END
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
—
“I wish I did,” Cronley said.
“What?” Tiny asked.
“Have full confidence in my ability to handle the changed situation.”
Tiny said, “I doubled the guard on das Gasthaus and barred all Germans but the general from getting anywhere near it or Orlovsky. It was all I could think of to do.”
“That’s good, but the downside is that we just told a bunch of Good Germans we don’t trust them.”
“The Good Germans, as you call them,” Gehlen said, “they will understand. Those who have sold their comrades out will be frustrated.”
“Let me throw some more ice water on our unhappy situation,” Tiny said. “If the general is right, and of course he usually is, and Orlovsky is more important than we thought, and the NKGB is as good as we know they are, aren’t they likely to try to get to Orlovsky through my guys? Money talks.”
“You think that is likely?” Gehlen asked.
“Unlikely, but possible. So what I’m going to do is make snap judgments about who might be tempted, which will probably be wrong, and make sure the guys who can’t be tempted—Martin, Abraham, Clark, Tedworth, and Loudmouth Lewis—keep an eye on them.”
“You going to tell the guys why?” Cronley asked.
“I don’t see how I can’t tell them.”
“Then do it,” Cronley said.
“If Father Welner leaves Buenos Aires at . . .” Gehlen began.
“Twenty-hundred,” Tiny furnished. “That’s midnight here.”
“. . . midnight tonight, when will he get to Frankfurt?”
“At midnight tomorrow,” Cronley said. “They’ll fly Buenos Aires–Dakar–Lisbon–Frankfurt. With fuel stops, that adds up to almost exactly twenty-four hours. And fucks up my idea of flying Welner here in a Storch. I can’t get in here in the dark. Which means I couldn’t leave Eschborn until three hours before daybreak, or four in the morning. What would I do with a Jesuit priest for the time between when I pick him up at Rhine-Main and can take off from Eschborn?”
“Let him sleep in one of the ambulances,” Tiny said.
“Or,” General Gehlen said, “can we contact the plane en route?”
“Why?”
“To tell them not to arrive in Frankfurt before daylight the day after tomorrow.”
“That would do it,” Cronley said.
“Better yet, since the plane hasn’t left Buenos Aires yet,” Tiny said, “we can get on the SIGABA now and tell them not to arrive in Frankfurt until ten hundred the day after tomorrow.”
“Driver,” Cronley commanded regally, “take me to the SIGABA device.”
“Your wish is my command, sir,” Tiny replied.
[ FIVE ]
Room 506
Park Hotel