The Fighting Agents (Men at War 4)

"I called Joe Kennedy and asked him about that, and he said that it's possible to refill the main tanks of a C-47 from barrels of fuel carried in the cabin. He also said that it's dangerous as hell, but apparently that's what they have done. Wilkins borrowed the C-47 at Cairo."

Donovan grunted.

"It's time we thought of the worst possible scenario," he said.

"That should be plural. The first thing that can go badly wrong--and I am frankly surprised this hasn't already happened--is that they will find out who Fulmar and the Professor really are...."

"Colonel," Stevens began.

"Let me finish, please, Ed," Donovan said.

"The best we could hope for in that situation would be that the Germans would decide we wanted Dyer for what he knows about jet- and rocket-engine metallurgy. That they would not suspect that what we're really after is getting nuclear-useful people out of Germany."

"Yes, Sir," Stevens said.

"The second thing that could go wrong would be for Canidy to be captured.

Quite aside from what else he knows, I think we have to consider that the Germans know full well who he is--that he's the number three here--and would decide that we are either very interested in Professor Dyer, or, I'm afraid, that there is more to all this activity than is immediately apparent."

Stevens didn't reply.

"I think I have to say this, Ed," Donovan said.

"On reflection, I think I made an error in judgment. I think what I should have ordered--to cut our losses to the minimum--was to give the Germans Fulmar and the professor."

Stevens didn't reply.

"Or alternatively, to arrange for them to be eliminated. On reflection, that's what should have been done. There are two ways to do that. The first would be to message Canidy to do it. I don't know if that would work. If he went in there without orders, in direct defiance of orders, I don't think we can expect him to obey any other order he doesn't like."

"Canidy is not a fool," Stevens said loyally.

"Sometimes I wonder about that," Donovan said.

"The second way to ensure that the Germans don't get to question Fulmar and the professor is to bomb St. Gertrud's prison."

"Canidy's thought of that. He asked for Composition C2."

"I meant by aircraft," Donovan said "A raid on Budapest. Failing to reach the target, a squadron of B-17s would bomb an alternative target. A target of opportunity. Pecs. That happens all the time."

"That's a little far-fetched, isn't it?" Stevens said.

"It's laid on for tomorrow," Donovan said.

"Presuming the weather permits.

If not tomorrow, the day after. I have been assured--there is only minimal antiaircraft around Pecs, they can go in low--that there is a seventy-five-percent chance that the prison can be taken out completely. Totally destroyed."

"My God!"

"You know what's involved with this," Donovan said.

"I don't see I have any alternative. Do you?"

"No, Sir," Stevens said after a moment.

"With that scenario," Donovan said, "there is the possibility that the team, and Canidy, can get out."

"If he does," Donovan said, "by the time I've finished with him, he may wish he was still in Hungary."