Griffin W.E.B. - Honor Bound 04 - Death and Honor

Frade took a cigar from a leather case, bit off one end, took a kitchen match from the box and struck it on the tabletop, then carefully lit the cigar.

“You’ve heard, no doubt, that we have taken Sicily,” Frade said after exhaling a large cloud of cigar smoke, “and that Mussolini has been removed from office and replaced by Marshal Badoglio. If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d bet that negotiations for Italy’s surrender are under way as we speak.”

Frogger did not reply.

Frade puffed his cigar, then added, “But you probably have not heard about this. It just came in.”

He handed a sheet of teletype paper to Frogger:

OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION

WASHINGTON

2305 5 AUGUST 1943

UNCLASSIFIED

DISTRIBUTION LIST A—GENERAL

GERMAN PROPAGANDA MINISTER JOSEF GOEBBELS IN A 2130 (BERLIN TIME) 5 AUGUST 1943 NATIONWIDE BROADCAST RECOMMENDED THE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF ALL NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL FROM BERLIN.

THIS IS THE FIRST ADMISSION THAT BERLIN WILL SHORTLY BE UNDER HEAVY AERIAL BOMBARDMENT ATTACK WHICH THE GERMANS BELIEVE NEITHER ANTI-AIRCRAFT NOR THE LUFTWAFFE WILL BE ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY RESIST.

A FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE GOEBBELS BROADCAST HAS BEEN TRANSMITTED TO DISTRIBUTION LIST A—HEADS OF AGENCIES AND WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO INTERESTED PARTIES BY CONTACTING OWI ATTENTION: OFFICIAL GERMAN BROADCASTS SECTION.

END

UNCLASSIFIED

After Frogger read the teletype, he wordlessly laid it on the table, then puffed at his cigarette.

Frade said: “That doesn’t have much personal impact on you, does it? You have no family remaining in Berlin—in Germany, for that matter. Your brothers are dead, and we have your parents.”

Frogger didn’t respond in any way.

“As a professional soldier, of course, it might suggest to you—if you haven’t already come to this conclusion—that you’ve lost the war.”

Frogger met Frade’s eyes but didn’t reply.

“I said a moment ago that this is not an interrogation. Quite the opposite. I’m going to tell you about myself and about your parents. I’m free to do this, because as of now you are not going to be in a position to pass what I tell you to anyone who could pass it on. Have you ever heard of the Aleutian Islands?”

Frogger frowned as he considered the question.

“North Pacific Ocean?” he said.

Frade nodded. “Sort of a tail coming off Alaska.”

Frogger nodded.

“You’re a field-grade officer,” Frade said. “A staff officer, so it will probably come as no surprise to you that we have people in uniform we don’t completely trust. Communists, in particular—especially people who fought in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade—but others as well. We think that some are Germans who still consider Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party the hope of the world, just as some Italians feel the same way about Mussolini. I’m sure you understand what I mean.”

Frogger remained silent.

“I suppose in Germany that these sort of threats to the common good would be shot out of hand, if they were not lucky enough to be put in a concentration camp.”

Frade let that sink in, then went on: “We, however, don’t shoot people out of hand, and with the exception of what we did to Japanese-Americans right after we got in the war, we don’t put them in concentration camps. That was something that shouldn’t have happened, and most Americans are ashamed that it did.

“Still, we have a saying that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that little green men from Mars aren’t after you with evil intent.”

A smile flickered briefly across Frogger’s lips.

“So we had the problem of what to do with people we have concerns about. Does Sergeant A, or Major B, feel his allegiance is to the Kremlin or the Pentagon? Since we have no proof, we can’t just shoot them, but on the other hand, we can’t just let them run free, which might pose a threat to national security.

“So what we do with them is send them to defend the Aleutian Islands, which I suppose could fairly be described as a concentration camp. No barbed wire or guard towers—much like Camp Clinton. Those sort of things are not needed. The only way to get to the Aleutian Islands is by ship or airplane. All we have to do is make sure that when a ship or airplane leaves the Aleutians no one’s on it who’s not supposed to be on it. Getting the picture?”

Frogger nodded curtly as he lit another cigarette.

“If we can’t come to some sort of agreement here, Colonel Frogger, you will be flown to the Aleutians and kept there until the war is over, when we will decide what to do with you.”

“That would bring us back to the Geneva Convention, wouldn’t it?” Frogger said, unmoved. “What you have described to me would be in violation of the convention.”

“Probably, it is. It also almost certainly violates our own constitution. But in wartime, winning is what counts, not the fine points of law. During our own Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus.”

He took a puff of his cigar, exhaled a gray-blue cloud, then went on:

“Now, let me tell you who I am. I’m an American. An intelligence officer. I’m half-Argentine. My father was not only a colonel in the Ejército Argentino, but active in politics. He was a graduate of your Kriegsschule, and until I finally opened his eyes to what scum are running Germany he was really hoping the Axis would win this war.

“What I’m doing in Argentina is—”

“Apparently kidnapping German diplomats and their wives,” Frogger blurted.

“—going to be hard for you to believe. You’re just going to have to take my word for it.”

Frogger’s eyes showed how likely that was going to be.

Frade continued: “With the possible exception of Hitler himself, and perhaps a handful of his intimates, a number of senior German officials—Martin Bormann, for one—realize that the war is lost. They have a contingency plan for this. It’s called Operation Phoenix. What they are trying to do is purchase sanctuary in South America, primarily in Argentina but in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil as well, to which the senior Nazis will escape and hide until such time as they can rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes.”

“You don’t really expect me to believe that.”

“I told you that you were going to have to take my word for it. And it gets even more sordid and unbelievable. A number of senior SS officers close to Himmler, although we don’t think he’s personally involved, saw a chance to make lots of money and took it.

“Jews in concentration camps can buy their way out. They are taken to the Spanish border, then given passports and passage on neutral ships to Argentina and Uruguay. The ransom money goes into the pockets of the SS officers involved. ”

Frogger shook his head in disbelief.

Frade went on: “When it came to the attention of the SS in Buenos Aires that I was investigating both Operation Phoenix and the ransoming operation, they decided to have me assassinated. An officer in the German embassy, a decent man, decided his officer’s honor would not permit him to stand silent while this happened. He warned me. When the people—local gangsters—came to assassinate me, I was ready for them and eliminated them. But not before they had slit the throat of my housekeeper.”

“You will forgive me, sir, for saying this sounds like the plot of a bad movie.”

“It does indeed. Is there a saying in German, ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’?”

Frogger snorted.

“The next thing the Germans decided was that the assassination of my father would serve two purposes. One, it would remove him from power, which was important, because following a planned coup he was to become president of Argentina, and having an Argentine president who was no longer pro-Nazi was unacceptable. And two, it would also, they believed, send a message to the Argentine officer corps that Germany would not hesitate to eliminate any officer who got in their way.