Fiedler spoke with sudden urgency. “I give you my word that as soon as I possibly can, I will tell you the answer to your question. Look—I could lie to you, couldn’t I? I could say one month or less, just to keep you sweet. But I am telling you I don’t know because that is the truth. You have given us some indications: until we have run them to earth I cannot listen to talk of letting you go. But afterwards if things are as I think they are, you will need a friend and that friend will be me. I give you my word as a German.”
