"Over the weekend, I was driving the Herr Standartenf?hrer and First Sec-retary Gradny-Sawz, Herr Major Freiherr. The Herr Standartenf?hrer was kind enough to report to the Herr Oberst that he was favorably impressed with my performance of duty, and that I was worthy of being trained to accept greater re-sponsibilities."
"Fascinating," Peter said.
"For a very important man, Herr Freiherr Major, the Herr Standartenf?hrer is very friendly."
What is that sonofabitch Goltz up to? Is he a faggot? God knows there's enough of them in the SS, including his good friend Werner von Tresmarck in Montevideo.
"Yes, I have noticed," Peter said.
"Oberst Gr?ner said Ambassador Graf von Lutzenberger will have to give his approval, Herr Freiherr, but he sees no problem in arranging for a scholar-ship. The Herr Oberst told me he will tell the Herr Ambassador that I am a reli-able, hardworking employee, with promotion potential."
"And you would go to Germany on this scholarship?"
"Yes, Herr Major Freiherr. For six months or so. To the Daimler-Benz Technical Institute in Stuttgart."
"Stuttgart, eh?"
"And the Standartenf?hrer says there is even a possibility that a passenger space might be available on a Condor flight, Herr Major Freiherr."
And the minute you step off the plane, you poor idiot, you will be told there is a slight change in plans. First, you will go to the Eastern Front as a rifleman.
And later, after you have helped stem the Communist Horde, then you can go to the Daimler-Benz Technical Institute in Stuttgart.
What the hell is Goltz up to? Is this some sort of perverse joke? Is he really thinking of sending G?nther to Germany? Why?
"Well, good luck, G?nther."
"Thank you, Herr Major Freiherr!" G?nther said, coming to attention and then marching out of the office.
Peter sat down at his desk and took a quick look at the front pages of the Frie Presse, La Nacion, La Prensa, the Buenos Aires Herald, and several of the magazines. He opened one of the latter, La Vidal, a weekly magazine devoted mainly to rotogravure photographs of younger members of Buenos Aires's up-per class attending social functions. Then he reached into his trousers pocket and came up with a three-by-five-inch file card he had been given by Humberto Duarte at the reception following the interment of the late el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade in Recoleta Cemetery.
He placed it on the open copy of La Vida! so that if someone came unex-pectedly into his office, he could conceal it quickly simply by turning a page of the magazine.
Handlesbank Zurich 0405567 Privatbank Gebruder Hach Zurich 782967 Banque de Suisse et Argentina Zurich 45607 Anglo-Suisse Banque de Commerce Basel 970018
Peter wasn't at all sure that he had completely understood what Humberto had told him, although he had asked as many questions as he could think to ask. As best he could remember, Humberto told him he had experienced difficulty transferring money from Generalleutnant von Wachtstein's numbered account in the Handelsbank to the merchant banking firm of Hach Brothers. Previous transfers had gone smoothly. What happened this time, no one seemed to know.
Neither Humberto personally nor the Anglo-Argentinian Bank had a "cor-respondent relationship"-whatever the hell that meant-with the Handels-bank. But Humberto did have a "personal relationship" with Hach Brothers, which apparently meant they would do what he told them to do without asking questions or making records.
However, Handelsbank informed Gebruder Hach that there were "adminis-trative problems" that would "briefly delay" the transfer of the funds requested from account number 0405567.
"I think, Peter, that they are just exercising due caution," Humberto said. "Exercising due caution also permits them to hold on to the money for, say, an-other two weeks. And interest accrues daily, as you know."
There was also the possibility that the Nazis were onto the secret account, which was painful to consider.
Humberto went on to explain that the Anglo-Argentine Bank had a "corre-spondent relationship" with both the Bank of Switzerland and Argentina and the Anglo-Swiss Bank of Commerce, as did the Handelsbank. "Less due cau-tion," he said, "is exercised between banks which have correspondent relation-ships, Peter, as you can well understand, than with banks, especially private merchant banks, where no correspondent relationship is in place."
Thus, after some thought, he concluded that the best way to handle transfers in the future was for Generalleutnant von Wachtstein to instruct Han-delsbank to move the funds to either the Anglo-Swiss Bank, where he-Hum-berto-controlled account number 970012, or to the Bank of Switzerland and Argentina, where he controlled account number 45607. Humberto would then direct those banks to transfer the funds to the Hach Brothers private bank, which would then transfer the funds to his personal account at the Anglo-Ar-gentine Bank in Buenos Aires.
Even with Humberto leading him patiently by the hand through all this, Pe-ter remained confused. This problem was compounded by the necessity of lead-ing Dieter von und zu Aschenburg, the Condor pilot, through this maze. Dieter had to commit everything except the bank names and account numbers to mem-ory, and then pass it on to Generalleutnant von Wachstein when he reached Ger-many.
Ordinarily, when Dieter flew a Condor into Buenos Aires, they got to-gether-as two veterans of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War could be expected to do-and there was plenty of time to handle this sort of thing. But this time, getting together had been impossible. The only time Dieter was free of the company of Karl Nabler, the copilot, Peter was at the Carzino-Cormano estancia or in Uruguay with Goltz.
Peter had considered, and decided against, writing everything down and having Dieter smuggle it into Germany for transmission to his father. Although he knew Dieter would have done that without question-and not only because some of the funds in the Handelsbank had been entrusted to Generalleutnant von Wachtstein by-the von und zu Aschenburg family-that would have not only been too risky for Dieter and for his father, but, if the data fell into the wrong hands, for the entire operation.
The only way to handle the problem was to give Dieter the card with the bank names and account numbers, and then try to make him understand what Humberto Duarte, without complete success, had tried to make him understand.