Curtain of Death (Clandestine Operations 3)

“Four NKGB agents were involved in the attempted kidnapping of Miss Colbert and Technical Sergeant Miller. Colbert killed three of them at the site, and we—actually Cronley—decided to report that the fourth man died in the hospital. He’s actually alive, under medical attention, in a cell at Kloster Grünau. Code name Lazarus. We have subsequently learned that he is Major of State Security Venedikt Ulyanov.”

“Go on,” White said.

“As I was saying, sir, General Seidel thought he was in a win-win position with Cronley. Either Cronley would agree to let the FBI into the Compound and Kloster Grünau, in which case they would find Lazarus—”

“And the secret graves alleged to be there?” White interrupted.

Wallace nodded. “And other things which would bolster the argument that DCI, under Cronley, is out of control and has to be taken over. Or, Cronley would deny the FBI access, same result. What possible reason but having something terribly illegal to hide would cause Cronley to refuse to accept the help of the saintly FBI?

“Cronley then sent General Seidel’s plan agley by not only telling him that the only way he was going to let the FBI nose around the Compound was with the okay of Admiral Souers, and if the general had nothing else to ask him, he had things to do.

“By the time this happened, I think you should know, General Seidel was already on the edge of spluttering because the parts he had planned for Generals Schwarzkopf and Greene to play in the sandbagging had also gang agley.”

“Explain that,” White said.

“He and the FBI guy, Special Agent in Charge Preston, had come up with really off-the-wall theories that General Gehlen was involved in the deaths of the Schumanns and Major Derwin, and was possibly, even probably, involved in Bob Mattingly’s disappearance. This was, I’ll admit, before we learned that Serov and Company had Bob.

“Schwarzkopf bluntly called the theories nonsense and Greene backed Schwarzkopf. Which meant that Seidel couldn’t take them to General Bull to support his position.”

White considered that for a moment, grunted, and then said: “Let’s take a look at where we—and by we, I mean everybody—are. Let’s start at the top: What I think is going on is Pentagon/Washington politics at its worst.”

He considered that for a moment, and then went on: “The assistant chief of staff–Intelligence, the chief of Naval Operations, the State Department, and the FBI are all pressing the chief of staff to take over DCI and then—since none of them can have it—to shut it down. That’s a turf war. The only difference between a Washington turf war and, say, Waterloo is that turf wars are much nastier.

“As chief of staff, Eisenhower has several problems dealing with that situation. The DCI was set up by Truman—and he picked his good friend Admiral Souers to head it—primarily to keep Operation Ost from becoming public knowledge. Operation Ost was set up by Allen Dulles of the OSS to bring General Gehlen and Abwehr Ost and all its assets under our tent.

“Eisenhower could see the enormous value of what General Gehlen offered but—wisely, I believe—sought and got Truman’s permission to go ahead with it. In great secrecy, of course, under the OSS. If it became known that Operation Ost involved moving Gehlen’s Nazis and their families to Argentina, Truman’s opponents—not only the outraged Jews—would have called for his impeachment and Eisenhower’s court-martial.

“That threat is very much still there. Very few people recognize the threat the Soviet Union presents, so the argument that what General Gehlen has done—and will do in the future—justifies Operation Ost simply will not hold up in the court of public opinion.

“The problem was then compounded when Truman—under enormous pressure from J. Edgar Hoover, George Marshall, the State Department, and the Navy—disestablished the OSS. He thought he would be able to hide Operation Ost within the Office of Naval Intelligence if he had someone he trusted completely there. So he promoted Souers to rear admiral and gave him Operation Ost.

“Whether or not Eisenhower told him this was not a long-term solution, I don’t know. Truman, as most people have learned by now, is much smarter than anyone thought. He replaced the secretary of State, Stettinius, who he didn’t trust, with James Byrnes, another crony he knew he could. Byrnes could have told him Souers in the ONI was not a long-range solution. Or he figured it out himself.

“Anyway, by Executive Order, Truman established the DCI and gave it—and Operation Ost—to Souers. Appointing Captain Cronley as chief, DCI-Europe, was pure Truman. My personal view is that it was very clever. The President had just stumbled across, as a result of what Cronley had done finding the U-boat with the uranium oxide in Argentina, a young officer who was much smarter and more competent than the average second lieutenant. Said young officer already knew all about Operation Ost. The FBI knew what he had done in South America, so they weren’t surprised when Truman promoted him to captain, and gave him a little bonus, command of DCI-Europe. Truman thought people would think if he gave DCI-Europe to Cronley, it couldn’t be very important.

“What Truman and Eisenhower apparently didn’t see, which surprised me, was that Seidel here, and the intelligence establishment generally, would decide that Cronley’s appointment would make it easier for them to do what they were determined to do, take over DCI. And they immediately began to try to do just that.

“The disappearance—later to be determined to be the kidnapping by the NKGB—of Colonel Mattingly gave them what they saw as that opportunity. They took it, but Cronley didn’t let them get away with it. So where does that leave them? And us?

“They went to General Bull with their complaints and theories, obviously in the hope that Bull would take it to General McNarney. Instead, Bull sent for me. He began the conversation by saying we had a mutual friend, Admiral Souers. I was surprised to hear this, as the admiral had said nothing to me about Bull being in the loop. But when Bull went on to tell me that General Seidel and Mr. Preston had come to see him, and why, and what he suggested was the best way to handle the problem, I knew he was in the loop.”

“What was General Bull’s suggestion, General?” Gehlen asked.

“That we act promptly on Mr. Schultz’s suggestion that we come up with proof that the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency blatantly defied the President’s order not to bring any Nazis into the United States in connection with Operation Paperclip. That was proof that Bull is in the loop. And, apparently acting as good chiefs of staff act, shielding their general as much as possible.

“It was clear to me that his suggestion was in the nature of an order, and that Bull was relaying that order from General McNarney. So I suggest, Captain Cronley, that you take the suggestion.”

“Yes, sir,” Cronley said.

“General Bull,” White went on, “will, I think, accept my belief that relieving you and turning the recovery of Colonel Mattingly over to General Seidel and the FBI would be counterproductive at this time. And so inform both General McNarney and General Seidel. But I think we can count on General Seidel not giving up. And neither will the FBI man, Preston.

“So, Captain Cronley, I further suggest that you have—that DCI-Europe has—two priority objectives. The first is getting Colonel Mattingly back—”

“Sir,” Cronley said, “I don’t have a clue how I’m going to do that.”

“I have learned over the years, Captain, that there is always a clue. What you have to do is go over the facts again and again and again until you find it. Let’s do that, starting with Fact One: The Russians—Serov—want to exchange Mattingly for Colonel Likharev and his family on the Glienicke Bridge at nine in the morning of February twelfth. That gives us eleven days. Is that correct?”

“The thirteenth, sir, which gives us not quite twelve days.”