracy these days, so I want to put it to a vote, shall we kill them or let the Police deal with them, the four of us all have a vote. Who wants them dead?"

Erich and the two German men raised their hands, and then all looked at me.

"Of course I want them dead, but shouldn't we let the authorities deal with them?" I asked.

Erich answered. "You would think so, but some smart lawyer will spout his bullshit, and they will worm their way out of it using their money. They will probably serve 6 months and be back on the street, is that justice for Klaus?"

I had to answer "No."

"So, it is decided, we will all take part and swear an oath to never reveal what happened here today, or we ourselves will receive the same punishment.

He handed me a right hand glove and a pistol. The handle and the trigger were all taped up like a street gun.

"You first, shoot one of them." He said.

What could I do? The two loan sharks had killed my best friend, and I had a feeling that there was a good chance I wouldn't walk out of there alive if I did not do as I was told.

Memories of Klaus and fear for my own safety made the decision for me. I shot the man on the chair in the chest; he groaned, but he was still alive. Erich grabbed the pistol from me and shot him twice in the head, then the two Germans finished off the man hanging from the chain with a shot each to his chest.

Erich turned to me. "Good, I didn't think you would do it, but now we are all brothers together, God help anyone one of us who betrays the others."

The two guys started to clean the place up, Erich put the blindfold on me and drove me back to the Adler's house.

When we arrived he took off my blindfold and said, "I may never see you again, but thank you for being a good friend to Klaus, the matter is finished, and now I just have to live out my days with the pain of his death, have a safe trip home."

I was not proud of what I had been involved in. I tried to justify it by telling myself it was only payback for them killing Klaus, it was something I was going to have to come to terms with.

I flew home a couple days later and went back to finish my training. I completed it and graduated as an agent. Soon after, I received the news that Erich had died of a heart attack at his home. There was not much press about his death, but I did read one article in a German magazine that gave a brief history of his life, and stated that he was believed to be the last man to see Hitler alive, but he had never confirmed or denied the rumor.

This brings me back to where I started, and why I was building a new identity for myself.

### Chapter 11. Back To The Beginning

**Klaus had mentioned** to me that night at the Lake that no one was interested in old Nazis, and that seemed to be pretty much true. The US had recruited the Nazis they wanted after the war or had used them in secret; many of the others had found refuge with right wing Dictators down in South America. I had a very bad taste in my mouth because of the possibility that Martin Bormann was still alive in Argentina, but would anyone else care?

I had made a promise to Klaus not to tell anyone about Bormann, and I had kept that promise. I really did not want to be responsible for his father spending his last years in prison, he was no Saint, but as far as I knew, he never killed any civilians during the war. Things had changed. Klaus was dead, and so was his father, I began to feel as though my promise was fulfilled, neither of them could be harmed now.

I did a lot of research using the agency resources in my spare time. There were reported sightings of Nazis all over the world, most of them turned out to be untrue, the years had passed by and the Cold War and the Russians were more of a worry now than some old Nazis. Resources were used on what was seen as the biggest threat to the USA, Nazis were way down the list of priorities, and in fact they were no longer on the radar.

I had casually mentioned to a few of my superiors that I had spent my childhood in Germany, and tried to bring the conversation around to Nazis that were still alive. None of them ever took the bait, or even seemed to care, that was until I met Josh Levin.

Josh had been an agent for twelve years. I was assigned to his team, their main interest was investigating international fraud. After a few months of working with him I felt comfortable enough to mention the agencies lack of interest when it came to old Nazis or war criminals.

The response from Josh was nothing like the others I had mentioned it to; he was Jewish, and like most Jews, he had family members who were killed or imprisoned by the Nazis during the war. Josh was ready to listen to anything I had to tell him about them.

I eventually told him about Bormann, he found it very hard to believe, but was still prepared to listen and talk about what I had to tell him. It became something we spoke about a lot, he could see that I was intrigued by the story, and gave me time to do some investigation to see if there was a chance it was true.

After a couple of months, Josh asked me if I would like to meet some experts on finding Nazi war criminals, I was happy that he took me seriously enough to make the effort. The meeting was to take place at his house, and he told me everything was off the record, it was not agency business.

### Chapter 12. The Israelis

**I went to Josh's house** and met two men there who called themselves John and Robert. I was pretty sure those were not their real names, they said that they were from Israel and they were interested in what I had told Josh. I told them my story, the only thing I left out was the killing of the two loan sharks from Hamburg. They were very interested to hear about Klaus's father, they seemed to know a lot about him and said that he had been a person of interest before his death because of his post war activities. They knew that he had helped to hide wanted Nazis and also funded them and provided them with protection.

John and Robert did not seem to care for the Bormann story though, they told me that there had never been any credible sightings of Bormann since the war ended. The most well known one was by a New York Times Journalist, who said he actually met Bormann, but he had no real evidence as far as they were concerned. They told me that they had contacts all over South America actively looking for high profile Nazis, and Bormann had never once crossed their radar in all these years. Even if he was still alive, they doubted that Bormann would have taken the risk of going back to Germany, there was no reason for him to go there, and there would be more witnesses who saw him.

They thanked me for the information and said they would share it with their superiors and that they may be in touch some time in the future.

I left the meeting feeling a bit deflated, but the next day at work, Josh thanked me again, he said that he still wanted me to devote some of my time to finding more out about any Nazis still in South America.

Our department got really busy with a lot of fraud cases, so my Nazi investigations got put on the back burner for a while. When summertime came around I had some leave due, I decided that I would continue my investigation in my own time at home. I had been hitting the same old dead ends for a while, but I remembered that the Israelis had told me about the New York Times article, and even though they had completely dismissed it, I decided to check it out for myself.

### Chapter 13. The New York Times

**The New York Times** article was about Bormann and the many theories of what happened to him after the war. All of the ones that I had read previously came to the conclusion that he had died, but none had any real confirmation. This article was the complete opposite, it said that he was definitely alive and still lived in Argentina.

The Journalist who wrote the article was a guy named Steven Pickering. He claimed that he had actually seen Bormann in the flesh, and had positively identified him, but he had no physical proof, just his word. Steven had since received a lot of stick from people saying that he was just trying to cause a stir and make a name for himself, but he was adamant that he had met Bormann, and had never recanted his statement.

I got his number and called him. I introduced myself as an agent, but I didn't say anything to him about working off the record. He agreed to meet me the next day, but said that he wanted to see identification. He also said that he would be bringing some friends with him for protection. I told him that would not be necessary, but agreed to it because it was the only way he was going to talk to me.

The arrangement was to meet in a very public Georgetown bar the next day at 2:00 pm.

I got there ten minutes early and waited outside. Steven's two security guys showed up right on time, they introduced themselves and asked to see my ID. They checked it and then insisted on patting me down, I had left my gun in the car, I wanted this to be friendly and casual. They told me to go and get a table and wait for Steven, and that they would be watching me the whole time I was there.

Steven arrived at 2:15pm and apologized for the security measures, he said it had become necessary because he had encountered a lot of problems and threats since he had published his Bormann article, so he was always over-cautious when meeting new people.

