Post by redsycorax on May 15, 2023 4:17:26 GMT
It is 1948. Georg von Tregor, the expatriate German mystery man "Horned Owl" and his wife, Rosalie, formerly the WW2 air ace "Midnight Angel", have retired from heroic adventuring until a fateful event leads them to post-war Vienna and an old adversary who has crossed paths with them both earlier in their lives. But why has Harry Lime committed his monstrous act - and why does he believe he will escape justice? Note: Harry Lime is a character from Graham Greene's 1948 film "The Third Man." The events depicted in this story take place immediately before that film occurs.
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ASHLEY HALL:
"Dear Lord. Yes, thank you, Wesley. I'm glad you thought to call us. Yes, Georg and I will investigate this. All my love to Diana, Dinah, Shiera and the others."
As she replaced the receiver, her husband entered the room. She crossed toward him and halted:
"What is it, leibchen?"
"That was Wes Dodds, darling. Diana Prince came across some intelligence about a mutual acquaintance and thought we were in a better position to investigate than the Justice Society. We know the subject of her scrutiny. Harry. Harry Lime."
"After all these years?"
"Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are. Evidently, Vienna doesn't have that many cockroaches roaming the ruins, they had to import him."
"What's he done this time? Bootleg alcohol? Methamphetamine salvage from the Reich's ruins? Prostitution?"
Rosalie ran a hand through her red hair:
"If only it were that simple. No darling, it isn't that simple and I'm afraid that this time, his charm and deviousness won't save him. I think you'd better sit down, this is going to be painful to hear. Harry found some penicillin for a Viennese children's hospital, but..."
"And therein hangs a tale. What went wrong?"
At length, Rosalie quietly said: "It was tainted, Georg. Dozens of children died and others were rendered imbeciles. His father was a doctor. He knew, Georg. He knew that batch of penicillin was compromised and yet he distributed it to them anyway. We cannot let this stand."
Georg exhaled slowly: "Even if he didn't, that's manslaughter, anyway."
"And if he did, and I suspect that he very well did, that's murder. I'll pull a few strings with friends of mine at Whitehall. It's time the Horned Owl and Midnight Angel returned to duty and brought Harry Lime to justice for what he's done."
VIENNA:
"Thank you for agreeing to see us on such short notice, Major Calloway."
"It's a pleasure, Mr and Mrs Von Tregor. I only wish it were under more pleasant circumstances."
"So, I take it these are the forensic chemistry notes on the fake or impaired penicllin? Blazes. Even if I weren't a chemist by trade, I can see what the matter is. Take a look, Angel."
"So...we have a former Austrian Nazi soldier on the make, two former GIs, two unemployed female pharmacy assistants, and a Viennese pharmacist who have been brought to justice thus far."
"Ach, this is hideous. Apparently, they used glucose liquid and crushed quinacrine antimalarial tablets as well as face powder. Quinacrine is useless against bacteria, and given the stringencies of the postwar environment, there's bound to have been further contamination en route to the hospital."
"Thank you. We found out quite by chance, Mr Von Tregor. A drunken member of Lime's drug ring dropped a vial of the fake penicillin in the bar. Unfortunately for him, there was a qualified British Army medic there that evening and he knew from the appearance of the liquid that it wasn't bona fide."
"From what our Whitehall and Washington contacts have told us, Major, bootleg penicillin is an important black market commodity. With much of Europe's pharmaceutical industry still in ruins and disorganised, our occupation authorities have reserved it for use on their soldiers and their (ahem) lady ...or gentleman... friends who might otherwise spread the curse of Venus more widely abroad."
"Yes, there have already been cases of profiteering on the black market. Two Berlin GIs and a former Miss Austria now resident in Berlin were recently caught stealing legal reserves of penicillin and selling it for vastly inflated prices to desperate souls who needed it but would otherwise not have been able to obtain it. Which brings us to the tragedy at the Vienna Children's Hospital."
"I don't blame the medical staff for this. They must have contacted Lime with the best intentions- they couldn't have foreseen this."
"Just as well we didn't let poor Major Calloway in on how much else we know about this."
"Well, yes, but honestly, who would have thought that our fellows in Vienna and Berlin are using penicillin stocks to entice Red Army soldiers with VD to defect so they can receive treatment for the clap? Bloody Russians. Making catching VD a court-martial offence. What is it, darling?"
"At times I almost forget you're a vicar's daughter, leibchen."
"Well, yes, but don't forget, I was the only female combat pilot in the whole RAF. Although some of the upper class boys tried to 'shield' me from the facts of life, some of the more down to earth lads were quite convivial. Frankly, when you didn't know whether you'd last the next mission, it gave some of them an incentive to sow the wild oats with whoever took their fancy. Me? I lived for the job. Not that I didn't fancy some of them, but I had work to do, defending the realm from those who would attack it."
"For me, after my wife died, it was bringing up Willi and then heroism, in that order."
"I was wondering when you'd mention your boy, my darling. I've been worried about your reaction to all this."
"I thought Lime was supposed to be Catholic. If he did this deliberately and with malice or negligence aforethought, it's a mortal sin."
Midnight Angel nodded: "Can we talk about your son and what this must be doing to you, Georg?"
"Ach, it tears my heart out, Rosalie. Those children were innocent, vulnerable and alone in the world. Their doctors and nurses assumed that the penicillin that they were getting was fit for purpose. It wasn't. Their blood, lost lives and impairment are on Lime's hands. Why did he do this? He wasn't like this when I first encountered him, before the war."
"I wish I could be as forgiving as you are, Georg. But I can't be, and there's good reason. When I first encountered him, it was after he'd gotten involved with a female friend. He got her in the family way and then abandoned her. His ill-gotten wealth was more important to him than the basic decencies of being a faithful husband and father. She died in childbirth. Unfortunately, too, the little one was stillborn. So you see, I'm under no illusions about his character. It doesn't surprise me he'd descend to this level. He owes me my friend's life and that of her poor wee babe. I intend to collect."
