“What did you say, ‘total immersion’?” Hessinger said. “Yes. All the way.”
“May I ask why you have such confidence in the lady?”
“She has ambitions. We can help her achieve them.”
“And you don’t think she’d expose us?”
“No. But even if she did, we’d still have that option you mentioned.”
“Jim?” Wallace asked.
“I agree with Freddy.”
“Tiny, I presume, is a given?” Wallace asked.
“Captain Dunwiddie has one weakness for our line of work,” Freddy said. “His family, his education at Norwich, has inculcated in him the officer’s honor code.”
“You’re saying that’s bad?”
“I’m saying that he might not be able to do some of the things we may have to do.”
“I’d say we might have to explain to him the necessity of doing some of the things we may have to do,” Cronley said.
“Well, what’s your call?” Wallace said. “In or out?”
“In. With that caveat,” Freddy said.
After a just perceptible hesitation, Cronley said, “In.”
“That brings us to Ostrowski and Schröder,” Wallace said. “What makes you think that both—or either—are going to volunteer to go along with this?”
“I think both will, but we need only one volunteer.”
“You’re not thinking you can carry this off, moving the woman and the two kids, using just one Storch, are you?”
“No. Two Storchs. One of which I will fly.”
“And what does Billy Wilson think of that idea?”
“I think I overcame most of his objections. Most of which centered around both Max and Schröder being more experienced pilots than me.”
“And?”
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“Tomorrow, I go back to flight school at Sonthofen.”
“Are you willing to listen to further argument, from other people with experience in this sort of thing?”
“Who do you have in mind?”
“Me, for one. And General Gehlen and Colonel Mannberg. I was about to suggest that we invite the general for dinner. By the time he could get here, Brunhilde should be back.”
“Freddy,” Cronley ordered, “get on the phone and ask General Gehlen if he and Colonel Mannberg will join us for dinner.”
Hessinger picked up the secure telephone.
“This brings back many memories,” Wallace said. “Most of them unpleasant, of planning operations like this in London. Specifically, one of the first lessons we learned. Painfully. And that is, unless everyone with a role in an operation knows everything about it, it will almost certainly go wrong.”