CHAPTER 1

Thursday, March 4, 19424:40 a.m.

Fog partially obscured the seemingly deserted SandyHook, New Jersey beach as the rubber raft rolled in withthe tide. Ninety minutes earlier a German U-boat hadsurfaced eight miles offshore to offload two passengersclad in wetsuits, fins, and toting duffel bags, alongwith $150,000 in U.S. and Canadian currency. Near theshoreline, both eased silently into the waist-high surf,pulled the small raft up onto the beach, deflated andfolded it into quarters.

"We'll bury this under the pier," Lukas Schottwhispered in perfect, Boston-accented, English.

The other nodded. Hillside houses across the narrowbay were dark. As the pair hastened across the loose,dry sand toward the pier, they observed a single parkedcar. Dozens of seagulls and smaller birds arose and flewaway parallel to the water. Within a minute, the two stoodunderneath the pier, staring past the posts for a spot tobury the raft, as they removed their waterproof garments.Lukas moved away to urinate. Both were completely bald.One was a woman—Rebekka Bader.

She leant down, unbuckled her duffel bag, grasped ashort-handled shovel, began digging, then stopped whenshe heard a female giggle. She turned around to look.Less than twenty feet away a teenaged couple peered atthem from a single sleeping bag. A young man coveredhis girlfriend's mouth with his hand.

"Sorry to disturb you," Rebekka said, as she set downthe shovel. Hers was an Alabama accent. "Nature calledfor my boyfriend. You know how that goes."

Lukas returned to his duffel bag and removed someclothing.

"We got disoriented in the fog," Rebekka said. "Whereare we?"

"Sandy Hook beach," the teenaged boy replied.

"Good Lord," Rebekka said. "Did you hear that,sweetheart? You missed by two miles." She laughedcheerfully. "My goodness gracious."

Lukas joined in. "I told you the tide seemed sideways."

"He wants to enlist in the Coast Guard ... can youimagine?" she said.

"She's making me look real bad," Lukas said. "Womenare like that, you know." He laughed.

"You don't have any hair," the teenaged girl said."You're bald ... both of you."

"Makes his preparation more realistic," Rebekkareplied. "Rather stunning, don't you think? Our friendscan't get over it."

She spotted their clothes strewn beside the sleepingbag, stooped down to remove a dagger and a sweatshirtfrom her duffel bag, and approached the couple.

"Did you get here in a boat?" she asked.

"Harold drove," the teenaged girl replied. "Not veryfar, though ... three miles ... we both live up the hill inHighland." She glanced in that direction.

"You don't look old enough, Harold, to own a newcar," Rebekka said.

"Ha ha ha. Does that look like a new car?" he asked,pointing to a 1928 Model A Ford parked beside the end ofthe pier. "It's not mine, it's my dad's."

"Out on the town, huh?" she said. "Good for you,Harold. Let me show you something."

She fell on him, dagger in hand, and with one swiftmotion slashed his throat. The girl's scream was shortenedby a second blade stroke. They both lay dead.

"Did you consider an alternative?" Lukas asked.

"Americans kill Germans for no reason. We killAmericans for good cause. We got a car, didn't we?"Rebekka replied.

"Until these two are found."

"We'll get another ... then another."

Lukas located the car key and wallet in Harold's pants,while Rebekka wiped blood off the dagger, then zippedthe bodies inside the sleeping bag.

"Let's wrap them around this post and mound it withsand," he said. "It'll take hours to find them."

Within minutes they accomplished the task, donnedcasual garments and jackets, stuffed paper documentsinto their waistbands, then headed for the dead boy's carwith their gear.

* * *

Rebekka Bader had been raised in a Frankfurt orphanageuntil age eleven, following her parents deaths in 1914,within two weeks of each other. Her mother died duringchildbirth, and her father was killed at the Battle of Verdunduring the Great War, while serving as an Unterwachtmeister(Sergeant) in an artillery regiment.

Her blonde beauty and small stature belied her guile,mean streak, and controlled strength. Schoolboys wereafraid of her. In wrestling, she challenged and pinnedmale opponents twenty pounds heavier (followingpokes in the eye and kicks in the groin), won every footrace, caused multiple bruised ribs and black eyes on theplayground. Instructors smiled. She'd sent older boysto the hospital with concussions and skull fractures byslamming their heads against concrete stairs and otherhard objects. Aggression made her un-adoptable, butcreated favor with military authorities.

Following Primary school at age eleven, she was theonly female her own age selected to attend the AdolfHitler School for six years of Secondary school, and brutalphysical training. She wasn't separated from the boysin the all-male dormitories and shower facilities. Strictrules prohibited promiscuous behavior, although she'dlured many who were severely punished as a result, thenexpelled during her stay.

From there, instead of University, she was sent tothe Sicherheitsdienst Academy in Berlin for three yearsof advanced training, followed by flight school for theLuftwaffe. During the Spanish Civil War in 1937, she copiloteda Dornier Schnell bomber in the Condor Legion(Kampfgruppe 88), and amidst a mission of systematicbombing of Guernica in Northwest Spain, she'd managedto return her shot-up plane to base and save the entirecrew, after the pilot had been blown out of his seat byheavy flak.

She'd gotten the attention of Reichsführer-SS HeinrichHimmler, then Herman Goring, who'd deemed her anideal officer candidate for Intelligence (Abwehr) and theSS (Schutzstaffel). Sicherheitsdienst worked closely with theGestapo.

Languages were a natural for Rebekka. She'd becomefluent in five of them without a German accent, and eachwith various regional accents. Instructors considered hera prodigy. For her current assignment, she studied moviesstarring Mae West, Veronica Lake, Tallulah Bankhead,Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and HedyLamarr.

The year before she earned her leutnant (2nd lieutenant)commission, she'd headed up a group of Brownshirtsin Berlin, and won a competition for the number ofJewish families throughout Germany she'd reportedto the Gestapo. One was the physician at the Frankfurtorphanage; another was her best female friend there withfour siblings; another was the proprietor of the candystore across the street from the Primary school.

Her record contained a narrative that described heras "a born leader, quick learner, expert marksman, coolunder pressure, and a beautiful, ferocious bitch, notto be underestimated." She benefited with acceleratedpromotions.

During Germany's annexation of Sudetenland in1939, then Hauptmann (Captain) Bader, as an Intelligenceofficer in Abwehr, led the raid that overtook the borderradio station to broadcast propaganda; and, subsequently,performed the same role the weekend preceding thehorrific and bloody invasion of Poland.

* * *

Lukas spotted the parked Zurlini Brothers Produce deliverytruck with its loading ramp extended to the ground, thensteered onto the roadside diner parking lot, and stoppedalongside the vehicle. Even though dawn was...