Chapter 38
Ernst was still worried about his partner.
After trying to convince him to reduce the number of gold and foreign exchange transactions for the Germans, he had met with another stone-cold refusal.
Franz was intent on profiting as much as they possibly could, and didn’t seem remotely concerned about their plight if the Allies won the war.
Following their last meeting, he had broached the subject again, tentatively reminding him of the recent London Declaration, officially called the Inter-Allied Declaration Against Acts of Dispossession Committed in Territories Under Enemy Occupation or Control.
The declaration was a formal warning to neutral countries—Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Argentina among them—that the Allies would not recognise property transfers in Axis-occupied countries and could declare such transfers invalid, even if they appeared to have legal documentation.
Seventeen Allied governments in London signed the declaration, which was to prevent further looting by the Nazis and their Axis collaborators.
Britain warned neutral countries being used to conceal stolen assets that after the war they would be judged complicit in the theft.
Ernst didn’t understand how his partner could ignore such a dire threat, but reluctantly he chalked it down to pure greed.
Franz’s appetite for gold profits was greater than his common sense.
Since that conversation, Franz had acted oddly around him.
Ernst feared his partner suspected him and was watching his movements more closely in the bank.
Ernst lit his pipe and sighed as he considered what lay ahead.
He’d placed himself in an extremely dangerous situation by cooperating with Miss Gale, and he worried about his wife and children if something happened to him.
But doing nothing was no longer an option, and Ernst predicted the bank would pay a heavy price if he couldn’t show he had attempted to assist the Allies.
That thought sustained him whenever he edged towards panic, which was frequently, as the web he was weaving grew ever more tangled.
He had tried to enter the vault and copy more ledger entries, but each time he did, Franz seemed to appear out of nowhere as if he too needed to enter the vault.
The irony was that he and Franz had agreed to move the main ledger to the vault some time ago.
Neither of them had specified why, beyond increased security needs, but their motive was implicit.
They both knew the entries in their ledger would incriminate the bank in the laundering of Nazi mass theft of gold and other assets.
Facilitating the Germans’ funding of their war machine would not be deemed an act of a neutral nation.
The vault also contained cash, gold bars, bonds, safe deposit boxes, and other important documents that their clients wished to keep in the safety of the private bank, such as deeds and contracts.
Since their decision to move the ledger into the vault, there was a rigorous security protocol for updating it.
Ernst’s secretary had let slip that Franz had met with Kurt Voss recently.
The news alarmed him further, and he wondered what they had discussed.
He couldn’t ask him without revealing how much it disturbed him, so he kept it to himself.
It crossed his mind that perhaps he wasn’t the only one preoccupied with the post-war fate of Switzerland, and Voss might investigate to prepare the government’s case.
The family photo of his son in uniform caught his eye, and his chest tightened as panic washed over him again.
Ernst would do anything for his family, which was why he was cooperating with the British.
One day in the not-too-distant future he would retire, and his son would take the reins of Brunner they fortified the Alps with explosives and trained their young men rigorously, preparing for the Reduit Strategy to block German forces and their plan to invade Switzerland with Operation Tannenbaum.
Fortunately, Hitler recalculated. Ernst wasn’t sure whether that was because of the Swiss Army’s gorilla strategy to rebuff the Germans, or because the Führer realised Switzerland would make a far better friend than enemy.
Either way, the Germans had backed down, and soon Switzerland was acting as their major banker.
Later that day, when Ernst’s secretary informed him she had learnt from Herr Hauser’s secretary that she had organised a business trip to Zurich for him the following week, it dawned on Ernst that this could be his chance to get all the proof Miss Gale had asked for.
He wanted to bring his spying career to an end and didn’t intend to keep copying the ledger indefinitely.
Now Franz knew he didn’t approve of their German alliance, and had his eye on his movements, and was even meeting with Voss; it had become far too treacherous.
He was willing to risk so much, but he had no intention of ending up in a Swiss court charged with treason.
An idea had been forming in his consciousness, but he had ignored it, fearing that he lacked the courage for such a challenge.
But now, it seemed clear, this could be his opportunity to bring his spying era to a close by giving Miss Gale everything she had requested and simultaneously saving the future of his bank and his grandfather’s prestigious legacy.
The thought spun around his mind like the perfect, terrifying solution, raising his blood pressure and causing his heart to slam in his chest. He downed a schnapps in one gulp and rose from his chair.
There was no other option if he wanted to survive this debacle without killing himself or killing his life’s work by burying his head in the sand like Franz.
Ernst must smuggle Miss Gale into the secure vault.