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

"The truck returned for Heitz and his men when planned--that is to say, after nightfall. By then the press of his other duties had forced Oberst Peron to return to Buenos Aires, and the Mountain Troops, now all crammed into the other truck, were on their way back to San Martin de los Andes.

"The truck that went back for Heitz was under the command of a lieutenant. He reported to Oberst Peron that they found the bodies of Obersturmfuhrer Heitz and his men in several places on the approaches to Casa Chica.

"Interestingly, there were no bodies in the house, or any blood to suggest that anyone in it had been wounded. It was the lieutenant's professional opinion that the people in the house had been warned of the coming attack and were prepared for it. In the lieutenant's opinion, Don Cletus Frade's gauchos had watched from a distance as the empty house was machine-gunned and as the trucks drove away.

"And then, when Heitz and his men, satisfied there was no one left alive in the house, approached it to make sure the Froggers were among the dead--Heitz's orders were to bury the Frogger bodies somewhere on the pampas where they would never be found--they were ambushed."

He paused to let them consider that.

Then finished: "And now the bodies of Obersturmfuhrer Heitz and his men are buried where they will never be found on the pampas. The Mountain Troops lieutenant correctly decided that that was the option preferable to his having to explain at a roadblock what he was doing with the bullet-ridden bodies of half a dozen men in his truck. And so we have another example of what the Scottish poet Robert Burns had in mind when he wrote, 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley. '"

"Our traitor strikes again," von Gradny-Sawz said solemnly.

"You think so, Gradny-Sawz?" Cranz asked.

Boltitz thought: Wienerwurst, you are about to have that foot that's in your mouth shoved up your fat ass.

"Herr Cranz, you yourself said the gauchos had been warned."

"And they probably had," Cranz agreed. "But by whom? Only Sturmbannfuhrer Raschner and I knew the details of the operation. And trust me, Gradny-Sawz, on my SS officer's honor, neither of us betrayed the Fatherland.

"One possibility which must be considered, I suggest, is that, in addition to the gauchos tending the milch cows, there were gauchos elsewhere, and when two army trucks bearing the markings of the Mountain Regiment came down the road, they telephoned to Casa Chica. 'It may be nothing, Pedro,'" Cranz said in a mock Spanish accent, " 'but there are two Mountain Regiment trucks headed your way.' "

"I didn't think of that possibility," von Gradny-Sawz admitted.

"Well, perhaps your talents lie in the diplomatic area, rather than the military," Cranz said. "Nor in the field of intelligence."

Cranz gave von Gradny-Sawz a long moment to consider that, then went on: "So where are we now? The black side of the picture is that the Froggers are not only still alive, but by now are far from Casa Chica.

"And since we must presume that if there were gauchos watching the exercise, they saw both the Mountain Troops and Oberst Peron.

"But I would rather doubt that they would bring this matter to the attention of the Argentine government. That would put Don Cletus Frade in the awkward position of explaining what he had at Casa Chica that was of such interest to Oberst Peron and, of course, the SS-SD.

"Now, with regard to Major Frade of the OSS: He landed in one of South American Airways' new Lockheed Lodestars at the Aerodromo Coronel Jorge G. Frade in Moron at five past one yesterday afternoon. His copilot was SAA Chief Pilot Gonzalo Delgano.

"They were met by el Coronel Alejandro Bernardo Martin, the Chief of the Ethical Standards Office of the Bureau of Internal Security, and by Sergeant Major Enrico Rodriguez, Cavalry, Retired. They went directly from the airfield to Don Cletus's house across from the Hipodromo on Libertador, which is currently occupied by Oberst Peron. We can presume that the faithful Sergeant Major Rodriguez told Don Cletus what had transpired at Casa Chica as they drove from the airport.

"I was aware that Oberst Peron had asked el Coronel Martin to bring Frade to him, the idea being that Peron would have a friendly, perhaps even fatherly, word with Frade about the foolishness of attempting to harbor the Froggers.

"Raschner and I, without confiding in Oberst Peron, had come up with an idea to send the Widow Frade an unmistakable message of exactly how dangerous it is to assist traitors to the German Reich. I will get to that shortly."

"The Widow Frade?" Boltitz asked.

"I'll get to that shortly, Boltitz. Pray let me continue."

"I beg pardon," Boltitz said.

Cranz nodded his acceptance of the apology, then went on: "Loche reported that Frade went to see Peron only after Martin very strongly insisted that he do so. Loche also reported that there was nothing on the airplane but cargo, presumably spare parts for the Lodestars.

"Since Raschner has so far been unable to get someone into the Frade mansion on Libertador, I didn't know what had transpired during their short meeting until Peron called me last evening and told me.

"I think we may also assume that el Coronel Martin had heard--possibly before Frade returned--at least something of what transpired. We know, of course, that Chief Pilot Delgano is actually Major Delgano of the Bureau of Internal Security, and that his role with SAA is to make sure that SAA does nothing against Argentine neutrality, with the secondary mission of keeping an eye on Frade generally.

"And knowing that Delgano would inevitably hear of what had happened at Casa Chica, I suspect that Dona Dorotea Frade would report to the authorities that there had been an attack for unknown reasons by a roving band of bandits, or whatever, on the house.

"We just don't know. We will have to find out. Raschner's working on that, and we all know how good our Erich is at that sort of thing.

"We do know what Oberst Peron told me on the telephone last night, and I'm afraid it was proof that once again I committed the cardinal sin of underestimating one's enemy.

"Frade lost no time whatever, it seems, in showing Oberst Peron that he had photographic proof that Peron had been at the machine guns with Heitz and his men, as well as photographs of the bullet-riddled bodies of Heitz and his men.

"He also told Peron that he had photographs of the map SS-Brigadefuhrer von Deitzberg had given him of postwar South America."

"Excuse me?" von Gradny-Sawz asked, visibly confused.

"Oh," Cranz said. "That's right. You weren't made privy to that, were you, Gradny-Sawz?"

Neither was I, Boltitz thought. I have no idea what he's talking about.

But he is intimating that Wienerwurst was the only one who doesn't know.

"No, I wasn't," von Gradny-Sawz said, somewhat petulantly.

Did someone steal your ice-cream cone, Wienerwurst?

"It was a map prepared by the Army Topographical people showing South America after our Final Victory," Cranz explained. "Briefly, Uruguay and Paraguay will become provinces of Argentina."

I will be damned. Is that a fact, or something created to dazzle Peron?

"Frade told Peron that the first time he suspected an attempt was made on his life or on the lives of anyone close to him, the photographs and the map would be placed in the hands of the president of the Argentine Republic and appear in the world's newspapers."

"He's bluffing," von Gradny-Sawz said firmly.

"Possibly, even probably," Cranz said. "But we don't know that, do we, Gradny-Sawz? And do we want to chance he is not?"

Von Gradny-Sawz did not answer.

"Finally," Cranz said, "Frade told Peron he wanted him out of his house by today. And then--after Frade was attacked--he called Peron and said he was going to give Peron the benefit of the doubt, that Peron simply had not had the time to call his German friends off before the attack, but that he suggested that Peron should make that call now."