“Thank you, Miss Johansen,” Cronley said as he and Casey took their seats. “When your life is FUBAR, and there’s nothing you can do about it, you throw yourself into your work. I learned that from Ivan.”
“Or turn to drink,” Serov said, reaching for a bottle of Haig & Haig and offering it to Cronley.
Cronley took the bottle, then poured two inches of the scotch whisky into one glass and half an inch into a second. The latter he slid over to K. C. Wagner.
“Jimmy,” Janice said. “I realize this sounds a little lame, but is there anything I can do for you?”
“Oddly enough, I just thought of something . . . Ivan, did you tell her why I went to see General White?”
Serov shook his head.
“I need your literary talent,” Cronley said, turning back to Janice.
“To write about what?”
“The about-to-be-built Constabulary NCO Academy.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“Not at all.”
Cronley then told her why he wanted her to craft a story that would appear on the front page of Stars and Stripes and possibly even the Paris edition of the Herald Tribune.
“You realize, Jimmy, that I couldn’t write such a piece without first having seen Castle Wewelsburg?”
“That poses problems.” He pointed to the table at which Max Ostrowski and the two Polish DCI agent/bodyguards had taken seats. “Not only them, but Justice Jackson just pointed out that when we ride around in my Horch, we look like Hitler en route to a Nazi rally. I don’t want whoever is watching the Wewelsburg to report that someone very important just showed up.”
“I can have an unmarked car here in thirty minutes,” Serov said. “Providing, of course, that I get to go along.”
“Your car, the one in the NO PARKING zone outside, will do just fine,” Cronley replied. “Whoever wants to know what’s going on at Wewelsburg will be confused by a report that a car of a senior Russian officer arrived at the castle accompanied by two jeeps full of DCI agents.”
“And Janice,” K. C. Wagner chimed in.
“And Miss Johansen. We leave immediately after breakfast.”
[FIVE]
Wewelsburg Castle
Near Paderborn, American Zone of Occupation, Germany
0915 25 April 1946
They found Cohen, Father McKenna, and the engineer officers in the castle kitchen, drinking coffee with Cohen’s CIC agents.
“This is General Serov,” Cronley announced to Dickinson and Lomax. “And Miss Janice Johansen of the Associated Press. And, last but not least, Casey Wagner of the DCI. I’ve promised them all a—”
“Of the what?” Major Lomax interrupted. “Did you say of the DCI?”
“Yes, I did. And, to clear the air, so am I. Of the DCI, I mean. Any other questions?”
“No . . . No, sir,” Lomax said.
“As I started to say, I’ve promised them all a tour of the castle. I was about to ask who’s best qualified to be the guide, but I think it would be better if we found our own way, and if Colonel Cohen, our de facto tour guide, should miss something, whoever else knows anything can speak up. Any objections?”
There were none.
The tour took just over two hours.