“Jim, I don’t know,” General Gehlen said as Dunwiddie freshened the Haig & Haig scotch whisky in his glass. “But I did have a thought about Konstantin that I didn’t share with anyone.”
“What kind of a thought?”
“What you and Tiny would probably call a wild hair.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“I don’t think Major Konstantin Orlovsky is quite who we think he is.”
“I don’t think I understand.”
“I think he may be further up in the NKGB hierarchy than we think. I suspect he may be at least a colonel, and may even hold higher rank.”
“Would the NKGB send a senior officer over a barbed-wire fence?” Dunwiddie asked.
“They wouldn’t do so routinely, which is one of the reasons I never mentioned this to anyone.”
“What does Mannberg think of your theory?” Cronley asked.
“I never mentioned this to anyone, Jim,” Gehlen repeated. There was just the hint of reproof in his tone of voice.
Cronley picked up on it and said, “Sorry, sir.”
Gehlen accepted the apology with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“Going down this street,” Dunwiddie said, “why would the NKGB send a senior officer over a barbed-wire fence?”
“We don’t know who gave him those rosters,” Gehlen said. “I have been working on the assumption that it was one of my captains or majors. Now I have to consider the likelihood that it was one of my lieutenant colonels, there are fifteen, or colonels, of whom there are six.”
“Including Mannberg?” Tiny asked.
“Including Ludwig Mannberg,” Gehlen said. “There aren’t many justifications for the NKGB to send a major — much less a lieutenant colonel or a colonel—‘over a barbed-wire fence,’ as you put it, Tiny.”
“What would they be?”
“Short answers: to establish contact with someone of equal rank, or to convince someone fairly senior that the agent who was controlling them was telling them the truth. In other words, that they were indeed dealing with a senior NKGB officer, not just an agent.”
“I’m not sure I understand you, General,” Dunwiddie said. “Do you think it is likely Orlovsky is more important — a far more senior officer — than we have been thinking? Or that it is possible but unlikely?”
“I wouldn’t have brought this up if I believed the latter.”
“Supper, now that I know this, should be very interesting,” Dunwiddie said.
“We are not going to have the sonofabitch to supper,” Cronley said.
“We’re not?” Gehlen asked.
“I don’t want the bastard to know we’re onto him,” Cronley said. “You, General, might — you probably could — be able to hide what you think about him. Dunwiddie and I are amateurs at this and he’d probably sense something.”
“Additionally,” Gehlen said, “since the basic idea is to keep him off balance, if he’s not invited he’ll wonder why.”
“You think I’m right, sir?” Dunwiddie said.
“I know you are.” Gehlen looked at Cronley. “And I say that because I believe it, not because it means I can ask Tiny to pour a bit more of the Haig & Haig into my glass.”
[FOUR]
In the Storch, Cronley literally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the floodlights on the perimeter of Kloster Grünau. “Dicey” had been too inadequate a term to describe his chances of getting home.
The weather had been deteriorating when he had taken off for Eschborn, and all the way to Eschborn he had been very much aware that the smart thing for him to have done would have been aborting the flight and trying later.
But he knew he was running out of time. He had to try.
Both ambulances had been waiting for him when he landed. He learned that it had taken them just about an hour to drive from the ASA Relay Station to the airfield. That meant he would have to allow three hours on “D-Day” for that part of the plan. Half an hour, after he had the ETA of the SAA Constellation at Rhine-Main, to contact the Pullach compound and tell them to radio the Relay Station and send the ambulances to Eschborn. Another hour for the ambulances to drive to Eschborn, and another hour for the ambulances to drive to Rhine-Main. And thirty minutes “just in case.”
That sounds very neat and doable.
But what if the weather on D-Day is even worse, absolutely unflyable, than it is today?
Cronley put the Storch down safely on the runway, then taxied to the chapel, where he found the converted ambulance waiting for him.
He was not surprised that no one came out to push the Storch under the tent hangar, or that no one got out of the ambulance. Pounding all around was what the weather people termed “heavy precipitation.”
He got out of the Storch, ran through the fat, cold raindrops to the ambulance, and got in the back.
General Gehlen turned from the front seat and handed him a towel.
“Your arrival cost Sergeant Dunwiddie a bottle of whisky,” Gehlen said. “It was his belief that if you ever got here, you would be walking. I had more faith.”
“I should have walked,” Cronley said as he dried his head and face.
“Colonel Frade has been heard from,” Gehlen said, and handed him a SIGABA printout. “Bad news.”
“Jesus…” Cronley said as he looked at the sheet:
PRIORITY
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM TEX
VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET
1115 GREENWICH 6 NOVEMBER 1945
TO VATICAN ATTENTION ALTARBOY
INFO COPY TO BEERMUG
1-ON ARRIVAL OF UNDERSIGNED BUENOS AIRES 1005 GMT 6 NOVEMBER GENERAL MARTIN AND FATHER WELNER INFORMED UNDERSIGNED MAJOR ASHTON HAD BEEN STRUCK BY HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER AS HE EXITED TAXI OUTSIDE AVENIDA LIBERTADOR HOUSE 1605 GMT 5 NOVEMBER.
2-ASHTON CURRENTLY IN SERIOUS BUT STABLE CONDITION GERMAN HOSPITAL SUFFERING BROKEN RIGHT LEG, LEFT ARM, SEVERAL RIBS, CONCUSSION AND INTERNAL INJURIES. WHEN CONDITION PERMITS HE WILL BE FLOWN TO UNITED STATES.
3-GENERAL MARTIN THEORIZES, UNDERSIGNED CONCURS, MOST CREDIBLE SCENARIO IS THAT HIT-AND-RUN WAS ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION BY PARTIES UNKNOWN WHO FOLLOWED ASHTON FROM JORGE FRADE ON HIS ARRIVAL FROM MENDOZA.
4-GENERAL MARTIN THEORIZES, UNDERSIGNED CONCURS, PARTIES UNKNOWN MOST LIKELY ARE NON-GEHLEN NAZIS, OR CONTRACT EMPLOYEES THEREOF, WHO WISHED TO USE ASHTON’S ASSASSINATION AS PROOF TO OTHER NON-GEHLEN GERMANS THAT SS IS STILL FUNCTIONING IN ARGENTINA.
5-THESE THEORIES DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT EXCLUDE THE POSSIBILITY THAT ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION IS IN SOME WAY CONNECTED WITH OUR FRIEND KONSTANTIN. MARTIN CONCURS.
6-CRITICALLY EXAMINE AND REINFORCE AS NECESSARY ALL SECURITY MEASURES IN PLACE REGARDING KONSTANTIN, PAYING PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO ABSOLUTELY DENYING HIM OPPORTUNITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH HIS SUPERIORS OR THOSE GERMANS WHO HAVE OR MAY HAVE REPEAT MAY HAVE BEEN TURNED.
7-WELNER DEPARTING BUENOS AIRES ABOARD SAA FLIGHT 707 2000 GMT 6 NOVEMBER. ETA RHINE-MAIN WILL BE SENT FROM LISBON.
8-UNDERSIGNED HAS FULL CONFIDENCE IN YOUR ABILITY TO HANDLE CHANGED SITUATION.
TEX
END
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
“I wish I did,” Cronley said.
“What?” Tiny asked.
“Have full confidence in my ability to handle the changed situation.”
Tiny said, “I doubled the guard on das Gasthaus and barred all Germans but the general from getting anywhere near it or Orlovsky. It was all I could think of to do.”