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"No"

"An old castle of the days of the Boheue, the castle beca with racial undesirables awaiting shipained his coloring "After the war the Coovernain They thought itbuilding on the riverbank, with big towers and gables and the like Would you like to see such a building?"

"Certainly"

"Would you travel thousands ofsuch a building?"

"Probably not"

"Neither did anyone else And, as this government remained in power, it discovered it had more need for a prison than a dubious tourist attraction So the castle was converted a third tiain into a prison Froh towers There is a guard at his door, and there are guards throughout the prison"

"I see"

"It may be difficult for you, but you will have Greta’s help And of course a pair of Geruards Besides, you will have two or three days to do it"

"Can we get help in Prague?"

"Help? I don’t understand"

"From other loyal Party ue But I know none I could trust absolutely"

"But the two of us against a fortress-"

"I aht for a moment I closedblithely up the prison, she buainst uards showed us on our way, up to Kotacek’s tower cell and down again

I said, "Perhaps it ht be worth the risk if we could just enlist half a dozen reat I could not permit it"

"If you picked the men you were most sure of Or if you lethis head Then, with great reluctance, he said, "Perhaps I can tell you soreat the risk is You can see this house, that it is a nice home? And that we live coht to wonder what it is that I do for a living?"

"It’s not my business"

"Of course it is your business"

Greta said, "Papa-"

"No, it is right that Herr Tanner should know I do not work I aovernment to inform the iive them trivia and withhold in to understand? Even I am a spy for them, even Kurt Neumann, and I am the onlyOperation Kotacek about then Greta brought cold beer and we knocked off a few bottles each and discussed the divine rewood a pluue He poured healthy slugs for each of us and we put a good dent in the bottle Greta kicked off her shoes and sat down at the piano, and she played the "Horst Wessel Lied" and some other old-ti roschenoper They had never heard it before I explained that the Fuehrer had had a museum set up in one room of which The Threepenny Opera was played twenty-four hours a day, day in and day out

"No wonder it sounds so good to me," Greta said "It must have been his favorite music"

I left that one alone I hadn’t bothered to explain that the music was played at what Hitler had called the Museum of Decadent Culture That particular room was very popular for a time; it was supposed to be the only place in Nazi Gerner

"The melodies are so fresh, so alive!"

"And the words have a harsh German bite to them Good Berlin realism Not polluted by Jewish Communism"

I decided that Brecht in particular would be enchanted by the scene And through it all, through the beer and the singing and most of the bottle of slivovitz, Greta flirted ainst me when she went for lass and to assurebeneath her blouse but Greta She’s a Nazi, I told ood as the cold shower

The night was threatening to last forever Finally Neulanced at his watch, hauled himself to his feet, and announced that it was time for bed "Herr Tanner must be tired," he said "And tomorroill be a busy day for us all"

I wished theht and went upstairs

I used to tell people the whole thing, about not sleeping, the wound in Korea, the effect it has had onI learned before very long that this was a mistake All I ever acco the same conversation five or six ti variations Will it shorten your life? Yes, probably, but let’s talk about so else, shall we? What do you do with all your ties, dally with girls Don’t you get tired? Of course I do, you idiot Did you ever think of going on television, so like To Tell the Truth or I’ve Got a Secret? No Never

So I didn’t bother adding the interesting fact of per facts about Evan Michael Tanner Instead I went upstairs to my room, closed the door, and stretched out on the bed to finish Czechoslovakia : A Nation in Na but I went through the book anyway and finished it in about half an hour It was the usual sort of diatribe, but I caood points for my speech to the Bund