W. IV - Honor Bound 05 - The Honor of Spies

"They're almost here," he called. "I'm going to meet them in the lobby. Get rid of your underwear before you come down."

Inge appeared in the bathroom door. Naked.

"You want me to come down without my underwear? Or do you mean get that out of sight?"

She pointed to her underwear on a chair.

"If you came down without your underwear, it would give Oberst Schmidt a heart attack," he said. "And we need him."

Von Deitzberg reached the lobby of the hotel just as el Coronel Erich Franz Schmidt of the 10th Mountain Regiment walked in from the street. The young man in civilian clothing with him, who looked like a recruiting poster for the SS, was SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Sepp Schafer of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler.

I shall have to be very careful with that young man; not say anything at all that might be construed as defeatism.

Oberst Schmidt did not cut a very military figure. He was portly and rather short.

He looks more like a Bavarian party official--and don't those bureaucrats and clerks love to wear uniforms and boots?--than a soldier.

"El Coronel Schmidt?" von Deitzberg asked, advancing on him.

"At your service, senor," Schmidt said.

Schafer popped to attention and clicked his heels.

"I don't think clicking your heels in these circumstances is wise, Schafer," von Deitzberg said coldly.

"I beg pardon."

"We are waiting for one of my agents," von Deitzberg said. "The one thing a distinguished career in the SS-SD has not taught this agent is to be on time, probably because this SS-SD agent is a female."

He got the expected chuckles.

"I don't want to get into anything specific in public, of course, but to clear the air, you may feel free in Senora Schenk's presence to say anything you would say to me."

"Excuse me, sir. 'Senora Schenck'?" Schafer asked.

"I generally give junior officers one opportunity to ask an inappropriate question of me," von Deitzberg said icily. "That was yours."

"I beg your pardon, Herr Schenck."

"Men traveling with good-looking females to whom they are not married cause gossip. Men traveling with their wives do not. You might try to remember that, Schafer."

"Yes, sir."

Inge came tripping down the stairs.

From their faces, it was clear that she was not what Schmidt or Schafer expected to see.

"I apologize, sir, for keeping you waiting," Inge said.

"Don't make a habit of it," von Deitzberg said coldly. "Gentlemen, my wife. She knows your names."

Inge nodded at both of them.

"I thought, Herr Schenck, that if it meets with your approval, we could have dinner at my quarters at the base."

"You are very hospitable, Herr Oberst," von Deitzberg said.

Schmidt waved them toward the door.

[THREE]

Quarters of the Commanding Officer

10th Mountain Regiment

San Martin de los Andes

Neuquen Province, Argentina

2100 5 October 1943

There were five Argentine officers waiting for them in el Coronel Schmidt's dining room. The dining room was much larger than von Deitzberg expected it to be, as the house itself was much smaller than he expected it to be.

It was hardly more than a cottage, sitting in a group of cottages across a road from the barracks, stables, and other buildings of the regiment. Von Deitzberg couldn't see much; nothing was brightly illuminated.

Against one wall of the dining room were three flags: the Argentina colors, a red Nazi flag, and an elaborately embroidered flag, the 10th Mountain Regiment's colors.

As the officers were introduced to Senor and Senora Schenck, young enlisted men in starched white jackets immediately began passing champagne glasses. When everyone held one, Colonel Schmidt said, "Gentlemen, I give you el Presidente Rawson."

Champagne was sipped.

Schmidt toasted again: "Gentlemen, I give you the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, and his Final Victory over the godless Communists."

This time the glasses were drained.

"Well, gentlemen, since my wife and I were never here, I don't suppose it much matters what I say," von Deitzberg said.

He got the expected chuckles and took another sip of the ritual postdinner brandy before going on. It was Argentine, and surprisingly good.

"But let me say it's good to again be with my fellow sailor, Sepp Schafer--who, come to think of it, is also not here."

That caused applause and laughter.

And reminded everybody that I am important enough, what I'm doing here is important enough, to justify sending us by submarine.

"Let me say something about the current situation," von Deitzberg said. "I'm sure you have all heard that it was necessary for the Wehrmacht to withdraw from Africa, and also that our forces suffered a terrible defeat at Stalingrad. And, of course, that our Italian allies betrayed us, and as a result of that, the Americans are now in Italy.

"Those are facts. Not pleasant facts, but facts. A professional soldier must deal with the facts, not with things as he wishes they were.

"But there is another fact here that applies: The great military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz wrote, 'There is only one decisive victory: the last.' "

More applause.

"What went wrong? Von Clausewitz also wrote, 'The most insidious enemy of all is time. ' "

Von Clausewitz didn't actually say that, but it sounds like something he would have said if he had thought of it. And I don't think there are any really serious students of von Clausewitz in this room to challenge me.

"Time has been against us," von Deitzberg went on. "The rocket scientists at Peenemunde, while their work has been brilliant, just haven't had the time to develop rockets that not only are more accurate than the ones currently landing in England, but will have the range to strike the United States.

"But it's just a matter of time until they do.

"Luftwaffe engineers have developed a new fighter, the Messerschmitt Me- 262, which uses a revolutionary new type of propulsion, the jet engine. It is faster than any other fighter aircraft in the world, and it is armed with 40mm cannon. It can fire at American and British bombers from a distance greater than their .50-caliber machine guns can return fire. Once it goes into action, it will cause unacceptable losses to British and American bombers.

"There is already a squadron of these aircraft flying in Augsburg. But there has been time enough to manufacture only twenty or thirty of them.

"But it's just a matter of time until they do.

"Time has been working for our enemies.

"So now we make it work for us.

"How do we protect our rocket engineers from being killed by the Soviet Communists if they should temporarily overrun our rocket facilities? More important, how do we prevent our rocket scientists from being forced to work for the Soviet Communists?

"The same thing for our aeronautical engineers.

"The same thing for our physicists, who are close to developing a bomb more powerful than the imagination can accept.

"If the Soviets came into possession of German technology, it would mean the end of the Christian world.

"I'm sure the answer has already occurred to many of you.

"We bring them to Argentina, secretly, by submarine. Germany has the largest fleet of submarines in the world.

"And we set them up, with new laboratories, perhaps even manufacturing facilities. If things go even worse for us, with time working against us, certainly with manufacturing facilities.

"Where?

"I'm sure that answer has already occurred to many of you, perhaps all of you. I know that it has occurred to el Coronel Schmidt.

"Right here, in this remote corner of Argentina."