The Honor of Spies

"I'd say the general has summed up the situation rather well," Wattersly said.

Lauffer nodded.

"All right, Cletus," Nervo said. "Your turn. Tell us--the truth--about your airline."

Frade looked at him.

And now I'm going to have to lie.

Frade then bought a moment of thought by passing his empty glass to La Valle.

I really don't want to lie to Nervo--to any of these people--but I certainly can't tell them that SAA has already begun to infiltrate Gehlen's men into the country.

So what to do?

"When in doubt, tell the truth" isn't going to work here.

What about "The truth, part of the truth, but nothing about Gehlen"?

La Valle delivered a fresh drink to Clete, who took a sip, then began: "You're going to find this hard to believe, General, but here's what I know. President Roosevelt wanted to punish Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways because of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh."

"The first man to fly across the Atlantic?" Nervo asked.

"Yes, sir. What happened is . . ."

It took five minutes--which seemed longer--for Clete to relate the story. Nervo never for a second took his eyes off Clete's while he listened.

"That's what I know, General," Clete finished.

"And you believe this story?"

"Sir, the proof is at Aeropuerto Jorge Frade: three Lockheed Constellation aircraft."

"Edmundo?" Nervo asked.

"That story is so incredible, I'm tempted to believe it," Wattersly said.

"Why was Father Welner on the first flight to Portugal?" Martin asked Frade.

"Yes," Nervo added. "Why?"

"He came to me just before we took off," Frade immediately answered. "He said that the Vatican wanted him to carry a message to the cardinal archbishop here that they didn't want to trust to their usual communications channel."

"And I'm sure that's true," Nervo said. "Jesuits don't lie. The message probably said, 'Bless you, my son, go and sin no more.' But I'd like to know why else Welner wanted to go to Portugal."

"We brought back a flock of nuns and priests and orphans," Clete said. "And the Papal Nuncio in Lisbon arranged for a block of seats on every flight and paid in advance."

"When was the last time, Alejandro, that Customs officers strip-searched a nun entering the country?" Nervo said. "Or even a Jesuit priest?"

Martin shook his head and chuckled.

"The Germans are occupying Rome," Nervo said. "Do you think the Holy Father has decided it's time to move the treasury? Or at least the larger diamonds in the vaults?"

"You're only saying that," Martin said, "because you're a Saint George's Old Boy and you've been corrupted by all those terrible things Father Kingsley-Howard told you about Holy Mother Church."

Nervo and Lauffler chuckled.

"Well, I'll tell you this, Alejandro," Nervo said. "We'll never find out why the Vatican is flying all these nuns and priests. Holy Mother Church--and especially Jesuits like Welner--has been in our business much longer than we have and is much better at it than we are."

"I daresay you're right," Wattersly said.

"You said something before, Coronel," Clete said. "Said you'd get back to it. Something involving Casa Montagna?"

"Oh, yes! I'm glad you remembered. About a week ago, my first cousin once removed Erich Franz Schmidt happened to bump into me at the Circulo Militar and told me that he had been thinking about the weapons cached at Estancia Don Guillermo. He told me he had been running some road movement exercises with his regiment and he had been thinking of sending one of them over there to see if the weapons were still there and, if so, to take possession of them. So they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

"Why would he tell you this?" Clete asked.

"I'm the deputy chief for operations on the General Staff," Wattersly replied. "And I might have heard one of his road movement exercises coincided with the attack on Casa Chica in Tandil."

"What did you tell him?" Nervo asked.

"I told him I was sure the weapons cache had been removed when General Rawson became president, but that I would look into it for him."

"Are they still there?" Nervo asked.

"Yes, they are," Clete said.

"And you left it at that, Edmundo?" Nervo asked.

"Except for telling him not to send troops to Estancia Don Guillermo until I got back to him. It might offend Don Cletus, and Cousin Erich knew how close Don Cletus was to El Presidente."

"Maybe you should get them out of there," Martin suggested. "God might tell Schmidt to go get them."

"They're not going anywhere," Clete said evenly. "I need them. My wife lives there."

"And the Froggers, right?" Martin asked.

"And the Froggers," Clete admitted.

"If Schmidt goes there, it would be with at least one company of Mountain Troops."