“About what? You’re implying that Donovan doesn’t know.”
“Unfortunately,” Dulles said, “we simply can’t take the risk of having what you’re going to do get out. And it would get out if Donovan were privy to it.”
“Which is?” Frade asked.
“Immediately, what we’re going to do . . . ,” Graham said, then stopped. “This is the business to which I didn’t think you should be privy. It was my intention that you would know nothing about this. But Mr. Dulles disagreed . . .”
Dulles nodded.
“. . . and,” Graham went on, “I have deferred to what I really hope is his superior wisdom; we are ‘agreed’ to tell you. The German officer in charge of Abwehr Ost—Russian—intelligence is a lieutenant colonel by the name of Reinhard Gehlen. He is far more powerful than his rank suggests. He is vouched for by Admiral Canaris, and, like Canaris, is involved in Operation Valkyrie.”
Frade considered that, then nodded.
“A delegate of Canaris,” Dulles carried on, “came to us—right here in this hotel, as a matter of fact—with an interesting offer. Gehlen recognizes the war is lost; that it’s just a matter of time. And a relatively short one, if Valkyrie succeeds and Hitler is removed. God only knows how long if Valkyrie fails and Hitler fights to the last member of the Hitler Youth, which he is entirely capable of doing.
“Anyway, Gehlen is willing to turn over to us all his assets, data, and—very important—agents-in-place. He has two reasons. He personally doesn’t want to fall into Russian hands. More important, he doesn’t want his family to fall into Russian hands.”
“In other words,” Frade said, “he’s covering his ass and wants to set up his own private Operation Phoenix?”
“You could put it that way, I suppose,” Dulles said. “But it’s not black and white. In our way of life, things are seldom simple.”
“His second reason,” Graham went on, “is that he believes the United States will ultimately, inevitably, go to war with the Soviet Union—”
“So does my grandfather,” Clete said.
“—in which case his information and especially the agents-in-place would be of great value,” Graham finished.
“Do you think we’re going to have a war with the Russians?” Clete asked softly.
“I don’t think the possibility can be dismissed out of hand,” Dulles said. “There are a number of knowledgeable people—General George Patton among them—who think we will.”
“Among other things that Canaris’s delegate offered to give us—in fact, did give us—are the names of Soviet spies in the Manhattan Project,” Graham said.
“The Russians know about that atomic bomb?” Frade asked, his surprise showing.
Dulles nodded. “And are trying very hard to steal it for Mother Russia.”
“Jesus Christ!”
“What Gehlen and Canaris want is for us to provide sanctuary for their men—and the families of their men—in South America.”
“To which they will be flown, via Lisbon, by South American Airways?” Frade asked.
Dulles said, “There are two problems here with which I think you should be made familiar. Colonel Graham is—understandably—uncomfortable with you being aware of them.”
“Which are?”
“Colonel Donovan and, of course, the President,” Dulles said. “Perhaps I should have said, ‘The President and, of course, Colonel Donovan.’ ”
Graham said, “What we should have done when Canaris made us this offer was refer it to Colonel Donovan. If we had done that, the chances are that Donovan would have gone to Roosevelt, strongly recommending that we make the deal. And the chances are that Roosevelt would have gone along with it.”
“But you didn’t go to Donovan with it?” Frade asked incredulously. “Is that what you’re saying?”
Both Graham and Dulles nodded.
“Donovan, we decided, would have gone to Roosevelt,” Dulles said, “which meant that others would learn of it. For example, Vice President Henry Wallace. Wallace is a great admirer of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. He would have insisted that Russia, as our ally, has a right to any and all intelligence Gehlen would provide. And the President would have gone along with him; FDR really believes that Stalin can be trusted; more important, that he can control him.
“Mrs. Roosevelt believes both things, that the Soviet Union is a trustworthy ally and that her husband can control Joseph Stalin.”