The Hindenburg Page #6

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The Gestapo often exaggerates

their information.

- Are you building this?

- Yes.

It's my own design

for a house in Zeppelinheim...

the new village near the airfield.

We're hoping our airship families

will settle there.

Come.

- For you, Colonel.

- Thank you.

It's from the Gestapo.

Boerth's woman has been arrested.

She's confessed

that her ex-lover was killed...

fighting for the Leftists in Spain.

In the hands of the Gestapo,

anyone can be made to confess anything.

Yes. In bed with his mistress,

Boerth could have been talked into a plot.

What plot, Colonel?

A crank letter has been made

into a matter of state.

The purpose of exaggerating

the bomb scare was to get helium.

- I went along with that.

- There are other sources of information.

Perhaps no more valid than the letter.

Well, I'm not a believer in the occult

like our Mrs. Rauch...

but I'll tell you, Captain,

I have an uneasy sense of disaster.

As if a bomb were ticking inside me.

It's a constant feeling

with some people in Germany these days.

A decent man like you, Colonel...

with a wife, probably raising a family.

Have you never had this feeling before?

"Probably raising a family."

My only son was killed three months ago

working for the new order.

But believe me, Captain, I'm not

much better working for the Gestapo...

one of their spies

lying in bed above me.

What's happening to people like us?

I've given my life to zeppelins.

Last year, for the sake

of our company...

I even dropped political pamphlets

from this ship.

Where does it stop?

I've been in the air force

since the World War.

When the Versailles Treaty

abolished it...

I worked with Gring

and the others to build a secret one.

I remember those days.

You people trained in gliders.

Yes, all over Germany, mostly at night.

I was proud when Hitler brought

the new Luftwaffe out into the open.

I wasn't proud after last week.

Guernica. A little Basque village.

A few hundred peasants.

We dropped 3,000 bombs on it.

You were there?

Chief of Intelligence.

So that's how one wins

the Knight's Cross in peacetime.

"Peacetime."

Well, now we have two heroes aboard.

Boerth did valiant service

to the Hindenburg today.

He doesn't seem to be the man

to destroy the ship.

He does to me.

He's exactly the kind of man I would choose

for a dangerous mission.

Bold, tough, cool.

You have those qualities

in common with him.

You're both good men.

I must get to know him better.

Please show this to Pruss. Thank you

for the coffee, Captain. Good night.

I, uh... hope you get your house built.

Freda Halle has been arrested.

Traffic violation?

- No, by the Gestapo.

- Because she works for foreigners?

- Because I think she works with you.

- She lives with me.

She's admitted that your...

predecessor has been killed in Spain.

- So?

- If she knows about the bomb...

they'll make her confess that too.

Where is it, Boerth?

They'll work on Freda until you tell me.

You filth.

No worse than the filth

who wants to blow up 97 people.

But you won't have a chance,

because I'm locking you up.

- You're under arrest. Let's go

- Ritter, get your hands off me.

Get your hands off me,

or I'll blow it up now.

You can't stop it.

I can make it go any second.

Don't force me, Ritter.

I need you to help me.

For Ritter. Get it to him immediately.

He's hard to find.

Prowls all over the ship.

Boerth, where is it?

The Gestapo knows about the bomb.

This ship is the Nazis'

greatest propaganda weapon.

You patched her up today

for your own propaganda.

No good if she simply

tumbled into the sea, hm?

No politics in an act of God.

No survivors either.

But that's not how I plan to do it.

It'll happen at the mooring mast

at Lakehurst.

A hydrogen airship?

That's deliberate murder.

The Luftwaffe in Spain is deliberate murder,

and that's practice for Hitler.

You people are going to save the world

by blowing up the Hindenburg.

It's a place to start.

It'll prove there is a resistance.

Decent Germans

will get the courage to join us...

and no one has to be killed

if you help me.

You're the key to this...

- Boerth, is that Col. Ritter with you?

- Coming.

Colonel, a message for you.

I have a date

with my little Jewish model.

I'm curious to try one

before they're all gone.

Cologne won't help you.

Why didn't you arrest Boerth?

Pruss showed me the message.

I'm still looking for a bomb. Arresting

Boerth won't keep it from going off.

It will, damn it, if you make him talk.

Your thumbscrews didn't make

Freda Halle talk about a bomb...

before she was shot

while trying to escape.

That was the mistake of a stupid guard.

You're making a worse one.

- Arrest Boerth, Spah, Douglas, all of them.

- Brilliant, Vogel.

The Hindenburg will come

into Lakehurst like a prison ship.

I can see the headline.

"Anti-Nazi Plot on Zep."

There are ways to keep it quiet.

If it offends your delicacy,

I'll handle it for you.

Do as you're told.

I'll take care of Boerth.

You watch Napier and Spah and,

of course, your little model.

- I'll also be watching you.

- Fine. Who'll be watching you?

I'm really disappointed, Colonel.

We thought after the splendid example of

your own son that you would personify...

Gentlemen, new time

of arrival:
5:00 p.m.

Now you reporters can go

back to the gin mills.

I'll ask the police and

the security officers to stay on, though.

All right, boys,

get 'em while they're hot.

- Who needs a passenger list?

- I'll take one. Thanks.

There's a real pair. Napier and Pajetta.

- You know those men, Sergeant?

- Sure do.

The Major and Emilio "The Cane."

They're boatmen.

Uh, cardsharps.

Usually work the luxury liners.

Real characters.

I'm supposed to check

the copper tubing on the airship, sir.

Are those guys kidding about a bomb?

That's very funny.

- Hey, look!

- Yeah.

Ah, yes. Rainbows like that

are very common in airship travel.

Hey, Dad.

- Did you see it?

- What?

It's nothin', Dad.

Rainbows like that

are very common in airship travel.

- Oh, is that right?

- Yeah.

- Are you with me?

- I have something to tell you.

I have no time for you. The ship

and I have six and a half hours left.

It concerns Freda Halle.

- Gestapo?

- Killed while trying to escape, they say.

Boerth?

I know, Boerth.

I... lost my son last March.

My only child.

He was in the Hitler Youth.

He went out to have some fun one night.

Paint slogans on a synagogue.

Alfred was on the roof, he slipped

and fell. His neck was broken.

Your son died for Hitler.

Isn't that enough for you?

Plenty. I don't want

97 more dead on this ship.

I told you. It will happen

at the mooring mast. No one aboard.

My God, that's the last thing I want.

Ask Lakehurst for marines

to cordon off the ship.

Keep everyone at least 50 yards away.

I would have to see the bomb,

know how it works.

No. You have a wife at home.

What time do I set the bomb for?

I've got to see it.

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