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

"And I'm sure that's true," Nervo said. "Jesuits don't lie. The message probably said, 'Bless you, my son, go and sin no more.' But I'd like to know why else Welner wanted to go to Portugal."

"We brought back a flock of nuns and priests and orphans," Clete said. "And the Papal Nuncio in Lisbon arranged for a block of seats on every flight and paid in advance."

"When was the last time, Alejandro, that Customs officers strip-searched a nun entering the country?" Nervo said. "Or even a Jesuit priest?"

Martin shook his head and chuckled.

"The Germans are occupying Rome," Nervo said. "Do you think the Holy Father has decided it's time to move the treasury? Or at least the larger diamonds in the vaults?"

"You're only saying that," Martin said, "because you're a Saint George's Old Boy and you've been corrupted by all those terrible things Father Kingsley-Howard told you about Holy Mother Church."

Nervo and Lauffler chuckled.

"Well, I'll tell you this, Alejandro," Nervo said. "We'll never find out why the Vatican is flying all these nuns and priests. Holy Mother Church--and especially Jesuits like Welner--has been in our business much longer than we have and is much better at it than we are."

"I daresay you're right," Wattersly said.

"You said something before, Coronel," Clete said. "Said you'd get back to it. Something involving Casa Montagna?"

"Oh, yes! I'm glad you remembered. About a week ago, my first cousin once removed Erich Franz Schmidt happened to bump into me at the Circulo Militar and told me that he had been thinking about the weapons cached at Estancia Don Guillermo. He told me he had been running some road movement exercises with his regiment and he had been thinking of sending one of them over there to see if the weapons were still there and, if so, to take possession of them. So they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

"Why would he tell you this?" Clete asked.

"I'm the deputy chief for operations on the General Staff," Wattersly replied. "And I might have heard one of his road movement exercises coincided with the attack on Casa Chica in Tandil."

"What did you tell him?" Nervo asked.

"I told him I was sure the weapons cache had been removed when General Rawson became president, but that I would look into it for him."

"Are they still there?" Nervo asked.

"Yes, they are," Clete said.

"And you left it at that, Edmundo?" Nervo asked.

"Except for telling him not to send troops to Estancia Don Guillermo until I got back to him. It might offend Don Cletus, and Cousin Erich knew how close Don Cletus was to El Presidente."

"Maybe you should get them out of there," Martin suggested. "God might tell Schmidt to go get them."

"They're not going anywhere," Clete said evenly. "I need them. My wife lives there."

"And the Froggers, right?" Martin asked.

"And the Froggers," Clete admitted.

"If Schmidt goes there, it would be with at least one company of Mountain Troops."

"I can hold that mountain against his entire regiment," Clete said, unimpressed.

"Which would start that civil war we've been talking about," Nervo said. "That can't be allowed to happen."

"Then you had better figure out a way to keep this guy away from Casa Montagna," Clete said.

"I can stall him for several weeks," Wattersly said. "I mean insofar as 'get ting back to him' is concerned. I can't guarantee he won't act on his own."

"You better see that he doesn't, Edmundo," Nervo said.

The library door opened and Dorotea Mallin de Frade stepped into the room.

"I realize I'm interrupting all the naughty stories, but dinner is ready, gentlemen," she said.

"You could not have appeared at a better time, senora," General Nervo said. "I think we have said all that needed to be said. Right, Martin?"

Martin nodded, then looked at Wattersly, who nodded and then looked at Clete, who nodded.

"General Nervo, darling, was telling this story about the two nuns and the Gendarme--"

"I don't want to hear it," Dorotea said.

General Nervo laid his hand on Cletus's arm and motioned for him to follow Dorotea out of the library.

I don't know what the hell it is, but the touch of his hand makes me think I have just passed inspection.

XIII

[ONE]

Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo

Near Pila

Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

0945 2 October 1943

The Reverend Kurt Welner's 1940 Packard 160 convertible coupe, roof down, was parked in front of the big house when the convoy--a 1941 Ford station wagon, the Horch, and a second Ford station wagon bringing up the rear--arrived carrying Don Cletus Frade and his wife to their home.

"Oh, good!" Clete said, thickly sarcastic. "Now I can go to confession. I was getting a little worried. I haven't been to Mass in a week!"

"Cletus!" Dona Dorotea exclaimed.

"And maybe we can get Father Kurt to say Grace before I have my breakfast," Clete, unrepentant, went on.

"If you hadn't insisted on getting up in the middle of the night to come out here," Dorotea said, "you could have had your breakfast in Buenos Aires."

"It was in the hope that I would find peace in my humble home. Peace and breakfast."

"When we go inside, you behave!" Dorotea ordered.

Kurt Welner, S.J., and two other priests--both of whom Clete pegged as some kind of clerical bureaucrats--were in the sitting room when Clete and Dorotea, trailed by Enrico, walked in.

The two priests with Welner rose to their feet. Welner did not.

"Bless you, my children," Clete intoned sonorously as he raised his hand to shoulder level in a blessing gesture.

"Cletus!" Dorotea snapped furiously.

"Father," Enrico said, "Don Cletus is very, very tired. . . ."

Welner made a gesture that said I understand --or perhaps I understand he's crazy .

Dorotea went to Father Welner and kissed him, then shook the hands of the other two.

"I'm Dorotea Mallin de Frade. Welcome to Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo."

"I absolutely have to have my breakfast," Clete said. "Anyone else hungry?"

"Actually, all we've had is coffee and a biscuit," Welner said, and stood. He pointed his finger at one of the other priests and, switching to German, added, "Cletus, this is Otto Niedermeyer."

Clete now remembered seeing SS-Hauptscharfuhrer Niedermeyer in Lisbon as he boarded the Ciudad de Rosario .

Niedermeyer snapped to attention and barked, "Herr Major!"

Clete had a sudden chilling series of thoughts:

Jesus Christ! When I so cleverly decided that I could get away with not telling Martin and Nervo about bringing these people to Argentina, I didn't think about them actually being here, and that Martin and Nervo will, as sure as Christ made little apples, find out that they are!

What the hell was I thinking?

Or not thinking?

When they find out I lied to them, there goes that "We're all in this together!"

What the hell am I going to do?

"Don't ever use my rank again!" Clete said unpleasantly in German, then asked, "And the other fellow?"

"If you don't know his name," Welner said, "then you could truthfully say you've never heard of him." He let that sink in. "He's going to arrange for National Identity booklets, et cetera."

And that's just one of the ways they'll find out they're here!

If somebody in the Interior Ministry is passing out National Identity booklets to people who shouldn't have them, Martin knows about it.

And so does Nervo.

And by now Martin's people on Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo--Good Ol' Carlos Aguirre, "my" airframe and power plant mechanic, who I know works for Martin, pops quickly to mind--are already wondering what Welner and the other two Jesuits are doing here. And does Nervo have his own people on Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo, keeping an eye on Don Cletus Frade?