"So what is your interest in Bormann? You're the first person who has contacted me about him who has not been a right wing nut, or someone who wanted to find him and kill him." He said.

I gave him a cut down version of what I knew about Bormann, and just told him that the Agency had found links to him and drugs coming into the US.

Steven didn't say a lot at first, he just nodded and smiled while I spoke. I had a feeling he didn't totally believe me, but he was prepared to talk about his experience with Bormann, so I didn't care whether he believed my story or not.

"I will tell you the same things that you read in my article. I met Martin Bormann in Argentina, I shook his hand and I spoke to him for 30 minutes, he did not tell me who he was, but I recognized him straight away, I have studied these monsters for 20 years, their images are burned into my brain."

"But why did he agree to meet you?" I asked.

"First of all, I speak German, my father was a German, but I hate Nazis, my wife is Jewish and so are my children. I was writing a freelance undercover story about German influence on Argentina since the war. I was there for several months and became friendly with some of the offspring of the Nazis who lived there.

After a while, they began to feel at ease with me, I spoke to them in German and laughed at their racist humor. My cover was as an exporter, starting up a business exporting prime Beef from Argentina, I used that cover because I had a tip off that some of them were involved in that business.

The first real Nazi I met was a man called Franz; they never used surnames. Initially, I did not know who he was, but like most of them, a few drinks and they started reminiscing about the old days and singing their war songs. He always spoke about Bormann like he was still alive, he worshiped him, and was a loudmouth when he was drunk, and it was he who first told me that Bormann was alive. Of course, I didn't believe him, the guy was a drunken prick most of the time, but he did always seem sincere when he spoke about Bormann.

The Nazis I met lived freely, they didn't have to hide, and they seemed to know all the local people. They were always armed however, and didn't trust anyone outside their circle. I witnessed them drinking with the local officials regularly, they bought them drinks and set them up with women.

Then one evening, I went to an Oktoberfest event that they organized for the local town, and sat talking to Franz at the bar. He was already pretty drunk when I got there, about an hour in he said that he was meeting another old friend later on. He said that his friend had a large cattle farm, and that he may be able to throw some business my way, so I agreed to meet him.

That was Bormann. I almost froze when I saw him, he was fat and bald, he walked with a limp and had a walking stick with a white ivory eagle on the handle, and he introduced himself as Ralph. He asked about my business and said that he could supply as much beef as I wanted, and also arrange the required documentation to export it. He seemed much more interested in my heritage and my German relatives, he liked hearing about anything to do with Germany.

After about thirty minutes he left. Franz escorted me from the table and I never saw Bormann again, and the others never mentioned him. After that night, whenever I asked Franz about 'Ralph' and ordering beef from him, they just told me that he had gone away and they would give me anything I needed.

I finished my article and slipped away a few weeks later. The New York Times published the article and the rest is history, and now here I am talking to you."

It was quite a story. Steven gave me a folder with all the information he had about Bormann and an unedited version of his article, I thanked him and told him that I may be in touch with him in the future. Then, I left.

I spent the rest of my vacation going through the information that Steven had given me and checking it out. The folder included a sketch he had done of what Bormann looked like, as well as sketches of several other Nazis. There was some more detailed information about everyone he had met in Argentina, a lot of stuff that didn't make the article, and details of their businesses, where they lived and whatever else they were doing at that time.

I went over to see Josh a few days before I was due back at work to show him what I had found, and to see what he thought. He was pleased to see me, I sat and went through all the information with him. I had photocopied it, so he could pass it on to the Israelis if they wanted it, he thanked me and said he would see me at work the following Monday.

I went back to work and our case load got even worse. One of the other departments had been accused of illegal activities and they were all suspended, so we had to pick up their cases as well as our own. Nazi hunting was firmly put on the back burner once again.

### Chapter 14. Buenos Aires

**Two months went by** , and Josh asked me to come over to his house one evening after work because his friends wanted to speak to me again, it was a welcome break from the Agency grind.

I went over and met John and Robert again, they seemed a lot more enthusiastic than before, they said that they had some news for me. Robert started the conversation. "We took the additional information that was not in Pickering's original article that you gave us and did some more investigating, but we still came up with a lot of dead ends. Bormann's colleagues have long since moved on, the article's publication forced them to shut down their operations, and it scattered them.

We did, however, find another Nazi connected with this case. He is someone you had mentioned from your friend Klaus's story, Wilhelm. We found him in Austria while tracking his son. He was going under a false name, but he showed up at his son's house one day, just by pure chance."

John took over the story, "Our agents followed him for a week; he didn't do anything or really go anywhere, we bugged the house but all he did was watch TV and bet on horse racing. He used a pay-phone up the street from his son's house to make bets, so we bugged it, and we got lucky. He called a guy named Kurt about a trip they were going on to see 'Ralph,' this obviously rang a bell, they had a meeting a week later and we followed them for the next few weeks. We found out that they both had tickets to Argentina, so we contacted our agents there and arranged surveillance.

They flew to Buenos Aires; two local men met them at the airport and were chauffeuring them around. Our agents followed them and after two days in the city, they went on a long road trip to a very rural part of the country down south. They stayed at a local hotel for two nights and then drove to a remote farmhouse. The house was heavily guarded, there were also guards who rode around the property on horseback.

We believe that the guards were Argentine Special Forces, they were very professional in their approach. The agents had a lot of problems with surveillance, the place was not easy to get to without being spotted, and there were almost no vantage points from where they could not be seen. They sat it out for several days, and then one evening there was a movement of vehicles and men, an armored car and extra guards arrived at the house. Wilhelm and his friend Kurt came out of the farmhouse with another man, and although it was hard for a 100% positive ID, our agents were pretty sure it was Bormann."

Hearing this made me feel that I had not wasted my time. I was almost happy that it was Bormann, my investigating and stubbornness had paid off.

### Chapter 15. Suicide

**I asked Robert and John** , "What can you do to get Bormann? It seems like he has a private army protecting him, as well as the local government."

Robert replied. "We can't prove it's him; the Argentine government have always denied that he has ever been there. The only way to get him out would be for our own soldiers to go in and extract him, and although that is an option, it could cause an International incident if it went wrong. The only other way to get to him is to go small, as small as we can to get close to him."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Just send in one man: someone who Bormann knows or thinks he knows, someone who he would never suspect. They could get close to him and maybe draw him out, or if that was not possible, just kill him instead."

"Yeah, and be killed themselves." I interrupted.

"Maybe, maybe not, if it was done right." John said.

"Is there such a person, and how will you get them to do it?"

"We do not have anyone he is very close with, but we have someone who he may think that he knows. You told us that your friend Klaus met him when he was a boy, and Bormann told him he could call him uncle Martin, and ask for help if he was ever in trouble, yes?"

"Yes, but Joha....Klaus is dead." I blurted out.

"Borman does not know that. Johann Adler died, not Klaus, and so he has never been reported as dead, because to the rest of the world he never existed. His old man erased everything when he was young, he was an expert in wiping the records of people, he did it for hundreds of Nazis, and he did it so his son would be safe."

"But the fact still remains that he's dead."

