The Honor of Spies

"Cat got your tongue, Nervo?" the president said. "Usually, you're bubbling over with helpful suggestions."

"First thing in the morning, Mr. President, instead of Cletus taking you flying in one of those little airplanes looking for Schmidt, he flies you to Buenos Aires. You can do that, right, Cletus, in your red airplane?"

Clete nodded. "I can do that."

"And Martin and I go looking for Schmidt in those little airplanes. And stop him."

"Which would see you both lying in a pool of blood on a country road," President Rawson said.

"But you would be in the Casa Rosada, Mr. President," Martin argued.

"Unless I am in a position to look my senior officers--some of whom doubtless know what Schmidt plans--in the eye and tell them I have personally placed el Coronel Schmidt under arrest pending court-martial, my being in the Casa Rosada would be like--what was that phrase Cletus used?--'pissing into the wind.'

"What we're going to do is what we originally decided. We will search for Colonel Schmidt and, when we find him, order him to return to San Martin, and when that's done, Cletus can fly me to Buenos Aires."

"And what if shortly after you find Schmidt, you find yourself under arrest?" Nervo challenged. "Or in that pool of blood on a country road that you mentioned?"

"Well, if that happens, General, there won't be anything else we can do to stop this country from having a civil war, will there?"

[FIFTEEN]

The Wansee Suite

Edelweiss Hotel

San Martin 202

San Carlos de Bariloche

19555 16 October 1943

"Sweetheart, I'd really like to go down to the bar," Senorita Evita Duarte said to el Coronel Peron.

"Out of the question," Peron snapped. "And we're going to have dinner and breakfast up here, not in the dining room."

She looked at him with hurt eyes.

"Evita," Inge Schenck said, "going into the lobby or the restaurant is not a very good idea. The press is down there. They already know Juan Domingo is here, which means that Juan Domingo's name is going to be in every newspaper in the country tomorrow."

"Listen to her, Evita," Peron said.

"It would be a lot worse if his picture, with you, was in the newspapers," Inge said.

"What about you, Inge?" Evita asked. "What would happen to you if your picture was all over La Nacion?"

"I don't intend to let that happen. That's why I'm not going down to the bar."

"But what if it did?" Evita pursued. "How would that affect what happens to you next? And while we're on that subject, what happens to you next?"

"I haven't given that much thought," Inge said.

"Oh, the hell you haven't," Evita said. "You've not had one little itty-bitty thought about who now owns all the property of the late SS-Brigadefuhrer Ritter Manfred von Deitzberg--excuse me, Jorge Schenck?"

Inge didn't reply.

"How long do you think it's going to take the Gendarmeria to find out Senor Schenck was already dead when somebody shot him?" Evita asked.

"I wonder who shot him," Peron said. "Maybe it was just a simple robbery. Manfred resisted and was shot."

"Oh, come on, Juan Domingo, you know better than that," Evita said. She let that sink in for a moment. "And that you are, too, Inge. Dead, I mean."

"Well, I still have my diplomatic passport as Frau von Tresmarck," Inge said.

"You should have thought of that when the gendarmes asked for your papers," Evita said. "You handed them Inge Schenck's Argentine National Identity booklet."

"I didn't even know Manfred had been shot when they came in," Inge protested.

"And did you notice that the gendarmes were in the hotel after the shooting before the local police were?" Evita asked. "Maybe they were sitting outside in a car."

"Why would they be doing that?" Peron asked.

Evita shrugged.

"It could be they were protecting the secretary of labor. Or wondering what he was doing in Bariloche," Evita said. "Did they ask you that, what you are doing here?"

"No."

"They will. And what are you going to tell them?"

"I don't know. That I was having a little holiday. People do that--come to Bariloche for a little holiday."

"They're questioning everybody," Evita said. "That real-estate man and the notary are going to tell them you bought Estancia Puesta de Sol from Schenck."

"So that's what I'll tell them. There's nothing illegal about that."

"Well, that brings us back to what happens to the rest of Senor Schenck's properties," Evita said, and turned to Inge. "There's a lot of property, right?"

Inge nodded.

"There's a lot of property. Hundreds of millions of pesos' worth of property. Here and in Uruguay."

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

"Very briefly, Evita," Inge explained. "The money came from the German Embassy. The real estate is to provide someplace for senior officials of the German Reich to go if they lose the war."

"You knew about this, Juan Domingo?" Evita asked.

After a moment, he nodded.

"You're going to have to learn to trust me. Tell me about things like this."