TANGIERS: NOVEMBER 1942:
As Midnight Angel lit a cigarette, she reflected how strangely easy it had been to overwhelm the Ratzis in formerly Vichy French-occupied Algeria and Tunisia, and from then on, the rest of West Africa. Despite Barbarossa and the threat to Russia for the last year, she had begun to hope for the best insofar as the war went. And then they caught sight of each other:
"Rosie!"
"Harry. What are you doing here?"
"Being entrepreneurial."
"Oh, is that what you call it? Still, I suppose it sounds better than 'petty larceny,' however cliched the euphemism."
"Come now, Rosie, don't you ever leave that RAF uniform behind?"
"Not when I'm on active duty. Am I to understand that you've scuttled in after the success of Operation Torch?"
"I really don't care one way or the other, old thing."
"You know, I really should arrest you, given what you're probably up to."
"Such a suspicious mind."
"Lime, you know full well that your charms don't work on me. So why are you here, precisely?"
"Sounding out business opportunities."
"In other words, smuggling, illegal exports and mercenary profiteering."
"If you put it like that. However, these people need wine, women...or men, in some circumstances...and song. I can provide all of them at a discreet price, no questions asked."
"Except if it involves assault, aggravated injury or homicide. Look, I'm no puritanical busybody and I don't blame people for snatching some happiness amidst all this hellishness. But try to stay on the right side of the law insofar as you can, cousin."
"Come on, Rosie, you were never like this-"
"Harry. I'm only just tolerating you because you're Aunt Hildie's son. But frankly, the fact that you didn't bother visiting her during her final bout of cancer is an impediment to anything more convivial."
"All right, I get the message. Be seeing you. Ciao."
As she watched him go, she wondered why she felt a sudden chill. Was it the desert night, or was it something more ominous?
LONDON: APRIL 1943:
As she found out later, it was. She'd been the one who introduced her friend Millie to Harry Lime, out of a forelorn hope that her steadfastness and focused nature would smooth some of the rough edges off her cousin. Unfortunately for her theory, it had turned out the other way. When she stopped off at the Single Woman's Hostel where Millie had been stationed as a typist, she was told by the starchy old curmudgeon of a hostel manager that Millicent had brought 'disgrace' on the hostelry through her 'promiscuity' and would give birth to a 'little bastard.' After she heard the news, Rosalie broke out in a cold sweat. Dear God. She shouldn't have gotten pregnant. One of her sisters had died giving birth and an aunt of hers hadn't been able to carry a pregnancy after another. Trying to look her most intimidating, she browbeat the old dragon into providing her with the maternity hospital where Millie had been taken. As a good Catholic, Rosalie didn't believe in abortion, except when it came to rape or incest. However, this was war and women were enticed into relationships with unsuitable men in the heat of the moment. Including, regrettably, her wastrel cousin. Arriving at the hospital, she was taken to Millie's ward. Heart hammering, she sat by her friend's bedside. As it turned out, it was the last time the two friends saw one another. A fortnight later, there was a call to her RAF base in Norfolk and the doctor told her that Millicent Wright had died of complications during childbirth. And in that moment, Rosalie Ashley, Midnight Angel, realised for the first time that she now hated her cousin. If she ever saw him again, only one of them would walk away.
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INTERLUDE: VIENNA, 1948:
"What about you, darling? When did you meet that contemptible flash jackie?"
"Ach, let me think. Yes, it was before the war. Normally, I didn't bother with the Frankfurt black market during the Reich days, but on this occasion, Willi and I had to intervene..."
FRANKFURT: MAY 1936:
"Well, if it isn't the Owl and his little Bat boy. What brings you to this part of our illustrious city?"
Horned Owl wished he could protect his son from this sordidness. He had to tell himself that Alraune ten Brinken had never been conclusively convicted of the alleged murder of her adoptive father, that the trial had been aborted, that despite his distaste at her unnatural origins as the consequence of the unnatural insemination of a prostitute with the seed of a mass murderer, she was only a bar owner now. He scowled at her: "I'm after an Englischer, Alraune."
"Aren't we all, Hootie? Any specific one in mind?"
"Harold Lime. A petty criminal, involved in smuggling and illegal redistribution."
Alraune raised an eyebrow: "I thought you only went after the big fish, Owl. Branching out, are we?"
"I'm in no mood for your coquettishness. Do you or do you not know about this man's whereabouts?"
"Do you really expect me to tell you whether I do or not? I resent this petty harassment, particularly given my new friends."
That was a veiled threat- despite its pretense of conventional morality, the Third Reich was interested in the eugenic implications of the unnatural artificial insemination that had produced Alraune and fostered a collaborative relationship with the woman in the hope that she could contribute to the rise of 'enhanced' soldiers. She had assimilated the lessons of her adoptive father and his keen scientific mind but lacked any moral compass. She welcomed Nazi officers custom and saw to it that they had access to certain illicit pleasures. Although Georg von Tregor was too loyal to the memory of his late wife, Willi's mother and intent on bringing up his child, he did not begrudge other men their indulgence with the ladies of the evening. For that matter, given the economic turmoil of the last five years since the onset of the Depression, many women had had to turn to that avenue of "night work" to help support their families, particularly widows from the Great War who had children to support.
"It isn't about what happens behind the lace curtains, Alraune. That is none of my concern unless there is violence or bloodshed. I'm talking drugs."
"And I'm not talking. I repeat, I have friends in high places. As long as there's no blood and guts in the vicinity of my establishment, that is none of your business. Now stop harassing an honest businesswoman. I have work to do, even if you have nothing better than this."
Angrily, Horned Owl and Fledermaus left the premises. Fledermaus looked up at his father:
"She doesn't look like the usual run of drug dealer, Owl."
"Sometimes, Fleder, evil can take diverse forms. They might be deceptively pretty, even beautiful."
