When that got the chuckles Frade expected, he stood up.
“Say ‘good night’ to the nice people, Captain Cronley. We have to get up with the birds to go flying.”
—
Cronley showed Frade to his room, two doors down from his, and asked, “What did you tell Mattingly about Orlovsky?”
“I told him that I had made it perfectly clear to you that you were going to let General Gehlen handle it.”
“You’re devious, Colonel.”
“Thank you,” Clete said.
Then he punched Jimmy affectionately on the shoulder and went into his room.
—
Ten minutes later, as Cronley came out of the shower, there was a knock at the door.
That has to be Rachel. Is she out of her mind?
A moment later, she pushed past him into the room.
“What about your husband?”
“He, the general, and Iron Lung are having a nightcap. We have thirty minutes, maybe a little more.”
“And if we don’t and he goes to your room and you’re not there?”
“I’ll tell him I took a walk.”
By then she was sitting on the bed, removing her shoes.
Their mating didn’t take long, which Cronley decided was probably because of what she had done to him going to Pullach and back.
As she dressed, she asked, “What was that serious problem you dealt with to everybody’s satisfaction, and Colonel Frade didn’t want to talk about?”
“If he doesn’t want to talk about it, that means I can’t.”
She didn’t press the question, and three minutes later she was gone.
But something about her asking it bothered him.
He could
n’t define what bothered him, and decided it was just feminine curiosity.
He took another shower and fell into bed.
IX
[ ONE ]
Schleissheim U.S. Army Airfield
Munich, American Zone of Occupation, Germany
0645 3 November 1945