The Governor had, Shaw noted, become steadily more ill-at-ease throughout this sleepy-sounding monologue. As Etherington opened his eyes and stared directly at him he rang a bell for the guard and snapped, ‘The prisoner. He will go outside, and wait.’
‘How the hell,’ Shaw asked in sheer astonishment as he and Patricia O’Malley were speeding with Etherington in the prison Governor’s own car for the airstrip, ‘did you pull that off?’
Etherington smiled blandly. He said, ‘After we heard from that lady-friend of yours we got extremely worried.’ Shaw was conscious of a sudden sideways glance from Patricia as Etherington mentioned a lady-friend. ‘You see, she asked us to get in touch with a man called Pullman, which we did. As a matter of fact Pullman didn’t tell me much but he did tell me enough to put me on your track and add two and two. No need to say more about it than that, I take it?’ he added, looking keenly at Shaw.
‘No need at all.’
‘Right. Now, what I’m going to pass on isn’t for publication, either now or at any time hereafter.’ He paused. ‘When certain inquiries revealed your probable whereabouts, I was sent down post-haste to Rio Grande to give the dear General the works. The fact is,’ he said with a grin, ‘the good Governor’s blotted his copy-book very badly, if secretly — or he thought it was secretly anyway — once or twice in his past life, and it’s just possible he’s blotted it again recently. As a matter of fact, we knew of some of Ario’s rackets ourselves, but a good friend of yours called Carlos Villroel told us of quite a few more after Miss Delacroix got in touch, and he also helped to make my job of getting you out a little easier. Anyway, the Argentine Government would dearly love to hear all the juicy details of Ario’s gluttonous infamy, how he’s swindled ’em for years on supply contracts and so on and the bribes he’s taken on occasions too… get the idea?’
Shaw nodded.
‘He’s quite an old rogue,’ Etherington went on, ‘and you’re not really all that important to his life. Or the Argentine Government’s. Whatever all this is about, I’d bet a million quid to a penny the Argentine Government’s not concerned, at least not as a government, if you get me. I wouldn’t be too sure what some of the bods might have been up to on their own, of course. It was pretty clear, anyway, that the charge against you was trumped up, that Ario himself and a few others must have had their greasy palms crossed with a little dishonest silver — and that all Ario, once he’d been rumbled, had to do to put himself in the clear so far as his own country’s concerned, was to untrump the charge again. Hence me. I’m pretty good at that sort of thing,’ he added, grinning. ‘And that’s about all, except that somebody may not be feeling very well disposed towards the Governor just now — but that’s his worry.’
‘It’s a risk for him.’
‘It is, but if you’re wondering why he took it, don’t. If he hadn’t played ball with me, he’d have faced a firing-squad for sure, so on balance it was worth it. I meant to go the whole way, you see, and by God he knew it!’
Shaw nodded. ‘So what happens to me now?’
Etherington lit a cigarette. ‘You mean vis-à-vis Ario?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well… to save the old boy’s face I had to agree to keep you locked up in the Embassy and later return you to Argentine custody, but that’s largely eyewash and he knows it—’
‘Largely?’ Shaw echoed in some alarm.
‘Largely, because in point of fact I’ll have to insist that you do remain in the Embassy for the time being — it’s safer that way and much more diplomatic. Faces are important out here, you know. We must allow the Governor to clear his own yard-arm in case questions are asked — the onus, you see, is firmly on us now, not him, and after a proper lapse of time he’ll announce your sweet innocence of the charge.’ He sat back comfortably. ‘We’ll be at the airstrip in a moment, Shaw, but you may as well start telling me exactly what you’ve been up to right away. I’m devilish curious and I dare say it’s a long story — what?’
‘It is,’ Shaw answered grimly, ‘and I only hope you’ll believe it and help me persuade others to believe it too! Patricia here can bear me out in quite a lot of it.’
Once again, she was close to him — and he liked it.
They were well north on their flight to Buenos Aires by the time Shaw had given Etherington all the details in strict secrecy. He gave him the whole lot. This was no time for holding back. The reaction was an anti-climax, almost a disappointment. Etherington merely smiled and said, ‘Relax. Now we know all about it, it’ll soon be dealt with. As soon as we get to the Embassy you can talk direct to the Pentagon.’
‘I’d sooner put a report into departmental cypher and sent it on the Embassy transmitter,’ Shaw said. ‘Is that all right? I mean, being in a foreign country and all that…?’
‘Well, you could be right,’ Etherington said carelessly. ‘It’s up to you, anyhow. Oh, and by the way… we’re not coming into this from now on, not officially. Until we receive different instructions from the F.O, it’s between you and the Pentagon.’
Shaw nodded, and glanced across at Patricia, smilingly. He said, ‘In effect, we’re both of us working for the U.S on this assignment anyway. Right?’
She smiled back at him. ‘Right!’ she said. ‘Not that I’ve done anything but get myself kidnapped!’
Shaw said, ‘Nonsense. You put me on to Fleck. That was everything.’
They didn’t talk much after that, just sat back and relaxed. A car met them at the airport and rushed them to the British Embassy in the Calle Reconquista. Shaw was taken straight to a private room, where he could encypher his message alone and undisturbed. He addressed this message to the British Ambassador in Washington, who would hold the relevant departmental decyphering-tables, with a request for a plain-language version to be posted direct by hand, and immediately upon receipt, to Admiral Clifford Pullman in the Pentagon.
The message, without mentioning Warmaster by name, told Pullman the whole story of what Shaw had found out. It also warned Pullman that Fleck would most likely take the Moehne to sea now — he would almost certainly be able to operate his radio beaming procedure at sea just as well as lying in an anchorage — and warned him also that the vessel had a remarkable turn of speed. After that urgent signal had gone out with the highest priority and security grading on it, Shaw relaxed properly for the first time since he had crossed the Atlantic. He talked with several senior officials of the Embassy and then, after a couple of stiff drinks and an early dinner, he and Patricia went to the rooms that had been put at their disposal — and slept. Those beds were luxurious in any case; after the hardships of the Rio Grande gaol Shaw found his heaven — but he left word that he was to be called the moment a reply came in from Pullman.
He slept like a log and he was still flat out when Etherington woke him in the early hours of next morning and handed him a sealed envelope.
‘Just received,’ he said. ‘From the Pentagon.’