“I’m well aware this command structure would look very odd on a Table of Organization, but that’s the way it’s going to be.” He paused and smiled. “As they told me on my very first day in the Marine Corps, ‘If you don’t like the way things are run around here, learn to.’”
When that got the chuckles Frade expected, he stood up.
“Say ‘good night’ to the nice people, Captain Cronley. We have to get up with the birds to go flying.”
Cronley showed Frade to his room, two doors down from his, and asked, “What did you tell Mattingly about Orlovsky?”
“I told him that I had made it perfectly clear to you that you were going to let General Gehlen handle it.”
“You’re devious, Colonel.”
“Thank you,” Clete said.
Then he punched Jimmy affectionately on the shoulder and went into his room.
Ten minutes later, as Cronley came out of the shower, there was a knock at the door.
That has to be Rachel. Is she out of her mind?
A moment later, she pushed past him into the room.
“What about your husband?”
“He, the general, and Iron Lung are having a nightcap. We have thirty minutes, maybe a little more.”
“And if we don’t and he goes to your room and you’re not there?”
“I’ll tell him I took a walk.”
By then she was sitting on the bed, removing her shoes.
Their mating didn’t take long, which Cronley decided was probably because of what she had done to him going to Pullach and back.
As she dressed, she asked, “What was that serious problem you dealt with to everybody’s satisfaction, and Colonel Frade didn’t want to talk about?”
“If he doesn’t want to talk about it, that means I can’t.”
She didn’t press the question, and three minutes later she was gone.
But something about her asking it bothered him.
He couldn’t define what bothered him, and decided it was just feminine curiosity.
He took another shower and fell into bed.
PART IX
[ONE]
Cletus Frade followed Jim Cronley into the Weather/Flight Planning room at Base Operations and watched as a sergeant gave Cronley a weather briefing.
Then he followed Cronley to a row of what looked like lecterns, or headwaiter’s tables, where pilots, standing up, prepared their flight plans.
“What do you think of the weather, Jimmy?”
“It’s a little dicey. And since I will be transporting a senior officer, I thought I’d file IFR.”
“Could you make it to Kloster Grünau VFR?”
“In this kind of weather, the only way to get into Kloster Grünau International is by following CC Flight Rules. But, yeah, I could. I will, after I drop you off in Frankfurt, if that’s what you’re asking. Not a problem.”
“CC for Chasing Cows?” Clete asked, smiling.
Jimmy smiled back and nodded.
“What would happen if you took off from here on a Local VFR, closed it out in the air, and then went CC to Kloster Grünau?”
“You want to go to Kloster Grünau? What about Frankfurt?”
“Answer the question.”
“Why are we going to sneak into Kloster Grünau?”
“Because General Gehlen called last night and said he would really like a word with me before I go to Argentina. And I don’t want Mattingly to know I had a final word with General Gehlen before I went to Argentina. Which means that after I have a final word with General Gehlen, before you fly me to Frankfurt so that I can go to Argentina you should avoid telling Colonel Mattingly—”
“That you had a final word with General Gehlen before you went to Argentina?”
“My, you are clever for a young Army officer.”
They were smiling at each other.
“Don’t let this go to your head, Colonel, sir, but after you go to Argentina, I will miss you.”
“Yeah. Me, too, Jimmy.”
Jimmy folded the aerial chart on which he had been about to prepare his flight plan and stuffed it in his jacket.
Then the two of them walked out of the Weather/Flight Planning room and the Base Operations building and started looking for the Storch.
[TWO]
As the Storch made the final approach to Kloster Grünau, Clete saw an ambulance parked just off the end of the runway and of course felt compelled to comment: “Oh, an ambulance is on station. I guess they’ve seen you try to land here before.”
Jimmy didn’t reply.
When he touched down, the ambulance followed the Storch down the runway to the tarpaulins beside what had been the chapel. Frade could now see that First Sergeant Dunwiddie was behind the wheel of the ambulance and General Reinhard Gehlen in the passenger seat beside him.
Frade and Cronley got out of the Storch, and General Gehlen got out of the ambulance.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I thought it was important.”
“Not a problem,” Frade said.
Gehlen indicated that Frade should get in the seat he had just left.
“No, sir,” Cronley said. “The colonel will ride in the back, where he can apologize to me for making yet another hasty judgment.”
Frade looked at him expectantly.
“If the colonel looks closely he will notice that while this vehicle began life as a Truck, a three-quarter-ton four-by-four Ambulance, it is no longer used in that capacity. The colonel will notice there are no red crosses on the sides or the roof. Additionally, if the colonel looks at the door, he will see the legend INDIGENOUS PERSONNEL TRANSPORT VEHICLE #5, and if he looks at the bumpers he will see that the markings indicate it is in the service of the 711TH QM MKRC. That stands for ‘Quartermaster Mess Kit Repair Company.’”
“Okay, okay,” Frade said. “Can I get in it now? It’s as cold as a witch’s teat out here.”
“Not until I’m finished,” Cronley said.
Frade was about to snap, “Finish later,” but he saw the amused smile on Gehlen’s face and held his tongue.
“The other four indigenous personnel transport vehicles of the 711th QM MKRC are, in fact, used to transport indigenous personnel. But those indigenous personnel are not mess kit repairers, but, in fact, associates of General Gehlen. The 711th Quartermaster is a figment of Dunwiddie’s imagination. That keeps curious people from asking the wrong questions.”
“Got it,” Frade said. “How much longer is this lecture going to go on?”
“Not much longer, bear with me. Now, Indigenous Transport Vehicle #5, this one, is a deception within a deception, thanks again to the genius of First Sergeant Dunwiddie. This vehicle, as you will soon see, has two armchairs mounted inside where they used to put stretchers. When the senior staff of Kloster Grünau has something to talk about we don’t wish to share with anyone else, we get in what is now our Truck, a three-quarter-ton four-by-four Mobile Secure Room and drive out on the runway.”
“Clever,” Frade said.
“Which is what I suspect the general had in mind today. Do you have any questions, Colonel, sir, or is everything clear in your mind?”
“How do I open the back door?”
“I will accept that as an apology for your cruel remarks about my reputation as a pilot.”