"I remember that," Clete said. "But the floor we were talking about was a C-45 floor. What about the floor in the C-56?"
"Captain Ashton checked the floor in the Lockheed," Graham said. "There is no problem there. A window will have to be removed, however. Will that be a problem?"
"I don't know," Clete said after a moment. "Can it be unscrewed?"
"We can cut a hole, I suppose, if it won't," Tony said.
"What this gives us, then, is the capability to photograph the Oceano Pacifico from a considerable distance."
"How do you define 'considerable distance'?" Clete asked.
"Two miles," Ashton replied. "Maybe a little more."
"The idea was to keep the aircraft far enough away from the Oceano Pacifico so it won't appear to be a threat," Graham sand.
"But not beyond the range of its antiaircraft, right?" Clete challenged.
"If they don't consider the airplane a threat, they won't fire on it," Graham said.
Clete said nothing, but shook his head in either resignation or, possibly, contempt.
"To continue," Graham went on. "From a two-mile distance, using telephoto lenses and the new film, we have the capability of making photographs, which, when enlarged, will permit us to see a man's mustache."
"Where do you plan to develop and enlarge this super film of somebody's mustache?" Clete asked. "Did anybody think of that?"
"The original idea was to have it developed at Porto Alegre," Graham said. "The Navy has a photo lab there. Ashton brought a supply of the special chemicals with him. The original idea, of course, was to have photographic evidence that we were aware of the location of the Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico. This would be presented to the Argentine government in the hope that they would then order the Oceano Pacifico to leave its waters."
"Simply for anchoring in Samboromb?n Bay?" Dorotea asked. "Why would we do that?"
"Why wouldwe do that" is what she said.
"Because, Dorotea," Graham said, desperately trying to keep his annoyance at her question out of his voice, "because they would correctly infer that it was a subtle warning that unless they ordered the ship from their waters, the United States would take other action."
"'Other action' meaning what you didas Cletus didwith the first ship?"
"Yes."
"That might work," Dorotea said.
Thank you very much. It warms the cockles of my heart to know that a nineteen-year-old girl approves of the best idea the Assistant Director for Western Hemisphere Operations of the OSS and a half-dozen other people all old enough to be your father could come up with after a hell of a lot of thought. And your beloved, Little Lady, didn't sink theReine de la Mer all by himself. There was a destroyer and a submarine who made a little contribution to sending the Reine de la Mer down.
"I said, before, 'the original idea.' All of this planning, of course, was before we became aware of Lindbergh, and of the intelligence Clete came up with last night," Graham went on. "Now there are two issues involved here. The, quote, neutral status, unquote, of the Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico, and the money Clete's source says they are going to smuggle ashore this morning."
"I don't quite understand," Dorotea said.
Graham glanced at Clete.
"What's the new idea?" Clete said.
"Maybe killing two birds with one stone," Graham said. "Or at least with one set of photographs. Tell me about this Air Service Captain . . . Delgano?"
"Delgano," Clete confirmed. "What about him?"
"I have the feeling he's more than just a pilot," Graham said.
"He's BIS," Clete said. "He works for Coronel Martin."
"You're sure?"
"He told me."
"OK. New plan. Tell me what you find wrong with it," Graham said. "You go pick up the Lockheed. Digression: Presumably Captain Delgano is going to help you fly it here, right? You cannot fly the Lockheed alone?"
"No. I mean, yes, I can fly the Lockheed alone. And I got Mart?n to agree that I didn't need Delgano's help. It took some doing. He wanted Delgano to see what I planned to do with the Lockheed."
Is that one more proof,Graham wondered, that Cavalry is el Coronel Martin?
"So do I," Graham said. "Damn!"
"I'm not following any of this," Dorotea announced.
"What I wanted to do, Dorotea," Graham said, "was have Capitan Delgano aboard the Lockheed when we took the pictures of a boat leaving the Oceano Pacifico to smuggle something into Argentina. Of the boat leaving the Oceano Pacifico, of the boat landing on the shore of Samboromb?n Bay, and returning to the Oceano Pacifico. Lieutenant Pelosi would take two photographs of everything, giving us a duplicate set of negatives. One set of negatives would be given to Capitan Delgano, together with the necessary special chemicals to develop them."
"Yeah," Clete said appreciatively. "He goes to Mart?n and says, 'I know these are legitimate. I was there when they were taken.'"
"And the Americans have copies," Graham said. "So they couldn't simply ignore them'What photographs?' Actually, it gives them a way out. Nobody has mentioned the other reason why the Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico is in Samboromb?n Bay resupplying German submarines. The Argentines could then go to the Spanish ambassador and tell him they were ordering the Oceano Pacifico out of Argentine waters because it was caught in the act of smuggling, and here's the photographs to prove it."
"Delgano's probably still at Campo de Mayo," Clete said. "For two reasons: to keep people from getting curious about the Lockheed being there in the first place, and because I told Mart?n I would probably fly over there in one of the Cubs here to pick it up. I'm sure, to be a nice guy, he was planning on flying the Cub back here to see if the Lockheed was here. And/or see what else he could find out."
"And you could politely ask him to help you fly the Lockheed?" Graham asked.
"Yeah."
"You'll have to come here to load the camera platform on the Lockheed," Graham said. "Will you have any trouble persuading him to go with you from here?"
"Oh, I don't think I'll have any trouble at all," Clete said.
"And then you'll go out and photograph this ship, the same way you photographed the first one, when you were shot down?" Dorotea asked.
Uh-oh,Graham thought, this is where she's going to say, "Over my dead, pregnant body you will!"
"If we're two miles away, honey," Clete said, "I don't think they'll start shooting at us."
"And if they do?" Dorotea asked.
"Then I leave," Clete said, as much to Graham as to Dorotea.
"You promise?" she challenged.
Clete hesitated before replying. "Honey, I promise you I won't do anything stupid out there."
Please, God,Graham thought, let that be enough to satisfy her.
"You understand, Colonel," Dorotea said, "that this is the last time Cletus is doing anything like this?"
"If this works, Dorotea," Graham said, hoping he sounded far more sincere than he felt, "there won't be anything more like this for him to do."
"You could be expected to say something like that," she said.
"The truth, Dorotea, is that Clete is far more valuable to the United States government for his influence on General Rawsonon the new Argentine governmentthan as an OSS agent. If something like this comes up again, we'll send other people in to do it."