"Yes, but someone could pretend to be Klaus, someone who knew him better than his own father. Someone who lived in the same town, someone who even looks like him and who can speak perfect German and knows Klaus inside out. You. You could become him and no one in South America would suspect a thing."

This was a shock to my system, and even though he was right; I was not about to go on a suicide mission to capture Bormann, or kill him, no way, I was in the CIA!

"I am sorry guys, but I can't do it, that would be suicide, surely Klaus's father would have told Bormann about his son being killed?"

Robert said, "No, we are pretty sure they had no further contact after Klaus was killed, and his father died very soon after that."

"Look, I'm sorry; I will help you in any other way that I can, but I am not going to Argentina to get Martin Bormann, you will have to find another way."

John and Robert said they understood how I felt, but I was the only person who could pull this off, we went back and forth for a while until Robert told me that I had no choice.

"I am sorry to do this to you, but I have to. Do you remember a meeting with Klaus's father at a warehouse in Berlin after his son's funeral? And do you remember two men being tortured, and you shooting one of them and killing him?"

Now I was worried. How they knew about the warehouse I didn't know, I just tried to bluff my way out of it.

"I don't know what you are talking about I'm afraid." I said.

They both looked at each other; Robert pulled a photograph out from his inside jacket pocket and slid it across the table to me.

"So you are telling me that is not you in the picture?"

Where the picture came from I don't know, but there I was, standing with a gun in my hand pointing it at the loan shark.

"OK, I may remember something like that, but I never killed anyone."

John said. "Not only do we have the picture, but we have a German national who swears that you shot and killed the man; he was being held prisoner by Klaus's father, do you remember that?"

They obviously had one of Erich's guys, and he had made some sort of deal with them, or maybe they tortured him, and I couldn't really argue with the picture anyway. I just nodded my head, yes.

"But I didn't kill the guy, Erich Shreiber shot him in the head."

"Well, whatever happened, do you think that you will have much of a career in the CIA if that was to become public knowledge?"

I just agreed with him, they had me over a barrel, and there was not much I could do about it.

They said they would get back to me and let me know what was going to happen. In the meantime I was instructed to meet Josh at his house six nights a week, an Israeli agent would brief me and also quiz me on what I had already learned, to get me ready for the mission.

Something like this takes a lot of planning, you can't just jump on a plane and go and meet Martin Bormann, it all takes time to set up. Josh had been working on a fake cover mission for me, so I could be sent down to Argentina as an agent on the company dime, he made it so that the fake mission involved a lot of German nationals, so I would be in line to do it. My real mission would be to infiltrate the local underground network and make it known that I was Klaus. As far as anyone else was concerned, the fake mission was real and if it was ever exposed, I was just an agent following orders. Josh would take the blame. This made me feel slightly better about everything, hopefully I could trust him.

Eventually, the Israelis hoped that I would get to Bormann through his old comrades, once they accepted me and they were comfortable with me. I would then try and get him away from the farmhouse. The Israelis had an escape plan worked out, they were truthful with me however, they said it was not going to be easy, and the chances of success were slim, but that didn't mean I wouldn't survive.

If things did not go to plan, I had strict orders to kill Bormann.

### Chapter 16. South America

**At this point** , I didn't know what to do. Although it had crossed my mind several times, I was reluctant to call my dad, he still had clout and could possibly help me out, but for that to happen I would probably need to admit that I shot someone in cold blood. I may be able to use the power of the US government to get me out of this situation, but what about afterwards? I would have no job, I may be sent to prison, and having the Israelis as enemies was never a good idea; I might not survive anyway.

After a few sleepless nights replaying every possible scenario in my head, I made the decision to go ahead with the mission. I just could not see a way out without some serious shit coming my way, maybe I could end up doing some good and kill this prick, or get him back to Israel to face justice?

I accepted the mission.

The time to leave came around very quickly, I was trained as well as I could be in the time we had. I was flown in to Chile and met a CIA contact who got me across the border into Argentina late at night.

The worse thing I could do was show up at Bormann's nearest village announcing that I knew him. My M.O. was to build my cover slowly. I started in the village that Bormann was last reported to be in before the New York Times article, I began working a job in construction that the agency had set up for me. I spoke as a German, and if I spoke in English, I made sure it was broken. I had also been taught some Spanish as part of my cover, Klaus had mentioned that he spent a few summers in Spain with his father, so I thought it would be a good idea.

My cover was that my father, Erich, had told me so much about Argentina, that I wanted to visit and see if any of his old friends still lived there, just a young man traveling the world.

My fake assignment for the agency was worked out ahead of time by Josh, so my daily reports and everything else were completed before I even set foot in Argentina, the Israelis had helped to sell what Josh had planned to the Agency. I was someone who was the right age for the fake mission, I could speak perfect German, and Josh made sure that there was no one else they could use instead of me anyway.

### Chapter 17. Contact

**A few weeks** into the mission and there was an offer of work for 10 of the construction crew I was working with, to start a new road in a town about thirty miles south of where Bormann's house was, I volunteered and got the job. I became friends with the local crew and drank with them after work, if anyone checked me out my cover would hopefully be more solid.

It was at the new job that I got my first break. The gang boss from my crew introduced me to the company rep, because he was a German also. The man's name was Simon; he seemed really happy to meet another German national, and after a couple of weeks he invited me to dinner with his family. We talked about Germany and school, I passed that test easily, I wasn't born there, but I was a German as far as they could tell. Simon told me that he wanted to help me get a better job, he put me in charge of a small crew who worked ahead of the main construction, troubleshooting any problems that may slow down the project.

I spoke to Simon quite a lot; he told me that he had several friends who lived locally that were from Germany. He was very nationalistic in his views, a proud German is what he called himself. I saw several pictures of his grandfather in a German uniform around his house, so I eventually I started to talk about my family. I had already told him that Klaus's father was too young to fight in the war, but as we got friendlier, I let it slip that he was in the SS. Simon was all over me as soon as he heard that, we went to a bar after work the next night and he bought me drinks and wanted to hear all about my father. I was pouring most of my drinks away every time he went to the bathroom, so I kept a clear head.

Eventually, I let sit slip who my fake father was in my pretend drunken state. Simon was ecstatic, he acted as though he had just won the lottery, he said he had some friends who knew my father during the war and that I should meet them, I said I would. I made my excuses and told him that I had to be up for work early, and I left. If Simon's friends really did know Erich during the war, then I was about to meet some Nazis that would hopefully lead me to Bormann.

Simon called me at my hotel after work the next day and said a friend of his wanted to meet me on Friday night, at a restaurant in town, of course I agreed. The next day, I spoke to the guys I had moved to the new job with to see if anyone had been asking about me. One of them told me that the boss had asked him how long they had known me and where I came from. The meeting that Simon arranged was hopefully a sign that the cover had worked and he believed who I was, either that or I was about to get a bullet in the back of my head.

### Chapter 18. Smart Dress

**Friday night came** and Simon picked me up, I dressed up very smartly in a suit, Nazis seem to like smart, if not ridiculous dress, and Simon had warned me that I was meeting someone very important.

