The Honor of Spies

Furthermore, Frogger was aware that while he was privy to the secrets of Operation Phoenix, he was by no means a member of the inner circle. He knew too much.

Worse, he was privy to many of the details of an even more secret operation--which didn't have a code name--run by SS-Brigadefuhrer Ritter Manfred von Deitzberg, first deputy adjutant to Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler. Von Deitzberg had charged Cranz with making sure that this operation--in which senior SS officers were enriching themselves by arranging the release of Jews from concentration camps, and their subsequent movement to Argentina, on payment of a substantial ransom--was kept running and kept secret.

Cranz therefore thought it very likely that when the Froggers had been ordered to return on the next Condor flight to Berlin, Frogger had decided--or his wife had decided, or the both of them--that they had been set up as the scapegoats. And knowing what that meant, they had deserted their posts.

Now they were going to have to be killed before they could barter their knowledge of Operation Phoenix and the ransoming operation for their own sanctuary.

Peron said: "While I am fully aware of the problem the Froggers pose, Karl, I don't want anything to happen to Cletus Frade. He is my godson. His father--my dearest friend--died unnecessarily and I don't want the death of Cletus weighing on my soul as well."

"I understand your position, Juan Domingo. But--the reason I asked you to receive me on such short notice--I have come up with a rough plan that, since Cletus Frade is in the United States, poses no threat to him whatever."

"We don't know when he will return," Peron said.

"But not within the next three or four days, wouldn't you agree?"

"No, of course not," Peron said impatiently. "He just got there. He has to do what has to be done to get the SAA pilots the licenses Lloyd's of London insists they have to have, however long--three or four days--that will take, and then fly back here."

"De Filippi will know," Cranz said. "More important, will he tell you when Frade will actually be here?"

"Of course."

"And you will tell me?"

"Why would you want to know?"

"As I said, Juan Domingo, I know, and respect, your feeling vis-a-vis your godson. If I know when he will return, I can either adjust my plan, or call it off completely, if it would in any way put Frade at risk."

"I'm glad we understand one another," Peron said.

"May I speak bluntly, Juan Domingo?"

"Please do."

"I think you are as aware as I am of the problems the Froggers will cause both of us if we can't return them to German control and get them out of Argentina."

"Let's hear what you have in mind," Peron said tartly.

"The reason I'm sure the Froggers are in Tandil is that one of my men has seen them there."

"You sent someone from the SS to Tandil?" Peron asked on the edge of anger.

"I sent an Argentine, an ethnic German who works for me, down there to see what he could learn. Would you like to hear from him what that is?"

"How could I do that?

"He's here, in the foyer. May I get him?"

Peron considered that for a long moment.

"You did consider, of course, that Martin's men would see you bringing him here? What that would mean?"

"I'm sure they did," Cranz said, smiling. "He was driving my car; he's my chauffeur."

Peron considered that a moment, then smiled.

"You are good at what you do, aren't you, Karl? Yes. Bring him in."

[THREE]

Building T-209

Senior German Officer Prisoner of War Detention

Facility

Camp Clinton, Mississippi

1850 6 August 1943

Building T-209 had been erected in four days just over a year before. Sitting on concrete blocks, it was a one-story frame structure containing a living room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms.

In each of the bedrooms, a curtained-off cubicle held a sink, a toilet, and a cement-floored shower. The furniture was what was prescribed in an Army Regulation titled "Colonels Through Major Generals, Temporary Bachelor Accommodations, Furnishings For."

That is to say, the single beds in the bedrooms were marginally larger and had more comfortable mattresses than the "Cots, Steel w/mattress" provided for officers of lower rank. And the living room held a simple, if comfortable, cloth-upholstered couch, two matching armchairs, and a coffee table. There was a refrigerator and a stove and a kitchen table with two chairs in the kitchen. Officers of lesser rank had none of these creature comforts.

A very large fan on a pole had been placed in the open kitchen door so that it blew toward the open living room door. It didn't cool the cottage much against the stifling heat of Mississippi in August, but it was much better than nothing.