“As we take Poor Sick Lazarus to the 98th on a little-used country road in the middle of the night,” Max finished the thought.
Cronley grunted and then asked, “Are we just making all this up?”
“As a product of our fevered imaginations? I don’t think so, Jim.”
“For them to go to all this trouble would seem to make Lazarus very important to them,” Cronley said thoughtfully.
“All this trouble including the kidnapping of Colonel Mattingly. Just in case rescuing Lazarus doesn’t work.”
“Yeah.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Seek the counsel of someone far wiser than James D. Cronley Junior.”
“Major Wallace?”
“Former Generalmajor Gehlen. I’ll take the Storch to the Compound at first light.”
“Not Wallace?”
“I don’t know how this is going to turn out, Max. But the real priority is to keep DCI from getting taken over by Seidel and Company. If whatever I do here goes wrong, and frankly it looks like it will, and I go down, I don’t want to take Wallace with me. I want him here to take over DCI. And I don’t want to take you down with me, either, so we never had this conversation. All you know is that I flew in here, asked you about Lazarus, then flew out at first light.”
“That presumes we’ll be able to get the snow off what passes for our runway. You could drive in tonight . . .”
“There will not be too much snow on the runway for me to take off at first light.”
“. . . and have a late dinner with Janice. She said she’d be at the Vier Jahreszeiten until she heard from you.”
“I can’t handle Janice tonight.”
“That, if I may be permitted a personal observation, strikes me as a wise decision.”
“I’m not really as stupid as I look, Max. And so far as snow on the runway is concerned, that will not be a problem. There will be no snow. God takes care of fools and drunks, and I qualify on both counts.”
“You’re not a fool, Jim, and as far as being a drunk is concerned, you took one sip of your drink and put it down.”
Cronley picked up the glass and drained it.
“Okay, VPP? Now let’s have something to eat.”
[ FIVE ]
The South German Industrial Development Organization Compound
Pullach, Bavaria
American Zone of Occupation, Germany
0750 28 January 1946
When Cronley walked into the Senior Officers’ Mess, he was afraid that more people would be there than he wanted to see. His fears were realized. The table was full. Seated at it were former Generalmajor Reinhard Gehlen, former Oberst Ludwig Mannberg, Lieutenant Colonel John J. Bristol, former Major Konrad Bischoff, Captain C. L. Dunwiddie, and Lieutenants Tom Winters and Bruce T. Moriarty.
The only people he wanted to see—had business with—were Gehlen and Dunwiddie.
As he walked toward the table, he thought, Fuck it. This is no time to worry about hurt feelings.
I’ll tell Gehlen and Tiny I want to see them, alone, right now, in my office.