We went to the restaurant, it was a fairly small dark place with five tables and a bar. There was one table of people eating and three men on stools drinking at the bar. We went and sat at the bar also, and ordered some drinks, then waited. Eventually two armed men showed up about 20 minutes later and told us to follow them, we were escorted toward a private room at the back. They patted us both down before we went in the room. We walked in, it was dimly lit like the rest of the place, mainly by candlelight, and there was a single table and four chairs. Sitting at the far end of the table facing the door was a man I recognized from one of the photos the Israelis had shown me.

The man stood up and introduced himself as Wilhelm, he shook my hand very firmly, he asked both Simon and I to take a seat at the table. He called the waiter in and we ordered some drinks. We sat and made some small talk about the local area and what I had been doing, then we ordered dinner. Wilhelm questioned me a lot more during dinner about my personal life in Germany, and then about my father. I had no problems with any of his questions, I knew far more about Klaus than anyone else possibly could, and as far as they knew, Klaus did not know that much about his dad, so I had some room for error. Then he played what I presume he saw as his trump card, to really prove that I was Klaus.

"You know, we have met before..."

"I do not recall meeting you sir, when did we meet?" I replied.

"You were about 13 or 14; I met you in a big castle at a party in Bavaria, do you not remember?"

"I remember the castle and the party, but I met many people that night, my father was a very popular man."

"He was a great and honorable man, who I owe much to. But do you remember a meeting in a room at the castle, it is something you surely could never forget if you were there?"

"I do remember the meeting. I was with my father and three other men, another man joined us later on."

He smiled. "I was one of those men in the room, that is where we met, do you remember who the last man was who came in, and what he said to you?"

"He said he wanted to meet me, and that I should call him uncle Martin."

"Ha, ha! I can't believe it, Klaus, it really is you, wonderful, did your father ever tell you what happened to uncle Martin?"

"He told me who he was, and the great things he had done for Germany, but he said that he had to leave the country and come here to Argentina, because of the lies his enemies told about him."

"That is correct, let's all have another drink, and make a toast, to uncle Martin."

The three of us clinked our glasses together. "To uncle Martin."

We talked some more and eventually the evening finished. Wilhelm said that he would be in touch with me, they had a party coming up and he would love me to attend. He instructed Simon to look after me and make sure that I had a good job, not working on the roads anymore.

### Chapter 19. Making Sure

**Simon put me in an office** the next day, he said that my job was a new one and he would be giving me some work when he got it. No work ever came. I was given a better salary and basically told by Simon to just come in for an hour a day and show my face. I think they just wanted to keep tabs on me so they could check me out further.

A week later, Simon told me that Wilhelm wanted to meet me at the same restaurant again, this time alone. He said that Wilhelm had told him he had another old friend who knew my father, and he wanted to meet me. The old friend turned out to be a man called Thomas, he was also one of the three men in the room with Wilhelm in Bavaria.

Thomas was not so friendly with me, he kept saying that he did not believe I was there by chance. He questioned me quite vigorously about the night at the castle, but I kept my nerve and stuck to my story. Eventually his demeanor completely changed, he literally became the nicest guy in the world, from being the biggest dick only a few seconds before, I guess he was convinced of who I was. The evening finished and I went back to my Hotel.

Since the first night I met Wilhelm, I had noticed that I was being followed. Whoever the guy was, he wasn't very good. I just let him follow me, I felt as though I could give him the slip easily if I needed to. He wasn't going to find out much, I behaved like a boring guy who went to work everyday, or stayed in his hotel room the rest of the time. I was under orders not to do anything suspicious or contact anyone until a meeting with Bormann was set up, then I had to leave an encrypted message to be picked up at the hotel. The signal was to dry my pants on the balcony.

I met with Wilhelm and Thomas again a week later; it was then that they surprised me.

"Did your father ever tell you how uncle Martin died?" Wilhelm asked.

"No, I have not even thought about it, I just presumed that he died of old age." I replied.

"What would you think if I told you that he was still very much alive, and that he wanted to meet you once again?"

"Are you telling the truth, he's still alive?"

"Would you like to meet him if he was?" Wilhelm smiled.

"Of course I would, he is a hero of all Germany, and he knew my father, can you arrange it?"

"Yes, it is already arranged, we are going right now."

That was totally unexpected; I did not think he was going to say that. I had no time to signal anyone that I was going to meet Bormann, I just had to go with it.

"OK, that's fantastic." I said.

We went outside and got into a black Mercedes truck. They asked me to wear a blindfold, which of course I did.

We drove for about 25 minutes and then stopped at what I presumed was the gate to Bormann's farm. The driver spoke in Spanish to whoever was there, and I heard the gate open, we drove for another few minutes over some bumpy ground and stopped on a crunchy gravel path.

"Please keep the blindfold on for now." Thomas said.

They lead me into a building and down some stairs on my left, I heard a door open and I could immediately feel a bright light on my face, my heart was beating really fast, and I was sweating profusely.

### Chapter 20. Meeting An Old Friend

**Someone behind me** pulled the blindfold off, and I found myself staring straight into a light that was hanging from a low ceiling, my eyes adjusted and there right in front of me on the other side of the light was Martin Bormann. My first thought was that if I had a knife on me I could ram it in the bastards heart right here and now, but I didn't have one, and the security had given me another thorough search before we left the restaurant anyway.

His bellowing laugh seemed to shake the room. "Are you OK Klaus?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." I replied.

"Sorry for all the secrecy, but it has to be this way. How are you my boy? It has been so long. Wilhelm and Thomas have told me that you remembered the time we met at the castle in Bavaria several years ago. Do you recall that I told you then you could ask me for help any time you needed it? Well the offer still stands. But first let me ask you, do you remember the other time that we met?

Fuck! Klaus didn't tell me about any other meetings with Bormann, I could be in trouble. I did the only thing I could, I stuck to my story and what I knew.

"I only ever met you once uncle Martin, at the castle, we never met again after that."

"Very good, just a little test for you, I can't be too careful these days, come and have a drink with me."

I had nearly had a heart attack, but my guess was right, slippery old bastard.

The room looked like the basement of a house, probably his farmhouse, the ceiling was low, the walls looked like they were made of steel, like some sort of safe room or bunker. Bormann lead the way over to a low wooden table flanked by two well worn brown leather couches, one on either side. He used a walking stick, and I could see that he was limping quite badly.

He sat at the far end of the couch on the left, he gestured me to sit on the opposite one facing him directly across the table. He leaned his walking stick against the arm, I noticed that it had an eagle on the top of it, just as Steven Levin the Journalist had said. Wilhelm and Thomas sat one on either side.

Wilhelm poured four large glasses of what I learned was single malt Scotch, from a decanter in the middle of the table, and handed us one each.

Bormann raised his glass and made a toast. "To renewing old friendships."

All four of us clinked glasses and repeated it back to him.

"So, Klaus, what are you doing in Argentina? It's very far from home."

"I have to be honest, after my father died, I was a bit lost for a while. I had heard his stories about his great comrades during the war, and what he did after the war. He spoke about Argentina quite a bit, and told me he had many friends here. I wanted to come and see the country for myself."

"I can understand that, did you think that you would find any of his old friends?" He asked.

