BothHalder and Keitel had met the man in a brief session in 1939 just before the war. It was there that Volkov had asserted Germany would easily defeat the British and French in France, and it had happened almost exactly as he said it would. He had warned the Germans that the British would try to intervene in Norway, picking the exact time and place, and he had been correct again. His latest whispers had been warnings to the French concerning the British plans to attack their fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. That intelligence had enabled Admiral Gensoul to put to sea just before the British fleet sortied from Gibraltar. And he had also warned about Operation Menace aimed at Dakar, and the recently concluded Operation Compass.

“Well,” said Keitel. “Now that you mention Volkov, I suppose you are aware of the information he has sent us on this very question.” He reached into his uniform coat pocket and produced a folded paper.

“Listen to this,” he said quietly, “the latest intelligence briefing from the man they call the Prophet. “It is quite startling, all things considered.” He looked up atHalder, a glint in his eye, like a man who was about to spring a well laid trap. “Tell me, Keitel. Does he agree with your assessment?”

“That and more,” said Keitel. He has gone so far as to make a specific request that we do exactly what I now propose.” He read from the paper now, eyes alight: “Take Malta no later than the spring of 1941. If you fail to do so your operations in North Africa will be doomed to failure. To facilitate this. I will personally make a request to Hitler that any operation against Soviet Russia is held in abeyance on the precondition that Malta first falls under German control, and you have had time to build up a strong force in North Africa and to consider other measures aimed at the Middle East.” He looked up atHalder now, smiling. “That is quite an endorsement of my plan.”

“He wants to postpone the invasion of Soviet Russia?”Halder was very surprised. “I find that hard to believe.”

“That is because he wants to put his house in order before we deal with Sergei Kirov. He has trouble with the Siberians.”

“Karpov? I thought that had been settled at Omsk.”

“Apparently not, as we have seen. Volkov launched his eastern offensive right after those talks, so they must have failed to reach an accord, in spite of the news we received earlier.” Keitel folded the briefing paper and quietly tucked it away in his pocket.

“Interesting…” saidHalder. “Now Sergei Kirov has taken advantage of the situation by attacking across the Don into the Caucasus.” He tapped the map with a pencil as he spoke. “The oil, Keitel. That is what these operations are all about.”

“Agreed,” said Keitel. “So Volkov now has a major offensive to deal with on his southern flank, while he squabbles with this Vladimir Karpov and his Siberians in the east.”

“Where did this man come from?” saidHalder, voicing the same question in Keitel’s mind. He was a mysterious figure that had arisen in the far east, and though he did not know why, Keitel had a strange feeling of presentiment about the man.

Chapter 15

“This Karpov seems to have appeared out of thin air. We have little intelligence on him. He certainly was not involved in the early revolution. I have made inquiries and, in spite of some considerable effort to learn more, we have found nothing substantial on the man. In fact, we have found nothing much at all-no birth records, no service history. It is as if the man simply fell from the sky or grew up like a mushroom after a good rain storm.”

“No doubt there are quite a few others like him over there,” said Keitel, “but we must not concern ourselves with that at the moment. Let the Russians have their squabble. We have our own fish to fry here, and the war is heading to the Mediterranean now. If our drive into the Balkans concludes soon, then we will be right on Turkey’s doorstep at the Bosporus. That leaves only the old remnant of the Ottoman Empire between us and all that oil in the Caucasus. Hitler will soon have an interesting choice to make, and he will want us to do all the planning. From Greece and Bulgaria we can easily stage an operation against Turkey. Such a plan would take us right to the oil we need and come to Volkov’s assistance in the Caucasus at the same time. In fact, I intend to advise the Fuhrer that we do exactly this. If he must attack Soviet Russia, then he should do so on the southern flank, with the principle effort striking through Moldavia into the Ukraine, and right into the Crimea! That is the shortest route to a link up with Volkov’s forces. Attacking in the north with any intention of driving on Moscow or Leningrad will be foolish.”