“Mr. Justice, this is Fulda,” the SIGABA operator said. “We have the President for you, sir. On a secure line. The conversation will be recorded by a White House stenographer. We have been unable to locate Admiral Souers, but we’re working on it.”
“Put us through, please,” Jackson said.
“Hello, Bob,” the President of the United States said. “Sid and I were just talking about you. How’s things going?”
“Sid’s with you? Someone should tell the ASA. They said they couldn’t find him. Anchors aweigh, Admiral.”
“You better have some good news for us,” Souers said. “Things have gone from bad to worse around here.”
“Before we get into that,” Truman said, “who’s there with you, Bob?”
“General White, Super Spook, Colonel Cohen, Ken Brewster, my clerk. And Miss Janice Johansen of the Associated Press.”
“What’s she doing there? . . . No offense, Miss Johansen.”
“Well, we’ve decided on the best way to handle this, but I wanted to check with you first.”
“Handle what, for God’s sake?”
“A couple of minutes ago, General White put von Dietelburg and Burgdorf back in their cells. Personally put them there. I thought I mentioned that.”
“No, Bob, you didn’t. And you damn well know you didn’t!”
“We thought you might be interested.”
“Tell me about it. Every damn detail.”
“Well, Father McKenna and Super Spook got to Heimstadter, one of the second level—”
“Who is Father McKenna?” the President interrupted.
“A Jesuit priest who works out of the Vatican. They—Cardinal von Hassburger—sent him to evaluate the power of Himmler’s new religion. He’s now a convert . . . on our side.”
“And this Jesuit priest did what?”
“He and Super Spook got Heimstadter to tell them of a house a couple of miles away that the Germans built at the time they were working on Castle Wewelsburg. And suggested that if von Dietelburg and Burgdorf weren’t there, the people there would probably know where they were. Cutting to the chase, White and Super Spook went there and bagged both of them.”
“Congratulations all around. I really mean that.”
“And they discovered the decomposed corpses of about two hundred people in a tunnel under the castle.”
“My God!”
“It took the engineers a day, using industrial fans, to get the smell down enough so that people—wearing gas masks—could look around the tunnels. When they did get a look, they discovered the castle has been wired—wired very well—for demolition. The engineers are seeing what they can do about that threat.”
Truman was silent, then said, “What do you want from me, Bob? What can I do for you?”
“Well, this is a pretty big story. Von Dietelburg and Burgdorf back in their cells after being captured near another mass murder of some two hundred innocent people. So, with your permission, we’ll tell the whole story. Janice is willing to go along, and she has pictures of everything—everything but the bodies, which we have taken for proof. And she’ll have it done in a matter of hours. The story could appear on the front page of every newspaper in America. Hell, around the world.”
“Which I think is a lousy idea,” Cronley blurted out.
“What?” the President and Justice Jackson said on top of each other.
General White said, “Button your lip, Cronley!”
“Well, I’m obviously outnumbered, but I had to say it and I’m glad I did.”
“And keep it buttoned,” General White said.