"I hoped that I might, my father's assets were seized by the German government when he died, so I came here with no money, which meant I had work to support myself. The first place that I thought of going to was somewhere I read about in a newspaper, it said you lived there. I didn't think you would still be there, but it seemed like as good a place as any to start."

Bormann was silent for a few seconds; he sat just staring at me.

"I see. I know the article that you mean, that caused us much trouble, we had to move our operations and become a lot more careful, hence all the security. I have to ask, however, now that you have found us, what are you going to do next?"

"I did not really think that far ahead, I will probably head back to Germany once my job is finished. I think there is another month of construction and then everyone is moving on again. I am just glad that I managed to meet you all before I left."

"We have a wide network of friends here Klaus, and in Germany, if you need help getting a job, or you need money, I can arrange to have some of them contact you. In the meantime, I hope that you are not going to be a stranger, I would love to talk to you about your father, your duty to preserve his memory, and not letting false history tarnish it with lies.

We are having a small gathering here of old comrades and some local dignitaries next Saturday, I hope that you can come as my guest?"

"I would be honored to come." I said enthusiastically.

"Wilhelm will contact you next week with the details."

I thought to myself, a party would surely mean the coming and going of unfamiliar people, there just for the night, maybe our team could get in and grab Bormann?

We sat and spoke for about an hour. I took a back seat and let them get drunk; tell their old war stories and dream of the Fourth Reich. I was under no illusion as to who this man was, he was a brutal killer responsible for the deaths of many innocent people, but he had a way of making you forget that and I found myself almost liking him. The truth is that they were just a bunch of old men trapped in the middle of nowhere reliving their former glories, they did not look so mighty anymore, it was almost sad to watch.

Bormann said he was tired and that he was going to bed, so we all stood and he shook my hand and walked towards the exit. We followed him up the stairs and Wilhelm blindfolded me again. I was driven back to my hotel, I arrived there around 1:00 am. I thanked the driver and went up to my room.

### Chapter 21. Rude Awakening

**At around 4:00 am** , I was woken up by some noise; I jumped up and saw a tall dark figure standing in the moonlight shinning in from the open window. I grabbed the knife that I kept under my pillow, and backed up to the wall.

The shadowy figure spoke in English and said, "No, wait, I am your contact, I work with John and Robert."

I switched the light on and saw a man in a waiter's outfit, he had his hands up in the air, as if to surrender.

"Who are John and Robert," I asked.

"The Israeli friends of Josh's, the guys who set this mission up, my name is Charles, I'm your emergency contact."

The Israelis had told me he was my contact, although he looked a bit different to the photo I had seen, but I guess he was in disguise. I asked for his identification code, we all had one, and his was correct. I told him to sit on the bed.

"What the hell are you doing in my room at four in the morning? I could have killed you."

"I know, I'm sorry, but you disappeared and we needed to know that you were OK. I was going to search your room for clues, I didn't know that you were here."

"Well I am, I got back a couple of hours ago."

"Where have you been?"

"I spent the evening with Bormann, Wilhelm and Thomas."

"So it is definitely him?

"Yes, I was a foot away from him, it was Bormann."

"You were meant to signal us if there was going to be a meeting, why didn't you?"

"I didn't have time to warn you, they didn't tell me I was meeting Bormann, they just took me straight from the restaurant without any warning."

"OK, I need to know all the details, I have to debrief you right now while everything is still fresh in your mind."

I sat on the bed with my feet up, and Charles went over to the desk in the corner and pulled out a small yellow notebook from his waistcoat. He took notes while I told him what had happened. He was meticulous about everything, he made me run through each detail several times and kept asking the same questions over and over to make sure that I left nothing out. I told him that the party was on Saturday, and that may be the best chance we have to grab Bormann. The security would be tight, but maybe the change in routine would favor us.

Charles left and said that I should stick to my daily routine and go to work in the morning, he would be in touch if anything was going to happen Saturday.

### Chapter 22. No Show

**I went in to my office** everyday that week as usual, just for an hour to show my face like I had been told to do. Simon was busy coordinating the road job so I hardly saw him. I spent most of my time at the Hotel, sitting around the swimming pool or reading in my room, awaiting instructions from the Israelis.

Thursday came and I went to my office in the morning, when I got there Wilhelm was sitting in my chair at the desk waiting for me.

"Klaus, how are you?"

"I'm OK Wilhelm, how can I help you?"

"I have just come to let you know that the party is confirmed for Saturday, and we will send a driver to pick you up at 7:00 pm sharp."

I smiled and said, "Great, I am looking forward to seeing uncle Martin once again."

"And he is looking forward to seeing you, we have some guests coming from all over the World, it should be a fun evening, see you then."

"See you then, thanks."

He got up and shook my hand and then left. I looked out of the window and watched as a driver picked him up and they drove off.

I went back to my hotel and put the signal up for the Israelis, but no one showed up. I presumed that they were not planning on doing anything, perhaps it was too dangerous?

### Chapter 23. Right Wing Party

**Saturday evening came** and the chauffeur picked me up, there was an armed man in the back who asked me to put on a blindfold again for the ride to the farm. We got to the farm and I was escorted out of the vehicle and taken inside as before. This time I was not taken straight to the cellar; they took my blindfold off and I found myself standing in a hallway. There was a huge painting of Hitler on the wall at the far end, and three doors on either side, the place was finished with wood and darkly lit.

Wilhelm came up and shook my hand, he said, "Why don't you go down to the cellar, the Chancellor wants to see you, he has a surprise."

He pointed to my left and I went down the steps and walked into the cellar, there was a guard inside the door, he closed it behind me and stood in front of it, he held an Uzi across his chest. An Israeli gun to protect Nazis.

Bormann approached me and shook my hand, "Hello Klaus, I have something to show you; come this way."

I followed him to a door at the back of the room and we both went inside, I could see three men facing the corner of the room, they were looking down at something on the floor.

"This is what we have to deal with, we found these two out in one of the fields earlier this evening, they had a high-powered rifle, it looks like they were going to try and assassinate me."

I walked around to the left of the three men and looked on the floor, there were two men there, it was Charles and Robert. Charles was lifeless and was covered in blood, he had several fingers missing, they were laying on the floor next to him. Robert was leaning against the steel lined wall with his head bowed, his hands were tied behind his back and he looked barely alive, he kept choking on blood in his throat and spitting it out. Now I was worried, had Bormann found out who I really was? I felt sick to my stomach, but I kept my composure.

Bormann continued. "One of them is dead, and we are trying to get some information from this other one. Thomas has gone to get some truth serum that we have used before, we need to find out if there are any more of these pigs left."

I was in it now, there was no escape, so I had to play it cool. I needed to find a way of getting out or getting Bormann before Robert was given the truth serum, otherwise there was a good possibility that I was going to be dead on the floor next to him pretty soon.

I didn't know why Bormann had showed me this, he hardly knew me, but maybe he was sending a message, double cross me and this is what you get, or he thought that a Nazi's son would be just like his old man, maybe it was a test?