"So I take it that this Herr Lime is a drug pusher too? But why? Germany is renowned for its pharmaceutical industry."
Horned Owl grinned: "Ach, Fleder, someone's been paying attention in his science class, I see. Yes, absolutely."
"Okay, let's see. Heroin is legal here, unlike elsewhere in Europe and in the United States because the good that comes from opiate research into morphine, as a painkiller, outweighs the darker aspect that results from heroin abuse. Addiction is curable, a human weakness. You... hear things about chemists like Temmler researching stimulants that will allegedly improve the stamina and endurance of our fighting men and workers in essential industries. Doctor Freud was known for his fondness for cocaine earlier in his career. Methamphetamine is a performance enhancer. Cocaine causes euphoria. However, narcotics also distort moral judgment and lower inhibitions against violence and perversion. All of this is weird, considering the government also cracks down heavily on tobacco and alcohol."
"Apart from establishments like Miss Alraunes'. Well done, Fleder. Now, the reason we're after Herr Lime is because he's engaged in industrial espionage. He may be trying to crack the secret behind performance enhancers."
"So the Britischers can have their own? Or do they think it's too dangerous?"
"Ach, no, lad. Herr Lime is in this for his own financial benefit, stealing the secret and selling it on the black market if war comes."
"So that's why we're tracking him down?"
"You know, Fleder, I wish I could stop you knowing these things."
"Owl, I have to know them so we can stop them."
As his son walked alongside him, Horned Owl reflected Fledermaus was growing up much too quickly.
VIENNA: 1948:
As Georg wiped the tears from his eyes while he remembered the son who would never grow up, his wife was checking the Police Intelligence files: "Some brave new world we love in, eh, darling?"
"I know, Rosalie. I didn't want it to be like this, either. During the War, all I wanted was for it to end so our men in uniform could come home and we could live in peace, until Willi's murder made me realise the obscene nature of the regime our previous silence had facilitated."
"I mean, I can live with the shortages and rationing until the international situation stabilises, but we seem to be falling into the same old patterns- totalitarian power dominates Europe, while the so-called free world turns the eye away from the brutal nature of the regimes that oppose it because supposedly, 'anti-communism' is an excuse for executing political opponents, violating basic civil liberties, ignoring the legal process and suppressing free and fair elections. If this is a peace, it's becoming a corrupted one very quickly. Ah. Yes, Harry has been seen with a local woman, one Anna Schmidt. I think I might pay her a visit while you track down Mr Lime. Be careful, my love."
"Don't be too hard on her, leibchen. She may be an innocent."
"I've fought my share of hard women over the years, sweetheart. I'm not taking anything for granted."
Which was probably just as well. As she slipped into Anna Schmidt's apartment, a harsh voice barked: "Stay where you are!"
One look around her was enough to convince Midnight Angel that her suspicions about Miss Schmidt's own ethical compass were valid ones. There were boxes and cannisters, indicating that her flat was definitely a waystation for the black market. Which wasn't enough on its own to suggest that her adversary was morally compromised because of it. She was a full collaborator in Harry Lime's depredations and because of that, Midnight Angel would not underestimate her. As she heard the sound of a trigger being cocked before Schmidt fired at her, Midnight Angel flattened herself against the concealment of a pile of wooden boxes as the next shot hit the corner of one immediately above her. The training she'd had from Wesley Dodds and Ted Grant stood her in good stead now, as Midnight Angel pulled out her own gun and returned fire:
"Hands off, missy! We got here first!"
"If it helps, I'm not here to steal your spoils. I'm a crime fighter. And frankly, do you know the type of man you're involved with, Anna?"
"Don't be so ridiculously naive, Britischer. Of course I do."
"About the pregnant woman he left to die in childbirth? He wasn't even there to be with her. He'll abandon you too."
Anna Schmidt scoffed: "So the idiot didn't take proper precautions? It's her fault, then."
"Oh, and Harry Lime had nothing to do with it? Nor did he have anything to do with the children killed or rendered intellectually damaged at the Vienna Children's Hospital because of his profiteering?"
"You're lying."
"He has children's blood on his hands, Anna, as surely as if he had held a pistol to their heads and pulled the trigger."
"But he didn't. And those doctors and nurses let their precious professional status get the better of them. I mean, surely they'd take basic precautions before they administered it?"
"Talk sense, woman! We're only three years out of a global war. There are shortages and half of Europe is in ruins. And I repeat, why are you making excuses for a man whose avarice and negligence led to children's deaths and the destruction of their minds and bodies?! Does filthy lucre mean that much to you?"
"Shut up! You weren't here when the war ended and we were defeated! The epidemics, the starvation, the homelessness, the alcoholism, the depression, the suicides! So no, I don't care about any abstract children's deaths."
"'Abstract', eh? Not to their parents and families, they weren't. I see Harry has found his soulmate. No, that would imply you actually have a soul, Fraulein Schmidt. Basic human decency. Compassion. Mercy. Let alone a sense of guilt. You're Harry Lime's partner in life and in crime, aren't you? God help you, you're as much of a monster as he is."
"You're a good shot. So that means you've killed others yourself, haven't you? Don't be so hypocritical, lady. You don't get to preach morality at me!"
"Not deliberately and only when circumstances left me no other way out. And don't think I'll hesitate in this context, Fraulein Schmidt."
"I won't either, you realise?"
"I don't have any delusions about our sex being somehow weaker and more fragile. Is Harry Lime really worth it?"
"Oh, grow up. Do you think I entered my relationship with him blindly? People have to do what they need to do to survive. It's as simple as that."
"No, it isn't. That might have sufficed during the War, but this is peacetime. All right. You've made your point, God help you. Both of you deserve each other. Tell him Rosie said hello." Midnight Angel hated leaving the situation so open-ended, but Schmidt was a match for her and there was a danger that she might join her paramour to threaten Georg. No, she would not let that happen. She slipped out of Anna Schmidt's rooms and back through the covert passageway to the morning Vienna sky. It was cold and overcast and she pulled her flying jacket around her.
