“Yeah, I think so, Freddy.”
“Okay. When I got my draft notice, I started researching the Army.”
“You did what?”
“I wanted to learn what I could expect. So I went to the library—”
“And got a book?” Cronley said, chuckling. “What to Expect When You’re Drafted?”
“Not a book. Books plural. About military ethics.”
“There ain’t no such animal.”
“Yes, there is. A good officer has dual loyalty.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Up and down. A good officer is loyal to his superiors and his subordinates. They taught you about this when you went to that Texas military school, right?”
“It was mentioned once or twice. So what?”
“It didn’t take me long to figure out Mattingly. His is only up.”
“Excuse me?”
“His loyalty is upward only. People under him are expendable.”
“That’s true, but so what?”
“So I knew it was only a matter of time until he expended me.”
“Okay.”
“Then you showed up. And I saw that yours is both ways.”
“How do you know?”
“If yours was only upward, to Mattingly, you would have kept your nose to yourself and let him get away with what he was trying to do to Dunwiddie. Get Dunwiddie to shoot the NKGB-er and him know nothing about it. You didn’t. You were loyal downwards. If you’re at the bottom, like I am here, loyalty downwards is very important.”
“Well, then, welcome to our little conspiracy, Freddy.”
“Like I said, I see only one maybe big problem. Getting the NKGB-er onto the Argentine airplane. We’ll have to think about that.”
“Why don’t we find a quiet corner of the dining room and think about it there? While I’m eating. The only thing I’ve had to eat all day is a bacon-and-egg sandwich.”
“Because you are going to call Mrs. Colonel Schumann and ask her what you can do for her. Probably dinner.”
“I’d rather not.”
“I’d rather not be here. I would rather be back at Harvard chasing Wellesley girls and working on my doctorate. But I am here.”
“Then you take her to dinner.”
“She doesn’t want to have dinner with me. I’m an enlisted man. Besides, what we are trying to do is important. And you know you can’t afford to have Mrs. Colonel Schumann pissed at you.”
He picked up the elaborate old-fashioned telephone on his desk.
“Kindly connect me with Mrs. Lieutenant Colonel Schumann,” he ordered.