“Clams, oysters, and lobster. Santiago is a virtual paradise of seafood.”
“Don Cletus thinks we can make money flying it in,” Delgano explained.
“Trust me, Gonzo,” Frade said. “And now curiosity is about to overwhelm me: What are you doing here, dressed up like some general’s dog-robber?”
“Curiosity just overwhelmed me,” Delgano said. “ ‘Dog-robber’?”
“Aides-de-camp, who must be shameless enough to snatch food from the mouths of starving dogs to feed their general, are known as dog-robbers,” Frade explained.
Delgano shook his head.
Pelosi said: “I was at a reception for foreign attachés at Campo de Mayo. You had to go in uniform with medals.”
“And was Major Baron von Wachtstein there, dazzling everybody with his Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross?”
Pelosi nodded.
“Good. That means he’s in town and can come.”
“So was el Coronel Perón.”
“He can’t.”
“And there’s a package for you.”
“Yeah?”
“From Room 1012, National Institutes of Health Building, Washington, D.C. It was in the pouch. My boss said to get it to you, and to get a receipt.”
The headquarters of the Office of Strategic Services was in the National Institutes of Health Building.
Pelosi’s boss, the military attaché of the U.S. Embassy, was not fond of either Pelosi or Frade. He had received a teletype message from the vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army directing him not to assign Lieutenant Pelosi any duties that could possibly interfere in any way with his other duties. The other duties were unspecified. The military attaché knew that Pelosi was the OSS man in the embassy and worked for Cletus Frade.
“He didn’t happen to open it before he gave it to you to give to me, did he?”
Pelosi shook his head.
“Where is it?”
“In my car.”
“You left the report of my Wasserman test in your car where anybody can get at it? Go get it! My God, what if Dorotea should see it?”
Pelosi got quickly off the Lodestar.
“What test is that?” Delgano asked.
“They draw blood. And test it. If you flunk your Wasserman test, you have syphilis. And it has to be that. I can’t think of anything else the National Institutes of Health could possibly be sending me. Can you?”
Delgano knew where OSS headquarters was.
“Not really,” he said, shaking his head. “Cletus, you are impossible.”
Pelosi had to wait to get back on the airplane until half a dozen workmen had unstrapped the aluminum crates and manhandled them into the back of a 1940 Chevrolet pickup truck.
Then he came aboard and handed Frade a large padded envelope.
Frade tore it open.