RATHAUSPARK:
Horned Owl remembered visiting the beautiful inner city park here with his son twelve years past. He felt a lump in his throat, but he needed to concentrate solidly on the task. He'd opened his heart to his beautiful English Rose, but he had left out how it made him feel toward her cousin. Not because Rosalie had any delusions about Harry, she had left him in no doubt about that. She hated him for leaving young Millicent in London to die, mother and baby both. Probably, she was bitterly regretting what she regarded now as her misplaced clemency toward her cousin. But he was her flesh and blood and clearly, she had been close to her aunt, Lime's mother. He wished his wife didn't engage in quite so much self-reproach. She was a schon madchen, she had given his life back to him after the almost unbearable loss of Willi long before his time. All of those thoughts occupied him as he stealthily tracked his quarry. But at some point, Lime became aware of the surveillance. He spun around and fired a stray shot into the trees- as a familiar form barreled into him, knocking him to the ground:
"No. No, you don't, Harry. You've killed enough innocents already. And not him, not tonight."
Horned Owl jumped from the trees as he watched his wife pummel the suddenly aware Harry Lime:
"Ooof! Rosie, I wish I could say it was a pleasure."
"Don't. I'm going to take you in for what you've done here, you miserable creature. Family ties can't save you now."
"Still the vicar's daughter, I see."
"If you mean I believe in consequences and retribution for your actions and justice for your victims, Harry, damned right I do."
"So I take it the gaudy boy looking onward over there is your fellow?"
"You don't even get to speak his name."
"I'm glad for you, Rosie. Really, I am. You deserve a male wolf to hunt alongside you."
"Matching dear Anna on your side of the ledger?"
"Well, yes. She's a hardheaded realist, like me. That's what attracted me to her."
And as Harry Lime said that, Anna Schmidt stepped into the clearing and levelled her gun at Midnight Angel. Horned Owl cleared his throat and produced his own Owltalon gun:
"Nein, Fraulein Schmidt. If you shoot my wife, I will have no hesitation in firing this at you. There are toxins of my own manufacture within it. I am a disciplined gymnast, you are not. You will not be able to evade the talons in time. Now step away from the Midnight Angel."
"Ach, the traitor Horned Owl. I am surprised that you would dare show your face in the former Reich territories after what you did."
"I assume you mean witness the death of his only child, murdered by SS operatives at a staging point for the barbarity of the Holocaust?" Midnight Angel blazed angrily.
"It is pointless trying to talk to you."
"And is that because you are an unregenerate Nazi wahrer glaubiger, Fraulein? A 'true believer', as my wife would say. Put down your gun."
"You fools. Did you think I came otherwise unprepared? Run, Harry!" Before either the Horned Owl or Midnight Angel could stop her, Anna Schmidt dashed a smoke grenade to the ground. It was a thick acrid mist and Horned Owl was unable to activate his infrared goggles for a vital moment. By that time, Harry Lime had bolted for the Rathauspark gates and as Midnight Owl punched Anna Schmidt to the ground, her husband gave chase. All to no avail, as a car rounded the corner at a breakneck speed and hit Harry Lime head on. A quarter of an hour later, an ambulance cleared the crowd that had gathered, including a weeping, apparently heartbroken Anna Schmidt. But by then, the Horned Owl and Midnight Angel had vanished back into the mist and snow of the winter night and during the course of the next day, they were en route back to England.
EPILOGUE:
However, that was not the last they'd hear of Harry Lime. As they prepared to board the BOAC flight homeward, a familiar figure stepped through the other side of the divided corridor- Holly Martins, pulp western author and former friend of the apparently slain underworld habituee. Because, once they were out of sight in the ersatz ambulance, the 'deceased' Harry Lime sat up and removed buffers and fake stage blood capsules from his surroundings as Anna Schmidt impulsively kissed him. However, the Allied Vienna Command became aware something was amiss when they could find no sign of the purported corpse of Harry Lime. They did not want to publicise Lime's possible survival for fear that it would reflect adversely on their own lack of competence.
Nevertheless, Harry Lime's reprieve was only momentary. Holly Martins uncovered discrepancies in the account of Lime's apparent 'death,' such as the number of 'orderlies' that had helped carry his 'body' into the ambulance. At Allied Vienna Headquarters, a suspicious Major Calloway had Lime's coffin exhumed and instead found the body of the fugitive intermediary who had assisted Lime in developing the fake penicillin. By then, Martin had seen Lime alive, only to have his former friend slip into the city's underground sewer network. The estranged friends met again on the Weiner Reisenrad ferris wheel, and Lime asked Martins to help insure Anna Schmidt was not deported to East Germany. That achieved, Lime once more slipped back into what some might have considered his natural element. Anna feigned innocence when it came to her lover's survival and browbeat Martins into providing his whereabouts. But in the shadows, Major Calloway was also watching. So, when Martins led the occupation authorities to Lime's sewer redoubt, there was an exchange of gunfire and Sargeant Paine, a western aficionado and fan of Holly Martins work, was shot and killed. As a consequence, Major Calloway shot Lime, severely wounding him and it was left to Holly Martins to finish the task and dispatch his murderous friend. At Lime's second and real funeral, Anna Schmidt, her heart broken, walked past Martins, ignoring him.
At Ashley Hall, the item about Lime's actual death was hidden away in the rear of most newspapers. As far as Horned Owl and Midnight Angel were concerned, Lime had died that night after the car accident. Given the estrangement between them and Rosalie Von Tregor's abhorrence of his callousness over the deliberately tainted fake penicillin injuries and deaths, she never bothered to inquire into the aftermath of their visit to Vienna that year. As time went on, both Georg and Rosalie's memories of that time in Vienna faded as other priorities took over.
