The Assassination Option (Clandestine Operations 2)

Cronley recognized the tone of command in Schultz’s voice and shut up.

“. . . but within Captain Cronley’s original idea, which was to provide a cover for our vehicles, there is a good deal that can be saved.

“For example,” Hessinger began his lecture, “while there is obviously no such organization as a Quartermaster Mess Kit Repair Company, I don’t think anyone would smile at, or question, a Quartermaster Mobile Kitchen Renovation Company.

“What does the 711th QM Mobile Kitchen Renovation Company do? It renovates the mobile kitchens of the European Command, each company-sized unit of which has a mobile kitchen. That means that no one would question our vehicles—our former ambulances—being anywhere in Occupied Germany or Liberated Austria where there might be an Army mobile kitchen in need of renovation.

“. . . Personnel assigned to the 711th might be authorized a three-day pass from their labors, so that they might visit such cultural centers as Strasbourg . . .”

What later became known as “Hessinger’s First Lecture” lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, and covered every detail of both problems facing the DCI. It recommended the reassignment of more of Tiny’s Troopers to DCI duties, and replacing them with Ostrowski’s Poles. And the designation of Kloster Grünau as home station for the 711th, with signs announcing that status being placed on the fence surrounding the monastery.

But finally it was over.

“All of this needs polishing,” Hessinger concluded.

“Everything always needs polishing, as we say in the Navy,” El Jefe said.

“We had a similar saying, oddly enough, in the Wehrmacht,” General Gehlen said.

“So what do you want me to do now?” Hessinger asked.

“Get me an ambulance driver, and a road map to Strasbourg,” Cronley said. “I want to go there either tomorrow or the day after and get that out of the way before I go to Vienna.”

“I will drive, and I don’t need a road map,” Hessinger replied.

> “You’re going with me to Strasbourg?”

“Me and four of Tiny’s Troopers. Them in an ambulance, you and me—Second Lieutenant Cronley and Sergeant Hessinger of the 711th Quartermaster Mobile Kitchen Renovation Company—in the Ford with the three hundred–odd miles on the odometer.”

“Do I have any say in this?”

“I wouldn’t think so, Second Lieutenant Cronley,” El Jefe said. “It looks to me that Professor Hessinger has things well in hand.”

“There is one little problem we haven’t discussed,” Cronley said.

“Which is?”

“How do we get Mannberg, Ostrowski, and that fifty thousand dollars to Vienna?”

“Yeah,” Hessinger said thoughtfully.

“I’d like to send them on the Blue Danube, but we can’t get them on the Blue Danube because they’re not American.”

“Yeah,” Hessinger repeated thoughtfully.

“I have a brilliant idea,” Cronley said. “Inasmuch as I am exhausted after dealing with Lieutenant Colonel Parsons, Major Ashley, and Staff Sergeant Hessinger, why don’t we put off solving that until tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah,” Hessinger said thoughtfully, for the third time.

VI

[ONE]

Quarters of the U.S. Military Government Liaison Officer

The South German Industrial Development Organization Compound

Pullach, Bavaria