Further prologue: Bruno died from his wound, as did the MP that Ursula had shot. Otto offered to work as a counterspy to save his skin, and turned over a good deal of valuable information, while the Americans tried to decide what to do with him. They suspected he had told them some, but not all of what he knew. He was holding out, hoping to still have some bargaining room left to play with.

Ursula remained defiant and uncooperative to the end. Eventually she requested an interview with Otto, hinting that she might be prepared to make a deal of some kind through him. The interview was arranged under the close scrutiny of two armed and vigilant MP's. There was a brief and fruitless discussion, at the conclusion of which Otto threw his hands in the air and said, "Fine! Then I suppose they will just have to execute you."

"I suppose so," replied Ursula sharply. "As they probably will you, Otto, soon enough...when they have all they want from you. This is goodby then. One last kiss for the condemned, Otto?"

He stared at her wordlessly. She stepped forward and put her arms up to embrace him, startling the MP's. One of them stepped forward, saying, "Hey, no touching there..."

"You would deny a last kiss between friends?" said Ursula, darting the man a contemptous look. She lowered her arms and raised her mouth. Otto bent to touch her lips with his own. He was thinking of all the times past, of what could never be again, as she kissed him deeply. She shuddered, stiffened, suddenly clutching at his arm and falling against him. Otto could taste an odd taste in his mouth, something like bitter almonds, and he started to gag. He fought for air, heard the MP's yelling in alarm. He tried to reach a chair, sat down groggilly, lost his balance, and fell writhing to the floor.

The poison capsule Ursula had extracted from under a false crown on one of her rear molars and then bitten down on killed her almost instantly. Otto took about three minutes to die from the smaller dose he got and there was nothing anyone could do for him. The cause that they had served died itself, 2 years later, in the rubble of Hitler's bunker in Berlin.