The Assassination Option (Clandestine Operations 2)

“Thank you for sharing that, Billy,” Wallace said.

“I thought I should. I thought Tex here should hear that.”

“And, for once, you’re right,” Wallace said. “Tex, Schröder made it to the latrine just now before he tossed his cookies. But then he has more experience with this sort of thing than you do.”

That’s “Tex” twice.

Have I just been christened?

“So what happens now?”

“Odd that you should ask, Tex,” Wallace said. “As I was just about to tell you.”

[NINE]

Suite 507

Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten

Maximilianstrasse 178

Munich, American Zone of Occupation, Germany

1645 20 January 1946

“I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow, at the earliest,” Miss Claudette Colbert said to Captain James D. Cronley Jr. when he walked into the office.

“Nice to see you, too, Miss Colbert.”

“Are you going to bring me up to speed, sir?”

“When no one’s around, you can call me ‘Tex,’ Miss Colbert.”

“Tex?”

“I have been so dubbed by Major Wallace. Where’s Freddy?”

“At the bahnhof, meeting General Greene and party.”

“Greene is here? What the hell is that all about?”

“There was an unfortunate accident at the bahnhof yesterday afternoon.”

“What kind of an accident?”

“Major Derwin apparently lost his balance and fell onto the tracks under a freight train as it was passing through. He had just gotten off the Blue Danube from Frankfurt, and was walking down the platform when this happened.”

“Is Major Wallace aware of this?”

“‘Tell Captain Cronley not to even think assassination option,’ end quote.”

“Jesus Christ!” Cronley said, and then asked, “And that’s why Greene is here?”

“‘General Greene is going to meet with the Munich provost marshal to offer the CIC’s assistance in the investigation of this unfortunate accident,’ end quote.”

“What the hell was Derwin doing back here?”

“‘He telephoned Lieutenant Colonel Parsons of the War Department’s liaison mission to DCI-Europe and told him he had information regarding DCI-Europe that he felt Parsons should have’ . . .”