The Fighting Agents Part 40

"The last time I saw the Generalissimo," Fertig said, "was in the Manila Club. There was a buffet. MacArthur, of course, and his queen and the crown prince didn't stand in the line. But I went through it with my wife. And as we walked to our table, we had to squeeze around their table. He was in a planter's white suit. I had a large bowl of shrimp bisque. I will regret for the rest of my life not having had an accident with it."

Buchanan laughed.

"It may be, Buchanan," Fertig said, "that help is on the way. But I think it more likely that you and I are sitting here with five ounces of Orfett's pineapple white lightning in us, seeing things we want to see behind bushes that just aren't there. I don't want any of this to go any further than you or me."

"No, Sir," Buchanan said. And then he blurted, "But sooner or later, Christ, they're going to have to do something, aren't they?"

"Sooner or later," Fertig said.

7.

BATTHYANY PALACE BUDAPEST, HUNGARY 0820 HOURS 20 FEBRUARY 1943.

Standartenfuhrer SS-SD Johann Muller came into the sitting room of the Countess's apartment in Batthyany Palace and quickly glanced around the room, taking in Canidy and Ferniany, who were sitting on a couch before a gilt coffee table.

There was no expression on his face.

"'Tag," he said, then started to unb.u.t.ton his black leather overcoat. He hung it carefully on the back of a Louis XIV chair and then moved the chair to a position near one of the two white porcelain stoves. Then he moved the chair a foot farther away.

"If you get it too close, it cracks and dries the leather," he explained.

And then he looked at Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz, his eyebrows raised in question.

"Johann," von Heurten-Mitnitz said in German, "this is Major Canidy of the United States Army. 'Pharmacist 'Pharmacist.' " "

Muller examined Canidy carefully, then did the same thing to Ferniany. He was subjected to the same kind of an examination by the Americans.

"And him?" Muller asked.

"Ferniany's my name," Ferniany said.

"Canidy's man on the scene, I gather," von Heurten-Mitnitz explained.

"Everybody speak slowly," Canidy said. "My German is pretty weak."

"He was telling him who we are," Ferniany said.

"I got that," Canidy said. "But go slow. I don't want to miss anything."

"Gott in Himmel!" Muller said, exasperated. "They send someone in who doesn't even speak the language!"

"It was necessary," Canidy said.

"Why?"

"Eric Fulmar and Professor Dyer are in the Pecs city jail," Canidy said.

This produced the first hint of excitement in Muller.

"And Gisella?" he demanded. "Fraulein Dyer?"

"She's safe," Canidy said.

"Safe where?"

"Cairo," Canidy said.

"So what happened?" Muller demanded. He was back in control of his emotions, but there had been enough for Canidy to decide that there was more than a casual relations.h.i.+p between the SS-SD officer and Dyer's daughter.

"The barge was boarded by the River Police and the Black Guard," Ferniany said. "They found a lot of money on Fulmar and decided he was a black marketeer. They helped themselves to the money and arranged for them to get ninety days in the coal mines."

"It's only a matter of time until somebody finds out who they are," Muller said. "I had a teletype yesterday-addressed to me personally, not to the senior SS-SD officer- from Von Hymme, Himmler's adjutant, telling me to personally make sure that 'the investigation was being pursued with all diligence.' "

"They think they're here?"

"From the time they found the Gestapo agent's body, they really closed down the borders of Germany to the occupied countries and to the neutrals. Himmler's mouth ran away with him again, and he said he could personally state that n.o.body got out that way. That leaves only here."

"Another question," Canidy said. "Why all the interest?"

"It would be enough," Muller replied dryly, "that the Reichsfuhrer-SS has showed his a.s.s by not catching them long before this. And on top of that, our friend Eric used his knife on a Gestapo agent, which has the Gestapo in a rage. And then he used it on Peis, the SS-SD commander in Marburg an der Lahn, which has the SS-SD upset."

"Tell me about 'pursuing the investigation with all diligence, ' " Canidy said.

"After you round up 'all the usual suspects,' which was done and which came up with nothing," Muller said, "you start to recheck things like travel permits, hospital admittances, and jails. When I got the teletype, I ordered that done. I don't know how long it will take them to check the Pecs jail, but it won't be long. If I was doing it . . . instead, I mean, of having to ask the Black Guard for their cooperation . . . I would have them by now."

Muller waited for that to sink in, and then went on, "If you've got some idea of getting them out of that jail, you had better do it now."

