Top Secret Part 66

Cronley told him.

"Does that 'share with Gehlen' line mean Tiny is to be excluded from our conversations?"

"Well, if that's what Colonel Frade meant, f.u.c.k him. Tiny is not going to be excluded from anything."

"Good," Gehlen said. "Then I suggest, while we're waiting to hear more from Colonel Frade, how our security has been so completely breached."

[ FOURTEEN ].

1920 10 November 1945 PRIORITY.

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH.

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN.

FROM TEX.

VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET.

1705 GREENWICH 10 NOVEMBER 1945.

TO VATICAN ATTN ALTARBOY.

SHARE WITH GEHLEN ONLY.

1-GENERAL MARTIN, TWO OF WHOSE MEN DIED IN THE ATTACK AND SEVEN OF WHOSE MEN WERE INJURED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, OFFERS THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO WITH WHICH I CONCUR:.

A-THE ATTACK WAS PROFESSIONALLY PLANNED AND EXECUTED BY PERSONS FULLY FAMILIAR WITH THE FACTS, IE, THAT ORLOVSKY WAS THE SICK MAN ON THE AIRCRAFT.

B-IDENTIFICATION OF TWO OF THE FOUR ATTACKER CORPSES AS PARAGUAYAN CRIMINALS IS CONSISTENT WITH KNOWN PRACTICES OF n.a.z.iS DURING AND AFTER THE WAR TO USE CONTRACT a.s.sa.s.sINS, WITH ONE IMPORTANT EXCEPTION. n.a.z.iS ALWAYS LEFT SOME INDICATION AT CRIME SCENE THAT THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRIME. NO SUCH MARKER WITH THIS ATTACK.

C-CONSIDERING THIS, AND NATIONALITY OF SICK MAN ON THE AIRCRAFT, THIS POINTS TO THE SOVIET UNION. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT USE OF GERMAN PANZERFAUST 60-MM ROCKETS ALSO SUGGESTS IT WAS HOPED THE GERMANS WOULD BE BLAMED FOR THE a.s.sAULT. IT IS NOTED THAT SOVIET UNION IS IN TALKS WITH THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT REGARDING RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS.

D-IT IS UNLIKELY PERPETRATORS WILL EVER BE KNOWN TO THE POINT WHERE CHARGES COULD BE DRAWN.

2-FOREGOING MAKES DISCOVERY OF THE CAUSE OF BREACH IN OUR SECURITY EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. EXPEND ALL EFFORTS TO FIND THE SOURCE OF LEAK.

TEX.

END.

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH.

- Cronley suddenly felt clammy and sick to his stomach, and it took a great effort not to throw up. He knew who the source of the leak was. He did not mention this to either Gehlen or Dunwiddie. He was far too deeply shamed.

He waited until after the next message came in. That was two hours later.

He was later to recall that those two hours were the worst in his life.

PRIORITY.

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH.

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN.

FROM TEX.

VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET.

1910 GREENWICH 10 NOVEMBER 1945.

TO VATICAN ATTN ALTARBOY.

SHARE WITH GEHLEN ONLY.

1. AT THE SUGGESTION OF FATHER WELNER, ORLOVSKY WAS LED TO BELIEVE THAT HIS INJURIES WERE PROBABLY FATAL. FATHER WELNER ARRANGED FOR A PRIEST OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX FAITH, WHOM HE KNOWS TO BE ANTI-COMMUNIST, TO VISIT ORLOVSKY ON HIS DEATHBED TO ADMINISTER THE LAST RITES.

2. AFTER A BRIEF CONVERSATION WITH THIS CLERIC, ORLOVSKY DECLARED THAT.

A. HIS REAL NAME IS SERGIE LIKHAREV AND HE HOLDS RANK OF COLONEL IN NKGB.

B. HIS WIFE, NATALIA, AND SONS, SERGIE AND PAVEL, RESIDE AT NEVSKY PROSPEKT 114 LENINGRAD.

C. HE FURTHER STATED THAT WHEN HE ENTERED KLOSTER GRUNAU HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH FORMER OBERSTLEUTNANT GUNTHER VON PLAT AND FORMER MAJOR KURT BOSS, AND THAT HE WISHED THIS INFORMATION RELAYED VIA CAPTAIN CRONLEY TO GENERAL GEHLEN.

3. NONE OF THE FOREGOING SHOULD DIMINISH IN ANY WAY ANY OF YOUR EFFORTS TO UNCOVER THE LEAKER.

TEX.

END.

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH.

- After reading the SIGABA printout, Cronley decided that the time to confess had arrived.

He struggled to find his voice, then in a quiet monotone said, "Tiny, would you mind leaving me alone with the general for a couple of minutes?"

"Why? I thought you said I wasn't going to be excluded from anything." He paused. "Wait. You sonofab.i.t.c.h! You think I'm the one with the loose mouth?"

"No. I know you're not. I am."

"What?"

"After the plane left yesterday, I went to the Park Hotel. Mrs. Rachel Schumann joined me there."

"You're referring to Colonel Schumann's wife? The IG's wife?" Gehlen asked.

Cronley nodded.

"What was that all about? Her camera?" Tiny asked.

