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

"Enrico," she said, "I didn't know about Marianna until Cletus told me. I am so very sorry."

"Marianna and El Coronel are now at peace with all the angels, Mother," Enrico said. "I have avenged their murder."

" 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,' " Welner quoted.

"I have avenged them," Enrico repeated.

Mother Superior changed the subject: "Frau Frogger--"

"Frau Fischer," Cletus interrupted her. " Fischer . There's nobody named Frogger here."

Mother Superior looked at him very coldly.

He met her eyes. "The name is Fischer. And make sure your nuns don't fo rget that."

"Cletus!" Dorotea started to protest.

Mother Superior stopped her with an upraised hand, then went on: "La Senora Fischer, in addition to what else might be troubling her, is not only exhausted but has apparently been beaten."

"That was after she tried to kill a woman with a fireplace poker," Clete said. "The woman she tried to kill didn't like it much."

"So Father Welner told me," Mother Superior said calmly. "She's lost a tooth and may require dental attention. We can deal with that if it becomes a problem. What she needs now is rest. Sister Monica will be with her overnight. If she awakens, I have prescribed--given Sister Monica--a sedative to give her. I'll try to talk to her tomorrow afternoon."

Staff Sergeant Sigfried Stein came into the library. When no one said anything to him, he announced cheerfully, "I bring greetings from Vint Hill Farms. We're up. And to the estancia."

"Good man," Frade said.

"You must be Major Stein," Mother Superior said.

Stein looked at Frade, who nodded.

"Yes, ma'am," Stein said.

"Both la Senora Fischer's husband and her son have told me that the very sight of you triggers feelings--uncontrollable feelings, irrational feelings--of rage in la Senora Fischer."

"I don't think she likes Jews very much," Stein said.

"And you are a Jew?"

"Guilty," Stein said.

"What is your first--I almost said 'Christian'--name?"

Stein looked at Frade again, and Frade nodded again.

"Sigfried," he said, not very pleasantly. "Jewish first name Sigfried."

"May I call you 'Sigfried'? Or would you prefer 'Major Stein'?"

"Siggie is what people call me," he said finally.

"Forgive me, Siggie," Mother Superior said. "I have to ask you this: Have you even done anything to her--said something cruel, or struck her, restrained her, anything like that?"

"No, ma'am," Stein said. "Never. Not that I haven't been tempted." He heard what he had blurted and quickly added: "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

Mother Superior made an It doesn't matter gesture with both hands.

She said: "I thought I knew that when I looked into your eyes. You have very kind eyes. Siggie, if you're willing, you can be very important in bringing la Senora Fischer back to good health."

"Excuse me?"

"We don't have to get into the details now. I just need to know if you'd be willing to help."

Stein looked at Frade, whose face showed nothing.

"If it's all right with the major," Stein said finally, "then okay. I'll do what I can."

"It would help, Siggie," Frade said. "Having her craz . . . like she is now isn't doing us any good."

"Okay. Just tell me what you want me to do."

"I'll have to give it some thought," Mother Superior said. "Knowing that you're willing to help will be useful."

She turned to Delgano and Sawyer.

"And you are?"

They introduced themselves.

"What is that you're drinking, Cletus?" Mother Superior asked.

"Wine," Frade said. "They make it from grapes."

"You've obviously had more of it than you should," she said.

"You're right, Clete," Sawyer said. "Mother Superior would make a fine gunnery sergeant."

"May I offer you a glass?" Clete said.

"What is it?" she asked, and went to the bar, picked up the bottle, and examined the label.

"This has to be vinegar," she said.

Clete shook his head. He poured wine an inch deep in a glass and offered it to her.

Surprising him, she took it, smelled it, took a small sip, swirled it around in her mouth, then swallowed. She pushed the glass to him.

He poured three inches of wine into the glass.

"'Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake,'" he said. "That's from Saint Timothy."

"Yes, I know," she said. "You took that from there?"

She indicated the wine rack.

He nodded.

"It's hard to believe, but that wine must have been there the last time I was in this room. The last time you and I were in this room."

"I've never been in this room before in my life," Clete said.

"Yes, you have. Your mother put you on that couch"--she pointed--"and then put two of those chairs"--she pointed again--"up against it so you wouldn't roll over and fall on the floor. You were a very active baby."

Frade didn't say anything.

"It was the night your mother and father took the train to Buenos Aires to take the Panagra flight to Miami. The train left at eight, so we had an early supper in here. That was the last time I saw you until you came to the convent today."

Clete didn't reply.

Mother Superior didn't quite gulp the wine, but the glass was nearly empty much sooner than Clete expected it to be. Clete picked up the bottle, but she put her hand over the glass.

"I have to drive," she said.

"Why don't you take a couple of bottles--hell, a dozen bottles--with you?"

She didn't reply to that. Instead, she said, "I was just thinking that despite what you think, rather than coming here for the first time, you are really coming home. And that Casa Montagna, after waiting so long for that to happen, has really been expecting you, is prepared for you."

What the hell is she talking about?

Mother Superior turned to Dorotea.

"How far are you along?"

"Six months," Dorotea said.

"I'll have a look at you tomorrow. Everything, so far as you know, is going well?"

Dorotea nodded.

Mother Superior went behind the bar, took two bottles of the Cabernet Sauvignon from the rack, and put them into her medical bag.

"Sister Caroline is not impressed with the wisdom of Saint Timothy," Mother Superior said. "And I don't like to upset her."

Clete chuckled.

"Enrico," Mother Superior said, "if you were to somehow wrap or box or whatever a half-dozen bottles of the wine so that it doesn't look like half a dozen bottles of wine, and put them in the van when I come here tomorrow, I would be grateful to you."

" Si, Reverend Mother. I will do it."

There was half an inch of wine left in Mother Superior's glass. She drained it and walked out of the room.

"That is a very nice woman," Dorotea said.

"That is a very tough woman," Frade said admiringly.

He turned to Sawyer.

"Do they teach Army officers how to lay in a machine gun? Fields of fire, that sort of thing?"

"Only the brighter ones," Sawyer said. "Parachute officers, for example."

"First thing in the morning, get with Enrico, see what's available, reconnoiter the area, and let me know what you think should be done."

"Yes, sir," Sawyer said.

"I have already done that, Don Cletus," Enrico said.

"Okay, then show Captain Sawyer how things are done by the Husares de Pueyrredon."

Enrico nodded.

"When do we eat?" Frade asked.

"Half an hour, Don Cletus."

"Which I will spend writing the after-action report for Colonel Graham."

"Do you have to do that tonight?" Dorotea asked.

"Yeah, baby, I do."

Sending the report was a three-stage process. First, Clete wrote it on a typewriter. Then he edited what he had written, using a pencil. Dorotea then took this and re typed it on the keyboard of the SIGABA device. This caused a strip of perforated paper, which now held the encrypted report, to stream out of the SIGABA. Siggie Stein, after making sure that the SIGABA device at Vint Hill Farms Station was ready to receive, fed the strip of paper to the Collins transceiver.