For a number of years afterward, Anna Schmidt was a core figure in Vienna's criminal underworld, carrying on her lover's work. She never crossed paths with Holly Martins, the Horned Owl or Midnight Angel again. In 1998, she died of cancer in a Vienna nursing home.
THE END [5.30 PM, MAY 23, 2023]
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ASHLEY HALL:
"Dear Lord. Yes, thank you, Wesley. I'm glad you thought to call us. Yes, Georg and I will investigate this. All my love to Diana, Dinah, Shiera and the others."
As she replaced the receiver, her husband entered the room. She crossed toward him and halted:
"What is it, leibchen?"
"That was Wes Dodds, darling. Diana Prince came across some intelligence about a mutual acquaintance and thought we were in a better position to investigate than the Justice Society. We know the subject of her scrutiny. Harry. Harry Lime."
"After all these years?"
"Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are. Evidently, Vienna doesn't have that many cockroaches roaming the ruins, they had to import him."
"What's he done this time? Bootleg alcohol? Methamphetamine salvage from the Reich's ruins? Prostitution?"
Rosalie ran a hand through her red hair:
"If only it were that simple. No darling, it isn't that simple and I'm afraid that this time, his charm and deviousness won't save him. I think you'd better sit down, this is going to be painful to hear. Harry found some penicillin for a Viennese children's hospital, but..."
"And therein hangs a tale. What went wrong?"
At length, Rosalie quietly said: "It was tainted, Georg. Dozens of children died and others were rendered imbeciles. His father was a doctor. He knew, Georg. He knew that batch of penicillin was compromised and yet he distributed it to them anyway. We cannot let this stand."
Georg exhaled slowly: "Even if he didn't, that's manslaughter, anyway."
"And if he did, and I suspect that he very well did, that's murder. I'll pull a few strings with friends of mine at Whitehall. It's time the Horned Owl and Midnight Angel returned to duty and brought Harry Lime to justice for what he's done."
VIENNA:
"Thank you for agreeing to see us on such short notice, Major Calloway."
"It's a pleasure, Mr and Mrs Von Tregor. I only wish it were under more pleasant circumstances."
"So, I take it these are the forensic chemistry notes on the fake or impaired penicllin? Blazes. Even if I weren't a chemist by trade, I can see what the matter is. Take a look, Angel."
"So...we have a former Austrian Nazi soldier on the make, two former GIs, two unemployed female pharmacy assistants, and a Viennese pharmacist who have been brought to justice thus far."
"Ach, this is hideous. Apparently, they used glucose liquid and crushed quinacrine antimalarial tablets as well as face powder. Quinacrine is useless against bacteria, and given the stringencies of the postwar environment, there's bound to have been further contamination en route to the hospital."
"Thank you. We found out quite by chance, Mr Von Tregor. A drunken member of Lime's drug ring dropped a vial of the fake penicillin in the bar. Unfortunately for him, there was a qualified British Army medic there that evening and he knew from the appearance of the liquid that it wasn't bona fide."
"From what our Whitehall and Washington contacts have told us, Major, bootleg penicillin is an important black market commodity. With much of Europe's pharmaceutical industry still in ruins and disorganised, our occupation authorities have reserved it for use on their soldiers and their (ahem) lady ...or gentleman... friends who might otherwise spread the curse of Venus more widely abroad."
"Yes, there have already been cases of profiteering on the black market. Two Berlin GIs and a former Miss Austria now resident in Berlin were recently caught stealing legal reserves of penicillin and selling it for vastly inflated prices to desperate souls who needed it but would otherwise not have been able to obtain it. Which brings us to the tragedy at the Vienna Children's Hospital."
"I don't blame the medical staff for this. They must have contacted Lime with the best intentions- they couldn't have foreseen this."
"Just as well we didn't let poor Major Calloway in on how much else we know about this."
"Well, yes, but honestly, who would have thought that our fellows in Vienna and Berlin are using penicillin stocks to entice Red Army soldiers with VD to defect so they can receive treatment for the clap? Bloody Russians. Making catching VD a court-martial offence. What is it, darling?"
"At times I almost forget you're a vicar's daughter, leibchen."
"Well, yes, but don't forget, I was the only female combat pilot in the whole RAF. Although some of the upper class boys tried to 'shield' me from the facts of life, some of the more down to earth lads were quite convivial. Frankly, when you didn't know whether you'd last the next mission, it gave some of them an incentive to sow the wild oats with whoever took their fancy. Me? I lived for the job. Not that I didn't fancy some of them, but I had work to do, defending the realm from those who would attack it."
"For me, after my wife died, it was bringing up Willi and then heroism, in that order."
"I was wondering when you'd mention your boy, my darling. I've been worried about your reaction to all this."
"I thought Lime was supposed to be Catholic. If he did this deliberately and with malice or negligence aforethought, it's a mortal sin."
Midnight Angel nodded: "Can we talk about your son and what this must be doing to you, Georg?"
"Ach, it tears my heart out, Rosalie. Those children were innocent, vulnerable and alone in the world. Their doctors and nurses assumed that the penicillin that they were getting was fit for purpose. It wasn't. Their blood, lost lives and impairment are on Lime's hands. Why did he do this? He wasn't like this when I first encountered him, before the war."
"I wish I could be as forgiving as you are, Georg. But I can't be, and there's good reason. When I first encountered him, it was after he'd gotten involved with a female friend. He got her in the family way and then abandoned her. His ill-gotten wealth was more important to him than the basic decencies of being a faithful husband and father. She died in childbirth. Unfortunately, too, the little one was stillborn. So you see, I'm under no illusions about his character. It doesn't surprise me he'd descend to this level. He owes me my friend's life and that of her poor wee babe. I intend to collect."
