"That German SS Colonel, Enrico. He ordered Ettinger's murder, and he got it. He's the same sonofabitch who ordered my father killed. I'll get that sonofabitch, somehow!"
"I understand your feelings, Frade," Mart?n said, "but it would help nothing if you took any"
"It would be unprofessional, right? Conduct unbecoming an intelligence officer? Well let me tell you, mi Coronel, if I ever get a bead on that Kraut sonofabitchand I'm damned sure going to tryI'll drop him in his tracks!"
"A 'bead,' Se?or Clete?" Enrico asked.
"A 'bead'?" Mart?n parroted.
Clete, looking at the confusion on their faces, smiled.
"I guess that doesn't translate into Spanish very well, does it?" he said. "In Englishor American, I supposewhen you line your rifle sights up on a deer, you say you're 'taking a bead.' I guess it comes from the little brass balls the old Winchesters used to use for front sights; they looked like beads."
"You shot many deer in the United States, did you?" Mart?n asked.
"Asked the professional intelligence officer, cleverly tactfully trying to change the subject," Clete said, smiling at him. "Don't worry, Martin. When I drop that sonofabitch, I will make a real effort to do it so you won't get involved."
Mart?n smiled at him.
In Frade's shoes, I would certainly feel exactly the same way.
"I ask you, my friend, not to act in haste or anger," Mart?n said.
"Is there any longer any reason I have to stay here?" Clete said, then smiled and added, "Asked the amateur intelligence officer, tactfully trying to change the subject."
"The original reason I asked Capitan Delgano to ... make sure you were available . . . was of course the possibility that the Lockheed would be needed."
"That, I understood. But why until now?"
"El Presidente considered for a while offering your aircraft to former Presidente Castillo and members of the former government. It would take them out of the country."
"Oddly enough, I thought that might be it," Clete said. "I had a lot of time to think, you understand."
Mart?n looked at Clete, smiled, and shook his head.
"In any event, former Presidente Castillo, and some others, have been placed aboard a boat in El Tigre which will take them to Uruguay. You are free to leave. With the gratitude of the government, and my personal gratitude."
He offered Clete his hand.
"Where will you go?" Mart?n asked.
I don't know," Clete said. "What I'm wondering is how I will get anywhere. I flew in here."
The least we can do for you is provide you with a car and driver," Mart?n said.
"How about a ride into Buenos Aires?" Clete asked. "I've got cars there. I want to make a telephone call. . . ."
"I took the liberty of telephoning Se?orita Mallinactually I spoke with her fatherand told him that, although you were unavoidably detained, you were not in any danger."
"Jesus H. Christ!" Clete said, and then added, thinking out loud: "That was damned nice of you."
"It was nothing," Mart?n said.
He looked around the room, found the major who had been Clete's oh-so-courteous guard, and waved him over.
"Mayor, I want you to find a car and a driver, and then escort Se?or Frade anywhere he wishes to go in Buenos Aires."
S?, mi Coronel."
"Thank you," Clete said. "I am free to take the airplane?"
"Of course, but you said you ..."
"Tomorrow," Clete said, thinking aloud. "I'll have somebody drive me out here. Or, if I decide to go to the estancia, I'll fly a Cub here, pick up the Lockheed, and worry about getting the Cub back later."
"I will order Capitan Delgano to make himself available to you at your convenience."
"Thank you very much, mi Coronel, but I won't need Capitan Delgano."
"I would feel so much more comfortable if he were with you."
"Thank you for your concern, but no thank you."
Mart?n looked at him for a long moment before saying, "Whatever you wish, of course."
From the windows of the Army Mercedes on the way into Buenos Aires, Clete saw absolutely no signs whatever that the country had just undergone a revolution.
The flow of traffic was normal. The restaurants and cafes were open and apparently doing a good business. When they drove down Avenida del Libertador past the Navy School of Engineering, nothing suggested that a regiment of infantry had been held up there, or that there had been a skirmish in which people had died.
He realized he was going to have to do something about Ettinger. Starting with finding out what happened to him. The question was how to do that. Tony and the Chief would probably have no more information than when he'd flown the Lockheed out of the estancia. If he was killed in Uruguay, any information the police there passed on to norteamericanos would have been passed on to the Embassy in Montevideo, not the Embassy here.
There was probably an OSS station chief in Uruguay, but he had no idea who he was, and he doubted if Delojo did either, or if he did, that he would give that information to him without argument.
Leibermann probably had contacts in Montevideo, but how much they knewif anythingabout an American getting himself stabbed to death in Carrasco was a big question.
The one person who almost certainly had more information than anyone else was Coronel Martin, and he had already told him everything he knew, or at least wanted him to know.
The only way to find out what he had to know was to go to Montevideo himself, and somehow find the OSS guy there and get him to find out what he could.
That was obviously impossible tonight. And tied in with that difficulty was the Lockheed. He wanted to fly the Lockheed out of Campo de Mayo and back to the estancia. Mart?n did not at all like it when he refused Capitan Delgano's services. And Clete didn't at all like it that General Rawson had considered using the Lockheed to carry the deposed President out of the country. He might decide it would be useful for other purposesa flight around the country, for example, to show himself off to the people. Clete needed the plane to deal with the Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico, and that might be as soon as within the next couple of days. Or tomorrow.
And he wanted to see Dorotea.
The priorities, therefore, were to see Dorotea and get the Lockheed out of Campo de Mayo. And since he could not move the Lockheed tonight, that meant he could see Dorotea tonight.
He could of course visit her at her house, where he could see Dorotea, and her mother, and Se?or Mallin, and even Little Henry. And they could talk about getting together with the Very Reverend Matthew Cashley-Price for premarital counseling.
With a little bit of luck I might even get Dorotea alone for twenty seconds and put my arms around her.
Or, when the Mercedes drops us off at The Museum No. Uncle Willy's house would be better I could telephone Dorotea from there, tell her 1 can't leave there, I expect an important telephone call or something, and suggest that she come to Uncle Willy's house . . . alone.
Dorotea is a very intelligent girl. If she agrees to come, she'll understand what I have in mind. After all, as they say, there is no point in closing the barn door after the cow's gotten out, is there?
He turned to the major sitting beside him.
"Mayor," he announced, "now that I think about it, I would rather go to my house on Libertador. The address is 4730. It's right across from the racetrack."