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

We came back to Buenos Aires so that I wouldn't be anywhere near that fool Schmidt when he goes to Mendoza. Better safe than sorry.

Casanova Peron will be out of Buenos Aires and in no position to do anything about stopping what's going to happen to his beloved godson, Don Cletus, in case he should hear about it--and if he was here, that would possibly, even likely, happen.

And once Juan Domingo takes possession of Estancia Puesta de Sol--which he will if Evita has anything to say about it, and she will--I'll have him in my pocket. There's no way he could satisfactorily explain how, on his army pay, he came into possession of an estancia worth half a million pesos from a man who died years ago in a car crash.

"I'll look in the book for the number, darling," Evita said. "And then you can call about the tickets."

"Can I make anybody another drink?" von Deitzberg asked.

"Oh, yes, please," Evita said. "It's a celebration, isn't it?"

XVI

[ONE]

Casa Montagna

Estancia Don Guillermo

Km 40.4, Provincial Route 60

Mendoza Province, Argentina

0430 16 October 1943

After failing to do so with several gentle nudges, Dona Dorotea Mallin de Frade awakened her husband by jabbing her elbow into his side.

Startled, he sat up and looked down at her.

"Why don't you go get Mother Superior?" Dorotea asked.

"Is something wrong?" Clete asked.

"No. I just want to start my catechism lessons a little early today. Right after that, I'm going to have a baby. Go get her, goddamn it, Cletus!"

"Oh, shit!"

He jumped out of bed, hastily pulled on his trousers, and ran out of the room.

"You're not needed in here, Cletus," Mother Superior said. "Go find something useful to do. Perhaps you can come back later."

Don Cletus Frade had been deep in thought as he watched Mother Superior and her crew--Sister Carolina, the huge nun whom Clete thought of as Mother Superior's sergeant major; Sister Monica; and two others whose names he didn't know--start turning his bedroom into what was obviously going to be the delivery room.

"Excuse me?"

"I said get out. Go find something useful to do."

"Like what?"

"Prayer comes to mind."

He looked at her for a moment, then left the room.

What the hell, why not?

God, if anything bad is going to happen, make it happen to me, not Dorotea or her baby. Our baby.

Thank you.

[TWO]

Aeropuerto Coronel Jorge G. Frade

Moron, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

0835 16 October 1943

SAA Chief Pilot Gonzalo Delgano stepped outside the passenger terminal and watched SAA Flight 455, one-stop Lodestar service to San Carlos de Bariloche, take off, desperately--and futilely--hoping that a red warning flag would appear on the instrument panel, causing the pilot to return to the field.

When that didn't happen, he went into his office in the passenger terminal, picked up the telephone, and dialed a number he had been dialing at least once every five minutes since seven o'clock.

"Extension 7177," a male voice answered.

"Is he there? Or do you know--"

"He's here, Major," "Suboficial Mayor" Jose Cortina said. "Hold on."

Delgano heard, faintly: "It's Delgano, Coronel."

El Coronel Alejandro Martin came on the line: "What's so important, Gonzalo?"

"Coronel, von Deitzberg, that blond German woman from Uruguay, el Coronel Juan D. Peron, and some other blond woman by the name of Duarte just took off for Bariloche. I didn't know whether to stop them or not. I tried to--"

"Peron and von Deitzberg--all of them--were traveling together?" Martin interrupted.

"Yes, sir. I heard about Peron going when I came in this morning. He called last night and said he needed four seats even if that meant taking somebody off the plane."

"When's the next flight out there?"

"At half past one."

"Hold four seats on that. Six. Cancel the flight."

"That won't be hard. It may not go anyway."

"What?"

"It's undergoing maintenance. They may not be finished in time. If they can't leave at half past one, they get into San Martin de los Andes too late. The runways there are not lit. We're working on it, but . . ."

"Is there any other way to get there in a hurry?"

"No, sir."

"You're going to be at the airport?"

"Yes, sir."

"Stay there. I'll get back to you."

[THREE]

Circulo Militar

Santa Fe 750

Buenos Aires, Argentina

0915 16 October 1943

"I hope this is important," Capitan Roberto Lauffer said as he walked into the private dining room. "My boss is going to wonder where the hell I am."

"Maybe you'll have the chance to tell him, Bobby," el Coronel Edmundo Wattersly said.

"We have some problems," Martin said.

Inspector General Nervo said, "Schmidt has apparently decided to start the civil war we were talking about--"

"We don't know that, Santiago," Martin interrupted.

"--with the assistance of Brigadefuhrer von Deitzberg," Nervo went on. "And that of el Coronel Juan D. Peron."

"I repeat, we don't know that," Martin said.

"What we do know," Nervo said firmly, "is that Peron and von Deitzberg are at this moment on their way to Bariloche by air. What we do know is that a ten-truck convoy of the 10th Mountain Regiment has departed its barracks in San Martin de los Andes on Route 151 in the direction of General Alvear--which is also in the direction of Mendoza.

"We also know that on the evening of the fifth of this month, el Coronel Schmidt gave a dinner for von Deitzberg, who is now running around as a dead man named Jorge Schenck, and Senora Schenck, who is almost certainly Frau von Tresmarck, the missing woman from the German Embassy in Uruguay. At this dinner, at which the Nazi flag was displayed, Schmidt toasted Adolf Hitler, and von Deitzberg slash Schenck announced he was going to take pleasure in killing the two traitors from the German Embassy--what's their name, Senor BIS?"

"Frogger," Martin furnished.

"Right. Thank you. And especially Don Cletus Frade, who, in addition to having the Froggers hidden at his Estancia Don Guillermo in Mendoza, is known to have ordered the murder of his father because el Coronel Frade was unwilling to betray Argentina and become an agent of international Jewry."

"Good God!" Wattersly exclaimed.

"Von Deitzberg actually said that?" Lauffer asked.

"And el Coronel Schmidt seemed to suggest he had suspected something like that all along," Nervo said. "A few days after this dinner party, von Deitzberg and the blond woman flew back here, then turned right around and went back, now with Peron and his lady friend.

"The good news is that Juan Domingo's new lady friend is not thirteen years old--I believe she's twenty-four--and el Coronel Peron's sexual perversions apparently will no longer embarrass you gentlemen of the Ejercito Argentino officer corps. She is in fact a, quote, radio actress, unquote, by the name of Eva Duarte, employed by Radio Belgrano."

"My God!" Wattersly said.

"That was very entertaining, Santiago," Martin said. "But I'll repeat again that we don't know what Schmidt is actually up to."

"Did I mention the fact that the Edificio Libertador is having trouble communicating with the 10th Mountain Regiment?" Nervo said. "And that as this little, not-authorized motor march exercise has gone up Route 151--did I mention that's the way to Mendoza?--telephone communication seems to have been lost. My people suspect that's because the wire has not only been cut but has been taken away. Telephone communication will not be restored until the wire is replaced. Not just spliced."