Griffin W.E.B. - Honor Bound 03 - Secret Honor

"And I should crash into the River Plate?"

"No. That might be suspicious. If you did that, there wouldn't be a body. But if you crashed at El Palomar on landing, it would be considered a tragic accident. Do you follow my reasoning?"

After a moment, Peter nodded.

"Do you agree?"

Peter nodded again.

"May I lay the pistol down again?"

Peter shrugged.

"I suppose this might be considered, under the circum stances, absurd, but will you give me your word of honor?"

"You have it, Herr Korvettenkapitan," Peter said.

Boltitz looked at him for a long moment, then stood up, tucked the pistol into the small of his back, and walked out of the sitting.

When Peter heard the door close, he walked to the nearest toilet and just managed to get to his knees in front of the water closet before he threw up.

Von Lutzenberger disappeared from view.

His safe is apparently either under his desk or low on the wall.

Von Lutzenberger reappeared, holding two envelopes in his hand. "You look like you had a bad night, Boltitz, if you don't mind my saying so."

"I didn't get much sleep, Excellency," Boltitz admitted.

"These came on the same plane you did," von Lutzen berger said. "They are addressed to you, but I'm familiar with their contents."

He handed him the two envelopes. One bore his name in handwriting, and Karl opened that one first, because he recognized his father's handwriting. It was a very simple note.

Berlis

[THREE]

The Office of the Ambassador

The Embassy of the German Reich

Avenue Cordoba

Buenos Aires

0950 21 June 1943

"Korvettenkapitan Boltitz is here, Excellency," Fraulein

Ingebord Hassell announced.

"Ask him to come in, please," von Lutzenberger said.

"And please do not disturb us."

"Jawohl, Excellency," she said, and pulled the door fully open until there was room for Boltitz to pass her.

"Good morning, Karl," von Lutzenberger said. "There's something I want to show you. It's in my personal safe. Why don't you have a seat?"

"Thank you, Excellency."

As you embark on your new assignment must tell you that I take great pride in knowing that you will faithfully execute without question whatever orders you receive from Admiral Canaris.

May God give you strength in this time of great challenges to Germany. I will pray for you

Boltitz glanced up at von Lutzenberger, who was looking at him. He opened the second envelope.

Oberkommando Per Wehrmacht of the Director of Intelligence

Berlin

22 May 1943

Korvettenkapitan Karl Bollitz

Dear Boltitz:

In case there mightbe some question in your mindconverning your responsibilities in your new assignment:

You are under the direct orders of

Ambassador von Lutzenberger and you will comply with hisorders as if they had come fromme.

In this connection, all communications of any kind must be von Lutzenberger before they are forwarded to me or any other of ce,

Heil Hitler!

Canaris

Karl Boltitz looked at Ambassador von

Lutzenberger.

He heard his father's voice in his ears:

"The best advice I can give you, Karl, is to listen to what Canaris is not saying."

Christ, does this mean what I think it does?

"Do you have any questions, Boltitz?"

"No, Excellency."

"May I have the letters back, please?" von Lutzenberger asked.

Boltitz handed them to him.

Von Lutzenberger carefully burned both and their envelopes. "These did not, if I have to say this, come to me via the diplomatic pouch."

"I understand," Boltitz said.

"Major von Wachtstein came to see me this rooming before he left for Montevideo.

He told me of the chat you two had last night."

"Yes, Sir?"

"In a few minutes, von Wachtstein will land at Montevideo," von Lutzenberger said. "And he should be back here two hours or so after that. I told him I was counting on him to be careful. I missed him when he was in Germany. He's our only pilot, you know."

"Yes, Sir, I know."

"You really should make an effort,

Boltitz, to get to know him well. I think you have much more in common than you may have realized previously."

"Herr Ambassador-" Boltitz began.

Von Lutzenberger stopped him with an upheld palm. "That will be all, Boltitz.

Thank you for coming to see me."

[FOUR]

The Office of the Director

The Office of Strategic Services

National Institutes of Health Building

Washington, D.C.

1045 22 June 1943

"Got a minute, Alex?" Colonel William Donovan asked, stepping inside the office of the Deputy Director for Western

Hemisphere Operations, Colonel Alejandro Graham.

"Truth to tell, Bill, I'm up to my ass in alligators."

"I really need just a minute."

"OK."

"I just had a rather interesting chat with the G-2," Donovan said.

"Really?"

"Someone has apparently told him we have a team in

Argentina headed by someone named Frade."

"I wonder who told him that? That's supposed to be Need

To Know."

"That's what I told him. He was pretty vague about that.

He said he was sorry, but I didn't have the Need To Know who told him that. He sort of hinted it came from the White

House."

"From the White House? That place leaks like a sieve, doesn't it?"

"I keep telling Roosevelt he should tighten things up,"

Donovan said. "But you know how he is."

"Yes, I do. Is there more?

"Oh, yes. It seems the G-2 sent a new assistant attache' for air to Buenos Aires. And this man not only got to meet

Frade-your friend Leibermann introduced them-but checked him out in that Lockheed we sent down there by mistake."

"Really? I'm not sure I'm glad to hear that."

"And then, the attache told the G-2, Frade repaid his cour tesy by threatening to kill him."

"Maybe the attache asked Frade the wrong question,"

Graham suggested.

"I have no way of knowing this, of course-and the G-2 said he had never heard the phrase 'Galahad'-but I think maybe the attache did ask Frade the wrong question."

"That does seem likely, doesn't it?"

"What do you think I should do, Alex?"

"I think I'd tell the G-2 he should tell his man to be care ful."

"I did. I told him that Frade's already killed six people we know about."

"I think the figure is four, but who's counting?" Graham asked. Then, more seriously: "Are you going to have trouble with your friend Franklin about this?"

"I don't see how he can complain to me that Frade threat ened this guy without admitting to me he sent him down there to ask a question he promised me he wouldn't ask."

"I don't know which of the two of you is the more devi ous," Graham said. "I say that as a compliment. Now get out of here and let me go back to work."

Donovan left, and Graham sat at his desk, the events of the last two months whirring through his head.

You dodged the bullet that time, Cletus, he thought. / hope it doesn 't make you cocky. Donovan's not the kind of man to give up easily. Next time, he may not bother to ask the question at all. Next time, maybe you 'II be the one on the other end of the pistol…

And whose hand would be holding it? A German? An

American? An Argentine?

He sighed and shook his head.

One more alligator, he thought. But when you are already up to your ass in alligators, what difference does one more make?

He turned back to his papers and started to read.

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Table of Contents

SECRET HONOR W.E.B. GRIFFIN Prologue