In The Presence Of My Enemies

Rolf Stolle laughed again. "Yes, you have been warned,Volk of the Reich," he called, mockery dancing on his voice. "And what have you got to say about that?"

He waited. So did Heinrich. Would the people dare, after they'd been warned not to by men with guns?

They dared. "Prutzmann is a kike!" somebody yelled, and in an instant the whole crowd was chanting it: "Prutzmann is a kike! Prutzmann is a kike!"

Heinrich shouted it, too, as loud as anybody. "Prutzmann is a kike! Prutzmann is a kike!" He looked over to Susanna again. She was shouting the same thing, her hands cupped in front of her mouth. When their eyes met this time, they both started to laugh. They went right on chanting, though. Heinrich had never imagined anti-Semitic slogans could be so much fun.

"Prutzmann is a kike! Prutzmann is a kike!" With her mother and sisters, Alicia watched the crowd in front of Rolf Stolle's residence from the safety of her suburban living room. The panzers in the televisor screen looked like toys, though she knew they were real.

"Kike! Kike!" Roxane chortled gleefully. The word was almost a joke to her. She didn't know that she'd ever seen a Jew, let alone that she was one.

Neither did Francesca. "I wonder what the Beast will tell us aboutthis," she said. "She was going on and on about how wonderful the Reichsfuhrer -SS was, and how brave, and how patriotic. If he's really a dirty Jew…"

"Dirty Jew! Dirty Jew!" Roxane didn't seem to care what she shouted, as long as she could make noise.

Alicia didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. She sneaked a glance at Mommy, only to find her mother looking as confused as she was. Everything seemed not just upside down but dropped on its head. Alicia didn't know why Rolf Stolle and his followers thought Prutzmann was a Jew. Why hardly seemed to matter. Of all the things they could call the head of the SS, none struck a harder blow against him. Alicia understood that. She also understood that the Reichsfuhrer -SS was against all the changes the new Fuhrer had made. Did that mean using this weapon against him was all right? She didn't know. That wasn't so easy to figure out.

Over the noise of the crowd, the announcer for the Berlin station spoke in a high, excited voice: "British Prime Minister Charles Lynton calls on the men who made the Putsch to end their lawless behavior at once and release the rightful Fuhrer, Heinz Buckliger. He is joined in this call by the leaders of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The premier of France also agrees in principle."

"Can they do that?" Francesca asked in astonishment. The states that made up the Germanic Empire didn't talk back to the Reich. That was a law of nature. Neither did its little allies. Not talking back kept them from getting swallowed up.

"It means they think what's going on here is really, really wrong," Alicia said.

Mommy nodded. "That's what it means, all right. And they're braver than they used to be, because the new Fuhrer made them freer than they used to be."

"Holland has joined in the call for the rightful Fuhrer 's release. And"-even on this day of one astonishing surprise after another, the announcer's voice rose to a startled squeak-"in Prague, a Czech organization called Unity has declared the independence of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from what it terms the illegal, immoral, and illegitimate government of Odilo Globocnik and Lothar Prutzmann."

"Oh, my," Mommy said. "That will mean more trouble after they get this trouble settled, if they do get it settled."

"When's Daddy coming home?" Roxane asked.

That question had also crossed Alicia's mind. She thought she'd got a glimpse of him-and maybe even of Aunt Susanna-near the panzer closest to Rolf Stolle's residence. But she hadn't been sure, and the camera had panned away before she could say anything.

"Pumpkin, I don't know," Mommy answered. "He went to the square there on the televisor this morning. Getting there was easy then. Getting away is liable to be harder. I'm not even sure they're letting people leave."

Alicia didn't like the sound of that. She tried not to show how worried she was. She had to stay strong, to help Mommy keep her younger sisters from getting upset. All she could do was wait and watch the televisor.

"Nobody's done any shooting here," her mother said. "As long as it stays like that, everything's all right."

And then, suddenly, the Berlin station announcer's voice rose not in surprise but in anger and alarm and fear: "We are under attack! I say again, we are under attack! There are SS troops outside this building, and they are assaulting it as I speak! They want to cut the Volk off from the truth and-"

There were banging noises, and shouts, and what might have been gunshots. Then the screen went blank. Alicia and her mother exclaimed in dismay. Francesca and Roxane were too little to know what that static and those swirling grays meant. As far as Alicia was concerned, they meant the end of hope.

"Change the channel!" Francesca said.