TANGIERS: NOVEMBER 1942:
As Midnight Angel lit a cigarette, she reflected how strangely easy it had been to overwhelm the Ratzis in formerly Vichy French-occupied Algeria and Tunisia, and from then on, the rest of West Africa. Despite Barbarossa and the threat to Russia for the last year, she had begun to hope for the best insofar as the war went. And then they caught sight of each other:
"Rosie!"
"Harry. What are you doing here?"
"Being entrepreneurial."
"Oh, is that what you call it? Still, I suppose it sounds better than 'petty larceny,' however cliched the euphemism."
"Come now, Rosie, don't you ever leave that RAF uniform behind?"
"Not when I'm on active duty. Am I to understand that you've scuttled in after the success of Operation Torch?"
"I really don't care one way or the other, old thing."
"You know, I really should arrest you, given what you're probably up to."
"Such a suspicious mind."
"Lime, you know full well that your charms don't work on me. So why are you here, precisely?"
"Sounding out business opportunities."
"In other words, smuggling, illegal exports and mercenary profiteering."
"If you put it like that. However, these people need wine, women...or men, in some circumstances...and song. I can provide all of them at a discreet price, no questions asked."
"Except if it involves assault, aggravated injury or homicide. Look, I'm no puritanical busybody and I don't blame people for snatching some happiness amidst all this hellishness. But try to stay on the right side of the law insofar as you can, cousin."
"Come on, Rosie, you were never like this-"
"Harry. I'm only just tolerating you because you're Aunt Hildie's son. But frankly, the fact that you didn't bother visiting her during her final bout of cancer is an impediment to anything more convivial."
"All right, I get the message. Be seeing you. Ciao."
As she watched him go, she wondered why she felt a sudden chill. Was it the desert night, or was it something more ominous?
LONDON: APRIL 1943:
As she found out later, it was. She'd been the one who introduced her friend Millie to Harry Lime, out of a forelorn hope that her steadfastness and focused nature would smooth some of the rough edges off her cousin. Unfortunately for her theory, it had turned out the other way. When she stopped off at the Single Woman's Hostel where Millie had been stationed as a typist, she was told by the starchy old curmudgeon of a hostel manager that Millicent had brought 'disgrace' on the hostelry through her 'promiscuity' and would give birth to a 'little bastard.' After she heard the news, Rosalie broke out in a cold sweat. Dear God. She shouldn't have gotten pregnant. One of her sisters had died giving birth and an aunt of hers hadn't been able to carry a pregnancy after another. Trying to look her most intimidating, she browbeat the old dragon into providing her with the maternity hospital where Millie had been taken. As a good Catholic, Rosalie didn't believe in abortion, except when it came to rape or incest. However, this was war and women were enticed into relationships with unsuitable men in the heat of the moment. Including, regrettably, her wastrel cousin. Arriving at the hospital, she was taken to Millie's ward. Heart hammering, she sat by her friend's bedside. As it turned out, it was the last time the two friends saw one another. A fortnight later, there was a call to her RAF base in Norfolk and the doctor told her that Millicent Wright had died of complications during childbirth. And in that moment, Rosalie Ashley, Midnight Angel, realised for the first time that she now hated her cousin. If she ever saw him again, only one of them would walk away.
++
INTERLUDE: VIENNA, 1948:
"What about you, darling? When did you meet that contemptible flash jackie?"
"Ach, let me think. Yes, it was before the war. Normally, I didn't bother with the Frankfurt black market during the Reich days, but on this occasion, Willi and I had to intervene..."
FRANKFURT: MAY 1936:
"Well, if it isn't the Owl and his little Bat boy. What brings you to this part of our illustrious city?"
Horned Owl wished he could protect his son from this sordidness. He had to tell himself that Alraune ten Brinken had never been conclusively convicted of the alleged murder of her adoptive father, that the trial had been aborted, that despite his distaste at her unnatural origins as the consequence of the unnatural insemination of a prostitute with the seed of a mass murderer, she was only a bar owner now. He scowled at her: "I'm after an Englischer, Alraune."
"Aren't we all, Hootie? Any specific one in mind?"
"Harold Lime. A petty criminal, involved in smuggling and illegal redistribution."
Alraune raised an eyebrow: "I thought you only went after the big fish, Owl. Branching out, are we?"
"I'm in no mood for your coquettishness. Do you or do you not know about this man's whereabouts?"
"Do you really expect me to tell you whether I do or not? I resent this petty harassment, particularly given my new friends."
That was a veiled threat- despite its pretense of conventional morality, the Third Reich was interested in the eugenic implications of the unnatural artificial insemination that had produced Alraune and fostered a collaborative relationship with the woman in the hope that she could contribute to the rise of 'enhanced' soldiers. She had assimilated the lessons of her adoptive father and his keen scientific mind but lacked any moral compass. She welcomed Nazi officers custom and saw to it that they had access to certain illicit pleasures. Although Georg von Tregor was too loyal to the memory of his late wife, Willi's mother and intent on bringing up his child, he did not begrudge other men their indulgence with the ladies of the evening. For that matter, given the economic turmoil of the last five years since the onset of the Depression, many women had had to turn to that avenue of "night work" to help support their families, particularly widows from the Great War who had children to support.
"It isn't about what happens behind the lace curtains, Alraune. That is none of my concern unless there is violence or bloodshed. I'm talking drugs."
"And I'm not talking. I repeat, I have friends in high places. As long as there's no blood and guts in the vicinity of my establishment, that is none of your business. Now stop harassing an honest businesswoman. I have work to do, even if you have nothing better than this."
Angrily, Horned Owl and Fledermaus left the premises. Fledermaus looked up at his father:
"She doesn't look like the usual run of drug dealer, Owl."
"Sometimes, Fleder, evil can take diverse forms. They might be deceptively pretty, even beautiful."
"So I take it that this Herr Lime is a drug pusher too? But why? Germany is renowned for its pharmaceutical industry."
Horned Owl grinned: "Ach, Fleder, someone's been paying attention in his science class, I see. Yes, absolutely."
