Berlin, Safe House
July 23, 1944, 0115 hours
Freitag stepped out of the vehicle and walked quickly up the walk to the safe house. He gave the coded knock at the door and waited impatiently. He knocked again. The door opened crack. "Open the damn door!" he growled.
The door opened and Freitag entered a darkened room.
"We were not sure who it was?" a man said.
Freitag mumbled an intelligible curse at the stupidity of the man. "How many people know the knock code in use for this assignment?" he asked harshly. The room was silent.
"I have found out that Gerhardt was killed tonight," he said. "Tell me about it."
The two men left from Gerhardt's team told the story of the events of the evening. He had already heard some of the story from Dieter and Karl, before they were unfortunately transferred. Now he got to hear what actually happened within the group.
"Marya shot Gerhardt because he hit her?" Freitag asked. He heard an affirmation from one of the men. "Are you sure she did not shoot him because he failed to acknowledge the recognition codes?" His question was met with silence. "No matter, it is done." He moved to the door. "You two will come with me. We have an accident to stage."
He opened the door and left with the two men following close behind.
- - - - -
Freitag drove outside of Berlin where he had hidden the car for the accident. He had chosen the location carefully – a narrow, winding, heavily wooded road that was very isolated. The car he had taken had already been in an accident, so it was just a matter of moving it to make it look like it had slammed into one of the large oak trees that surrounded the road.
It took the three men over an hour to move the car into position. Freitag then removed several cans of petrol from his own car and brought them over.
"You are going to burn it?" one man asked.
Freitag looked at the man without answering. The intelligence of these people leaves a lot to be desired. How did they ever manage to survive this long? He took one of the cans of petrol and sloshed its contents throughout the interior of the vehicle. When he was through, he stood back. "Now, we just need two more things," he said. "First, I need both of you to take a petrol can and do the same thing I just did."
The two men stepped forward to take a can. Freitag removed his pistol from under his jacket. "And second, we need two bodies," he said softly, aiming the pistol. He fired two shots and both men slumped to the ground with a bullet in the back of the head. He shook his head sadly. "What a waste," he muttered.
He quickly finished the job at hand. He put the two bodies in the front seat of the car and emptied the remaining petrol cans. Then he stepped back and lit a match, throwing it into the car. It burst into flames immediately with a huge fireball.
He stood for a moment to make sure the entire interior would be scorched and then he removed the two identification books and tossed them on the ground. The wreckage would be found with two bodies burnt beyond recognition. The identification found would say that Major Hans Teppel and Major Kurt Wagner were not lucky enough to escape alive.
Satisfied, Freitag went back to his car and drove away.