In The Presence Of My Enemies

The Berlin channel was different. It showed the crowd milling around Rolf Stolle's residence and, now, the stalled armored vehicles in front of it. "We are still here," a frightened-sounding announcer said over the noise of the crowd. "I don't know how long we can stay on the air, though. If we didn't have our own generator, we would have been shut down already. SS men have come here, but our guards turned them back. The guards have since been heavily reinforced by Wehrmacht troops."

Was that a warning to Prutzmann and his henchmen? Or was it a bluff? The announcer seemed nervous enough to make the latter seem a real possibility. But then the picture switched to a tape of Stolle kicking at a panzer's iron tire and bellowing at the SS man leaning out of the turret. Seeing the Gauleiter 's nerve made Lise willing to forgive the announcer's nerves.

Her daughters got home from school just then. She thought that would distract her from what was going on downtown, but it didn't. They were more excited about it than she was. Francesca said, "Frau Koch says we have to do what the State Committee for the Salvation of the Greater German Reich tells us, and Odilo Globocnik is the new Fuhrer."

"Odilo Globocnik!" Roxane echoed. "Teacher made us learn how to say it."

"Us, too," Francesca said. "The Beast made us memorize his name and State Committee for the Salvation of the Greater German Reich, and anybody who couldn't do it got a swat. I did it. She's not going to hitme again." She spoke with grim determination.

"What does your teacher say?" Lise asked Alicia, who hadn't spoken yet.

"He made us learn Herr Globocnik's name," her eldest answered. "He said there wasn't any law for a committee like this one, but that wouldn't matter if they held on to power. He said we'd just have to wait and see, pretty much."

"He'll get in trouble," Francesca said. "Frau Koch says the State Committee for the Salvation of the Greater German Reich "-since she'd memorized the name, she used it every chance she got-"is going to pay back everybody who ever liked what the old Fuhrer was doing."

"Odilo Globocnik is the new Fuhrer!" Roxane showed off what she'd learned, too.

"If that State Committee wins, they may do what Frau Koch says," Lise said carefully. "But Alicia's teacher has a point. They haven't won yet.Gauleiter Stolle and lots of people are protesting against what they've done." She didn't say that Heinrich was there. Even if things went sour in front of the Gauleiter 's residence, he might get away safe.Well, he might, she insisted to herself. Aloud, she went on, "They're on the televisor, too. Do you want to see?"

"Would you get us snacks first?" Roxane asked.

That seemed reasonable, so Lise did. Then they all went back to the living room. The Berlin channel was showing the tape of Stolle kicking at the panzer again. Francesca, in particular, watched wide-eyed. There was no room for dissent in Frau Koch's universe. Seeing that there was, or might be, in the real world seemed to hearten Lise's middle daughter. Alicia asked, "What are the other stations showing?"

"They were just putting on boring reruns, I suppose to make people think everything is normal," Lise answered. "But we can see what they're doing now."

She changed the channel. It wasn't a daytime drama any more. Horst Witzleben looked out of the screen at her and her children. "I have been given the following statement to read," he said. "And I quote…" He looked down at a paper on his desk. "'Rumors relating to the ancestry of the Reichsfuhrer -SS are false, malicious, and despicable lies. He is of unblemished Aryan descent. This being so, anyone repeating or spreading the false rumors will be subject to the most severe penalties. By order of the State Committee for the Salvation of the Greater German Reich.' We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."

Regularly scheduled programming turned out to be a nature film about the migration of storks. "What did that mean, Mommy?" Roxane asked.

"I'm not quite sure," Lise answered.

"He didn't look very happy about it, whatever it was," Alicia said. "He didn't sound very happy, either."

"You're right-he didn't," Lise said. Witzleben had been a cheerleader for Heinz Buckliger's reforms. If he'd actually been as enthusiastic a cheerleader as he'd seemed, what had Prutzmann's bully boys done to persuade him to speak on their behalf? Held a gun to his head? Held a gun to his wife's head? There were, no doubt, all sorts of ways, and they'd be the ones to know them. She changed channels again. The Berlin station was still broadcasting. The crowd around Rolf Stolle's residence was still there. Lise shrugged. "We'll just have to see what happens, that's all."

"Let me through!" somebody with a big voice shouted behind Heinrich. "Get out of my way, dammit! Clear a path!"

"In your dreams, pal," Willi Dorsch said.