"Okay, let's see. Heroin is legal here, unlike elsewhere in Europe and in the United States because the good that comes from opiate research into morphine, as a painkiller, outweighs the darker aspect that results from heroin abuse. Addiction is curable, a human weakness. You... hear things about chemists like Temmler researching stimulants that will allegedly improve the stamina and endurance of our fighting men and workers in essential industries. Doctor Freud was known for his fondness for cocaine earlier in his career. Methamphetamine is a performance enhancer. Cocaine causes euphoria. However, narcotics also distort moral judgment and lower inhibitions against violence and perversion. All of this is weird, considering the government also cracks down heavily on tobacco and alcohol."
"Apart from establishments like Miss Alraunes'. Well done, Fleder. Now, the reason we're after Herr Lime is because he's engaged in industrial espionage. He may be trying to crack the secret behind performance enhancers."
"So the Britischers can have their own? Or do they think it's too dangerous?"
"Ach, no, lad. Herr Lime is in this for his own financial benefit, stealing the secret and selling it on the black market if war comes."
"So that's why we're tracking him down?"
"You know, Fleder, I wish I could stop you knowing these things."
"Owl, I have to know them so we can stop them."
As his son walked alongside him, Horned Owl reflected Fledermaus was growing up much too quickly.
VIENNA: 1948:
As Georg wiped the tears from his eyes while he remembered the son who would never grow up, his wife was checking the Police Intelligence files: "Some brave new world we love in, eh, darling?"
"I know, Rosalie. I didn't want it to be like this, either. During the War, all I wanted was for it to end so our men in uniform could come home and we could live in peace, until Willi's murder made me realise the obscene nature of the regime our previous silence had facilitated."
"I mean, I can live with the shortages and rationing until the international situation stabilises, but we seem to be falling into the same old patterns- totalitarian power dominates Europe, while the so-called free world turns the eye away from the brutal nature of the regimes that oppose it because supposedly, 'anti-communism' is an excuse for executing political opponents, violating basic civil liberties, ignoring the legal process and suppressing free and fair elections. If this is a peace, it's becoming a corrupted one very quickly. Ah. Yes, Harry has been seen with a local woman, one Anna Schmidt. I think I might pay her a visit while you track down Mr Lime. Be careful, my love."
"Don't be too hard on her, leibchen. She may be an innocent."
"I've fought my share of hard women over the years, sweetheart. I'm not taking anything for granted."
Which was probably just as well. As she slipped into Anna Schmidt's apartment, a harsh voice barked: "Stay where you are!"
One look around her was enough to convince Midnight Angel that her suspicions about Miss Schmidt's own ethical compass were valid ones. There were boxes and cannisters, indicating that her flat was definitely a waystation for the black market. Which wasn't enough on its own to suggest that her adversary was morally compromised because of it. She was a full collaborator in Harry Lime's depredations and because of that, Midnight Angel would not underestimate her. As she heard the sound of a trigger being cocked before Schmidt fired at her, Midnight Angel flattened herself against the concealment of a pile of wooden boxes as the next shot hit the corner of one immediately above her. The training she'd had from Wesley Dodds and Ted Grant stood her in good stead now, as Midnight Angel pulled out her own gun and returned fire:
"Hands off, missy! We got here first!"
"If it helps, I'm not here to steal your spoils. I'm a crime fighter. And frankly, do you know the type of man you're involved with, Anna?"
"Don't be so ridiculously naive, Britischer. Of course I do."
"About the pregnant woman he left to die in childbirth? He wasn't even there to be with her. He'll abandon you too."
Anna Schmidt scoffed: "So the idiot didn't take proper precautions? It's her fault, then."
"Oh, and Harry Lime had nothing to do with it? Nor did he have anything to do with the children killed or rendered intellectually damaged at the Vienna Children's Hospital because of his profiteering?"
"You're lying."
"He has children's blood on his hands, Anna, as surely as if he had held a pistol to their heads and pulled the trigger."
"But he didn't. And those doctors and nurses let their precious professional status get the better of them. I mean, surely they'd take basic precautions before they administered it?"
"Talk sense, woman! We're only three years out of a global war. There are shortages and half of Europe is in ruins. And I repeat, why are you making excuses for a man whose avarice and negligence led to children's deaths and the destruction of their minds and bodies?! Does filthy lucre mean that much to you?"
"Shut up! You weren't here when the war ended and we were defeated! The epidemics, the starvation, the homelessness, the alcoholism, the depression, the suicides! So no, I don't care about any abstract children's deaths."
"'Abstract', eh? Not to their parents and families, they weren't. I see Harry has found his soulmate. No, that would imply you actually have a soul, Fraulein Schmidt. Basic human decency. Compassion. Mercy. Let alone a sense of guilt. You're Harry Lime's partner in life and in crime, aren't you? God help you, you're as much of a monster as he is."
"You're a good shot. So that means you've killed others yourself, haven't you? Don't be so hypocritical, lady. You don't get to preach morality at me!"
"Not deliberately and only when circumstances left me no other way out. And don't think I'll hesitate in this context, Fraulein Schmidt."
"I won't either, you realise?"
"I don't have any delusions about our sex being somehow weaker and more fragile. Is Harry Lime really worth it?"
"Oh, grow up. Do you think I entered my relationship with him blindly? People have to do what they need to do to survive. It's as simple as that."
"No, it isn't. That might have sufficed during the War, but this is peacetime. All right. You've made your point, God help you. Both of you deserve each other. Tell him Rosie said hello." Midnight Angel hated leaving the situation so open-ended, but Schmidt was a match for her and there was a danger that she might join her paramour to threaten Georg. No, she would not let that happen. She slipped out of Anna Schmidt's rooms and back through the covert passageway to the morning Vienna sky. It was cold and overcast and she pulled her flying jacket around her.
