The Master Sniper

“Roger,” Leets yelled.

“It’s over, fucking World War Number Two, over, they signed the surrender at Rheims, we missed it on the road.”

Leets looked beyond the boy to Eichma

28

Repp came out of sleep fast: gunfire.

He rolled from the bed and moved quickly to the window. A glance at his watch told him it was still before nine. Margareta, her blond hair unkempt, one thin bare leg hanging out, stirred grumpily under the covers.

Repp could see nothing in the bright light. The crackle of guns rubbed raggedly against his ears again, a messy volley. A battle? He recalled something about the German soldiers turning themselves in today. Perhaps a few had decided on more honorable action, and war had come at last to Konstanz. But then he realized what must be happening: a cold finger pressed for just a second against his heart.

He snapped on the radio. Nothing on Radio Deutschland. Broadcast not scheduled till noon. He fiddled with the dial, picking up excited jabber in English and Italian, which he didn’t understand.

Finally, he encountered a French-speaking station. He knew the phrase from 1940. He’d seen it chalked on walls then, a fantasy, a dream.

A nous la victoire.

To us, victory.

They were playing “The Marseillaise.” He turned it off as Margareta lifted her head, face splotchy from sleep. A breast, pink-tipped and vague, swung free as she rose from the covers.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s time to go,” he said.

He was eight hours ahead of Leets.

Repp checked the mirror once again. Gazing back at him was a prosperous, sleek civilian, freshly bathed and shaved, hair brilliantined back, crisp carnation of breast-pocket handkerchief, neat tie on glossy white shirt under exquisitely tailored suit coat. He had trouble recognizing this image as his own, the cheeks so rosy, the eyes set in a pink bland face.

“You look like a cinema star,” she said. “I didn’t realize how handsome you were.”

Yet he could see the lights playing off his forehead where the sweat had begun to accumulate in beads, high and moist. The border was coming up, the nightmare passage.

“Repp. One last time,” she said. “Stay. Or get across and go somewhere safe. But best, stay with me. There’s some kind of future here, somewhere, I know there is. Children even.”

He sat down on the bed. He felt exhausted. He tried to press images of prying border guards and intensive interrogations out of his mind. He noted that his hands were trembling. He knew he had to go to the toilet.

“Please, Repp. It’s all over now. It’s done, finished.”

“All right,” he said weakly.

“You’ll stay?” she said.

“It’s just too much. I’m not meant for this kind of thing, for playing other people. I’m a soldier, not an actor.”

“Oh, Repp. You make me so happy.”

“There, there,” he said.

“So gallant. So damned gallant, your generation. You had so much responsibility, and you carried it so well. Oh, God, I think I’m going to start crying again. Oh, Repp, I also feel like laughing. It’ll be fine, I know it will, it’ll work out for the best.”

“I know it will too, Margareta,” he said. “Of course I do. It’ll all be fine.”

He went to her.

“I want you to know,” he said, “I want you to know an extraordinary thing. The most extraordinary thing in my life: that I love you.”

She smiled, though crying.

She dabbed at her messy face.

“I look so awful. All wet, hair a mess. Please, this is so wonderful. I’ve got to clean up. I don’t want you to see me like this.”

“You are beautiful,” he said.

“I must clean up,” she said, and turned and stepped for the door.

He shot her in the base of the skull and she pitched forward into the hall. He himself felt awful, and he was trying to be kind.

She didn’t know, he told himself. Not for one second did she know.

Now all the trails were dead and there were no links between Repp and the private and Herr Peters.

Repp moved her to the bed and delicately put the sheets over her. He threw the pistol in the cellar and washed his hands. He checked his watch. It was almost nine.

He stepped bravely out, blinking in the sun.

The French private, glum because his comrades were drunkenly shooting up central Konstanz, demanded Repp’s passport. Repp could see the boy was sullen, presumably stupid, and would therefore be inclined to mistakes. He handed over the document, smiling mildly. The boy retreated to a table where a sergeant sat while Repp waited near the gate. Here, the German side, the arrangements were more imposing, a concrete blockhouse, gun emplacements and sandbags. But this formal military layout seemed a little idiotic now that it was ma

“Mein Herr?”

Repp looked up. A French officer stood there.

“Yes? What is it?” Repp demanded.

“Could you step over here, please?” The man spoke bad German.

“Is something the matter?”

“This way, please.”

Repp took a deep breath and followed him over.

“I have a train to catch. The noon train. To Zurich,” he said.

“This will only take a moment.”

“I’m a Swiss citizen. You have my passport.”

“Yes. The first I’ve seen. What business did you have in Germany?”

“I’m a lawyer. It was a matter of getting a fellow’s signature on a document. In Tuttlingen.”

“And how was Tuttlingen?”

“Loud. The Americans came. There was a battle.”

“At the bridge, yes.”

“It was very frightening.”

“How did you get from Konstanz to Tuttlingen?”

“I hired a private car.”

“I thought petrol was all but impossible to find.”

“The man I hired took care of that. I paid a fortune, but I don’t know anything about it.”

“Why do you look so uneasy?”

Repp realized he wasn’t doing well. He thought his heart would burst or shatter in his chest. He tried not to swallow or blink.

“I don’t care to miss my train, Herr Hauptma

“Use the French, please. Capitaine.”

Repp said the French word awkwardly.

“Yes, thanks.”

Repp knew he’d been a hair from calling the man Sturmba