"This testing you did, Lieutenant Pelosi," Graham asked, and now there was ice in his voice, "was that before or after Major Frade told you you were not to try to kill Standartenf?hrer Goltz?"
Tony now sensed he was in trouble.
"I thought maybe I could talk ClMajor Frade into changing his mind, Sir," he said.
"Let me tell you something, Lieutenant Pelosi," Graham said, and paused, framing what he was about to say. "First, Sergeant Ettinger is dead because he disobeyed Major Frade's order to stay on the estancia. Get that clear in your head. Second, you are an officer in the United States Army, not a thug working for Al Capone in Chicago. Standartenf?hrer Goltz is not an Italian gangster who may be killed according to the Mafia Code of Honor as it applies to revenge. Are you with me so far?"
"Yes, Sir," Tony said, coming to attention. He was now on the carpet and knew it.
"Good!" Graham went on. "Third, the OSS is a military organization. On occasion it may be necessary for us to eliminate people, but we only do so when there is an unmistakable military necessity to do soand revenge never meets that criterion. In this situation, the elimination of Standartenf?hrer Goltz would be counterproductive."
"What did he say, Se?or Clete?" Enrico asked.
"He says Tony cannot blow Goltz's brains out his ears," Clete said.
There was something in Major Frade's flippant sarcasmwhich was enough to cause Captain Maxwell Ashton to chucklethat caused Colonel Graham to turn his wrath tot Major Frade.
"This applies to you, too, Frade," he said angrily. "I find it difficult to believe that you are unaware of the importance of Operation Lindbergh to the degree that you would even think, much less seriously suggest, that we assassinate the man who is the key to it, Standartenf?hrer Goltz."
Enrico glared at Graham.
"What did he say?"
Clete's mouth ran away with him.
"He says I can't shoot Goltz between the eyes, either," Clete replied.
Captain Ashton chuckled again, which was enough to ignite the Latin temper of Alejandro Fredrico Graham, Colonel, USMCR.
"I've had about all I intend to take from you, Frade!" Graham flared, turned to Ashton, pointed his finger at him, and nearly shouted, "This is not funny, goddamn it, Ashton!"
"Sorry, Sir," Ashton said, but he did not seem genuinely contrite.
Commander Delojo looked pleased, having decided that Major Frade was about to receive his long-overdue comeuppance.
But when Graham turned back to Clete, he had regained control of his temper.
"I should not have to spell this out for you, Clete, but I will," he said reasonably. "The elimination of Goltz would cause the people he works for to ask themselves who did that and why. They would quite logically conclude that it was probably you. Since they are aware that you are OSS, they probably would wonder how much youand the OSS have learned about what we are calling Operation Lindbergh. They would therefore take greater pains in the future to ensure the secrecy and security of Operation Lindbergh, which, of course, they will continue to operate. Are you with me so far?"
"Yes, Sir."
"The way things are now. we knowand the Germans do not know, or at least aren't sure that we knowabout the operation, and that Goltz is running it, with the assistance of whatsisnamewhat's Bagman's name?"
"Von Tresmarck, Sir," Clete said.
". . . of von Tresmarck in Montevideo," Graham went on. "Between you here, and Stevenson in Montevideo, plus Milt and Milt's people here, and the FBI in Montevideo, we can keep an eye on Lindbergh and von Tresmarck until the decision is made what to do about it."
"I don't understand that, Colonel," Clete said. "What decision?"
"That'll come from the President," Graham said. "Who so far hasn't been told about it. We're dealing with the lives of thousands of Jews in the concentration camps as well as the sanctuaries the Germans are trying to set up here and, maybe, in Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and who knows where else. Deciding what to do about it is a decision I'm glad I don't have to make."
"Why hasn't the President been told?" Clete wondered aloud.
"Because Director Donovan doesn't wish to go to the President without more facts. Including the identity of Galahad, how come Galahad has knowledge of Lindbergh, and his motivations for telling us. I was sent down here specifically to obtain that information, Clete. That's how important Donovan thinks it is."
"Milton, you didn't know about this before?" Clete asked.
"I heard whispers," Leibermann said. "I asked around. The Jews know I'm from the Embassy, and almost certainly who I work for. A wall is up. And I'm the only Jew in the FBI down here, and the Jews here are not about to tell some norteamericano Irisher or Mormon about something like this."
"You heard what I said, Clete, about the primary reason I'm down here?" Graham asked.
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you any more about Galahad than I already have."
"We have to talk about that," Graham said without rancor, which almost visibly disappointed Commander Delojo.
Clete shrugged.
"Or, for that matter, Cavalry, either," he said.
"We'll have to talk about him, too," Graham said. "But right now, we have to radio Oracle and report what we know about the new government. Where the hell were you, Clete, when the revolution was going on? I think you'd better start with telling me about the arrangements you made to get that airplane into the country so easily."
"It wasn't easy," Clete said. "It was supposed to be a C-45, not a Lockheed Lodestar."
"I heard about that." Graham chuckled. "What I was talking about, though, is how did you arrange for the Argentine Army to allow you to land it at Santo Tome? Your friend Cavalry have anything to do with that?"
"OK. Yeah."
"And where did you go with it when you left here?"
"The deal I made was that in exchange for getting the airplane into Argentina, I would make it available to the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos to take them out of the country in caseOutline Blue went bad. So I took the airplane from here to Campo de Mayo."
"Obviously, they didn't need it. Which is fortunate. The Ambassador would have had a hard time explaining to President Castillo why an American OSS agent flew a planeload of traitors out of the country. Presumably you thought about that?"
"No, they didn't need the airplane, and no, I didn't think about what would happen if they had to. I had to have the airplane to deal with the Oceano Pacifico; and getting Ashton and his radar into the country seemed important."
"You don't think you should have asked for guidance, for authorization, before making a decision like that?" Commander Delojo asked.
"Who was I supposed to ask?" Clete flared. "You?"
"Take it easy, Clete," Graham said warningly, and then went on, "What did they do, just keep you waiting out there, away from a telephone, until they were sure they wouldn't need the plane? And where is it now, by the way?"
"Not exactly," Clete said.