Blood and Honor (Honor Bound 2)
"I am now going to reconnoiter by air," General Rawson announced, "to as-certain the exact location of the First Cavalry and the Second Infantry."
He then climbed back into the Cub.
The First Infantry officers saluted and began to trot back to their troops.
General Rawson laid a hand on Clete's shoulder, and Clete turned to look at him.
"Is there any way we can communicate when we are up in the air?"
Clete showed General Rawson the earphones and microphone-with which he had mistakenly believed General Rawson would be familiar-and Rawson put them on.
"You may depart," Rawson ordered.
Clete pushed the throttle forward and took off. Once they were airborne he started to look for the First Cavalry and the Second Infantry, which he had been told were stopped at Pueyrred¢n and Cordoba.
"It will take twenty minutes for the orders to be passed and for the First In-fantry to make any measurable progress," Rawson announced over the inter-com. "Would it be possible, without extraordinary risk, to observe what's going on at the Casa Rosada?"
"Yes, Sir," Clete said, and for the next twenty minutes Clete flew back and forth over Buenos Aires.
As he flew down Avenida Cordoba he noticed a man in a strange uniform, and he was almost convinced it was Peter von Wachtstein. When they flew over Plaza de Mayo, they saw an overturned bus in flames, and he could see the faces of people inside Casa Rosada watching it burn.
Twenty-five minutes after taking off from the soccer fields, General Rawson decided the First Infantry had moved far enough so that the First Cavalry and the Second Infantry could be ordered to resume their march.
Clete flew down Avenida Cordoba again and dropped the order to the First Cavalry and the Second Infantry to get moving.
Thirty minutes after that, as both columns converged onto the Plaza de Mayo, white flags-probably sheets, Clete decided-appeared in the windows of the Casa Rosada.
"General, you want me to try to land down there? I'm a little worried about that burning bus. I don't know what debris's liable to be on the street."
"You mean land in Plaza de Mayo?" General Rawson replied, a touch of in-credulity in his voice. And then, without giving Clete a chance to reply, he went on: "I think we should return now to Campo de Mayo. It would be more fitting if General Ramirez and I accepted the capitulation together and arrive at Casa Rosada together. By automobile. With a suitable escort."
On the fifteen-minute flight back to Campo de Mayo, General Rawson pushed his intercom mike switch one more time.
"I think I should tell you, my friend, that when your father talked about all the amazing things one could do with a small airplane, I was one of those who simply didn't believe him. How nice it is that his son should be the one to prove us all wrong."
[THREE]
The Officers' Casino
Campo de Mayo
Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
1845 19 April 1943
Teniente Coronel Alejandro Bernardo Mart¡n rolled up the curved driveway to the Officers' Casino in the chauffeur-driven official Mercedes assigned to the Chief of the Bureau of Internal Security of the Ministry of National Defense. During the day there had been well over one hundred proclamations issued in the name of the Governing Council of the Provisional Government of the Ar-gentine Republic. Of these, three personally issued by the President had a direct effect on Teniente Coronel Martin:
El Almirante Francisco de Montoya, Chief of the BIS, had been relieved of his duties, placed on leave, and would be retired.
Until a successor to Almirante de Montoya was named, Teniente Coronel Alejandro Bernardo Mart¡n would assume the duties of Chief, BIS.
Teniente Coronel Alejandro Bernardo Mart¡n was brevetted Coronel until further orders.
Coronel Juan Domingo Per¢n wanted Montoya dismissed from the service and placed under house arrest. But Mart¡n prevailed against him. Mart¡n argued before General Rawson and General Ramirez (who retained his post as Minis-ter of War) that Montoya had done his duty to Argentina as he had seen it and had taken or not taken a number of actions that had benefited the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos and the execution of Outline Blue.
Mart¡n also refused permanent appointment as the Chief of BIS. The offer was colored, he believed, by emotion on the part of General Rawson, who would later come to regret his impulsiveness. He also believed the appointment of an-other admiral to the post would go a long way toward pouring oil on the troubled waters that now existed between the Argentine Armada and the Argentine Army.
On the other hand, Mart¡n was rather sure that his brevet promotion to Coronel would be made permanent within the next few days. As a Coronel known to have both the ear and the gratitude of the President and the Minister of War, he would have no trouble dealing with the new Chief, BIS, no matter who that might be.