The Assassination Option (Clandestine Operations 2)

“When we got back to OSS Forward—the Schlosshotel Kronberg in Taunus—that night, after picking up Frau von Wachtstein, we—Mattingly, Frade, and I—had a private dinner. Toward the end of it, Mattingly mentioned the trouble we were having finding an officer to command Tiny’s Troopers, who were going to provide security not only for Kloster Grünau, but for the Pullach compound when we got that up and running.”

“Why didn’t you just get Tiny a commission?”

“All I knew about Tiny at the time was that he was a first sergeant who’d got himself a Silver Star in the Battle of the Bulge. I didn’t know he’d almost graduated from Norwich. And I certainly didn’t know he called General White ‘Uncle Isaac.’ I’m now sure Mattingly did, and knew that Lieutenant Dunwiddie would ask questions First Sergeant Dunwiddie couldn’t ask. Mattingly likes to be in control.”

“You don’t like him much, do you?”

“Mattingly is a very good politician. You need people like that. I was telling you how you got in the spook business.”

“Sorry.”

“So Cletus said, what about Jim Cronley? What they’ve got him doing is sitting at an unimportant roadblock in the boonies, or words to that effect, to which Mattingly replied, that wouldn’t work. You’d need a Top Secret–OSS clearance to work at Kloster Grünau. You didn’t have one, and he couldn’t imagine anyone giving you one. Mattingly said he was surprised that you even had a Top Secret–CIC clearance, or words to that effect.

“This seemed to piss ol’ Cletus off. I don’t think he likes Mattingly much anyway. Cletus said, ‘Well, I’ll bet you his Uncle Bill would give him one.’ And Mattingly bit. ‘His Uncle Bill? Who the hell is his Uncle Bill?’

“He’s not really his uncle. But Jimmy calls him that.

“And Mattingly bit again.

“What’s Cronley’s Uncle Bill got to do with Top Secret–OSS clearances?

“‘Just about everything,’ Cletus said. ‘I’m talking about General Donovan. He and Jimmy’s father won World War One together.’

“I was looking at Mattingly. I could see on his face that he was weighing the advantages of having Wild Bill’s nephew under his thumb against the risks of having Wild Bill’s nephew under his thumb, and as usual was having trouble making a major decision like that. So he looks at me for a decision, and since I had already decided—wrong decision, as it turned out—that you couldn’t cause much trouble at Kloster Grünau, I nodded. And that is how you became a spook.”

“Did Cletus know you were a colonel?”

“Sure.”

“So why were you pretending to be a major?”

“When David Bruce set up OSS Forward, he knew it would be facing two enemies, the Germans and the U.S. Army. Colonel Mattingly is very good at dealing with U.S. Army bureaucrats, if properly supervised. I provided that supervision and dealt with the enemy. It was easier to do that if people thought I was a major.”

“And then, when DCI came along . . .”

“The admiral thought that I was the guy who should keep an eye on Gehlen.”

“And the chief, DCI-Europe?”

“And the chief, DCI-Europe, and Schultz thought I could do that better if everybody thought I was a major. It never entered anybody’s mind that Little Jimmy Cronley would be the one to figure this out, and then Little Jimmy does. Or figures out most of it. And tells me, touching the cockles of my heart, that he has decided to trust me and needs my help. So I confess to him what I think needs to be confessed, and hope that’s the end of it.

“And then you appear, in the middle of the goddamn night, and tell me you’ve been thinking. As I said, Clete warned me not to underestimate you, but I did. And, this taking place in the middle of the night, I told you more than I should have. Frankly, the assassination option occurred to me.”

“You wouldn’t tell me that if you planned to use it.”

“At least not until after we get Mrs. Likharev and kiddies across the border,” Wallace said. “Any more questions?”

“Where does Claudette fit in all this?”

“I haven’t quite figured that out myself,” Wallace said. “I’m tempted to take her and Freddy’s version, that she wanted out of the ASA . . .”

“She’s not working for you?”

Wa

llace shook his head.

“. . . and was willing to let Freddy into her pants as the price to be paid to get out.”