“No.”
“Oh, shit! Why not?”
“He’s not here. He’s in Munich.”
“What’s he doing in Munich?”
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but General Gehlen found out Gábor Péter’s AVO has Niedermeyer’s wife in Budapest—”
“Clete, what the hell are you talking about?”
“I thought everybody’s now calling you Super Spook. And you don’t know what the AVO is?”
“I don’t have a fucking clue.”
“Okay, from the beginning: Otto Niedermeyer’s wife is Hungarian. She was in Budapest when the Russians took over.”
“Why wasn’t she with Niedermeyer in Argentina?”
“She was looking for her brother. The AVO, which stands for Allamvedelmi Osztaly, which is the Russian-controlled secret police, and which is run by a guy named Gábor Péter, already had him. And knew that Scheiberné Zsigmond, the Hungarian brother, had been Oberstleutnant Sigmund Schneiber when he worked for Abwehr Ost. So they used him to bag Károly Niedermeyer, who we called Carol when she was in Argentina with Otto. They want to use her to bag Otto and maybe others in Gehlen’s organization.”
“She left Argentina to look for her brother in Hungary? With the Russians there? That sounds pretty stupid.”
“Perhaps. If you weren’t such a prick, Jimmy, you might think it was an act of familial love. Like your mother is showing for your cousin Luther. Not too bright but understandable, even commendable. How is your cousin Luther, by the way?”
“Right now he’s in a cell here. I’m trying to get him to give me von Dietelburg.”
“Who is?”
“The guy I think is running Odessa.”
“Before I forget to say
this, don’t tell Wallace about Niedermeyer’s wife. He thinks he’s over there to talk to Gehlen.”
“Okay. So why is he in the Compound?”
“Gehlen’s staging an operation to get Frau Niedermeyer and her brother out. He wants to be in on it. I don’t think Wallace would approve.”
“What about El Jefe? Does he know?”
“I didn’t tell him, but I’m sure he does.”
“There are those who might think that makes you a loose cannon.”
“I bear that description proudly, Little Brother, when I think I’m doing the right thing. Niedermeyer told me about what goes on at 60 Andrassy Place in Budapest.”
“What’s that?”
“AVO headquarters. When they execute people in the basement, they stand them on a little stool, put a noose around their necks, and then kick the stool away, so that they can watch them strangle to death. According to Niedermeyer, even the Russians don’t do that. The NKGB standard execution procedure, according to Sergei Likharev, is to take people into the basement of that building on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, stand them over a drain in the floor, and then shoot them in the neck. You can understand why Niedermeyer wants to get his wife out, and why Gehlen is trying hard to help him. I don’t think Wallace would.”
“Either do I.”
“So tell me how you’re doing trying to take Odessa down. Any luck?”
“Not much. I told you I have Cousin Luther in a cell in the Tribunal Compound. I hope he thinks we’re going to hang him unless he gives me von Dietelburg, and we’re going to offer the guy I took down when he came after me with the Schmeisser the option of giving me von Dietelburg or spending the rest of his life in a German jail.”
“How’d you get Cousin Luther into the Tribunal jail?”