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Blood and Honor (Honor Bound 2)

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"... named von Wachtstein."

"Yeah," Leibermann agreed.

"Von Wachtstein tipped Frade that they were going to try to kill him, and Frade figures he owes him his life. He doesn't want to give me his name be-cause-with good reason, I'm sorry to say-he doesn't trust Donovan, and fig-ures if the OSS was willing to consider him expendable, they wouldn't hesitate to use von Wachtstein to manipulate his father, which is likely to get von Wachtstein, pere etfils, killed. You heard that couldn't-look-himself-in-the-mirror business."

Leibermann shrugged, clearly meaning he agreed with the identification.

"And Cavalry?"

"I'm not sure about Cavalry. One moment I think it's the BIS guy, Martin, and the next moment I think, really think, that it's Rawson. He and Frade's fa-ther were great buddies...."

"So were Frade's father and el Coronel Juan Domingo Per¢n."

"Rawson obviously trusts Frade enough to let him get close to the coup d'‚tat, not to mention letting him fly him around during the revolution. And who but somebody like Rawson would have the authority to let Frade land his airplane at Santo Tome?"

"Martin," Leibermann said. "Either at Rawson's bidding, or on his own au-thority."

"Bringing me back to square one," Graham said. "Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars."

"So what happens if you take a chance-you understand Frade is not going to identify either one of them, don't you?"

"You'll notice I didn't stand him at attention and order him to tell me," Gra-ham said.

"So what happens if you take a chance and tell Donovan what you think, that Galahad is von Wachtstein..."

"I know von Wachtstein is Galahad."

"... and Cavalry is Rawson. Or Martin. And Frade finds out about it?"

"You tell me."

"You know what I really think? That it would be the first time in history that a Marine major with the Navy Cross told you 'fuck you all, I quit.'"

"You really think he'd do that? That would be desertion in time of war. That would mean he could never go back home."

"Where's home. Alejandro? Down here he's a great-grandson of Pueyrred¢n, which is like being the great-grandson of Washington or Jefferson. And this is all his...." Leibermann gestured around the library. "And, very im-portant, he's going to marry that gorgeous blond."

"He's an honorable man. He swore an oath as a Marine officer," Graham ar-gued.

"He's an honorable man with a clear conscience. He didn't get all those medals running away from the Japanese. And he came down here and did his Marine officer's duty-after he found out the OSS considered him expend-able-and nearly got himself killed lighting up the Reine de la Mer so the sub could torpedo it."

"It would still be desertion. Maybe even treason."

"Yeah. And none of the usual things that happen to deserters in time of war would happen to him. Even if you could get him back to the States to try him- and I don't see how you could; among other things, the Argentines consider him a citizen-even if you did, do you really want to try for desertion or treason a man who won the Navy Cross? You couldn't keep it out of the papers. And his grandfather would hire a half-dozen U.S. Senators to defend him. The whole story would come out."

Graham grunted.

"You can't even eliminate him," Leibermann said. "And not only because of Cletus Marcus Howell. Rawson-if you're right about him being Cavalry, and I think you are-would be furious. Not only would Frade's window into what's going on down here be slammed shut, but there's no telling the damage that would do to Franklin Roosevelt's diplomatic plans for South America. And we would get not one more item, period, from von Wachtstein. And Frade's family here..."

"Eliminating Frade was never one of my options," Graham said.

"So what are you going to do?"

"The President of the United States wants to know the identity of Cavalry and Galahad. What do I do about that?"

"You know what I do when I have problems like this?" Leibermann said. "Problems with no solution? I go to bed and get a good night's sleep. Then in the morning, when you wake up, the problems might still be there, but you've had a good night's sleep."

"What is that, Yiddish wisdom?"



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