The Honor of Spies

There's no one at all, except that fat slob--Anton von Gradny-Sawz, the grosse Weinerwurst--and he's stupid and as useless as teats on a boar hog.

Or . . .

Wait a minute! I don't think he's really stupid. He was certainly smart enough to know when to change sides just before the Anschluss. And he's done a remarkable job of covering his Gesass since he joined the German diplomatic service.

And he's afraid of me!

And what other choice do I have?

Anton von Gradny-Sawz and August Muller, M.D., were standing in the foyer of the petit-hotel when von Deitzberg came quickly down the stairway.

Dr. Muller looked at von Deitzberg curiously. Von Gradny-Sawz had a look of concern, as if he were afraid that von Deitzberg would attack the physician.

"Ah, the Bavarian medical genius!" von Deitzberg then cried happily. "What are you doing here in the foyer? Come up to the room and we'll send Maria out for a little schnapps. We can find schnapps here, right, Anton?"

"I'm not sure if we can," von Gradny-Sawz said uneasily.

"Nothing to drink for me at this hour," Dr. Muller said. "Thank you just the same. I have to go to the hospital."

"Of course, of course," von Deitzberg said. "I understand. But I really wanted to celebrate."

"You're feeling better, I gather?" Muller asked.

"I woke up this morning feeling better than I've felt in years," von Deitzberg said. "Doctor, you are a genius!"

"Oh, I'm just a simple physician trying to do my best."

"You're too modest," von Deitzberg said. "Much too modest. I am deeply in your debt. And at the risk of immodesty, the SS is grateful to you, as well. You have returned this officer to full duty."

"If that is so, I am honored to have been of service," Muller said.

"I wish I could proclaim your genius to the world," von Deitzberg said. "But under the circumstances, you understand, that is not possible."

"I understand," Dr. Muller agreed solemnly.

"But as soon as I can get through to Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler," von Deitzberg went on, "I'll see that your son's commanding officers are made aware of your contribution to the SS."

"That's very kind of you," Muller said emotionally.

"But now our duty calls," von Deitzberg said solemnly. His right arm shot out in the Nazi salute.

"Heil Hitler!" he barked.

Dr. Muller returned the salute.

"After you, mein lieber Gradny-Sawz," von Deitzberg said, and grandly bowed him ahead of him up the stairway.

[TWO]

Von Deitzberg's judgment that von Gradny-Sawz was afraid of him was something of an understatement. Terrified would have been more accurate. Von Gradny-Sawz had known von Deitzberg's reputation within the SS before "Generalmajor" von Deitzberg had come to Argentina the first time. And that reputation was that he was at least as ruthless and cold-blooded as Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler himself.

Part of von Deitzberg's mission then--aside from apologizing to the Argentine officer corps for el Coronel Frade's murder, and von Gradny-Sawz would not have been surprised if that order had actually come from SS-Brigadefuhrer von Deitzberg in the first place--was the detection of the spy, or spies, everyone knew operated in the embassy.

Von Deitzberg had brought three people with him to help him find the spy or spies or traitors, and three people--Major von Wachtstein, Sturmbannfuhrer von Tresmarck, and First Secretary von Gradny-Sawz--were rushed onto the next Condor flight to Berlin "to assist in the investigation."

From the moment the SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer had picked him up at his apartment to take him to the airfield, von Gradny-Sawz had been convinced they were all en route to Sachsenhausen or Dachau.

But it hadn't turned out that way. After four days of thorough questioning, he and von Tresmarck had been returned to Buenos Aires. Von Wachtstein had stayed in Germany, not because he was suspected of treason but because he had gone to Augsburg to learn how to fly the new Me-262 jet-propelled fighter.

In the end, he, too, was returned to Argentina. It came out that the young fighter pilot had caused Alicia, the youngest daughter of Senora Claudia de Carzino-Cormano, to be with child. It had been decided that young von Wachtstein would be of greater value to National Socialism married to the daughter of the richest woman in Argentina than he would be flying, and he was sent back to Argentina under orders to "do the right thing."