Stunned silence spread over the room like a thick heavy blanket. Both von Staube and von Gault stiffened. So did the black-eyed Captain. As a matter of fact, so did Dave Dawson. And he was suddenly filled with the wild desire to catch up Freddy, and sling him over his shoulder, and make a dash for it. Freddy had gone nuts! Maybe a blow on the head when he had taken care of that Nazi soldier back by the shelled church. But Freddy was definitely off his trolley! What in the world did he think he was saying?
"My pilots reported to us?" Field Marshal von Staube echoed. "Of course. Why? Why do you want to know?"
For a second or so Freddy just looked at the German, then switched his gaze to von Gault.
"You know them all personally, Herr Luftwaffe Marshal?" he shot out the question. "You selected them, perhaps?"
The Luftwaffe Marshal looked angry, baffled, and just a little scared. He wet his lips a couple of times before he spoke. And when he did his voice was high and strained, as though it were an effort to get the words out.
"Herr Captain Kohle and Leutnant von Stebbins have been the two stationed here for weeks," he replied. "Of course I know them! Of course I appointed them as Headquarters pilots. What is the meaning of this?"
"A precaution," Freddy answered quietly. "Der Fuehrer's orders, at Herr Himmler's request. It is the Gestapo's eternal job to safeguard the lives of Germans valuable to the Third Reich!"
"Gestapo?" Field Marshal von Staube practically blew up with wrath. "This is a war zone. This is Army Headquarters. It is for the cursed Gestapo to—!"
The German stumbled to a stop, and just sat glaring at Freddy Farmer, and drumming his fingertips on the desk. For a split second Dave almost wanted to laugh out loud. If all this wasn't so deadly serious, it would be funny. The German Army Staff and Himmler's Gestapo were like two tomcats on a back yard fence. They hated each other, but each knew that the other was very necessary to the German Reich. But of the two it was the German Army Staff who feared the most. Himmler had the inside track with Hitler. He had the Fuehrer's ear. And more than one German Staff head had gone rolling into the basket because that high ranker had tried to freeze out Herr Himmler. No, the German Army Staff didn't like the Gestapo one bit, but there was little they could do about it, yet. Just as long as Herr Himmler held Adolf Hitler's trust and confidence, it was well for the generals to watch their step!
And so Field Marshal von Staube choked off what he would like to have said, and just glowered and glared at Freddy.