Whether that was also a hand signal of the Húsares de Pueyrredón or not, Enrico Rodríguez, whom Clete was starting to think of as the wagon master leading the pioneers across the prairie, understood it. He and the wagons and horsemen, who had followed the hunters across the pampas, now headed for them.
“Leave the lunch wagon,” Clete ordered when Enrico rode up, “and then take everybody far enough away so they won’t be able to hear us talking.”
“Sí, señor.”
Frade turned to Welner and said, “Father, I have no problem with you hearing this, but it’s up to them, not me.”
Frogger, von Wachtstein, and Boltitz looked at them.
“For what it’s worth, I trust Father Welner with my life,” Clete said. “And he already knows a hell of a lot; just about everything.”
The three Germans looked among themselves.
“Father,” Boltitz finally said, “are you sure you want to know about this?”
“I wish I didn’t know any of it,” the priest said. “What I am sure of is that what I would li
ke to do is keep your parents alive. The more I know, the better chance I will have to do that. If I have to say this, I swear before God that nothing I hear here today will go any further.”
The Germans looked at each other again. Finally, von Wachtstein and then Frogger nodded.
“Please stay, Father,” Boltitz said. “And getting right to the point of this, what Peter and I have to do, with the lives of many people at stake, is determine that Oberstleutnant Frogger is who he and—no offense intended—Major Frade say he is.”
“And the reverse is true, Herr Kapitän zur See,” Frogger said stiffly. “The only person vouching for you is Major Frade. How do I know you are who you say you are?”
The irony of three traitors standing around a wagon in the middle of nowhere on the pampas drinking coffee and eating pastry while trying to determine that the others were also bona fide traitors was not lost on Frade. It would have been almost funny if so much, and so many lives, were not at stake.
It also made him consider treason and traitors. Until he came to Argentina, it had been simple: Anyone who is a traitor is a no-good sonofabitch. One beneath contempt.
But these three honorable men, these decent officers who actually tried to live by a code of chivalry that Frade thought was ridiculous in these times, were putting their lives on the line to be traitors. He admired them all, and doubted that he would have been able to handle being in their shoes.
Peter and I don’t belong in this. We should be at the controls of fighter planes. Philosophical introspection is not needed in a cockpit. You shoot the other guy down, or he shoots you down. Very simple.
The mutual investigation lasted for thirty-five minutes. Frade was impressed with Boltitz’s skill as an interrogator, and Frogger was nearly as good.
By comparison, Peter and I seem rank amateurs. Which, of course, we are.
“I pray to God that I am not wrong, Herr Kapitän zur See,” Frogger said finally. “But I believe that you are who you say are, personally, and further that you are allied with us in what we have undertaken.”
Boltitz gave Frogger his hand.
“Hey, what am I?” Peter asked.
“Claus vouched for you, Herr Major,” Frogger said. “He said if it was impossible to keep you out of our enterprise, then I could trust you with my life.”
And who the hell am I? Frade wondered. Like it or not, guys, I’m the guy you have to trust with your lives.
“Our immediate problem is my mother,” Frogger said.
“How’s that?” Welner asked.
“When I saw her yesterday, Father,” Frogger said evenly, “and told her that I had come to see that she and my father cooperated with Major Frade in collecting information about Operation Phoenix and on that ransoming operation, she said I was a despicable traitor to Germany and to my family and my late brothers, and that she hoped I was going to burn in hell for breaking my vow of obedience to ‘unser Führer.’ ”
The priest shook his head.
“Perhaps I can reason with her, perhaps pray with her for God’s guidance.”
“I don’t think that would be a solution to the problem, Father,” Frogger said. “Especially if she suspects—and I’m afraid she’s paranoid enough to do just that—what we plan to do to ‘our leader.’ ”