The two men walked down the path which took them behind the old walled garden.
“Who exactly was Hans Schrifter, Marius?” Dr. Chapman asked.
“Schrifter was the identity that the Yanks gave to Hans Kammler in return for the secrets he handed over to them. They gave him that, a one-way ticket to Argentina and two million dollars.”
“Must have been some secrets.”
“I can assure you, Joe, they were. Some of the post-war economic miracle of the United States was based on technology taken from Nazi Germany. Most of that came from Kammler.
“Of course, they knew we were after him and they could not keep him under wraps for ever, so they gave him a new identity and a new life in South America.”
“Where he founded DieVereinigung .”
“Oh, no. Die Vereinigung was already in existence when he got to Argentina, but it was just a criminal gang, mostly working extortion and doing dirty work for Peron. Kammler, though, was a true Nazi. He got control of the gang and turned it into what it is today. Hans, the son, was born in 1954, the year after Kammler arrived in Buenos Aires. His mother was the sister of another leading Nazi. By the way, he has a twin brother.”
“You’re joking?”
“No, I’m not.”
“So, there is another Hans Schrifter out there?” Dr. Chapman asked.
“Yes, Karl Schrifter, the elder twin. They are fraternal, not identical.” Marius replied.
“What are you going to do now? Return to Tel Aviv?”
“Don’t think so. I’m rather enjoying being a potter.”
“You don’t think it’s over, do you?”
“Do you?”
“I don’t, Marius; though, for the boy’s sake, I hope it is.”
“I suspect it’s not.”
“Miss Jenkins seems happy with things.”
“I know, Joe, but she’s got what she wanted: Master Hans dead. Though, I think she might have preferred him alive.”
“I dread to think what would have happened to him if she had got him alive.”
“That woman terrifies me,” Dr. Chapman stated.
“She terrifies me, too.”
“You know, she’ll remove the protection she’s had around the boy now. He’s no longer useful to her, so now he’s on his own.”
“Not quite, Joe, some of us still have an interest in making sure that nobody gets that gold. At least, nobody we don’t approve of.”
“Now you see why I am staying a potter.”
Dr. Chapman laughed.
This ends Book Two of the Johnny saga. There is a third book planned, but when I will get around to writing it, I do not know. As you will have gathered, this book brings in characters from the Joey series. I, therefore, need to get that finished before I can finish this series. It also contains reference to characters from other books I am working on. They play a bigger part in Book Three, so I will have to finish those books before I can finish this series. I hope, given my age, I will be able to get back to it without too much delay, but you are probably looking at, at least a couple of years before anything new appears in this saga.
It is not possible to produce a novel like this without a lot of input and support from ones editors and proofreaders. I would like to thank all of them, even those who have asked not to be acknowledged. I would particularly like to thank Pedro, DQ, Clark, Rec and Tom for the help they provided in getting this work from first draft through three cycles of editing and proof reading to its final form.
Making these stories available to you online is not cost free. Help keep AwesomeDude going by making a donation to it. Click on the DONATE button on the AwesomeDude homepage.