Death and Honor

Why am I surprised? Von Wachtstein told me he was good, and that the happy Texas cowboy image he presents masks a very professional intelligence officer.

“And I presume still are,” Boltitz said. “I’m not SS-SD, Major Frade.”

“You’re not? Then who do you work for?”

“Admiral Canaris,” Boltitz said.

“For him personally? Or you’re assigned to the Abwehr?”

The Amt Auslandsnachrichten und Abwehr—Abwehr—was the foreign espionage and domestic counterintelligence organization for the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the supreme headquarters of the armed forces. Its head was Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.

The question is insulting, Boltitz thought, suggesting I am trying to make myself out as more important than I am.

And the anger Frade experienced when von Wachtstein told him that he had admitted his treason, had told me everything, has had more than enough time to dissipate. He is being insulting with the purpose of making me lose my temper and say things I would not ordinarily say.

This happy Texas cowboy is a very dangerous man.

“I have the honor of working directly under Admiral Canaris’s direction, Major Frade.”

“There’s that word again, honor,” Frade said, and shook his head and chuckled. “Okay. What about Major General von Deitzberg? He’s from the OKW. Where does he fit into your chain of command? You’re telling me you don’t work for him?”

“Von Deitzberg is an SS officer,” Boltitz replied, “an SS-brigadeführer, seconded to the army for this mission. No, I don’t—”

“Define ‘mission,’ ” Frade interrupted, and then before Boltitz could open his mouth, added, “You and the deputy adjutant to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler didn’t come here just to find out who’s the traitor in your embassy, did you?”

Boltitz locked eyes with Frade and thought, He’s letting me know he knows who von Deitzberg actually is. That’s to impress me.

But how does he know? Did von Wachtstein tell him that, too?

I don’t think von Wachtstein knows any more about von Deitzberg than that he is SS; not that he works for Himmler.

“No,” Boltitz said, looking at his coffee cup and taking a sip. “Of course we did not.”

“Then define your mission in terms of the priorities, one, two, three, et cetera,” Frade ordered.

“You will understand, Major Frade, that this is my assessment of the situation. It was never spelled out, one, two, three, et cetera.”

“Okay, then let’s have your assessment.”

“I would say that Operation Phoenix is of the greatest interest to the senior officers involved,” Boltitz said. “Von Deitzberg, I suspect, but can’t prove, is involved in the ransoming operation of the concentration camp inmates. I have never heard any suggestion there is a Wehrmacht involvement in that. That would be your one and two. Three, which of course has impact on the success of one and two, is discovering the traitor in the embassy.”

“Operation Phoenix can be defined as setting up places where the big shots— maybe even Hitler himself—can hide here when the war is lost?” Frade asked.

“Yes,” Boltitz said simply.

“Did you share any of your suspicions of Peter with von Deitzberg?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“As I told you, I serve Admiral Canaris,” Boltitz said.

“But you were going to tell him after Peter here committed suicide by airplane?”

“No. I thought I had made that clear. Once Peter had done the honorable thing, I would have done what I could to divert any suspicion from him.”

“ ‘The honorable thing’?” Frade parroted sarcastically. “Jesus H. Christ!” Then he asked, “Did you share your suspicions, even hint at them, with anyone else? Anyone?”

“No,” Boltitz said simply, meeting Frade’s eyes.

“Let me turn the question around,” Frade said. “Did anyone, von Deitzberg, what’s that fairy SS guy’s name in Montevideo? Oh, yeah, Sturmbannführer Werner von Tresmarck. Or that fat Austrian diplomat, looks like somebody stuffed him? Gradny-Sawz? Did anyone confide in you their thoughts that Peter was the fox in the chicken coop?”

Despite himself, Boltitz had to smile at the happy Texas cowboy’s characterizations of von Tresmarck and First Secretary of the German Embassy Anton von Gradny-Sawz.