The Assassination Option Part 47

"Done," she said. "I mean, already done. I arranged for that when I came here. It was last swept just before we went to pick you up at the bahnhof, and they'll sweep it again at 0500 tomorrow."

"Great! You are a woman of amazing talents."

"Of all kinds," she said.

She looked around the room to make sure no one was looking at her, and then, smiling, stuck her tongue out at him in a manner which she intended to be, and which he interpreted to be, somewhere between naughty and lascivious.

When General Gehlen and Colonel Mannberg arrived ten minutes later, the conference table was already set. There was a lined pad, three pencils, and a water gla.s.s before each chair. There was a water pitcher in the center of the table, and a small canvas sack, which was stenciled all over, in bright yellow, "BURN." In front of Cronley's chair was a secure telephone.

Gehlen had brought former Major Konrad Bischoff with him.

Mannberg and Bischoff were in well-tailored suits and looked like successful businessmen. Cronley thought, for the umpteenth time, that Gehlen looked like an unsuccessful black marketeer.

I guess Bischoff saw Mannberg in his nice suit and figured, what the h.e.l.l, if he can do it, why not me?

Claudette, who was sitting to Cronley's side with her shorthand notebook in front of her, looked at Cronley questioningly.

"Miss Colbert, will you set a place for Major Bischoff? Konrad, this is Miss Colbert, our new administrative officer."

Bischoff nodded at her curtly and sat down. Claudette got a lined pad, three pencils, and a water gla.s.s and set them before him.

"Before we get started, General," Cronley said, "I know you've met Major Wallace, but I don't know how much you know about him."

"Actually, Jim," Gehlen replied, "the three of us, Ludwig, Konrad, and I, were very much aware of the irony when Major Wallace flew into Elendsalm to accept our surrender. We'd been hoping to . . . have a chat . . . with him for years. We almost succeeded twice, once in Norway and again in Moravia. But failed. And now there he is, all smiles, coming to chat with us."

"You didn't mention that, General, either at Elendsalm or here," Wallace said, smiling.

"At the time, Major, it didn't seem to be the appropriate thing to do."

"And here?"

"Jim never shared with me what you're really doing here, and I thought it was best . . ."

"To let the sleeping dog lie?"

"Sleeping tiger, perhaps. We always thought you were far more dangerous than a dog."

"I'm flattered."

"And are you now going to tell us what you've been really doing here?"

"I don't expect you to believe this, General, but nothing. What I'm doing now is working for Jim. But we don't want that to get around."

"Understood."

"That out of the way," Cronley said, "let's get started. First things first. Major Wallace was telling me earlier that the OSS learned . . . painfully, he said . . . that if all parties to an operation are not involved in all aspects of its planning, the operation goes wrong."

Cronley saw Gehlen and Mannberg nod just perceptibly in agreement.

"So to make sure that doesn't happen here, how do we handle that?"

Hessinger raised his hand.

Resisting with effort the temptation to say, "Yes, Freddy, you may. But don't dawdle in the restroom, and remember to wash your hands," Cronley asked, simply, "Hessinger?"

Hessinger stood up.

"Since Major Wallace brought that up, I have given the matter some thought," he said. "What I suggest is the following: That we have a . . . how do I describe this? I will rephrase. I suggest that Miss Colbert take minutes of this meeting. Every member of this group . . . which brings us to that. What is the group? I suggest the group consists of those present, plus, of course, Captain Dunwiddie. And either or both Max Ostrowski and Kurt Schrder, presuming they volunteer for this operation."

"Tiny is in the process of finding that out," Cronley interrupted. "I think they both will."

"Very well," Hessinger said. "We define the group as those present, plus Captain Dunwiddie, and possibly, to be determined, Schrder and Ostrowski. When Miss Colbert types the minutes of this meeting-in one copy only-she will append at the end the names of the group . . . every member of the group, including those who were not present. Every member of the group will sign by his name, acknowledging that he is familiar with the contents.

"Then, tomorrow, when Captain Dunwiddie comes here, he will read the minutes-which will be, twenty-four hours a day, in the custody of Miss Colbert or myself-and sign them, acknowledging that he is familiar with everything.

"If he has something to add-hypothetically, that Ostrowski does not wish to partic.i.p.ate-Miss Colbert or I will type this up as Annex 1 to the minutes, again appending the names of all members of the group, who, when then they read Annex 1, will sign again to acknowledge they are familiar with the added information. Und so weiter through what I suspect will be Annex 404."

Hessinger looked as if he had something else to say, but decided against saying it. He sat down.

After twenty seconds, Wallace said, "That'd work."

Gehlen said, chuckling, "Freddy-Feldmarschal von Moltke-where were you when I needed a really smart general staff officer to find a simple solution to answer a complex problem, and all I had was Ludwig?"

Mannberg smiled, then applauded, and a moment later, so did Bischoff, Wallace, and Cronley.

My G.o.d, Fat Freddy is actually blus.h.i.+ng!

"Miss Colbert," Cronley said, "item one, in your transcript of these proceedings, will be the adoption of Mr. Hessinger's 'How to Keep Everybody Who Needs to Know Up to Speed' plan."

"Yes, sir," Claudette said.

"May I suggest, Jim," Gehlen said, "that item two be a report of your trip to Frankfurt?"

"Yes, sir. But I think I'd better begin that with a report of my meeting with Colonel Wilson. As I think everybody knows . . ."

