The Honor of Spies

Clete had a clear mental image of himself and Colonel A. F. Graham in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel the day he met Graham and heard for the first time of the United States Office of Strategic Services.

Graham, whom he had never seen before, came to Clete's room in civilian clothing, showed him his Marine Corps identification, and came right to the point: "Are you willing to undertake a mission involving great personal risk outside the continental limits of the United States?"

When, after thinking it all over for perhaps twenty seconds, Clete--who was literally willing to do anything to get off what he was doing, which was a Heroes on Display War Bond Tour to be followed by a tour as a basic flying instructor--said that he would, Graham handed him a sheet of paper and said, "Read it and then sign it."

He had signed it, and only then asked, "What's the 'Office of Strategic Services'?"

Clete looked between Martin and Nervo, and began: "The OSS has made a deal with a German intelligence officer named Gehlen . . ."

"And the goddamn Vatican is involved in this up to the Pope's eyeballs," Nervo said when Clete had finished.

"What are you supposed to do with these people, Cletus?" Martin asked.

"Nobody told me this," Clete replied, "but I have the feeling that this is step one."

"What is 'this'?" Martin asked.

"Getting the officers out of Russia and their families out of Germany, then into Italy, then to Portugal, and finally established here. . . ."

"Established here?" Nervo repeated.

"I am supposed to set them up to disappear in Argentina."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know. We have agreed to provide money. I suppose Welner will help. . . ."

"Let me give you a little friendly advice, my OSS friend," Nervo said. "Never put yourself in debt to Holy Mother Church, especially when it's being represented by a Jesuit, and especially, especially when that Jesuit is the beloved Father Kurt Welner, S.J."

"Finish what you were saying, Cletus, about this being step one," Martin said.

"Well--and I'm just guessing--when Gehlen hears that these two made it here and that I've set them up--"

"They have names?" Nervo interrupted.

"The major is Alois Strubel. The sergeant major is Otto Niedermeyer. I went along with Strubel's idea for new names. He's now Moller and Niedermeyer's Kortig. The Mollers have two children, a boy and a girl, ten or eleven, and the Kortigs have a boy about the same age. I've been told the women and children were killed in air raids; that German records show that they were. The men were supposedly killed on the Eastern Front."

"Well," Nervo said, "this Gehlen fellow could have arranged for the men to die that way. But the women and children . . . no one would question a Catholic hospital reporting the death of a mother and her child any more than Alejandro here would suspect that a nun had a kilo of flawless diamonds in her underwear. Holy Mother Church was involved in that, and in getting the women and children out of Germany."

"Let Cletus finish what he was saying, Santiago," Martin said.

Nervo gestured for Clete to go on.

"What I'm guessing is that when Gehlen learns everything went as promised--"

"How's he going to learn that?" Nervo said.

"Moller had a coded message all prepared to do that."

"And you sent this coded message?"

"No, I didn't. I told him to give me his codebook, and that if I heard he'd sent any messages to anybody, I'd have him shot."

Nervo glanced at Martin and said, "Our OSS friend really is a lot smarter than he looks, isn't he, Alejandro? And I'll bet he doesn't get any friend of his involved in something that'll probably get him shot."

Martin looked at Frade. "Go on, Cletus."

"Well, after we prove we did what we promised to do, it's Gehlen's turn to give us something of value. Presuming he does that, we get some more wives and children of Gehlen's people out of Germany and over here."

"Just the wives and children?"

"For now. The officers will come later."

"What's that all about?" Nervo asked.

"Again, I don't know what I'm talking about here. Just guessing."

"So guess," General Nervo said.