I didn't say too much, but I smiled and gave Bormann my approval. I suggested that we leave the men on the floor and go upstairs to get a drink and meet his other guests. He led me upstairs, hobbling along in front of me. In reality, I just wanted to get out of the cellar, the sight and smell of two people that I knew lying in a pool of blood was not something I wanted to stand and stare at.

We went into the front room, the walls were lined with more Nazi artwork, Hitler again, this time with a German Shepherd, Bormann posing with his uniform on, and a big cabinet full of medals and trophies, this was certainly not a man who had any regrets about his past. There were about eight people standing talking and drinking. The room was not huge and the party had spilled out into the kitchen and outside to the rear of the house, in total I counted around 15 guests. Bormann told me not to mention the men in the cellar to anyone at the party. "I trust you, but I don't trust everyone here, so just keep it to yourself, he said. We will sort out that pig when Thomas returns, get yourself a drink, I have a great surprise for you, I am just going upstairs for a minute."

I wasn't sure what my next move was going to be, but I either had to escape or stop them giving Robert the truth serum. I really did not want to go back down into the cellar, it would be next to impossible to escape from there, so I got a drink and started to look around the house for an alternative way out.

The house was security central, the windows were wired; there were cameras everywhere and several armed guards walking around, getting away was looking next to impossible. I went outside into the rear courtyard and got a cigarette from a waiter serving drinks. Even though I didn't smoke, I thought it might give me the opportunity to take a look around outside without raising any suspicion.

What happened next was totally and utterly surreal, and I could not have guessed it in a million years.

### Chapter 24. Family Reunion

**After a few minutes** looking around outside, I heard a loud voice coming from inside the house, so I went back in to take a look. Wilhelm was at the bottom of the stairs and was asking everyone to be quiet. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please give me a minute of your time. Thank you all for coming this evening, our host has a few words he would like to say."

Bormann then hobbled down the stairs and stood next to Wilhelm on the second step up. "Thank you Wilhelm, and thank you all for coming. I have known most of you for a long time, some from Germany, some from here in Argentina, and I count you all as friends. The reason for the party this evening is to honor someone who many of us owe a great deal, including our liberty, but first there is a young man I want you all to meet, Klaus, where are you boy? Come here."

This was it, these scum were going to tear me to pieces, I smiled and walked up to join them both.

Bormann put his arm around me and continued. "This young man came here from Germany, to find his father's old comrades, we found him and have a big surprise for him this evening. Ladies and gentleman, I want to introduce the man responsible for me being here all these years, Klaus it's your father Erich."

Everyone started clapping, I knew that this was it, this was either some sort of twisted Nazi version of 'This is Your Life,' or I probably only had a few seconds left to live. I looked towards the door to see if I could escape, there were two guards there, my only option was probably to run upstairs, but it was too late.

Erich walked down the stairs and stared straight at me, he walked up to me and hugged me and said, "Klaus, my son, I am so happy to see you, how are you?"

I was stunned, what the hell was going on? Why he didn't just pull out a gun and shoot me?

I just went along with it, I didn't have to fake surprise, and at least I wasn't getting shot right now, "Father, I thought you were dead?"

"So did everyone, including the German authorities, it was the only way I could get out of the country. I was tipped off that they were going to arrest me, so I got a Doctor to fake my death, and I got away."

The guest started talking amongst themselves; the party was in full swing now.

Erich made some idle chit chat with Bormann and then asked him if he could have some private time with his son outside. Bormann smiled and said, "Of course my friend. Forgive me, please go out into the rear courtyard where it is more private."

We walked to the back of the courtyard and stood under a huge tree in the corner, away from the rest of the guests. I started, "What is going on Herr Schreiber, why didn't you just kill me back there?"

He spoke in a semi-whispered tone "I came into Argentina two days ago, at the request of Bormann, he told me that my son was here looking for me."

"But you knew that it wasn't Klaus; he was killed in Germany with Adler, and I thought that you had died of a heart attack?"

"It is complicated, but I will explain. Adler was not the Saint that we all thought he was, he had huge gambling debts and owed the two loan sharks you met in the warehouse a lot of money, they were going to kill him or some of his family if he didn't pay them.

Adler went to the loan sharks and told them that he had some information, and he would trade it in exchange for clearing his debts. He told them who Klaus was, and said that I was rich and would pay handsomely for him if they kidnapped him. He delivered Klaus to them when they were in Hamburg, but instead of contacting me, the loan sharks swapped Klaus for some Islamic terrorists the Israelis had captured."

I replied, "That's not great, but at least Klaus is still alive. What happened to Adler then, is he still alive also?"

"Let's just say that he has been taken care of, for his sins.

The Israelis contacted me and told me that they knew Bormann was alive, and that I had to help them get to him, or I would never see Klaus again. In reality I was retired from Die Spinne, so I had no reason to come and see Bormann here. I got him out of Germany after the war, but we were never really friends, I just did it because it was my duty. If I just showed up out of the blue, that suspicious old bastard would think there was something wrong, he doesn't trust anyone. I faked my death, I had already let my old comrades know before then that I had to get out of Europe because I had been tipped off that the German authorities were going to arrest me. I was living in the mountains in Switzerland by then.

The Israelis sent you here, but you were just plan B, in case I did not get Bormann. You being here also helped sell the story to him. They got you here early to identify him, before bringing me in. After he had met you, Bormann got a message to me that my son was in Argentina, his colleagues told him about my government problems so he insisted that I fly over to have a family reunion. Which is what the Israelis wanted him to do."

I interrupted. "The Israelis told me that they had a German national who informed them that I shot one of the loan sharks, I naturally thought it was one of your men, but was it you?"

"No. I would never do that to you. They got to one of my men before they got me, he must have talked. The Israelis knew you would need some convincing to take the mission, that information gave them some leverage against you. The trouble is that, as you have seen in the cellar, some of the Israeli team were careless and they got caught, now Bormann is going to inject one of them with truth serum. We cannot allow that to happen, the Israeli agent knows about both of us. We have to make our move, now.

We will need to split up. You must go to the basement and take out the guard, I will get Bormann down there and then we can get him out of here. There is a hidden metal door at the back of the room where the Israelis are, it leads to a tunnel. Bormann had it built for emergencies, he has a vehicle at the other end, we can escape through there."

My options were still as limited as ever. I had to go along with it; hopefully, I could save Robert the Israeli agent, and also my best friend who the Israelis were holding. Erich went back into the house to talk to Bormann, and I headed for the cellar.

### Chapter 25. Safe Passage

**I knocked on the cellar door** , I looked at the peephole and saw that the light shining through it went dark, it took a few seconds to open the door, but the guard recognized me and let me in. I smiled at him and walked through to the back room, the two agents were still on the floor. I was looking around as I walked through the cellar to make sure that no one else was down there. I walked back out to the guard and got within striking range. I pretended to laugh at their misfortune, I said, "Fuck these two, the second one is going to get it tonight also."

The guard laughed, as he opened his mouth I punched him full on the left side of his jaw with my right fist. I felt his jawbone snap from the force, he spun and screamed as he hit the floor, he grabbed his face, and his gun fell to the ground. I didn't give him chance to recover, I kicked him straight in the face and then stood on one foot with all my weight on his throat, crushing his windpipe and killing him in seconds. I grabbed his Uzi and made sure that the door to the stairs was bolted. I ran back into the second room, Robert was still sitting against the wall, but was semi-conscious and leaning forward.

