"You don't know my . . . Cletus very well, obviously, Colonel," she said. She almost said "my husband," Graham realized. "If 'something like this comes up again,' Cletus will play the damn fool again. I want you to understand, Colonel, that the next time, I'm fighting you tooth and nail."
"Fair enough," Graham said.
"And in Dorotea, mi Coronel," Clete said, smiling, obviously proud of her, "you can expect to meet your match."
"I have already figured that out, Major Frade," Graham said. "OK, let me get into the rest of it. The materiel the Germans will unload from the Oceano Pacifico."
"We're letting them unload the money?" Clete asked, surprised.
Graham didn't reply directly.
"Leibermann has the entire staff of the Office of the Legal Attach? of the Embassyand some of their local hireson the way out here. They'll follow the materiel from the beach to its ultimate destination."
"You're letting those bastards bring that dirty money into Argentina?" Clete demanded incredulously. "You know what they're going to do with it!"
"I decided there was a strong possibility that if we grabbed the money today, there would be several unfortunate consequences," Graham said. "And I don't mean only that the only escape route I've ever heard of from German extermination camps would probably be closed for good."
Clete considered that a moment and grunted.
"And, aside from that, I decided that it posed an unacceptable risk to Galahad," Graham went on. "There would be questions asked, on their side, about how we knew precisely where and when the materielthe moneywas to be landed. Only a few people were privy to that information, among them, obviously, Galahad. The Germans have the nasty habit of eliminating people they suspect are guilty. I don't want Galahad eliminated."
"So you can use him again, right?" Clete said bitterly.
"Right."
Their eyes met for a moment, and then Graham went on: "When Lieutenant Sawyer was at Yale"
"Lieutenant Sawyer?" Dorotea interrupted. "Who's he?"
"Lieutenant Madison R. Sawyer the Third," Clete furnished, his tone mocking Sawyer's Oh, So Social-sounding name. "He's on Ashton's team. Ashton calls him 'the gorilla.'"
"When Lieutenant Sawyer was at Yale, he was a photographer for the Yale Daily News," Graham went on. "He tells Ashton, and we have no choice but to take him at his word, that he will have no problem photographing, on the ground, the landing of the materiel from the Oceano Pacifico. With a little bit of luck, we will furnish your friend Mart?n not only photographs of the materiel actually being unloaded on the beach, but of our friend Standartenf?hrer Goltz and/or Colonel Gr?ner supervising the unloading. That will give the Argentine government sufficient cause to persona non grata either of them, hopefully both."
"What does that mean?" Dorotea asked.
The idea of having Gr?ner booted out of the country didn't seem to bother Clete at all,Graham thought, thereby eliminating Gr?ner as Galahad, and confirming, if it needed confirming, that Galahad is von Wachtstein.
"When someone on a diplomatic passport does something wrong," Graham said, "such as smuggling, the host government declares him persona non grataa person not welcomeand asks him to leave the country."
"It will also tip the Germans that we know about the money," Clete challenged.
"Why? So far as they're concerned, the money will have safely arrived, still in its crates, wherever they take it."
"They will wonder how someone just happened to be taking pictures where they were landing the money," Clete argued.
"Look," Graham said, "an amateur photographer is walking along the beach and happens to see the strange activity of people unloading crates from a boat and takes pictures of it with his Brownie. If Lieutenant Sawyer's photographs don't naturally look like the work of an amateur photographer, they can be made to look that way." He paused, then went on. "Actually, Leibermann has a local cop on his payroll who can turn them in. That's just between us."
"Why don't we just tell Leibermann's cop what's about to happen? Let them grab the money?"
"I thought about that. I decided that one cop stumbling across the unloading would not arouse undue suspicion; a dozen cops waiting for the boat would."
Clete shrugged. He could not fault Graham's logic.
"There are several problems involved with getting Lieutenant Sawyer to the proper place at the properly appointed time in the properly appointed uniformcivilian clothingto take his pictures," Graham said. "For one thing, he's in Argentina illegally. For another, despite his protestations to the contrary, the Germans are liable to see him. He would not be able to defend himself, because I don't want him carrying a weapon."
"I could send Enrico with him," Clete thought aloud. "Enrico and Rudolpho."
"Se?or Clete?" Enrico asked, having heard his name.
Clete switched to Spanish.
"This morning, Enrico, you and Rudolpho are going to go riding along the beach."
"Where will you be, Se?or Clete?"
"I'll be flying the airplane," Clete said. "And you can't go with me." He waited to deal with the expected objections to that; and whensurprising himthere were none, went on. "You will take el Teniente Gorilla with you. He will be taking photographs of the Germans unloading crates from a boat."
"And what do we do about the Germans?"
"Nothing, absolutely nothing. We don't even want them to see you. If they do see you, you're to leave immediately. But I don't want them to see you. This is very important. What I want you to do is put el Teniente Gorilla in a position to take his photographs, and when he's finished, bring him back here. Only if necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, are you to use your guns to protect el Teniente Gorilla. No dead Germans, you understand, Enrico?"
S?, Se?or Clete," Enrico agreed with obvious reluctance.
"If you do what Se?or Clete asks you to do, Suboficial Mayor," Graham said, "it will result in the deaths of far more Germans than the ones you will see on the beach."
Enrico considered that idea and seemed to like it.
S?, mi Coronel," he said.
"Unless anyone has anything else?" Graham asked, looking around the room, and then finished, "I think we should, quickly, take advantage of Dorotea's buffet breakfast."
[TWO]
Aboard Motor Vessel Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico
Samboromb?n Bay
River Plate Estuary, Argentina
0810 19 April 1943
Capitan Jose Francisco de Banderano, master of the Oceano Pacifico, was, of course being generously compensated for his servicesas was his crew. There had been a generous sign-on bonus, and a promise of an equal amount at the conclusion of the voyage, even if the ship was lost. In addition, each month an amount equal to, and in addition to, his monthly pay would be delivered to his wife, in cashand thus tax-free. If things should go really wrong, his wife would receive a generous death benefit, plus a pension for the rest of her life. The German Naval Attach? in Madrid had made similar provisions for every member of his crew.
But the generous pay was not the reason he had accepted the commission. He believed in the German cause.
Like his father and grandfather before him, Capitan de Banderano was a graduate of the Spanish Royal Navy Academy. He graduated at eighteen, was appointed a midshipman, and then, on attaining his twenty-first birthday, was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Spanish Navy.