290 | John W. Warner IV Schafer paused at the ships forward stairway, a marvel of thin-tube cleverness in its own right. You can use the marvelously-engineered one inside on our tour, theyre pumping out the sewage tanks now. He pointed to a tanker truck that had a hose attached to the underside. AU the comforts of the HMS Queen Mary. A smiling Kurt Baumann arrived with Porsche. The Professor would like to join our tour before he takes a nap. Hes an old hand from before the Great War regarding exotic aircraft. He piloted with Count von Zeppelin, the Kaiser, and Archduke Ferdinand on Zeppelin LZ-4. Can you imagine? Im-pressive! spat Klemperer. I will say the same, Herr Professor, said Schafer, bowing slightly in Prussian fashion. Porsche wiped his brow. Hmmff. At my age its a necessity to nap. Cant sleep on noisy planes, I keep thinking I hear the engines misfiring. The flight engineer and I knocked heads over the mixture settings and manifold pressures. Gerlach snored like a pig next to me the whole trip down. Thanks be to Gott for the pilsner and stinky cheese sandwiches. Your wife Aloisia always did make you the best ones, smiled Bea. And with extra-hot mustard. Passing them, a group of SS officers and cameramen accompanied Poppel on an inspection of the two-kilometer mine tunnel that lay to the east. Flashbulbs popped. One of the officers caught eyes with Bea and Alice; he smiled. Thin, he wore old cavalry boots and an older-style uniform, one Bea knew was worn by elite officers who had joined the SS before 1933. It was a subtle but potent message to the new boys that an old salt was present. The mans sharp features and piercing dark blue eyes gave him the look of a reptilian predator ready to strike. Time slowed for her, voices sounded deep and strange, an anesthetizing moment of otherworldly deja-vu enveloped her like a warm, flower-scented bath. He blew a sluggish, sinister kiss their way, and it made her insides shudder. Whos that cheeky colonel with the rumpled hat? Bea asked Schafer as time sped up to normal. Alice leered. Hmm? Oh, him. Schafer waved at the officer. Obersturmbahnfihrer Hans Kammler. A contractor and builder, the best. An odd one, calculating, cold as ice, but Bormann and Himmler count on him to build the most challenging and complex