Rain soaked her slender form, coursing down her accusing face. She gazed at him with loathing. “How could you, YOU!, betray the fatherland this way?! Where is all of your loyalty, honour?! What is honourable about treason?!” She locked her gaze with his. They strove thus, in the rainy alley, her repulsed eyes meeting his pleading, tear-filled ones. At last she gasped, and, as one struck in the face, took an involuntary step backwards. For in his eyes she saw, instead of shame-filled arrogance, a look of most tender affection. A silence settled on that lonely byway, marred only by the sound of rain on the cobblestones.

“Betray my country?” He at last broke the silence. “It is not so. I am part of the...a....an association of fellow Germans, like thinkers. We are striving to preserve Germany.” He paused, then looked her in the eye. “It is the Führer who has betrayed us.”

“Hitler!?! But he is our only hope! He is the symbol of Germany's…..”

He held up his hand,and the look in his steel-grey eyes silenced her eager remonstrances.

He sighed. “Yes, Hitler. Hitler and his miasma.To long have we waited under his spell, like rats in a trap, quelled by his ruthless cruelty.” He clenched his fist. “After the first Great War, Germany felt weak, and belittled. Then Hitler came, promising greatness, and power for Germany. The weak-minded, and the hopeless, came to him, flocking towards this 'symbol’. But…” He sighed again, gazing out into the stormy night. Lightning cracked. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

“But it is a symbol of Death.” She finished.

He looked at her, startled. Her green eyes, dulled by anguish, gazed at his. She laughed softly, bitterly. “Not all of Germany is 'weak-minded’. I have seen the death and destruction that Hitler is bringing. Seen it, and ignored it. I have pushed it out of my mind, or, at least locked it into the far recesses.” The rain pattered down, onto the overhanging rooftops, smattering into the alleyway, and falling onto the pair below. Rain streamed from both, from soaked hat and coat, unnoticed. Lightning flickered. Thunder boomed. She gazed off, up the wet, winding alleyway. At last she glanced at him, and her gaze was held. Her thwarted, pain-stricken eyes, staring out of her pale face wet by rain and tears, betrayed her. “Your coming has unlocked the flood. Germany is being destroyed, from the inside out.”

He took her trembling hand in his.

Suddenly, there came the screech of rubber on wet road, the sound of an automobile roughly handled. She gazed fearfully up the alley. The sound of numerous vehicles drifted down to them, lights and harsh voices accompanying. Water swirled about her feet. “Go!” She breathed in terror. “Now!”

He pulled her close, embracing her momentarily, then fled down the street.

She gazed longingly at his retreating figure, barely a silhouette against the turbulent night sky. Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled. Rain fell.