“And I must ask you to reconsider. The Russian must be broken.”
“I intend to get the information we both want from him.”
“And is Oberst Mattingly aware of what you have decided to do?”
“He didn’t want to hear it, but I told him anyway.”
“And he approved?”
“You miss the point, Mannberg. Colonel Mattingly doesn’t want to know anything about this situation. Since he didn’t tell me to ‘deal with the situation,’ he can hardly tell me not to deal with it, can he?”
“But you have just said you have taken over the interrogation!”
“And I have. From Mr. Dunwiddie, who shouldn’t have allowed Bischoff to interrogate my prisoner in the first place.”
“Your prisoner?”
“I’m the commanding officer of the Twenty-third CIC. And of Kloster Grünau. Since my men arrested this fellow, whoever he is . . .”
“We know who he is!”
“. . . then he’s my prisoner. So far as I know, recently discharged from POW status former soldiers have no authority to arrest anyone, much less any authority to detain anyone, or interrogate anyone, do they?”
“This is not the reaction I expected from you,” Mannberg said. “Would you be willing to discuss this with General Gehlen?”
“No.”
“When he hears of our conversation, I feel sure he’ll report it to Colonel Mattingly.”
“When I told Colonel Mattingly about what I had decided to do here, he didn’t want to hear it. I don’t think he’ll be any more interested in hearing Herr Gehlen try to tell him what I’ve decided to do here.”
“You understand, you must understand, how important it is we get the names of our traitors.”
“I do. And when I have them, I’ll tell you and then you and Herr Gehlen may offer your recommendations about what I should do with the people you have allowed to infiltrate the South German Industrial Development Organization and consequently put it under such an absolutely unacceptable risk of exposure.”
“Frankly, Kapitän Cronley, I’m having trouble believing we’re having this conversation. I don’t like to think what General Gehlen’s reaction to it will be.”
“Well, I guess you’ll know as soon as you tell him,” Cronley replied. “Is there anything else on your mind?”
“No, thank you.”
“And you’re sure you won’t change your mind about a drink?”
“That’s very kind, but no thank you.”
He offered his hand to Cronley, and then to Dunwiddie, and then walked out of the room.
When Mannberg was out of earshot, Tiny said, “Absolutely fascinating. I’ve never seen anyone commit suicide before.”
“You think that’s what I did?”
“Gehlen will be on the phone to Mattingly thirty seconds after Mannberg tells him about this.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, come on!”
“We don’t have a secure line. Gehlen’s not going to get on an unsecure telephone and say, ‘Colonel Mattingly, let me tell you what your crazy young captain’s doing with the NKGB major we caught.’”