"You will be informed when-" Lauffer said.
"Asuncion, Paraguay," Delgano interrupted. "It's thirteen hundred kilome-ters. Would you like to see the flight plan I laid out?"
"If Capitan Lauffer thinks I can be trusted with it," Clete said. "I would like very much to see it.
"It's inside," Delgano said, gesturing in the direction of the hangar.
When they started to walk toward the hangar door, Clete saw the infantry officers watching carefully.
Fifteen minutes later, after checking Delgano's flight plan and walking him through another preflight check, they came out of the hangar. When they did, there was visible relief on the faces of the infantry officers.
But Lauffer was not through.
"You do not wish to test the aircraft's engines? Could that be done inside the hangar?"
"Not without opening the doors," Clete said. "The prop blast would very likely knock the doors off their tracks and then you'd never get it out of the hangar."
"I'll go to General Rawson and tell him that it was my decision not to roll the aircraft from the hangar," Delgano said. "If that's what you'd like."
Lauffer considered that a moment.
"I think it would be best if Se¤or Frade did that," he said. "I suggest that you stay here and hold yourself in readiness."
"Whatever you say, Capitan," Delgano said, his tone suggesting that he was at least as disappointed with Lauffer as Clete was. Lauffer seemed more inter-ested in making sure no one could criticize his actions tonight than anything else.
[TWO]
Officers' Casino
Campo de Mayo
Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
0225 19 April 1943
The muzzles of what looked like.30-caliber air-cooled Browning machine guns poked from upstairs windows in the Officers' Casino (which was what the Ar-gentine Army called their Officers' Club). There were two sandbagged machinegun positions on the lawn of the club, and there were a number of soldiers- mostly noncoms-guarding the door who looked as if they knew what they were supposed to do with their rifles and submachine guns.
The capitan in charge of the building's guard detail would not pass Lauffer, Clete, and Enrico into the lobby of the building until one of his lieutenants had gone inside the building to "check with el Coronel Per¢n."
They got inside as far as the door of what looked like the Main Dining Room, converted now to the command post where Ramirez and Rawson were directing the coup d'‚tat, before they were stopped again to wait further clear-ance.
Clete looked inside, and decided that while this place looked like a com-mand post-there were maps on the wall; batteries of telephones; messengers coming and going and the like-there was something about it that reminded him of the command post training exercises he'd gone through during his offi-cer's training. Then the aviation cadets had played at being squadron and air group commanders and staff officers, and solemnly pretended they knew what they were doing. There was somehow the same flavor here. Everybody seemed to be playing a role, and only a few people seemed to act as if they really knew what they were doing.
El Coronel Juan Domingo Per¢n himself, in an immaculate, splendidly tai-lored uniform, finally approached the door and waved them inside.
"There is a problem with the aircraft?" he asked.
"It will be available on five minutes' notice," Clete answered.
Per¢n looked at Clete and then at Lauffer, his attitude making it clear that he wasn't interested in what Clete had to say.
"Is the aircraft available?" Per¢n asked.
Screw you, Coronel!
"Se¤or Frade thought it best not to take the aircraft from the hangar," Lauf-fer said.
"What?" Per¢n asked indignantly.