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He circled the last word, then tapped FOREIGN.
“The treaty allowed Germany’s military attached to its embassies and such to overtly gather information—the ‘foreign’—and the Germans of course did exactly that. The treaty also allowed Germany to have its own security force, and so the ‘counterintelligence.’”
He tapped the circled word.
“But it was under this legitimate service that Germany conducted its illicit activities—its international secret service.”
He paused to let that sink in.
“Thus,” he said, then stopped, and above ABWEHR wrote HIGH COMMAND in its own box and drew a line linking the two boxes. He went on: “Thus, the Abwehr, under the High Command, really began as an illegitimate, underground organization, its secret purpose to gather covert intel…all against the faith of the Treaty of Versailles.”
“Not that that damn Hitler abides by any agreements, anyway,” Scamporino said.
“Unfortunately, very true,” Canidy said, and immediately thought about the bastard violating the chemical warfare treaty by putting the Tabun in Palermo.
He cleared his throat, and went on: “By the time Admiral Wilhelm Canaris took over the Abwehr in 1935, Germany’s rearming was pretty much in full swing, and the Abwehr quite powerful. Today, it’s even more so, and the reason why we need to know all that we can to defeat them.”
He saw that some of his students were starting to get a glazed look in their eyes.
“Okay, I’ll try to make this next part fast.”
He turned back toward the blackboard and, below the box with ABWEHR, he drew four more boxes on the same line. Then he drew lines from each new box to the ABWEHR box, forming what looked like a four-tine fork.
“The Abwehr has four main sections, called Abteilungen, or Abt for short. And each Abt has men from the German army, navy, and air services.”
He wrote ABT I in the first box, ABT II in the second, ABT III in the third, and ABT Z in the last.
“Abt I is espionage,” he said, and wrote ESPIONAGE in the box, “commanded as of this month by Colonel Georg Hansen.”
He wrote the name in the box.
“Oberst Hansen is a bit of a roughneck, but, as one might expect of someone in such a position, he is energetic and efficient at his job.”
Canidy in the next box wrote SABOTAGE, SUBVERSION, and after a dash put COL. ERWIN LAHOUSEN.
“Like a great many of Hitler’s officers—like Hitler himself—Oberst Lahousen is an Austrian. He comes from a military family, and so is very much a natural at what he does”—Canidy tapped the box—“sabotage and subversion.”
In the Abt III box, Canidy wrote SECURITY, COUNTERESPIONAGE, and COL. EGBERT VON BENTIVEGNI. “This one, I’m sure you gather, is what once was the legitimate arm under which the illegitimate Abwehr once operated.”
And in the last box, Abt Z, he wrote Z = “ZENTRAL” OR ADMIN. and COL. HANS OSTER.
“And this one is the administrative section. A critical component, if only for its layers of bureaucracy that with luck we could target in order to cut off, or at least cause to delay, the lifeblood of money, munitions, et cetera, destined for German agents.”
He looked around the room. A few men, the more intelligent-looking ones, were writing down what he’d put on the board. The vast majority, however, simply sat and stared back blankly.
“Questions at this point?” Canidy said.
The room remained silent, the men looking either reluctant to speak or, more likely, just disengaged.
“Anyone?” Canidy pursued. “If I don’t know the answer, I’ll just get it pooma.”
There now were flashes of curiosity in their eyes.
“Pooh—what?” Darmstadter suddenly said, innocently…then looked embarrassed at his outburst.
Canidy grinned. “You surprise me. Of all people, I’d have thought you’d be the one who knew pooma up and down.”
Canidy turned to the board and wrote the word on the board.