I pulled his head up and tried to bring him round, he opened his eyes and looked at me and in a croaky voice asked, "Ben what are you doing?"

I replied, "I'm getting you out of here, just sit tight."

"No, leave me. Just get Bormann, the mission is all that matters." Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth as he spoke, and he kept spitting more blood onto the floor.

I found some water and gave it to him, I undid the rope binding his hands together and went back to the other room.

I pulled the dead guard behind one of the sofas so that he could not be seen by anyone entering the room. I waited about ten minutes, and then there was a knock at the door, I looked through the peephole and saw Erich with Bormann, I opened it and let them in. After they came through the door I closed it and bolted it. Erich grabbed Bormann around the neck from behind in a choke-hold, Bormann started shouting, "You fucking idiot, what do you think you are doing, Erich, let me go, now."

Erich just said, "Shut up, and do as you are told."

Bormann struggled as Erich held him, but he was no longer the powerful Ox that he once was, and he couldn't break free. I searched him and found a gun in a holster under his jacket, and a knife in his boot. I pulled his boots off, then used some zip ties I found in the other room to tie his hands behind his back.

Bormann started screaming again, "You and your idiot son are going to die for this, what do you think you are doing?"

Erich just looked at him and said, "I am sorry, Herr Bormann, but I have no choice."

Erich told me to keep the guard's Uzi pointed at Bormann, and to not let him move, he went to the back of the second room and opened the hidden door so we could escape.

Erich came back in and he pushed Bormann towards the second room and the once hidden door. He spat at us and said he would not go, I reverse elbowed him in the side of his fat gut and he bent over winded. He screamed at me, "OK, OK," he started walking, leaning heavily on his walking stick. I carried on pushing him toward the door until he was through it. I went back, bent down and helped Robert up, he limped slowly into the tunnel, and Erich pushed Bormann to the front where he could keep an eye on him. As I entered the tunnel, I could hear some loud voices calling the guard to open the cellar door, then they started kicking it.

I shouted to Erich, "We have to move; they are trying to break the door down."

I pulled the tunnel door closed behind me, and locked it, maybe it would buy us the few extra seconds we may need to get away.

### Chapter 26. Walking Stick

**The tunnel was roughly cut** into the earth, and bolstered with wooden beams, it was about six feet high, and there were some lights, but it was still pretty dark. Bormann was purposely walking slowly; Erich kicked him in the ass, and told him to move. Bormann stopped and said he was out of breath. Erich just kept pushing him, telling him to move. Behind us I could hear voices, but now in the second room, they had obviously got though the first cellar door. Erich shouted at us to move faster.

We got to the end of the tunnel, and there was another big metal door, Erich went to the front and opened it, as he pulled it open, Bormann had secretly pulled the eagle head off of his walking stick, it concealed an eight inch knife, he stabbed Erich in the left arm, the knife went through his arm and punctured his ribcage, he screamed and punched Bormann. I grabbed Bormann's hand and got the knife, I threw it out the door into the long grass outside and punched him in the gut, he just moaned and crumpled into a heap. I asked Erich if he was OK, he said yes, but I could see that he had a lot of blood on his shirt pouring from his wounds.

I went out of the tunnel exit door first, very slowly; I had a look around. I looked back at the house but couldn't see anyone approaching us. I saw a Jeep parked about 20 yards away. There was some more noise in the tunnel and I ran back in there, the people chasing us had obviously discovered the hidden tunnel door and were trying to get it open. I pulled Bormann and Erich out, Robert was walking by himself now, but was obviously still in a lot of pain. I slammed the door shut and threw the bolt across it. We struggled to the Jeep. I shoved Bormann into the back with Erich, he sat with his gun trained on him, and Robert sat next to me in the front.

I said to Erich, "I was expecting the guards on horseback to be here, I wonder why they didn't just come to the exit rather than fight through the tunnel?"

Erich replied. "They don't know about the tunnel, he is so paranoid he didn't tell anyone else, I only know because I had it built for him, now let's go."

The keys were not in the ignition, I looked under the visor but they were not there either, I opened the glove box and found them with some leather gloves and a pair of binoculars. I started the Jeep and drove towards a clearing I could see ahead. We came out onto the edge of a field, I saw the road to my right and drove toward a small dirt mound and bumped the Jeep over it.

Robert shouted, "Head north! We have some of our unit there, I will tell you where to turn off."

I turned left on the road and headed north, fast.

### Chapter 27. Get Going

**As we sped along** the dark country road, Bormann was laughing and shouting, "You won't get away, every Soldier and Policeman for a 100 miles works for me."

I told Erich to shut him up, but he didn't respond. Just as I turned to look back, Bormann raised his legs and almost kicked me out of the open side of the Jeep. I braked hard, flung it sideways and skidded to a halt. I looked back. Erich was unconscious. Bormann just shouted, "Let me go, you can get away, your father is dead, take the Jeep and the Israeli, and I promise we won't come after you."

I told him to shut up.

I pulled off the road on the right and drove 20 feet into the forest, then down a small incline so we couldn't be seen. I checked on Erich, he was unconscious but not dead.

Robert had recovered slightly and got out of the front seat. I dragged Bormann out of the back and put him in the front seat instead, so I could keep an eye on him. I heard a truck on the road above us. Bormann started shouting to try and signal the truck, so I whacked him with the butt of my gun, I didn't want anymore of his shit. He fell unconscious in the seat. I walked up to the edge of the trees and saw the back of a personnel carrier driving at speed toward the farm.

I went back to the Jeep and tied Bormann's legs together and checked that his hands were still zipped tight. I got into the back seat next to Erich and ripped his shirt sleeve off and made a tourniquet for his arm. Robert had walked back up to the road to keep a lookout, he called out that it was clear. I got back in and started the Jeep, then reversed it up onto the road and stopped at the edge so Robert could jump in the back with Erich. I put my foot down, still heading north.

I had kept the headlights off so that there was less chance that we would be spotted, the road was lit pretty well by the moonlight anyway, so I had no trouble seeing where I was going.

Robert shouted, "I don't think Schreiber is going to last much longer; his breathing is very shallow."

I said. "We can't do anything right now, we just have to keep going, where is the meeting place you told me about?"

"In about another mile you will get to a junction, there is a huge rock on the left corner, make a right there. Our plan was to meet up, whatever happened, even if we did not have any contact after the initial briefing, that was the golden rule. I just hope there are some of our guys still alive."

I saw the huge rock and took the right hand bend at speed, then I accelerated down a long hill, Robert said the meeting point was an old house about a mile down the road. We drove three quarters of a mile and I pulled off the road under a tree.

Robert pointed towards the house in the distance and said, "What are you doing, the house is just there."

"I want to check it out before we get there, in case they have been captured," I said.

I opened the glove box and pulled out the binoculars I had found earlier when I was searching for the Jeep keys. I panned the whole area and the house. There was someone on a hill to the left of the house with a rifle. I checked out the house and could see that the lights were off. Then I saw John out near the front door, checking the perimeter.

