Berlin Red

Sam Eastland

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780571322374
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Crime & Mystery Literature
• Index: Literature

April, 1945.
East of Berlin, the Red Army stands poised to unleash its final assault upon the ruined capital of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich.

To the north, at a lonely outpost near the Baltic sea, German scientists perfect a guidance system for the mighty V2 rocket, which has already caused massive damage to the cities of London and Antwerp. This device, known only by the codename Diamondstream, will allow the rocket to arrive at its target with pin-point accuracy. So devastating is the potential of this newly-mastered technology that Hitler's promise to the German people of a 'miracle weapon' that will turn the tide of the war might actually come true.

When a radio message sent to Hitler's Headquarters, heralding the success of Diamondstream, is intercepted by an English listening station, British Intelligence orders one of its last agents operating in Berlin to acquire the plans for the device, Desperate to evacuate their agent from the doomed city before the Red Army swarms through its streets, British Special Operations turns to the Kremlin for help.
They ask for one man in particular - Inspector Pekkala.

Anxious to acquire the plans for himself, Stalin readily agrees to risk his finest investigator on what appears to be a suicide mission.

But when Pekkala learns the reason that the British have singled him out, he knows that he must make the journey, no matter what the outcome might be. The agent he must rescue is the woman he had planned to marry, before the Revolution tore them apart, sending her to Paris as a refugee and Pekkala to a gulag in Siberia.

This time, for Pekkala, it is personal.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• 9 April 1945, Moscow
• At that same moment, at the end of a dirt road
• Far out in the freezing waters of the Baltic
• As Pekkala slowly made his way through a bowl of sorrel and mushroom soup
• ‘There you are!’
• At the V-2 rocket site
• Far to the west, at a British Special Operations listening post
• At the same moment
• A few hours later
• 10 April 1945
• The sun had just risen
• As soon as he had departed from the Kremlin
• After sending his message to the Reichschancellery
• One of the most valuable lessons that Lilya Simonova had learned
• Down in the bunker, the briefing had been concluded
• Fifteen minutes later, SS General Johann Rattenhuber
• Following the directions that Stalin had written down
• ‘Diamond stream’?
• On the island of Bornholm
• When Major Kirov walked into the interrogation room
• A few days later, a truck pulled up
• Message from Christophe to Major Clarke
• ‘Inspector?’ whispered Major Kirov.
• At the outset of her days in exile
• While he waited for Pekkala to arrive
• At that same moment, in the Flossenburg Concentration Camp
• ‘Pekkala,’ said Stalin
• The picture was of Lilya Simonova
• Kirov was waiting
• Out in the hallway
• Kirov, meanwhile, stood before the desk of Joseph Stalin
• Kirov didn’t tell Pekkala right away
• Arriving at the Lubyanka building, Kirov immediately made his way
• When the money first started arriving
• An hour after leaving Lubyank
• As Kirov and Pekkala set off on their journey to Berlin
• On the night of 12 April 1945
• That same night, Peter Garlinski
• In the dove-grey light of dawn
• At that precise moment, Inspector Hunyadi was sitting alone
• That evening, after a meal of quail
• As Kirov and Pekkala made their way along a muddy road
• The sun was just rising over the shattered rooftops
• ‘Gentlemen!’ said Hitler
• That night, lying on the bed in the apartment of his mistress
• The sun was setting as Hunyadi emerged
• The sun had not yet risen above the trees
• It was mid-morning when Fegelein’s car pulled up
• Hunyadi opened his eyes
• After travelling along the pot-holed forest trail
• Hunyadi was in his office
• ‘What do you want?’
• ‘You must not worry!’
• ‘What the hell is this about?’
• That afternoon, in the eastern district
• Later that day, Hunyadi sat at his desk
• When the telephone rang
• The door to Harting’s restaurant swung open
• Arriving at the Pankow district police station
• After leaving Harting’s restaurant
• Fegelein did not go to a shelter
• When the raid was over, Hunyadi returned
• After an early dinner, Fegelein and Elsa Batz had just dozed off
• When the droning all-clear sirens reached them
• When Fegelein arrived at the boarding house
• Slowly, Hunyadi opened his eyes
• When Fegelein returned to the apartment
• Just as Lilya Simonova was reaching for the handle
• ‘Fegelein?’
• When Fegelein arrived at Lilya’s flat
• Heinrich Himmler sat in his office at Hohenlychen
• Professor Hagemann was sitting in the basement
• A Sherman tank
• Kirov woke that morning to the rumble of thunder
• One week later, Kirov stood before his master
• About the Author
• Also by Sam Eastland
• Inserted Copyright