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Peis, Müller saw, was uncomfortable. He would have to find out why.
“You know how it is, Johann,” Peis said nervously. “Some you keep on a string.”
“What can he do for you?”
Peis was made even more uncomfortable by the question.
"Family?” Müller asked.
“One child,” Peis said. “His wife is dead.”
“And the one child is female, right? And you’re fucking her?”
There was alarm in Peis’s eyes, proving that was indeed the case.
“We’re all human, Wilhelm,” Müller said.
“I… uh… the way it happened, Johann, was before the war. We caught him shipping the money to Switzerland, and making anti-state remarks.”
“She must be one hell of a woman,” Müller said with a smile. “This is almost 1943.”
“We had two students of official interest, two in particular, at the university, ” Peis said.
"Who?” Müller asked.
“There was an Arab, the son of some Arab big shot—”
“What was his name?” Müller interrupted. He had a very good idea, but he wanted to hear it from Peis.
“El Ferruch,” Peis said triumphantly, after he had dredged the name from the recesses of his memory.
“Sidi Hassan el Ferruch,” Müller said. “The son of the Pasha of Ksar es Souk. What about him?”
Peis was uncomfortable but did not seem especially surprised that Müller knew about el Ferruch.
“We had a request to build a dossier on him,” Peis said.
“And did you?”
“He was living with—”
“Eric von Fulmar, Baron Kolbe,” Müller interrupted. “I asked you if you managed to build a dossier on el Ferruch?”
“Yes, of course I did,” Peis said. “I sent it to Frankfurt, and I suppose they sent it to Berlin after he left here.”
"What does this have to do with Professor Friedrich Dyer?” Müller asked.
“His money business came up at the same time,” Peis said. “I called his daughter in for a little talk, and used her to keep an eye on them.”
“And then, when they left, you kept her around for ‘possible use in the future,’ right?” Müller asked. “Wilhelm, you’re a rogue!”
“Well, you see how it is,” Peis said, visibly relieved that Müller seemed to understand.
“Wilhelm,” Müller said, “I’m going to be here for about a week. A week with my mother. Now, I love my mother, but a man sometimes gets a little bored. He needs a little excitement, if you take my meaning.”
“You just say when and where, Johann,” Peis said.
“I’ll say when,” Müller said. “And you say where.”
