Delgano considered that and nodded. He then said: “Colonel Martín also believes that you know a good deal more than you?
?re admitting about the disappearance of the Froggers. Are you going to tell me the truth about that? Is that what this is all about?”
Frade nodded.
“You kidnapped them?” Delgano asked.
“No. They came to me. I didn’t kidnap them.”
“We wondered about that. Kidnapping a German diplomat and his wife would have been very dangerous, and we couldn’t understand why you would do something so foolish.”
“Frogger had been ordered back to Germany. He was afraid he was suspected of being a traitor.”
“Colonel Martín considered that. He has a hard time believing Frogger is Galahad.”
“He’s not. And, yeah, Gonzo, I realize that when I say he’s not, I’m admitting there is a Galahad. Truth time.”
Delgano smiled wryly.
“Colonel Martín thinks Galahad is Major von Wachtstein,” Delgano said.
“Does he?”
“I didn’t really expect you to admit something like that,” Delgano said. “Why did Frogger go to you?”
“He didn’t. When he decided that he had to run, he went to somebody else, who brought the Froggers to me.”
“Are you going to tell me who that ‘somebody else’ is?”
“No,” Frade said simply.
“So why did you take them? Knowing how dangerous for you that would be?”
“I’d like to say because I’m a Good Samaritan, but I won’t. I’m not, and you wouldn’t believe it anyway. The truth is that my friend had no place to hide them and I couldn’t let them go. The Germans would learn who brought them to me, for one thing. And, for another, I got word that the SS had decided that Frogger knew too much and had put out an order to kill him—both of them; the wife, too—wherever and whenever found.”
“So what are you going to do with them?”
“This is where telling the truth gets uncomfortable.”
“Do you have any choice?”
Frade shook his head. After a moment, he said, “Do you remember having breakfast with a man called Stevens, an assistant consular officer, when we were at Canoas?”
Delgano nodded.
“Well, he solved my problem of what to do with the Froggers. He’s not an assistant consular officer at the embassy in Rio de Janeiro.”
“I didn’t think he was. Who is he?”
“A very senior OSS officer.”
“Who works for Colonel Graham?”
“Who works with Colonel Graham.”
“An important man,” Delgano said.
Frade nodded. “When I told him about the Froggers . . . I have to go off on a tangent here, Gonzo. What do you know about Operation Phoenix?”