Heil Harris!

She was crouched on the ground, whimpering as Steed realised she had been shot.
    The bullet had entered just above the right breast and she died almost instantly in Steed’s arms. He stayed kneeling on the ground, rocking her gently and telling her softly she’d be all right. But she Was dead. She never would have those children after all.
     

“We must be iron-willed!”
     
    Emma went to see Harris again on the Friday with her plans for streamlining the Werewolves in her briefcase. She was working on the assumption that efficiency was the important thing, to work her way into Harris’s confidence. She would think up a way of sabotaging the organisation later.
    Herr Harris was upstairs in his study. Emma followed his wife Eva to the door, and then went in by herself. “My wife,” said Harris, “is a simple woman. She doesn’t understand politics.” He was standing over a table in the corner as if he had been there for hours. “Do you see what this is?” he asked.
    It looked like a map. The table had bumps and furrows and coloured areas. Suddenly she realised that it was a scale model of Russia. And the lead soldiers represented armies in a re-enactment of old battles.
    “I could have conquered Russia,” said Herr Harris thickly. “You see, this is Stalingrad. These are the German army outside the city. Come over here, my dear. Do you know why the invasion stopped at Stalingrad?”
    Emma said no. But she assumed it had been indecision on Hitler’s part. He had diverted too many soldiers south to conquer the oil and the heavy industry, and he had diverted another third of the attack northwards. For this reason the invading force had waited outside the city throughout the winter.
    “I should have pressed on,” said Harris.
    “Quite.”
    “The Russians had several months that winter to train an army and build up their munitions industry.” He jabbed his finger on Stalingrad. “That’s where the Second World War was lost.”
    Harris continued staring at the map for nearly five minutes. Then he smiled and took Emma by the arm. “We must be decisive,” he said. “Decisive and iron-willed!” He led her to the sofa and they sat down. “Now show me your plans to make the Werewolves into a fighting force.”
    The Werewolves were intended as a private army to be used for internal maintenance of order, for terrorism and as an organ to involve the youth of Britain. Like the Brown Shirts had been, or the S.S. or the Red Guards. Emma wondered whether the things that had happened in Nazi Germany would ever have occurred if Himmler had been a woman. Its membership was only two hundred, and she doubted whether all two hundred would be prepared to break the law in such a serious manner as open revolution.
    But open revolution was the intention. Half the Werewolves were in Hayburn’s regiment, so they were fully trained soldiers and had access to firearms and all military equipment. When the revolt took place, on July 8th, there would be serious upheaval. More serious, Emma reflected wryly, than the General Strike in 1926. Perhaps the last man in England to think on this scale had been Oliver Cromwell.
    “As I see it,” said Emma, “you have two fighting instruments. The Werewolves and Colonel Hayburn’s regiment. I don’t understand why you haven’t separated them. Now my idea—”
    “There isn’t time to separate them. The Werewolves as they exist will have to begin the revolt on Saturday morning.”
    “I don’t believe it.”
    Harris nodded sombrely. “Colonel Hayburn has bungled his mission in Germany. He didn’t bring back the seven million pounds that we needed, and he failed to establish a treaty of alliance with the N.P.D.”
    “What a shame,” said Emma.
    “The fool! He’ll pay for this when the battle is over. He destroyed months of careful preparation. Now we must act instantly or else abandon everything.”
    Emma looked surprised. “How did this happen?”
    , “He allowed the British secret service to find out exactly what we are doing. When Hayburn arrived that man Steed was already in Walchensee.” Harris paced up and down in mounting fury. “The most important contact we had in Germany is dead, the money is gone, and Hayburn has arrived back here with the British Intelligence people after him. Our only chance is to fight it out.”
    “We shall lose.”
    “We shall lose if we wait.”
    “So that’s that.”
    Harris glared at her, and again Emma found herself flinching