“What room are you in?”
He had to look at the telephone to get the room number.
“Four-oh-seven.”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“Can’t we just talk on the phone? What’s the colonel going to think when he comes home for supper and you’re gone?”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” She chuckled. “And don’t start without me, baby.”
Then she hung up.
Cronley thought he might as well have another little taste while he was waiting for her.
[TWELVE]
The telephone rang, and when Cronley answered it, he was told that his ride was waiting for him.
“Be right down,” he said, and hung up.
Rachel was nowhere in sight.
What the hell did I expect?
She had to go home to her husband and the kiddies.
As he dressed, he tried to recall how well he had done in his attempt to get out of the affair as gracefully as possible.
If ending an affair means the cessation of sexual activity between the participants, I am still up to my ears — well over my ears — in this one.
Rachel had her tongue down my throat and her hand on my wang no more than sixty seconds after she appeared at the door.
But, despite that, she had not been as anxious to get nailed as she was to hear “finally” about the Russian. I had to tell her about Orlovsky before I could get her to take her underpants off.
Did I tell her too much?
Probably. Both before Nailing One, and before Nailing Two, as she was still interested in the Russian after Nailing One and brought the subject up again. Satisfying her female curiosity was the price of Nailing Two.
But what’s the difference? She can’t tell anybody, not even her husband. If she did that, he would want to know why I told her, and she certainly didn’t want to open that subject up for discussion.
I don’t remember much of what happened — anything that happened — after Nailing Two. I must have passed out.
Did I wake up later and see that she was gone? Did that happen, or am I just supposing it did?
What I am going to have to do is admit I failed to end the affair because I was a little drunk and thinking with my dick.
Ending the affair now goes on the Que Será Será list beside the FBI finally catching up with me.
Five minutes after his phone rang, he was on the sidewalk outside the hotel, getting into an ambulance.
[THIRTEEN]
First Sergeant Dunwiddie pushed open the door to Cronley’s room without knocking. Cronley was asleep in bed and did not wake, although he was usually a very light sleeper.
Dunwiddie, none too gently, shook his shoulder.
“If that printout is to tell me Konstantin is safe in Buenos Aires, you are forgiven,” Cronley said when he opened his eyes.
“Not exactly, Jim,” Dunwiddie said as he handed the SIGABA printout to him.
“What the hell?” Jimmy said as he began to read:
PRIORITY
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM MOSES
VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET
1505 GREENWICH 10 NOVEMBER 1945
TO VATICAN ATTN ALTARBOY
SHARE WITH GEHLEN ONLY
1-CONVOY UNDER PROTECTION BIS CARRYING ORLOVSKY ATTACKED BY SOME KIND OF ROCKETS AND MACHINE GUN FIRE SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTING JORGE FRADE FOR BUENOS AIRES.
2-THREE KNOWN DEAD INCLUDING ONE OF YOUR SERGEANTS AND SEVERAL OTHERS WOUNDED SOME SERIOUSLY.
3-TEX SENDS BEGIN QUOTE ALTARBOY THEY KNEW WHEN AND WHERE WE WOULD BE. WHOLE PLAN OBVIOUSLY KNOWN TO NKGB. ASK GEHLEN TO FIND OUT SOURCE OF BREACH AND DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT GET IN HIS WAY. END QUOTE
4-TEX PRESENTLY WITH WOUNDED IN ARGENTINE MILITARY HOSPITAL.
5-MORE TO FOLLOW.
MOSES
END
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
“Who is Moses?” Dunwiddie asked.
“Sergeant Stein. Ashton’s Number Two. I guess he went to Buenos Aires after Ashton got himself run over. Rockets? What the hell?”
“And machine-gun fire.”
“Where’s the general?”
“Taking a walk. I sent a jeep after him.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t have a clue.”
General Gehlen and a second SIGABA printout arrived together about five minutes later. Cronley handed him the first message as he read the second:
PRIORITY
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM MOSES
VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET
1515 GREENWICH 10 NOVEMBER 1945
TO VATICAN ATTN ALTARBOY
SHARE WITH GEHLEN ONLY
1-TEX SENDS BEGIN QUOTE
A-REGRET INFORM YOU STAFF SERGEANT HAROLD LEWIS JR. DIED OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ATTACK AT 1405 THIS DATE.
B-STAFF SERGEANT PETRONIUS J. CLARK SUFFERED SEVERE INJURIES AND BURNS AND IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION.
C-REV KURT WELNER, SJ, SUFFERED BROKEN SHOULDER AND SOME BURNS BUT WILL SHORTLY BE ABLE TO LEAVE THE HOSPITAL.
D-MAJOR KONSTANTIN ORLOVSKY SUFFERED MULTIPLE INJURIES AND BURNS AND IS NOT EXPECTED TO LIVE.
E-MORE TO FOLLOW.
END QUOTE
MOSES
END
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
“Who is Moses?” General Gehlen asked.
Cronley told him.
“Does that ‘share with Gehlen’ line mean Tiny is to be excluded from our conversations?”
“Well, if that’s what Colonel Frade meant, fuck him. Tiny is not going to be excluded from anything.”
“Good,” Gehlen said. “Then I suggest, while we’re waiting to hear more from Colonel Frade, how our security has been so completely breached.”
[FOURTEEN]
PRIORITY
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM TEX
VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET
1705 GREENWICH 10 NOVEMBER 1945
TO VATICAN ATTN ALTARBOY
SHARE WITH GEHLEN ONLY
1-GENERAL MARTIN, TWO OF WHOSE MEN DIED IN THE ATTACK AND SEVEN OF WHOSE MEN WERE INJURED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, OFFERS THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO WITH WHICH I CONCUR:
A-THE ATTACK WAS PROFESSIONALLY PLANNED AND EXECUTED BY PERSONS FULLY FAMILIAR WITH THE FACTS, IE, THAT ORLOVSKY WAS THE SICK MAN ON THE AIRCRAFT.
B-IDENTIFICATION OF TWO OF THE FOUR ATTACKER CORPSES AS PARAGUAYAN CRIMINALS IS CONSISTENT WITH KNOWN PRACTICES OF NAZIS DURING AND AFTER THE WAR TO USE CONTRACT ASSASSINS, WITH ONE IMPORTANT EXCEPTION. NAZIS ALWAYS LEFT SOME INDICATION AT CRIME SCENE THAT THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRIME. NO SUCH MARKER WITH THIS ATTACK.
C–CONSIDERING THIS, AND NATIONALITY OF SICK MAN ON THE AIRCRAFT, THIS POINTS TO THE SOVIET UNION. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT USE OF GERMAN PANZERFAUST 60-MM ROCKETS ALSO SUGGESTS IT WAS HOPED THE GERMANS WOULD BE BLAMED FOR THE ASSAULT. IT IS NOTED THAT SOVIET UNION IS IN TALKS WITH THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT REGARDING RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS.