Everyone at the table but Mrs. Greene was now either laughing or giggling.
“. . . and that suggested our own Colonel Robert Mattingly was involved, so I rose to the occasion and said, ‘Tom, that about sums it up.’
“To which he replied, ‘I thought it had to be something like that. Sorry he bothered you. I’ll turn him off. Your storks are free to fly.’”
“General,” Frade said, “thank you very much. Cronley says he needs the Storches. What they are, sir, is sort of super Piper Cubs. Among other advantages, you can get—actually, stuff—three people in them. You can get only two in a Cub.”
“When can I go to the English Garden?” Mrs. Greene inquired.
“Well, now that Colonel Frade has flown in in his stork,” General Greene said, “we can sort things out. What I suggest, dear, is that Mr. Hessinger drop Major Wallace at the bahnhof, then take you to the English Garden. What’s departure time of the Blue Danube, Wallace?”
“Twenty-twenty, sir.”
“I figured someone should be holding down the shop in the Farben Building, since we’re all here, and Wallace volunteered,” General Greene explained.
“I’m tempted to get on the train with him,” Frade said. “But I really should have a look at Pullach, even in the dark.”
“Not a problem, Colonel,” Major Wallace said. “The engineers are working around the clock. The site is covered with floodlights.”
“How many of you ladies are going with Grace?” Greene asked.
“I’ll pass,” Rachel said. “I’m too tired to do all that walking. Can I go to Pullach?”
“Certainly.”
“And I’ll go with Rachel,” Mrs. McClung announced. “You can find some wonderful things in the English Garden but I want to see Pullach.”
“You can see Pullach in the morning,” Mrs. Greene proclaimed. “Come with me.”
So you, Mrs. McClung, Cronley thought unkindly, can carry whatever she swaps her Chesterfields and Hershey bars for that exceeds Freddy’s carrying capacity.
“What would you like Mary-Beth and me to do, General?” Captain Hall asked.
Mrs. Greene answered for her husband: “You two can come with me. There is safety in numbers.”
“To further complicate things,” Frade said, “I’d hoped to have a private word with you, General, and Colonel Mattingly. When can you fit that into our schedule?”
“Okay,” General Greene said. “Munich Military Post gave me a staff car . . .”
“Only because I insisted that Captain Hall call down here and get you one,” Mrs. Greene interrupted.
“. . . a requisitioned old Packard limousine,” Greene went on. “It has a window between the front and back seats. You, Mattingly, and I can have that private chat on our way to Pullach. And back. And there’s a car here, right?”
“Two, sir,” Major Wallace said. “We have a Kapitän and an Admiral.”
“Captain Cronley’s in special agent mode,” Greene said, pointing to the blue U.S. triangles on Cronley’s lapels, “so he can drive the Schumanns in one of them. The Schumanns and Major McClung.” He paused. “Okay? The only question seems to be where are all these cars?”
“Yours is outside, General,” Major Wallace said. “The others are in the basement garage.”
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Greene said. “Otherwise it’ll be midnight before we get to eat. Go get the cars. We’ll meet in front.”
[ FIVE ]
Cronley pulled up the Opel Kapitän behind the Packard in front of the hotel as a natty sergeant took the cover off a red plate with a silver star in its center mounted on the rear bumper. The sergeant then scurried to the side of the car and opened the door for General Greene, Mattingly, and Frade.
Cronley found the limousine fascinating. He couldn’t identify the year, but guessed it was at least ten years old. It looked like something a movie star would own, and he wondered who it had belonged to, and how it had survived the war looking as if it had just come off the showroom floor.
It was only when the passenger door started to open that he wondered if he was supposed to have jumped out and opened the door as the sergeant had on the Packard. He looked to see who was getting in.