Griffin W.E.B. - Honor Bound 01 - Honor Bound

"Off," Captain Jernigan said without hesitation. "If they can't see you they can't bomb you."

"Sir, what if you were attacked by an airplane, strafed by a light airplane?" Clete asked. "Even strafed ineffectually," he added.

"What do you mean, 'ineffectually'?" Graham asked.

"Say with a .30-caliber Browning. That's about all I could get into the Beechcraft."

"One plane, even a fighter plane?" Jernigan said. "I'd try to fight. The natural instinct would be to fight."

"And to turn on good floodlights, if you had them, right?"

"Yes," Jernigan agreed.

"OK," Clete said.

"It's occurred to you, no doubt," Graham said, "that if they put their floodlights on you, they will get the Bofors on you seconds later?"

"And if they have their floodlights on, the submarine will have a better target than running lights."

There was no response from anyone.

"Has anybody got a better idea?" Clete said.

"I'm not sure if it's a better idea," Graham said, "but it's another idea. What about a boat? If there was a boat, I'm talking about a small boat, say, twenty-five feet, running around out there."

"The last three guys who tried that disappeared," Clete said. "No way. They would just blow it out of the water. I'll find the ship with the airplane and get them to turn their lights on."

There was silence for a moment, then Graham said, “OK. The first priority is to take the transmitter and the receiver ashore. I'll go to the U.S. Embassy and have them bring them ashore under diplomatic immunity."

"That should be no problem, Sir," Commander Jernigan said. "I have some crates for the Embassy. I'll just crate up some radios and send them ashore with the other diplomatic cargo."

"Clete, what about putting Captain Jernigan's communications officer together with Sergeant Ettinger?"

"That would depend on the communications officer," Clete said without thinking, then added, "Sir, no disrespect intended. But does your communications officer know radios, or is he just filling the billet?"

"I've got a chief radioman who knows all there is to know about radios," Captain Jernigan said.

"Then he's the man, Sir, who should get together with Sergeant Ettinger," Clete said.

"Then that's our first order of business," Graham said. "Getting the Chief in here, telling him what we need, and then getting him ashore to meet Ettinger."

"I think our first order of business is to see my father," Clete said.

Captain Jernigan's eyebrows rose in question, but he didn't put the question in words.

"Do you know where he is?" Graham asked.

"By now, he should be at his house, here in Buenos Aires." "OK. We'll go face the lion in his den," Graham said. "Captain, you have my authority to make your Chief privy to your orders. When I visit the Embassy, I'll arrange for him to call on the Naval attach?."

[THREE]

1728 Avenidct Coronel Diaz

Buenos Aires

2005 24 December 1942

"I will listen to your plans, Colonel," el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade said to Colonel A. F. Graham, USMCR, "and you have my word as an officer that they will not go further than this room. But I must tell you, Sir, that I do not share my son's confidence that you are now telling him, or me, the truth."

They were seated around a large table in the library. A silver coffee service had just been delivered, together with a walnut cigar humidor. Having dismissed the servants, el Coronel Frade ceremoniously served the coffee and offered the cigars.

Frade was seated at the head of the table, with Clete and Graham facing each other across it. Enrico had pulled a chair up from another table, and was sitting with the Remington in his lap, five feet behind el Coronel Frade. He had declined coffee, but he now held a large, thick, black cigar in his teeth.

"If I were in your position, mi Coronel, I would feel exactly the same way," Graham said calmly, lighting a cigar. !

Frade nodded. "Proceed, Colonel. I will listen."

"A United States submarine, the Devil Fish, which has been on patrol off the coast of Africa, has been ordered, at best speed, to rendezvous with the destroyer Alfred Thomas, which is here in Buenos Aires. The rendezvous will take place at a point one hundred nautical miles off Punta del Este, Uruguay. Her estimated time of arrival..."

Frade held up his hand. Graham stopped.

"Two things, Colonel Graham."

"Sir?"

"I hope you are providing exact details, not details altered sufficiently to be useless in case you don't trust me to keep them within this room."

"You have my word as an officer, mi Coronel, that I am giving you the facts exactly as I know them."

"Then please proceed in Spanish, mi Coronel, so that Suboficial Mayor Rodriguez may hear what you have to say. He has a nose for—to use the delightful phrase I have learned from my son—bullshit."

Graham smiled, and went on in Spanish. "The estimated time of arrival of the Devil Fish is 0900 29 December. A U.S. Navy fleet tanker has been ordered from Panama to rendezvous as quickly as possible with the Devil Fish on her course from the African coast. Once that rendezvous has been made, and there is some question when or if this can be accomplished, the submarine can proceed without consideration of fuel exhaustion—at full speed, in other words. So her estimated time of arrival may be as much as twenty-four hours sooner. The tanker is faster than the submarine; it will accompany her to Punta del Este and refuel her again there."

"And if the rendezvous proves impossible?" "Then we fall back to the 0900 29 December arrival time. The submarine can make that time with available fuel on board, and be refueled by the Alfred Thomas.''

"You are confident you can accomplish this without the Germans becoming aware of it?''

"So far as we know, mi Coronel, our communications are secure."

"As far as you know," Frade said. "Have you considered, mi Coronel, that vessels of the Armada Argentina will almost certainly accompany your destroyer, for several hundred miles at least, when she sails from Buenos Aires?"

"The Thomas will engage in certain maneuvers, mi Coronel, to 'test her engines and steering apparatus,' while she is passing through the Bay of Samboromb?n."

"Taking soundings?"

"Yes. Following these maneuvers, she will then test her engines in a high-speed run. She is capable of making at least thirty-five knots. The fastest vessel in the Armada Argentina, the Corvette San Martin, has a top speed of twenty-four, for limited periods. It will be difficult for the Armada Argentina to accompany the Thomas very far."

"I am impressed with your intimate knowledge of the capabilities—or should I say limitations?—of our Armada, mi Coronel." El Coronel Frade nodded, and there was the suggestion of a smile.

"Insofar as getting the radio equipment off your destroyer, mi Coronel," Frade said. "The vessel will be taking aboard foodstuffs, fresh meat, vegetables?"

"Yes, I'm sure it will," Graham said.

"The contract to victual foreign warships has been granted to Servicios de Proveedores Asociados by the Armada Argentina. I doubt very much if the Armada Argentina would question what the people from S.P.A. took off your destroyer after they had delivered the victuals. Or if the S.P.A. refrigerator truck went from the wharf to the Frigorifico del Norte slaughterhouse. And there certainly would be nothing suspicious about a Frigorifico del Norte truck going to Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo."

"Can you arrange that?" Graham asked. "That would be more efficient than funneling the equipment through the Embassy."

"Enrico?" el Coronel asked in turn.

"No problem, mi Coronel. It is done."

"That was easy," Graham said.

"I own S.P.A. and Frigorifico del Norte," Frade said, "and Enrico has many trustworthy friends."