“Then I’ll repeat the question: Are you willing to undertake a mission involving great personal risk outside the continental limits of the United States?”
He didn’t say “overseas.” He said “outside the continental limits of the United States.”
Oh!
“Has this something to do with my father?” Clete asked.
“You weren’t listening, Lieutenant,” Graham said. “I said I was not at liberty to discuss the nature of this operation.”
Sure, it has to do with my father. I could see that in your face, and the only possible thing about me that would interest an intelligence type like you is my father—and that’s certainly what you are, Colonel, an intelligence type. And Argentina is “outside the continental limits of the United States,” as opposed to “overseas.”
“Colonel, are you aware that I hardly know my father, that I wouldn’t recognize him if he walked into this room?”
“Yes, I am,” Graham said. “But that’s the last question on that subject I’m going to answer. Or let you ask.”
“Until I volunteer for this mission of yours, you mean?”
Graham nodded.
“Colonel, I just got home from Guadalcanal.”
Graham nodded. “I told you, I arranged that. To save me a trip over there to have this conversation.”
“This—mission. It’s that important?”
Graham nodded, then said, “It’s that important.”
“Do I have to decide right now?”
“That would make things more convenient for both of us.”
“And what if I say yes now, hear what you have to say, and then change my mind?”
“I wondered if that possibility would occur to you. The answer, frankly, is that there’s really nothing I can do but appeal to your patriotism.”
“Isn’t patriotism supposed to be the last refuge of the scoundrel?” Clete asked, smiling.
“I’ve heard that said,” Graham replied, smiling back at him. “I’m not sure if I believe it. I’m an Aggie—just as you were once, for a while. We Aggies take words like ‘patriotism’ and ‘honor’ seriously.” (An Aggie is an alumnus of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Institute.)
“At least some of us do,” Clete said. He met Graham’s eyes for a moment, then said, evenly, “OK.”
Graham nodded, then walked to the chest of drawers and laid his briefcase on it. He opened the briefcase, took out a form, closed the briefcase, laid the form on it, then took a fountain pen from his shirt pocket and extended it to Frade.
“Would you please sign this?”
Clete walked to the chest of drawers, then bent over Graham’s briefcase and read the form.
* * *
The United States of America Office of Strategic Services Washington, D.C.
Acknowledgment of Penalties Provided by the United States Code for the Unauthorized Disclosure of National Security Information
The undersigned acknowledge that the unauthorized disclosure of any information made available to him by any officer of Strategic Services will result in his prosecution under applicable provisions of the United States Code (including, where applicable, The Manual For Courts-Martial, 1917) and that the penalties provided by law provide on conviction for the death penalty, or such other punishment as the court may decide.
Cletus Howell Frade
Executed at Los Angeles, Calofornia,