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

PLEASE FORWARD TO:

Mr. Pasquale Pelosi

818 Elm Street

Cicero, Illinois

Dear Pop:

If you get this, I will have done what you always said I was going to do, test the detonator after I hooked up the charge.

Maybe after the war, somebody will tell you what I was doing down here, but right now it's classified, and all I can tell you is that it was important, and I volunteered to do it.

What comes next is probably going to upset you a little.

I fell in love down here. Her name is Maria-Teresa Alberghoni, and she is a nice Italian girl whose family comes from around Naples someplace. Pop, she and her family don't have a dime. They work hard, but they're really poor.

So what I've done is make her the beneficiary of the ten thousand dollar GI insurance policy I get from the Army, and I want you to somehow arrange to get her the money I inherited from Grandpa, less thirteen thousand dollars I owe First Lieutenant C.H. Frade, USMCR, c/o OSS. If he doesn't come through this either, the OSS can get you the name of his family in New Orleans.

Since I can't use it, I think Grandpa would like what I want to do with his money. If he told me once he told me a hundred times how he came from Italy with sixteen dollars and the clothes on his back. You don't need the money and it will help Maria-Teresa get a start on life here in Argentina.

Kiss Mamma, those ugly brothers of mine, and maybe light a candle for me every once in a while.

Love, your son

Anthony

"This is a letter to your father?" "Right."

"What does it say?"

"It says that if something happens to me, I have some money I want him to send to you."

"What's going to happen to you?" "Maybe nothing."

"And maybe what?"

"Maybe I'll get killed."

"How?"

"I can't tell you about that."

"Why not?"

"I just can't tell you, that's all."

"It has to do with the war?"

Tony nodded.

"I thought so," she said. "I knew you were doing something. You told me you were an American, and you told my father you were from the North of Italy. You lied."

"I had to."

"Are you lying to me now?"

"About what? No, I'm not lying to you."

"Se?or Mallin said you would come to me."

"Mallin? You saw that sonofabitch? What did he want?"

"He came and said that he would forgive me if I promised not to see you again."

"And?"

"I told him that I did not want to be with him anymore, and he said that you would come to see me, and want to be with me."

"Not like that, I don't want to be with you."

"When I saw you go in the restaurant, I thought that was what you wanted."

"Look, Maria-Teresa, just take the goddamned envelope to the U.S. Embassy if I don't come back, all right?"

"If you wish," she said, and stuffed it in her purse.

He drained his wineglass, looked around for the waiter to order another, changed his mind, stood up, and fished in his pocket for money.

"You're going?"

"Right."

"Where?"

"I don't know. To my apartment, I guess."

Maria-Teresa stood up, and he followed her out of the cafe.

She stopped and waited for him, and put her hand on his arm.

“You want me to walk you back to the ristorante?”

"No."

"Then what?"

"Is there anyone at your apartment?"

"No."

"Then we will go there," Maria-Teresa said.

"I told you, I didn't come here for anything like that."

"I want to go with you to your apartment."

"Why?"

"It will be an interesting experience," Maria-Teresa said matter-of-factly. "I have never made love before because I wanted to."

Chapter Twenty-One

[ONE]

Bureau of Internal Security

Ministry of Defense

Edificio Libertador

Avenida Paseo Colon

Buenos Aires

1905 29 December 1942

"Would you wait outside, please, gentlemen, to give Coronel Martin and myself a word alone?" el Almirante Francisco de Montoya, Chief of the Bureau of Internal Security, Ministry of National Defense, said to el Comandante Carlos Habanzo, of the Bureau of National Security, and el Capitan Gonzalo Delgano, Air Service, Argentine Army, Retired, who stood before his desk, their hands folded on the smalls of their backs. El Teniente Coronel Bernardo Martin sat slumped on a leather couch at one side of the room.

The two left the office, wearing looks of self-approval. After they were gone, Martin leaned forward, picked up a small cup of coffee, and took a sip. When he set it down, he saw that el Almirante de Montoya had left his desk and assumed what Martin thought of as his Deep-In-Thought position: He was standing in front of his window, staring out over the Rio de la Plata. His hands were behind his back, his fingers were moving nervously, and he was rocking slightly from side to side.

Finally, he snorted and turned to face Martin.

"I am curious, Martin, why I was not aware until just now that you had this man Delgano reporting on el Coronel Frade."

"I was aware, mi Almirante, of your friendship with el Coronel Frade..."

"Friendship is not the point, Martin. Friendship is friendship; information is information."

"... and if Delgano went to Frade and informed him of his relationship with me, I wished to leave you in a position where you could truthfully tell el Coronel Frade that you knew nothing about that... that you stopped the surveillance the instant you did hear about it; and that you are dealing harshly with the man who ordered it."

“I am touched by your loyalty to me, and your willingness to sacrifice your career to protect me,” de Montoya said.

"I am loyal to you, mi Almirante," Martin said. "And 1 feel I can serve you best by not sacrificing my career unless absolutely necessary."

El Almirante de Montoya looked at Martin with a frown, then he slowly smiled.

"El Comandante Habanzo is the officer who put his career at risk by enlisting Delgano," Martin said.

"You are a devious fellow, Bernardo," el Almirante de Montoya said approvingly. "I'm sure this was a painful decision for you to make."

"At first, it was. And then I began to develop suspicions about el Comandante Habanzo."

"And have these suspicions been confirmed?"

"Let me say this, mi Almirante: If sacrificing el Comandante Habanzo's career for the greater good of the BIS becomes necessary, I will not consider it a particularly heavy loss."

"There is such a thing as being too discreet, Bernardo."

"Nevertheless, I am not completely sure of my facts. It seemed odd to me, however, after I personally charged Habanzo to surveil young Frade, and to use any assets and personnel he considered necessary, that the men who tried to kill young Frade, and who murdered that poor housekeeper, were able to gain access to the house without being seen."

"But you did not pursue this line of thought?"

"Young Frade made that impossible, mi Almirante. It's difficult to interrogate dead men."

"Yes, you're right, Bernardo," el Almirante said thoughtfully. "Curious. And what do you conclude?"

"That it's quite likely that Habanzo has a relationship with the Germans."

"Quite possible," el Almirante said, pausing for a moment to stare out over the river. Then he went on, "Let me say, Bernardo, ex post facto, that you handled the situation at el Coronel Frade's guest house as I would have handled it myself. That required both imagination and a willingness to assume responsibility."

"Thank you, mi Almirante. I did what I thought you would want me to do in those circumstances."

De Montoya smiled and nodded: "So then we must consider the motives of the Germans, mustn't we? Is this replenishment vessel of theirs so important to their submarine operations that they would be willing to alienate a man who may well become President of Argentina to preserve it?"