Silence. Krulov was indulging himself by speaking the truth. It was a perquisite of his rank. Even one of the NKVD fools looked a little uncertain at this unusual tack.
“All right, then,” said Krulov. “I will ask the questions you have wisely decided to pass on.”
“As you say, Comrade Commissar.”
“First of all: Why him? There are so many of them who we will hunt down and deal with after the war. Why this one little dim cog in their vast killing machine? Excellent question, Petrova. There are two answers, the first of which is all right for you to know, the second of which is not, and if any of these three NKVD monkeys report me, I could end up in the cellar of their fortress with a pistol muzzle behind the ear. Right, gentlemen?”
The three monkeys laughed awkwardly.
“All right, Colonel Dinosovich, control your giggles and explain.”
“Yes, Comrade Commissar. The key is accessibility. We have captured their high-ranking military personnel before, including a field marshal, but the civilian administrators, who set the policy and then step back, are difficult to locate and, if located, difficult to target. This Groedl operated out of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine—RKU—at Rivne, which was a large military complex. It was heavily defended, not only by SS ground forces but also by an interceptor squadron. Bombers did not get through, no partisans got close enough to strike. So for three years he did his business like any bureaucrat, living with his wife and puppy in a nice house, adding his numbers, making his decisions, a long way from any actual death or dying. That changed in February, when the Red Army finally liberated Rivne after a furious battle. Like all rats, he escaped and disappeared.
“NKVD has been hunting him for some time. Only recently has it come to us through radio intercepts that he has set up temporary headquarters in Stanislav, in the Town Hall, and that he continues to administer what is left of his shrinking empire with the same ruthless efficiency. Stanislav is about twenty miles behind the front. The difference is that Rivne was a more dedicated installation, with rings and rings of security. Stanislav is an improvisation. The security is ad hoc. There isn’t an SS division between him and us. Thus, we believe, he is vulnerable to a sniper. He resides at the Hotel Berlin. Each morning, as a show of how he has tamed that town, he walks the four blocks from the Berlin to the Town Hall, crossing Hitlerstrasse and passing through a nice little park. He has a complement of four Gestapo bodyguards. We feel it would be quite an easy shot for an accomplished marksman such as yourself, Petrova, from any of a dozen buildings along the way. Moreover, Stanislav is in the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians, where we have partisans. They will supply logistical support, including transportation and security for your mission. Without knowing it, Groedl has placed himself where we can reach him. If we can reach him, we must. We owe it to our partisans, to the Red Army soldiers, even to the Jews he’s murdered.”
“The offensive, Dinosovich. You can tell her about the offensive. She needs to know. And the Germans almost certainly know themselves.”
“Yes, Comrade Commissar. Sniper Sergeant, in ten days the Second Ukrainian Front Army will begin a major offensive aimed to push the Germans from Ukraine and open the advance to Budapest. It will be a time of great chaos and confusion in the area, and when that happens, Groedl will be recalled to Berlin. Our opportunity to eliminate him will be gone. So you see, Sniper Sergeant, there is an imposed urgency, a time limit. This assassination must take place before the prey flees, and the prey will flee as a function of the offensive. So the clock is ticking.”
“Excellent summation,” said Comrade Krulov. “Irrelevant but excellent. Young lady, I’ll tell you a truth the lieutenant colonel would prefer not to acknowledge. In war, the strategic is almost always secondary to the personal. And the real reason here is personal. It seems that this Groedl is a special favorite of Hitler’s. They go back to the old days. Groedl was one of Hitler’s earliest theoreticians. He’s one of those picked out for high promotions. The Boss realizes that the loss of Groedl would be especially painful for Hitler, like the death of a father or uncle. That makes this a very personal mission, one in which you are directly expressing the will of our leader against their leader. That is why we searched for the ideal candidate.”
“A woman?”
“A beautiful woman. Don’t you see, it is the perfect cover. The Germans are not fools, but even at the top of their efficiency, they would never suspect a woman so beautiful. Men will do things for love of beauty that they will never do for fear of pain. They will obey, betray, shirk, avoid, and relent for beauty while they rise heroically to defy strength. We are aware of that, and that is why you were chosen.”