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

So far, Cletus Frade thought as the Lodestar slowed on its landing roll, everything has gone off without a hitch--

Gonzo had been waiting for him at Jorge Frade. When Frade had explained what he wanted to do--more accurately, more importantly, what he was asking Delgano to do--Delgano had considered it for no more than two seconds, then said, "Let me get my bag. I told my wife I'd probably be gone for a couple of days."

When they landed on the Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo strip, just about everything had been loaded aboard the Lodestar but Frau Frogger, and she appeared minutes later, on a mattress on top of a makeshift stretcher. They were airborne in the Lodestar thirty minutes after Frade landed the Piper.

It had been a little rougher at 5,000 feet than it would have been at a greater altitude, but when flying dead reckoning, it is useful to be able to see things on the ground. The weather had been clear and they had had no trouble finding their way to Mendoza, where Gonzo had set the Lodestar down very smoothly.

They were five minutes ahead of their ETA guesstimate.

--and therefore the other shoe is certainly about to drop.

They were not expected. It was a given that the telephone lines to Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo were being listened to by the Bureau of Internal Security, so telephoning ahead to the airport, or to Estancia Don Guillermo and especially to the Convent of the Little Sisters of Santa Maria del Pilar, had not been an option if they didn't want el Coronel Martin to know they were going to Mendoza long before they got there.

The result of that would have been representatives of the local BIS office waiting for them to see who got off the airplane and where they went. And the local BIS would have descriptions of the Froggers.

The airplane itself was going to cause a stir, because as far as either Delgano or Frade knew, this was going to be the first time that a Lodestar--and a brilliantly red one, at that--had landed at El Plumerillo airfield.

Their only option seemed to be brazening it out, and that's what they did.

When the on-duty official of El Plumerillo came out to greet the airplane before the engines had died, Enrico and Delgano got off the airplane and professed surprise and anger that there was no one there to meet them, and implied the official greeting them was probably the miscreant responsible. Don Cletus Frade was going to be very angry that his guests were going to be inconvenienced .

The official quickly took them to a telephone, where Enrico called Casa Montagna and ordered that whatever cars were there, plus a closed truck, be sent immediately to the airport for Don and Dona Frade and their guests.

A 1938 Ford two-and-a-half-ton stake body, a 1939 Ford Fordor, a 1936 La Salle five-passenger sedan, and a strange-looking 1941 Lincoln Continental--a four-door sedan--arrived forty-five minutes later. Clete had never seen a Lincoln Continental four-door sedan; he didn't even know they made one.

With Father Welner directing, the peones gently installed Frau Frogger in the backseat of the La Salle with her son and husband on either side of her. Her condition was explained as airsickness, and Father Welner assured the airfield official there was nothing to worry about. Enrico got in the front seat and the La Salle started off for the estancia.

Sergeant Stein supervised the loading of the Collins transceiver and SIGABA into the truck, then the bagged weapons, which he identified as Don Cletus Frade's golf clubs. He then got into the 1939 Fordor, into which also squeezed as many of the peones--four--as would fit. The other two rode in the back of the truck with the luggage.

And finally, Dona Dorotea and Don Cletus descended regally from the Lodestar and allowed themselves to be installed in the backseat of the Lincoln Continental sedan beside Father Welner.

"Take us to the convent of the Little Sisters of Santa Maria del Pilar, please," the priest ordered the driver of the car, who was the resident manager of Estancia Don Guillermo.

"Si, Padre," the driver said, then added: "Don Cletus, if I had only known you were coming, we would have been waiting for you."

"Not to worry," Frade said grandly. "That sort of thing happens."

On the way to the convent, Welner explained the Lincoln. It was Beatriz Frade de Duarte's car and had been sent to Mendoza when it was thought she would be going there.

"I didn't know they made a four-door sedan," Frade said.

"They don't. When it came down here, it was a drop-top coupe, and Beatriz said that mussed her hair, so she had it rebodied in Rosario."

Cletus had, and was immediately ashamed of, the unkind thought that his Aunt Beatriz had apparently always been some kind of a nut.

[TWO]

The Convent of Santa Maria del Pilar

Mendoza, Mendoza Province, Argentina

1820 14 August 1943

The Mother Superior of the Mendoza chapter of the Order of the Little Sisters of Santa Maria del Pilar, who received them in a dark office crowded with books, was a leathery-skinned, tiny woman of indeterminate age.

"Thank you for receiving us, Reverend Mother, on such short notice," Welner greeted her.

There's just a touch of sarcasm in that, Clete thought.

The nun who'd answered the convent door had told them the Mother Superior's schedule was full for the day and they would have to make an appointment to see her when she was free, possibly tomorrow. After Welner told her his business with the Mother Superior was quite important, the nun had reluctantly disappeared through a door and left them standing for fifteen minutes in the cold and chairless foyer before finally returning to announce, "Follow me, please."

"You're always welcome in this house of God, Father," Mother Superior said.

And there was sarcasm in that, too. What the hell is going on here?

"This is Don Cletus Frade, Reverend Mother," Welner said. "And la Senora Dorotea Mallin de Frade."

That got Mother Superior's attention. She stared intently at Clete for thirty seconds, then said, "Yes."

"How do you do?" Clete said politely.

"So this is how you turned out," Mother Superior said. "Your mother would be pleased."

"Excuse me?"

"I can see your father in you," she said. "But there is fortunately much more of your mother."

This seemed to please her.

"Are you a Christian?" she asked.

"You knew my mother?"

"We were dear friends," she said. "I asked if you were a Christian."

"I didn't know you knew Cletus's mother," Welner said.

"Respectfully, Father, there's probably a good deal you don't know," Mother Superior said. "Well, did whoever raised you bring you to our Lord and Savior?"

"How did you know my mother?"

"I asked whether you are Christian or not."

"If you're asking if I'm Roman Catholic, no."

"I was afraid that would happen. I have never been able, and I have prayed, to forgive your father for abandoning you."

"My father did not abandon me," Clete said softly.

Dorotea's eyes showed alarm. She knew that when her husband was really angry, he spoke so softly it was hard sometimes to hear what he said.

"What would you call it?" Mother Superior asked. "When your mother died, he returned from the United States without you. He never came here again. When I finally saw him in Buenos Aires and asked about you, he said you were none of my business. Actually, his words were 'It's none of your goddamn business.' Then he walked out of the room. I never saw him or heard from him again."

"Why did you think he might feel that way?" Clete asked very softly.

"I told you, your mother and I were dear friends."

"How did that happen?"