“I hope you are providing exact details, not details altered sufficiently to be useless in case you don’t trust me to keep them within this room.”
“You have my word as an officer, mi Coronel, that I am giving you the facts exactly as I know them.”
“Then please proceed in Spanish, mi Coronel, so that Suboficial Mayor Rodríguez may hear what you have to say. He has a nose for—to use the delightful phrase I have learned from my son—bullshit.”
Graham smiled, and went on in Spanish. “The estimated time of arrival of the Devil Fish is 0900 29 December. A U.S. Navy fleet tanker has been ordered from Panama to rendezvous as quickly as possible with the Devil Fish on her course from the African coast. Once that rendezvous has been made, and there is some question when or if this can be accomplished, the submarine can proceed without consideration of fuel exhaustion—at full speed, in other words. So her estimated time of arrival may be as much as twenty-four hours sooner. The tanker is faster than the submarine; it will accompany her to Punta del Este and refuel her again there.”
“And if the rendezvous proves impossible?”
“Then we fall back to the 0900 29 December arrival time. The submarine can make that time with available fuel on board, and be refueled by the Alfred Thomas.”
“You are confident you can accomplish this without the Germans becoming aware of it?”
“So far as we know, mi Coronel, our communications are secure.”
“As far as you know,” Frade said. “Have you considered, mi Coronel, that vessels of the Armada Argentina will almost certainly accompany your destroyer, for several hundred miles at least, when she sails from Buenos Aires?”
“The Thomas will engage in certain maneuvers, mi Coronel, to ‘test her engines and steering apparatus,’ while she is passing through the Bay of Samborombón.”
“Taking soundings?”
“Yes. Following these maneuvers, she will then test her engines in a high-speed run. She is capable of making at least thirty-five knots. The fastest vessel in the Armada Argentina, the Corvette San Martin, has a top speed of twenty-four, for limited periods. It will be difficult for the Armada Argentina to accompany the Thomas very far.”
“I am impressed with your intimate knowledge of the capabilities—or should I say limitations?—of our Armada, mi Coronel.” El Coronel Frade nodded, and there was the suggestion of a smile.
“Insofar as getting the radio equipment off your destroyer, mi Coronel,” Frade said. “The vessel will be taking aboard foodstuffs, fresh meat, vegetables?”
“Yes, I’m sure it will,” Graham said.
“The contract to victual foreign warships has been granted to Servicios de Proveedores Asociados by the Armada Argentina. I doubt very much if the Armada Argentina would question what the people from S.P.A. took off your destroyer after they had delivered the victuals. Or if the S.P.A. refrigerator truck went from the wharf to the Frigorífico del Norte slaughterhouse. And there certainly would be nothing suspicious about a Frigorífico del Norte truck going to Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo.”
“Can you arrange that?” Graham asked. “That would be more efficient than funneling the equipment through the Embassy.”
“Enrico?” el Coronel asked in turn.
“No problem, mi Coronel. It is done.”
“That was easy,” Graham said.
“I own S.P.A. and Frigorífico del Norte,” Frade said, “and Enrico has many trustworthy friends.”
There was a knock at the door, and then it opened. A maid, looking more than a little nervous, stepped inside.
“We require nothing,” Frade snapped.
“Mi Coronel, there is a telephone call for Señor Cletus.”
Christ! The Virgin Princess. Worried about me.
“It is a Comandante von Wachtstein, Señor Cletus.”
Frade looked at Clete, his eyebrows raised in question.
“I’ll take it, thank you,” Clete said.
Curiosity overwhelmed El Coronel Frade. “The German officer? What does he want?”
“I’m about to find out,” Clete said, rising to go to the telephone.