The Honor of Spies

El Coronel Alejandro Martin was chief of the Ethical Standards Office of the Bureau of Internal Security at the Ministry of Defense. While he officially reported to the minister, both Cranz and Peron knew that he also reported, officially or unofficially, directly to President Rawson.

At great risk to his own life, and for the good of Argentina, not for personal gain, Martin, then a teniente coronel, had chosen to support the coup d'etat being planned and to be led by el Coronel Jorge Frade against President Ramon S. Castillo. When Frade had been assassinated in April 1943, before "Operation Blue" could be put into play, Martin had transferred his allegiance to General Rawson, who became president when the coup was successful.

Martin's services had been so valuable that Rawson proposed waiving promotion standards and making Martin chief of military intelligence as a General de Brigada, maybe even a General de Division.

Martin had declined promotion beyond coronel, knowing that taking a general's stars would make him hated by officers over whom he had been jumped.

But not taking the stars in no way diminished his power. Both Cranz and Peron regarded Martin as a very dangerous man.

Father Kurt Welner, S.J., had been el Coronel Frade's best friend, and served--if unofficially--as family priest to the late Coronel Frade, to his sister, and to his brother-in-law, el Senor Humberto Duarte, managing director of the Anglo-Argentine Bank, and to la Senora Claudia Carzino-Cormano, who was one of the wealthiest women in Argentina and who for decades had lived--until his death--in a state of carnal sin with the late Coronel Frade.

Both Cranz and Peron regarded Father Welner as a very dangerous man.

But it was the third man, twenty-four-year-old Cletus Frade, whom Cranz and Peron regarded as the most dangerous of all.

Born in Argentina to an American mother, Cletus, el Coronel's only son, had been estranged from his father since infancy. After his mother a year later had died giving birth in the U.S., Frade's American grandfather, a wealthy and powerful oilman, had successfully exerted his power to keep year-old Cletus from leaving America, and to keep Jorge Frade out of the United States.

Frade had been raised in Texas by his mother's brother and his wife. He had grown to manhood accepting his grandfather's often-pronounced opinion that Jorge Guillermo Frade was an unmitigated wife-murdering three-star sonofabitch.

Cletus Frade entered the United States Marine Corps and became a fighter pilot. Flying F4F Wildcats off "Fighter One" on Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, he became, by shooting down four Japanese Zero fighters and three Betty Bombers, an "Ace Plus Two."

That was enough for the Marine Corps to send him home, ultimately to pass on his fighter pilot's skill to fledgling fighter pilots, but first to participate in a War Bond Tour during which real live heroes from the war would be put on a stage to encourage the public to do their part by buying War Bonds Until It Hurt.

The first leg of the tour had found the war hero in California:

Frade was in his room in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel taking on a little liquid courage for his first appearance on stage when a well-dressed, neatly mustached man appeared at his door and inquired in Spanish if Frade happened to know an aviator and motion picture producer by the name of Howard Hughes.

"Who wants to know?" Frade said.

"Colonel Alejandro Frederico Graham, USMCR, wants to know, Mr. Frade. And stand to attention when you're talking to him."

There had been something about the civilian's tone of voice that caused Frade to stand to attention.

Colonel Graham pushed past Frade, entered his room, and closed the door.

"The question was, 'Are you acquainted with Howard Hughes?' You may answer 'Yes, sir' or 'No, sir.'"

"Yes, sir."

"Mr. Hughes told me you are the son of Jorge Guillermo Frade. You have the same answer options, Mr. Frade."

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

"Sir, permission to speak, sir?"

"Granted. You may stand at Parade Rest."