RATHAUSPARK:
Horned Owl remembered visiting the beautiful inner city park here with his son twelve years past. He felt a lump in his throat, but he needed to concentrate solidly on the task. He'd opened his heart to his beautiful English Rose, but he had left out how it made him feel toward her cousin. Not because Rosalie had any delusions about Harry, she had left him in no doubt about that. She hated him for leaving young Millicent in London to die, mother and baby both. Probably, she was bitterly regretting what she regarded now as her misplaced clemency toward her cousin. But he was her flesh and blood and clearly, she had been close to her aunt, Lime's mother. He wished his wife didn't engage in quite so much self-reproach. She was a schon madchen, she had given his life back to him after the almost unbearable loss of Willi long before his time. All of those thoughts occupied him as he stealthily tracked his quarry. But at some point, Lime became aware of the surveillance. He spun around and fired a stray shot into the trees- as a familiar form barreled into him, knocking him to the ground:
"No. No, you don't, Harry. You've killed enough innocents already. And not him, not tonight."
Horned Owl jumped from the trees as he watched his wife pummel the suddenly aware Harry Lime:
"Ooof! Rosie, I wish I could say it was a pleasure."
"Don't. I'm going to take you in for what you've done here, you miserable creature. Family ties can't save you now."
"Still the vicar's daughter, I see."
"If you mean I believe in consequences and retribution for your actions and justice for your victims, Harry, damned right I do."
"So I take it the gaudy boy looking onward over there is your fellow?"
"You don't even get to speak his name."
"I'm glad for you, Rosie. Really, I am. You deserve a male wolf to hunt alongside you."
"Matching dear Anna on your side of the ledger?"
"Well, yes. She's a hardheaded realist, like me. That's what attracted me to her."
And as Harry Lime said that, Anna Schmidt stepped into the clearing and levelled her gun at Midnight Angel. Horned Owl cleared his throat and produced his own Owltalon gun:
"Nein, Fraulein Schmidt. If you shoot my wife, I will have no hesitation in firing this at you. There are toxins of my own manufacture within it. I am a disciplined gymnast, you are not. You will not be able to evade the talons in time. Now step away from the Midnight Angel."
"Ach, the traitor Horned Owl. I am surprised that you would dare show your face in the former Reich territories after what you did."
"I assume you mean witness the death of his only child, murdered by SS operatives at a staging point for the barbarity of the Holocaust?" Midnight Angel blazed angrily.
"It is pointless trying to talk to you."
"And is that because you are an unregenerate Nazi wahrer glaubiger, Fraulein? A 'true believer', as my wife would say. Put down your gun."
"You fools. Did you think I came otherwise unprepared? Run, Harry!" Before either the Horned Owl or Midnight Angel could stop her, Anna Schmidt dashed a smoke grenade to the ground. It was a thick acrid mist and Horned Owl was unable to activate his infrared goggles for a vital moment. By that time, Harry Lime had bolted for the Rathauspark gates and as Midnight Owl punched Anna Schmidt to the ground, her husband gave chase. All to no avail, as a car rounded the corner at a breakneck speed and hit Harry Lime head on. A quarter of an hour later, an ambulance cleared the crowd that had gathered, including a weeping, apparently heartbroken Anna Schmidt. But by then, the Horned Owl and Midnight Angel had vanished back into the mist and snow of the winter night and during the course of the next day, they were en route back to England.
EPILOGUE:
However, that was not the last they'd hear of Harry Lime. As they prepared to board the BOAC flight homeward, a familiar figure stepped through the other side of the divided corridor- Holly Martins, pulp western author and former friend of the apparently slain underworld habituee. Because, once they were out of sight in the ersatz ambulance, the 'deceased' Harry Lime sat up and removed buffers and fake stage blood capsules from his surroundings as Anna Schmidt impulsively kissed him. However, the Allied Vienna Command became aware something was amiss when they could find no sign of the purported corpse of Harry Lime. They did not want to publicise Lime's possible survival for fear that it would reflect adversely on their own lack of competence.
Nevertheless, Harry Lime's reprieve was only momentary. Holly Martins uncovered discrepancies in the account of Lime's apparent 'death,' such as the number of 'orderlies' that had helped carry his 'body' into the ambulance. At Allied Vienna Headquarters, a suspicious Major Calloway had Lime's coffin exhumed and instead found the body of the fugitive intermediary who had assisted Lime in developing the fake penicillin. By then, Martin had seen Lime alive, only to have his former friend slip into the city's underground sewer network. The estranged friends met again on the Weiner Reisenrad ferris wheel, and Lime asked Martins to help insure Anna Schmidt was not deported to East Germany. That achieved, Lime once more slipped back into what some might have considered his natural element. Anna feigned innocence when it came to her lover's survival and browbeat Martins into providing his whereabouts. But in the shadows, Major Calloway was also watching. So, when Martins led the occupation authorities to Lime's sewer redoubt, there was an exchange of gunfire and Sargeant Paine, a western aficionado and fan of Holly Martins work, was shot and killed. As a consequence, Major Calloway shot Lime, severely wounding him and it was left to Holly Martins to finish the task and dispatch his murderous friend. At Lime's second and real funeral, Anna Schmidt, her heart broken, walked past Martins, ignoring him.
At Ashley Hall, the item about Lime's actual death was hidden away in the rear of most newspapers. As far as Horned Owl and Midnight Angel were concerned, Lime had died that night after the car accident. Given the estrangement between them and Rosalie Von Tregor's abhorrence of his callousness over the deliberately tainted fake penicillin injuries and deaths, she never bothered to inquire into the aftermath of their visit to Vienna that year. As time went on, both Georg and Rosalie's memories of that time in Vienna faded as other priorities took over.
For a number of years afterward, Anna Schmidt was a core figure in Vienna's criminal underworld, carrying on her lover's work. She never crossed paths with Holly Martins, the Horned Owl or Midnight Angel again. In 1998, she died of cancer in a Vienna nursing home.
THE END [5.30 PM, MAY 23, 2023]