"Major Canidy has asked for a team of specialists," von Heurten-Mitnitz said. "The reason he's here is to arrange for a landing site."

"A landing site? You mean for parachutists?" Muller asked.

Canidy nodded.

"How long will that take? What's wrong with using the underground?" Muller asked.

"The underground can't be involved in this," Canidy said.

"How long will it take to get your 'specialists' in here?"

"Forty-eight hours, maybe twenty-four, after we find a place to drop them," Canidy said.

"The story I get," Muller said, "is that there are parachutists dropping all over Yugoslavia and Hungary."

"This has to be kept separate from that," Canidy said.

"We may not have forty-eight hours," Muller said. "We may not even have twenty-four." He looked at Canidy. "If they catch Fulmar, he knows von Heurten-Mitnitz and me. And, sooner or later, he would tell them everything he knows."

"And me," the Countess said. "He knows me."

"We'll arrange to get you out," Canidy said.

"Von Heurten-Mitnitz's family would probably be all right if he disappeared," Muller went on, "and the Countess doesn't have anything to lose. But they would go after my mother and my brothers and sisters."

"Then the thing to do is get Eric and the professor out of the jail, isn't it?" Canidy replied.

"Under the circ.u.mstances," Muller said, "I would say the thing to do is arrange for them to be shot while being arrested," Muller said.

"If they are to be shot, I'll make that decision," Canidy said.

"I really don't need your permission, Herr Major," Muller said.

"How large an area do you need for your parachutists, Major?" the Countess asked.

Muller glared at her.

"For the time being, Johann," von Heurten-Mitnitz said, "we will go along with Major Canidy."

"A minimum of eight hundred meters by three," Canidy said.

"So large?" she asked, disappointed, and then went on: "There is a field, a meadow, in the mountains above Pecs. We have a hunting lodge there. But it's not that big."

"What's around it?" Canidy asked.

"A forest," she said.

"Would a low-flying aircraft attract attention?"

"Of course," she said.

Canidy exhaled.

"If that's all there is, we'll have to use it," Canidy said. "Could you find it on a map?"

"I don't know," she said. "And I don't have a map."

Canidy gestured impatiently at Ferniany, who went to his sheepskin coat, dug into a pocket, and came out with a map.

With some difficulty, the Countess found the meadow she was looking for on the map.

"It's d.a.m.ned small, and it's thirteen miles from Pecs," she said.

"But it hasn't been used, has it?" Canidy said.

"No," Ferniany said. "There's that."

"Take the coordinates," Canidy ordered, "and then burn the map. And then you better get going."

"Where's he going?" Muller asked.

"To radio the location of the drop zone," Canidy said. "And to make arrangements to move the professor and Eric once we get them out."

"And what do you plan to do?" von Heurten-Mitnitz asked.

"The next problem is to get me from here to the Countess's hunting lodge," Canidy said.

"How do you plan to do that?" Muller asked.

"Gisella told me you have an Opel Admiral," Canidy said. "How about that?"

"I can't afford to be seen anywhere near Pecs," Muller said.

"No," Canidy said. "You are going to be at the Austro-Hungarian border, noisily 'pursuing the investigation with all diligence.' "

Muller snorted.

"And the Countess and I will go to the hunting lodge?" von Heurten-Mitnitz said thoughtfully, "in Muller's car? With you in the luggage boot?"

"Unless you've got a better idea," Canidy said.

"The plane will attract attention," von Heurten-Mitnitz said. "And it will come out that we were there."

"The day before, maybe two days before," Canidy said.

"But it will come out," von Heurten-Mitnitz repeated.

"Unless you've got a better idea," Canidy repeated.

Muller snorted again.

Canidy looked at him coldly.

"And in case you think you have a better idea, Standartenfuhrer Muller," he said, "I think I had better tell you that if this operation goes sour, Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler will receive, mailed from Sweden, an hour-by-hour report of how you spent your last forty-eight hours in Morocco. With photographs, showing you with Eric in his U.S. Army uniform."

Muller's eyes, very cold, met Canidy's, but he didn't say anything.

"At the risk of repeating myself," Canidy said, "it may be necessary to do whatever is necessary to keep Fulmar and the professor from falling into the hands of the SS. But I will make that decision."

Muller snorted again, and pursed his lips.

"When I first saw you, Major," Muller said finally, "what I thought was they had sent an amateur. Obviously, I was wrong."