I told Robert it looked OK and started the Jeep and sped off towards the house once again.

### Chapter 28. Welcome

**The Israeli team** at the house had obviously spotted that it was us driving towards them, an armed man opened the barn doors as we approached, John waved us in so we pulled inside and stopped in the barn, they closed the doors behind us.

John ran up to us and said, "You made it! I see Bormann, but where is Charles?"

"They killed him." Robert said.

I asked, "So what's the plan now, how the hell do we get out of here?"

"We have a chopper on the way, we are being extracted by Israeli Special Forces, we just radioed them, they should be here in about 10 minutes. We just need to sit tight."

Two other men came into the barn and cut Bormann's leg ties, they woke him up and pulled him out of the Jeep, and took him into the house. One of them came back and went to pull Erich out, and said, "This one's dead."

John said, "Just leave him in the Jeep. Let's get ready to go, keep a lookout for any activity outside."

John ushered Robert and I into the house. The other agents had moved Bormann to a room inside, they were in mid conversation with him as we walked in.

One of the agents was talking to him. "...I do have some admiration for you, how did you remain off the radar for so many years?"

Bormann was bleeding from the mouth, and he was very animated, but smiling. "You idiots are not so clever, I'm not Martin Bormann, you have the wrong man. Bormann is dead, I was his decoy. I took over his identity to keep the whole organization going, to supervise, and bring about the Fourth Reich; I'm just a figurehead to get money and promote the cause."

The agent replied. "You have evaded everyone since the war, do you expect me to believe anything Nazi filth like you tell me? We're taking you to Israel, and you will be tried for your crimes against humanity."

### Chapter 29. Fingerprints

**As he sat in the chair** , Bormann hissed at the agent questioning him, "Fingerprints, my fingerprints, why don't you check them? I know you carry them for identification purposes on a mission like this, test mine, before you do something that your country will regret, do you want another international incident like Eichmann?"

John shouted for someone called Steve.

Steve came in and John said, "Get Bormann's exemplar prints and the dactyloscopy kit, we need to double check his identity."

Then, he called to another agent, Mark, to come in, "Get his shirt off, check for a tattoo under his left arm."

Mark made Bormann take his shirt off and lifted up his arm, "There's no tattoo, but there is a burn mark, looks like it could have been removed." Mark Said.

"OK, we will have to see what his prints tell us."

Steve came back in with the kit, Bormann seemed eager to be fingerprinted. We all waited while Steve took his prints and went off into another room.

John pushed his walkie earpiece tighter to his ear and said, "Our extraction team are two minutes away, let's get everyone outside, ready to go." We all went outside, John kept a gun on Bormann. We stood and watched as two choppers came in to land in the field behind the house.

Steve came out and shouted above the chopper noise to John, "The prints are inconclusive, I need more time to run them properly, I can't say whether they are Bormann's or not."

"What? Are you sure? There's no way; it has to be him."

Bormann was laughing, "I told you, now let me go, before you do something stupid."

John shouted to his team, "Ignore this, we're still taking him out, we have to be 100% sure."

### Chapter 30. Identity

**The two choppers** sat with their motors running, we hurried over to them. Bormann was put into the first one with three of the agents and it took off. The rest of us got in the second one with John and took off just behind them.

I asked John where we were going, he said, "We are just going over the border to Chile, and then we have a team flying us out from there."

"What about Bormann or whoever he is?"

"We will investigate that once we get him away, he could have changed his records at some point. We need to be 100% sure, if it's not him; I don't know, I don't make those decisions."

I had to ask him, "What about Klaus, are you still going to let him go, Erich is dead, but he did keep up his end of the bargain?"

He replied. "Yes, most definitely, we will be releasing you as soon as we are in friendlier waters."

"OK, I thought that was the plan; I did what you asked, but I meant Klaus, not me."

"No, what I mean is that you, Klaus, are free to go. You ARE Klaus, didn't you work it out?"

"I shouted, "Is this some sort of joke, I am Ben Heller, I am not Klaus. I know who I am and who he is. Klaus is my best friend, I know who we both are."

"Your old man, your real old man, Erich Schreiber, is lying back there in that barn. Do you really think he would do this just for us? He came to Argentina because you are his real son. The kid who you think is Klaus, also thought he was Klaus. Adler was told he had to look after the boy by Schreiber, he told him the kid was his real son, to fool everyone, you were placed with an American agent and his family in the same town. Schreiber knew they would eventually take you away and that you would be much safer in America, he couldn't look after you himself, and anyway, it was too dangerous. He always kept up the cover, he treated Klaus like his real son, so there would never be any clues that you even existed. If anyone ever came after his son, they would go after the fake Klaus, and you would be safe.

Your American father met with Schreiber when you were first born, they did a deal for information, so it was easy to do for two experienced spies. He and his wife wanted a family, but they couldn't conceive, after many years of trying. His wife did eventually get pregnant, but unfortunately she died giving birth to the girl you called your sister. Only Schreiber and your American father knew about you, and Schreiber was always extremely paranoid that someone would find out about you."

I replied, "He made me shoot a man in cold blood for a murder that didn't happen, what kind of father would do that to his son?"

"One who is a Nazi and a cold blooded killer himself, he wanted you to prove to him that you were a chip off the old block, and that you could look after yourself and survive on your own, he was a twisted fuck. Plus, the loan sharks had sold the fake Klaus to us, so he killed them to keep the cover story going, he was just tying up loose ends."

I replied. "That's ridiculous, how would you know all this, if he was so gung ho on protecting my real identity, he would never tell you about it."

"He didn't tell us; we only found out when we got the fake Klaus, we were convinced he was the real one also, and so was he. We always check everything, there was some medical anomalies, blood type and hereditary conditions in your family. The fake Klaus didn't check out, we had to dig deep, but we found out what Shreiber had done, and used it to make him help us, that is why he did it, not for the fake Klaus."

I was still not convinced, "He also took Klaus to meet Bormann, why would he do that if he was a fake?"

The agent continued. "He wanted to make the cover complete; if Bormann believed Erich's son was the other kid, no one would ever question it, and you would remain safe forever. If I were you, I would forget all this and continue living your life as Ben Heller. The fake Klaus can just go back to his old life as well, it's probably the best thing to do, and it's definitely safer for you."

I just sat there in disbelief, a million things racing through my mind. The chopper landed at a small Air force base, and we were escorted into a holding area and flown out on a private jet an hour later.

### Chapter 31. Thinking

**I didn't see Bormann** ever again, and I never heard anything about him, if the guy was really Bormann or not, it was never announced by the Israelis.

I went back to the agency, still working under Josh. My fake mission had been deemed a failure and I was "debriefed" by Josh. My reports had already been prepared for me, the case was closed and I continued working on fraud cases for a while.

As for my private life, I had a lot of thinking to do. Was the Israeli agent telling the truth? Was my real father an old Nazi lying dead in a South American farmhouse, or were the Israelis just manipulating me so I wouldn't talk about a potentially embarrassing situation for them?

I'm still working on it.

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