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

He paused to ask rhetorically, "Does Frade have the Froggers?" and then answered his own question:

"I just don't know. When I went to Oberst Peron, the oberst seemed to think this was a possibility. He said it had come to his attention that there was unusual activity at a small house, Casa Chica, Frade owns some distance from his estancia, near a place called Tandil. The late Oberst Frade used it, according to Peron, for romantic interludes with our Hansel's mother-in-law."

"Our Hansel" was Luftwaffe Major Freiherr Hans-Peter von Wachtstein, the embassy's assistant military attache for air. He was married to Alicia de Carzino-Cormano, the youngest daughter--she was twenty--of la Senora Claudia de Carzino-Cormano, a widow who was one of the most wealthy women in Argentina.

"Peron said Casa Chica is quite charming--a small house on a mountainside, with a stream running past, far from curious eyes. That description was why I thought there might be something to Oberst Peron's notion that Don Cletus Frade might have been behind the disappearance of the Froggers and might in fact have them there.

"I asked Herr Raschner to look into it, and he sent Gunther Loche down there to make discreet inquiries.

"And I must say our Gunther did a good job," Cranz went on. "The details of what he found are unimportant except that they convinced me that there was a very strong likelihood that the Froggers were enjoying the hospitality of Don Cletus Frade.

"You will recall that shortly before SS-Brigadefuhrer von Deitzberg returned to the Fatherland, he issued orders that the security of the Reich demanded that the Froggers be eliminated wherever and whenever found. In the absence of orders to the contrary from Berlin, von Deitzberg's order remained in force. And I considered it my duty to carry out that order.

"The question then became, 'Now that we have found the Froggers, how do we eliminate them?'

"Gunther reported there were at least ten of Don Cletus Frade's peones tending the two milk cows at Casa Chica, under the supervision of a man named Rodolfo Gomez, who we know is a retired cavalry sergeant who usually spends his time guarding Dona Dorotea Frade. That suggested that some of the peones might have military experience of their own. This theory was buttressed by Gunther's report that, except for several of them armed with Thompson submachine guns, they were all armed with Mauser rifles.

"That then raised the question, 'How do we do what we feel has to be done? Where do we get the necessary forces to overcome a dozen or so well-armed men?'

"Raschner, in his usual tactless manner, quickly pointed out to me that the solution was right there in front of my nose. And--I always like to see that credit goes to where it belongs--came up with the solution to our problem.

"You will recall that Oberst Peron arranged with the commander of the Mountain Troops in San Martin de los Andes--a dedicated National Socialist and friend of Germany--to provide the security for the discharge of the special cargo from U-boat 405 at Samborombon Bay.

"So what I proposed to Peron was that he arrange for a suitable force of these men--say, forty men; two truckloads; about what they provided for Samborombon Bay--to be quietly moved to Tandil on a routine road-march maneuver.

"The Mountain Troops, noticing unusual activity at the late el Coronel Frade's little love nest, would investigate. Ten or a dozen gauchos, even those with prior military service--or perhaps because of that service--would not attempt to resist forty Mountain Troops, especially if they were armed with two water-cooled Maxim machine guns.

"The Froggers would be released, Oberst Peron could claim the credit for their being found and liberated, and Don Cletus Frade would have a good deal of explaining to do."

"That's absolutely brilliant, Herr Cranz," von Gradny-Sawz said.

"So Oberst Peron thought," Cranz said dryly. "But please let me continue. What was brilliant, Herr von Gradny-Sawz, was Raschner's modification to that plan. At Raschner's suggestion, I suggested to Oberst Peron the one flaw in the plan, and the solution for the flaw.

"Actually, if the plan Peron and von Gradny-Sawz thought was so brilliant had played out, it would have left us with the problem of the Froggers being alive. Getting them back to Germany would have been difficult at best, and once there, God only knows what they would have said to save their miserable lives.

"As I was saying, I suggested to Oberst Peron that there was a possible flaw in what he now thought of as his plan: What if, rather than the Froggers, Casa Chica held some dear friends of Don Cletus Frade--or, for that matter, Hansel's mother-in-law, la Senora Carzino-Cormano herself? Oberst Peron and the Mountain Troops would look pretty foolish if they trained machine guns on prominent Argentines having a more or less innocent romantic holiday in the countryside.

"I also proposed a solution to the problem: that the Mountain Troops bring with them Obersturmfuhrer Heitz and half a dozen of the other SS men enjoying the hospitality of the Mountain Troops.

"They could, I suggested, since they knew--and none of the Argentines knew--what the Froggers looked like--"

"How did they know?" von Gradny-Sawz interrupted. "Heitz and his men have never been to Buenos Aires; they went directly to San Martin de los Andes from Samborombon Bay."

"Bear with me, please, von Gradny-Sawz," Cranz said. His tone was icy.

Boltitz thought: Cranz doesn't like Die Grosse Wienerwurst any more than I do. I suspect the only reason he hasn't ordered him back to Germany is that he knows he's going to need a scapegoat sooner or later, and Gradny-Sawz will be the man.

"Before I was interrupted," Cranz went on, "I was saying, I suggested to Oberst Peron that the SS men could identify the Froggers and solve that problem.

"He thought that was a splendid idea. Then, when we had the schedule, Raschner met the little convoy some fifty kilometers from Tandil and had a private word with Obersturmfuhrer Heitz.

"The plan that agreed with Peron, you will recall, was for the Mountain Troops to surround the house and put the machine guns in place. Obersturmfuhrer Heitz would then reconnoiter the house to determine if it actually held the Froggers. If it did, he would return to the road and call for the occupants of the house to give up the Froggers.

"According to the story I got from Oberst Peron, Heitz had just about reached the house when someone fired at him. He naturally returned the fire--"

"Who shot at him?" von Gradny-Sawz asked.

Cranz gave him a withering look.

"That was a little theater, Gradny-Sawz," Cranz said. "His returning the hostile fire was a cue to his men to open fire. Can you grasp that?"

Von Gradny-Sawz did not reply.

"Which they immediately did," Cranz went on. "At that point, Oberst Peron, apparently having decided discretion was the better part of valor, ordered the Mountain Troops back onto their trucks and called to the men manning the machine guns, the storm troopers, to stop firing. Considering the roar of the guns, it is not surprising that they couldn't hear him. Or didn't understand his Spanish. In any event, they continued to fire.

"By the time that was straightened out, they had pretty well shot up the house. In Oberst Peron's professional military opinion, no one in the house could possibly have lived through the machine-gun fire.

"But Oberst Peron hadn't counted on the Froggers being killed at the hands of the Mountain Troops. It would have been embarrassing for the Mountain Troops and for him, personally, if that came out.

"Obersturmfuhrer Heitz heroically volunteered to stay behind with his men when the Mountain Troops drove off. They would make sure that whoever had been in the house was in fact dead, and then deal with the bodies. Then one of the trucks would come back and pick them up.