He said this without exaggerated sarcasm, but the put down was unmistakable. The Countess threw out her arms.
“I readily admit that for a little while I seriously considered giving up. On the one hand I had no doubt that if in 1983 a case involving atomic weapons in Greenland had been hushed up behind the scenes, it could easily explain Helmer Hammer’s current interest. Many ministers from 1983 are still active today, and perhaps a similarly explosive document is lurking somewhere in the archives. A document that journalists with the Freedom of Information Act in hand can demand to see, if they know it exists. On the other hand I could not find any such case in 1983, and Hampel-Koch’s trip to Thule did not fit with that scenario.”
“But you didn’t give up, I understand?”
“Almost. I rummaged around in every conceivable American newspaper database without getting any further, and then suddenly it all fell into place due to a Danish radio broadcast.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“It was a feature from this winter, where no fewer than three former Danish Foreign Ministers jointly commented on the H. C. Hansen letter in a very knowledgeable and informative manner. And then, almost in passing, one of them mentioned how in early 1968 Jens Otto Krag, as Prime Minister, visited the American Air Force headquarters in Colorado Springs, where he was shown a map of how the American B-52 atomic bombers patrolled Greenland. He even talked with one of the pilots.”
Her guest almost imperceptibly changed his attitude. Years of experience in interrogation rooms told her that she now had his full attention.
“The story is correct, and the April 1968 issue of Air Force Journal includes a picture of the leader of the Danish government shaking the pilot’s hand and thanking him for his efforts. That’s what the caption says anyway, and it also gives the pilot’s name: Clark Atkinson.”
She looked at her guest. There was an attentiveness in him which he no longer tried to conceal. She enjoyed the moment, like an actor who for one magic minute enchants her audience.
“By 1983 Clark Atkinson had risen through the ranks, namely to the position of base commander at Thule Airbase, but he was on his way to early retirement from the American Air Force. He wanted to go home to Idaho, where he intended to try for a political career, and for that reason he wrote a book, you might say his memoirs, about life in Greenland. The book was entitled On Guard in the North, and it came out in 1984 from the publisher Magic Valley Silhouette. But before it was published, the Idaho Times-Chronicle newspaper published extracts from two chapters. The first was in the Sunday paper on the fifteenth of May, 1983 and is uninteresting. The second came out the week after, the twenty-second of May, that is, and must have created panic in Copenhagen when it became known. Because it did become known, I have not the slightest doubt about that. But fortunately for the powers that be not by the Danish press, who overlooked it. Otherwise all hell would have broken out here.”
“Continue!” he almost snarled at her.
“Perhaps it is worth noting that what in 1983 was a secret in Denmark absolutely did not have to be in the United States. Commander Atkinson related in exhaustive detail his meeting with the Danish Prime Minister in 1968 and mentioned H. C. Hansen’s letter of 1957, praising courageous Danish politicians who did not let themselves be cowed by left-oriented public referenda. I have a copy, shall I read you the relevant passage?”
“No. What about Bertil Hampel-Koch? You’re not mentioning him.”
“My guess is that to start with it was through general diplomacy that attempts were made to get Clark Atkinson to withdraw his book, but this did not succeed. When the articles came out, the book was already printed but not yet released. Finally a representative was sent from Copenhagen to Thule Airbase to speak personally with Atkinson. His name was Bertil Hampel-Koch, although he used a different name on his trip, and he was a man marked for greatness. In high school he was considered brilliant, so brilliant that in 1972 after graduation he was named by the teaching staff of Gammel Hellerup High School as the school’s annual scholarship winner to the US, where he was accommodated for the first six months by a young American couple in Twin Falls, Idaho, namely Helen and Clark Atkinson.”
“You maintain that they knew each other?”