‘ G loria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra, pax hominibus bonae voluntatis…’ Eugenio Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII, read from the Missale Romanum held by one of his secretaries.
‘Major General William Joseph Donovan: for feats of arms, writing, and deeds that have spread the Faith and safeguarded and championed the Holy Church,’ another of the Pope’s secretaries intoned. He proffered the Holy Father a red velvet cushion, in the middle of which nestled the eight-pointed gold-and-white enamelled Grand Cross of the Order of Sylvester. One of the most prestigious of the papal knighthoods, fewer than a hundred men had received the honour since its inception in 1841 by Pope Gregory XVI.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s intelligence chief and head of the Office of Strategic Services stepped forward. In time the fledgling American intelligence service would be known as the CIA. The crusty old general bowed his head, allowing Pius XII to place the medal’s golden chain around his neck.
‘A great honour, Holiness. Thank you,’ he said, kissing the papal ring.
‘The pleasure is all ours. It’s very well deserved.’
Alberto Felici joined in the polite applause. The Papal Knighthood cemented what would become a lasting marriage between the Vatican and the CIA. Felici smiled to himself. Things were starting to fall into place. The new Pope had agreed to the recommendations on Vatican finances, the newly established Vatican Bank had an advantage no other bank could match – it was immune from external audit. Felici’s own position as a delegate to the board provided him with unprecedented personal power. His appointment as the Vatican’s liaison officer to Donovan’s intelligence staff was not without power either. It was power Felici fully intended to wield at the meeting Donovan had scheduled in his Rome office later in the day.
‘Communism is the greatest threat facing the United States since Hitler came to power!’ General Donovan rasped. ‘Wild Bill’, as he was widely known, was in no mood for compromise. Felici nodded his head. The war against the Japanese in the Pacific was yet to reach its horrific conclusion in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the war with Germany was drawing to a close, and a new threat was emerging. An iron curtain was about to descend, one which would divide Europe in two. If the US and the Vatican’s fight against Communism was to succeed, key Nazi intelligence officials and scientists would have to be smuggled out of Germany. General Donovan’s staff had drawn up a top-secret list.
‘The list you’ve got in front of you is provisional,’ General Donovan advised the three intelligence officers detailed to oversee the escape routes. ‘We’re going to need every German officer with knowledge of Soviet operations, including Soviet logistics and industrial capabilities. Add to that every German scientist who can assist us with the war in the Pacific.’
‘But not including those who have been members of the Nazi party, surely?’
Donovan glared at the bespectacled State Department liaison officer. ‘Listen, sonny, every goddamned scientist in Germany is a member of the Nazi party. And that includes Wernher von Braun, arguably the best rocket scientist on the planet. So before you guys in Foggy Bottom start getting your knickers in a twist, ask yourselves whether you want these guys working for Stalin or Uncle Sam!’ The general was convinced America should do whatever it took to curtail the growing threat of the Soviet Union. ‘Their dossiers can be sanitised… the hard part will be getting them out.’
‘I think we can help there, General,’ Felici offered. ‘The Brenner Pass on the Austrian-Italian border is still the main line of escape, but anyone as well known as von Braun might have difficulty getting through – unless he’s disguised.’
‘As what?’ the man from the State Department asked.
‘No one is likely to question a priest, particularly one carrying a Vatican passport. I’ve added a further name to this list, General,’ Felici continued, passing the paper back across the table. ‘Standartenfuhrer von Hei?en is one of Reichsfuhrer Himmler’s closest confidants. I think US intelligence might find him very useful.’
‘The “fees” are fifty per cent, Standartenfuhrer. Take it or leave it,’ Felici told von Hei?en. ‘My intelligence links are impeccable, and the US 11th Armored Division has already crossed the Danube – they will be here within days.’
‘That gold in the strong room is worth over three million Reichsmarks, Signor. Fifty per cent is exorbitant!’
Felici shrugged. ‘A hundred kilograms of gold won’t be easy to shift. Even if you can get it past the American patrols, your chances of getting it across the border into Italy, let alone to Central America without diplomatic protection are next to nothing, I would say.’
Von Hei?en was like a cornered rat. ‘It would appear I don’t have many options,’ he snarled. The radio in his office, tuned to track the advancing allied forces, beeped at the top of the news hour.
‘This is the BBC World Service. Heading this special bulletin, the war in Europe is expected to be over within days. Following the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s suicide on the thirtieth of May, General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff in the German High Command, is expected to surrender German forces unconditionally to General Eisenhower at his headquarters in Reims. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill -’
There was a knock at the door.
‘ Herein! ’
Obersturmbannfuhrer Brandt, now von Hei?en’s deputy commandant, looked pale and shaken. ‘We’re getting reports of an American armoured car unit, the 41st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, on the outskirts of Mauthausen, Herr Kommandant. They could be here within twenty-four hours.’
Von Hei?en nodded angrily. ‘The Wehrmacht have let the Fatherland down, Hans. Dismiss the guards and tell them to meld back into the community. The Jews can look after themselves. And tell my driver and batman to stand by.’
‘Just how do you plan to get me out of here, Signor?’ von Hei?en demanded after Brandt had left.
Felici handed von Hei?en a small package. ‘The roads will be chaotic and I intend to take advantage of that. The soutane in this package has been tailored to your measurements. If anyone asks, you’re on the German desk in the Secretariat of State in the Vatican. These papers confirm your new identity as Father Bartolo Hernandez. We’ll need a small lorry for the gold, which is to be crated and closed with the seals of the Holy See. From here we will travel to Vienna, where the gold will be temporarily stored in the vaults of the Imperial Hotel, before being shipped to the Vatican Bank in Rome. If we’re challenged, you’re to leave the talking to me, understood? Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to inspect the vault.’
Von Hei?en dialled the combination of the vault door at the back of the stone cellar and swung it open, revealing row upon row of gold ingots, each one stamped with the eagle and swastika of the Third Reich. He reached into the drawer that held Levi’s pectoral cross. ‘This was acquired from a Jewish prisoner,’ he said. The large diamonds surrounding the huge ruby in the centre of the cross sparkled in the soft light of the vault. ‘You may have it, but only after I am safely out of Germany.’
Felici struggled to contain his excitement. The cross was like no other he’d seen, and undoubtedly worth a small fortune.
The tall, lanky American soldier took his M1 carbine from his shoulder and waved the black Mercedes and small lorry to a stop at a roadblock just outside Mauthausen. Burnt-out German tanks and trucks littered the roadside, a road crowded with armoured cars and tanks from the US 11th Armored Division. A mustang fighter screamed low overhead as von Hei?en’s driver, dressed in slacks and a polo-neck sweater, brought the car to a halt.
‘Your papers, please,’ the corporal asked. ‘You’re a long way from home, Father,’ he added, spotting von Hei?en’s Roman collar.
‘ Ja… but God’s business doesn’t stop, nein?’ von Hei?en replied with an urbane smile.
‘Where you’re headed, gentlemen, the road’s a fucking – sorry, Father. It’s bedlam between here and Vienna.’
‘We’ll have to take our chances, Corporal,’ Felici replied. ‘We’re on Vatican business, and we need to be in Vienna tonight. As Father Hernandez says, God’s work is never done.’
‘Well, good luck,’ the corporal said, handing back the passports.
‘God bless you, my son,’ Felici intoned.
Von Hei?en returned his passport to the secure compartment in his briefcase, the same compartment that held Levi Weizman’s tattered map. Despite the devastation of the Fatherland, von Hei?en was determined to continue the search for the Maya Codex.