"At the time, I thought she came there to get laid . . ."

"By you?" Tiny asked incredulously.

"By me. I have been f.u.c.king her ever since I came back from the States. Until about an hour ago, I thought it was my manly charm. Now I think she's a f.u.c.king Russian spy."

"You're really out of your mind, you know that? That woman a Russian spy? Maybe the colonel's one, too, huh? Maybe they work as a team. Jesus, Jimmy! What the h.e.l.l have you been drinking? Or smoking?"

"Did it ever strike you as a little odd, Tiny," Gehlen asked, "that Colonel Schumann, the day Jim shot up his car, was here at all? What was the inspector general of Counterintelligence doing here, on this back road in the country? Why was he so insistent on coming in, when it would have been so much easier for him to return to Frankfurt and have General Greene order that he be admitted? That happened, you might recall, not before, but a day or two after Sergeant Tedworth arrested Colonel Likharev."

"Who?" Tiny asked. "Oh."

"We will soon know if that is actually his name. He fooled us for a while. I have the feeling he has not fooled Father Welner or Colonel Frade."

"Sir, you're saying that you believe Cronley?"

"Let's hear the rest of the story of his romance with Mrs. Schumann, and then we can ask ourselves the question again."

- "You are one dumb sonofab.i.t.c.h, Captain, sir," Dunwiddie said, shaking his head, when Cronley had finished relating the romance.

"Everything fits, Tiny," Gehlen said. And then chuckled. "It destroys poor Jim's picture of himself as being as irresistible as Errol Flynn. But it all makes sense."

"So, what happens now?" Tiny asked.

"In the morning, I fly to Frankfurt and tell Colonel Mattingly," Cronley said.

"No. That's out of the question," Gehlen said.

"Excuse me, General?"

"Think that through, Jim. If you are correct, and I think you are, the Schumanns have thought their exposure through and come up with a plan to deal with it. Those plans range from outright denial to flight. The latter we cannot afford."

"And the alternative?" Cronley asked.

"You're under orders from Colonel Frade not to get in my way," Gehlen said. "Why don't you just follow them?"

"What are your plans for your officers, the ones Likharev says are the ones he turned?" Tiny asked. "Actually, how do you know those are the real traitors, that from his deathbed Likharev isn't going to get two Good Germans whacked, and get us to do it?"

"'Us to do it'?" Gehlen said. "They're my responsibility, Tiny. Not yours."

"Ours, General," Dunwiddie insisted. "I wouldn't mind whacking them myself, but I'd have to be sure they are indeed trying to sink everybody else."

"And I would like to shoot Colonel Schumann and his wife," Cronley said. "So why don't I do that first, and then go tell Mattingly why I did it?"

"Now you're acting immaturely," Gehlen said. "Think that through, Jim. For one thing, Colonel Mattingly doesn't like you. He would be p.r.o.ne to think you shot her after a lovers' quarrel. We have no proof-"

"Except what happened just now in Buenos Aires," Cronley interrupted.

"Not only have we no proof of what happened there, but we couldn't tell anybody about it if we did," Gehlen said patiently, and then asked, "What good would it do anybody for you to go to the stockade or the hangman?"

Cronley didn't reply.

"Insofar as whether von Plat and Boss are traitors-and I think they are-Konrad Bischoff can determine that. Actually, he's proposed their names to me already. And I think we should be able to learn what we need to know about Mrs. Likharev and the children in Leningrad in no more than a week or so. I want to be very careful. Getting them out is going to be risky."

"You're still going to try that?" Tiny asked.

"I think it would be very useful to everybody if Sergei Likharev felt indebted to us because we reunited him with his family."

"Yeah," Tiny said.

"I'm a big boy . . ." Cronley began.

"I wouldn't take a vote on that right now, Captain, sir," Tiny said.

". . . I know I f.u.c.ked up big time. And I'm willing to take my lumps for that. But . . ."

"But what, Jim?" Gehlen asked.

"The way I'm hearing this, I'm not going to get any lumps. I'm not to tell Clete or Mattingly, not even, for Christ's sake, Fat Freddy. It doesn't seem fair."

"I'm going to say this just once, so pay close attention," Gehlen said. "I regard the greatest threat to what we're trying to do here as coming not from the Soviets but from those intelligence types from the Pentagon who will shortly be moving into the Pullach compound.

"I know how to deal with the Reds. I do not know how to deal with your Pentagon. You, Tiny, are close to General White. Jim had those captain's bars he rarely wears pinned on his shoulders by President Truman. You two, with friends in high places, and who believe in what we're doing here, are going to be my defense against the Pentagon. I need the both of you."

"Jesus," Tiny breathed.

"And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find Konrad Bischoff and suggest he have a chat with Boss and von Plat."

As a Pavlovian reflex, both Cronley and Dunwiddie popped to their feet and came to attention when Gehlen stood.

When he had left the room, Dunwiddie said: "You know he's going to whack those two."

"And Colonel and Mrs. Schumann."

"Does that bother you?"

"Her, no. She's responsible for Lewis and the others getting killed. Him, I don't know."

"They call what he is 'an accessory before the fact.'"