- "And when do you think you'll have these aerial photographs of places where the Storchs could touch down?" Major Wallace asked.

"I didn't ask, which was stupid of me," Cronley replied. "But I would guess that a Piper Cub with the film aboard-I told you at least two Constabulary Cubs from the Fourteenth would be used?-was at Sonthofen before the train got there. And I wouldn't be surprised if when Wilson picks me up at Schleissheim in the morning, he has prints with him."

"I'd like a look at them," Bischoff said. "Actually, what I'd like to do is get copies of them to Seven-K."

"And if they were intercepted some way, don't you think the Russians would thereafter wonder why the Americans were so interested in obscure Thuringian fields and back roads that they shot aerials of them?" Wallace asked sarcastically.

"Good point," Gehlen said.

"You have common maps, presumably?" Wallace asked.

What the h.e.l.l is a common map?

Oh. Seven-K and Bischoff have identical maps.

"Yes, of course we do."

"Presumably with . . . imaginative . . . coordinates?"

Gehlen chuckled.

What the h.e.l.l does that mean?

"Of course," Bischoff said tightly.

"Then I suggest that the thing to do is get the pilots who shot the aerials to match them to a standard map, and then we change those coordinates to the imaginative ones. Would that be the thing to do, General?"

"Presuming the imaginative coordinates have not been compromised."

"You think it's worth taking the chance?"

"I don't think we have much choice."

"Okay with you, Jim?"

He's asking my permission to do something, and I don't have a f.u.c.king clue what that something is.

"Absolutely."

Wallace reached for the secure telephone.

"Major Wallace," he said. "Authorization Baker Niner Three Seven. I say again, Baker Niner Three Seven. Get me Lieutenant Colonel Wilson at Constab headquarters in Sonthofen.

"Colonel, this is the Bavarian office of the German-American Tourist Bureau. It has come to our attention that you have been taking pictures which might be suitable for our next 'Visit Beautiful Occupied Bavaria' brochure . . .

"Well, that would depend on who you might think it is . . .

"Congratulations, Hotshot! You have just won the cement bicycle and an all-expenses-paid tour of the beautiful Bavarian village of Pullach . . .

"No. I haven't, actually. I'm parched. But as soon as I get off the phone, in other words, after you answer, truthfully, a couple of questions, I intend to quickly remedy that situation . . .

"The first is, I need to know, presuming they came out and you have them, if you've thought of matching the photos taken this morning to a GI map? My boss has been wondering . . .

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am talking about him. But I thought you were the one everyone calls 'the Boy Wonder.'"

Wallace turned to Cronley.

"Colonel Wilson wishes me to remind you that he's done this sort of thing before, and knows what's required. He will bring what's required when he picks you up in the morning."

He turned back. "Final question, Bill. On a scale of one to ten, what's our chances of carrying this off . . . ?"

"That bad, huh? Well, it's been nice chatting with you. Green Valley out."

Cronley's mouth went on automatic. He parroted, "'Green Valley'? What the h.e.l.l is that?"

"A code name from another time," Wallace said. "My code name."

"I had the feeling you knew one another," General Gehlen said. "You said 'that bad.' Colonel Wilson doesn't think much of our chances?"

"Colonel Wilson said I should know better than to try to estimate the chances of an operation being successful."

"What did he mean by that?" Cronley asked. "Why not?"

"The only pertinent question to be asked is, 'Is it necessary?' And you've already made that decision, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have," Cronley said, as much to himself as in response to Wallace's question.

"Konrad," General Gehlen asked, "once we get them, how long is it going to take to get the coordinates of possible pickup sites to Seven-K?"

"That would depend, Herr General, on whether we send them by messenger-"

"Which would be slower in any event than by radio, even if we knew where Rahil is," Mannberg interrupted.

"But would present less of a risk of interception," Bischoff argued.

"It would take too much time," Gehlen said. "The time element here is critical. Rahil is greatly exposed moving around Poland or Bohemia, Moravia-"

"General," Wallace interrupted, smiling, "that's Czechoslovakia again. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is history. You lost the war."

"Indeed, we did. What I meant to say, Green Valley, was that Seven-K is greatly exposed moving around that part of the world with a Russian woman and two Russian children with the NKGB looking for them."

"Well, if you think they're in what used to be Moravia, people other people are looking for are sometimes very hard to find in Moravia. Even by . . ."

Gehlen shook his head, and smiled.

"Searchers directed by Major Konrad Bischoff of Abwehr Ost," he said.

"We heard you were personally directing the searchers," Wallace said.

"Perhaps if I had, we would have met sooner than we did," Gehlen said. "What happened was that my man normally in charge of important searches, Oberst Otto Niedermeyer, wasn't available, so Kon-"

"You're talking about the guy I met in Argentina?" Cronley blurted.

"I'm sure we are, Jim," Gehlen said.

Jesus, this intelligence business is really a small world, isn't it?

"So Konrad got the job of . . . trying to arrange a conversation with Green Valley," Gehlen concluded.

"And d.a.m.ned near succeeded," Wallace said. "There I was, all by my lonesome in a muddy field in picturesque Krlick Snnk. I could actually hear your motorcycles coming up the valley, and no sign of anything in the sky to get me the h.e.l.l out of there. I was about to kiss my . . . rear end . . . goodbye, when there was Billy Wilson coming down the valley in his puddle jumper, about ten feet off the ground."

"We saw him," Bischoff said. "We were looking for a Lysander-"