The Honor of Spies

Colonel J. Stanton Ludlow, Sr., Corps of Military Police--a tall, gray-haired fifty-six-year-old; a "Retread," having served in World War One--entered Building T-209. He was trailed by a serious-looking lieutenant, a wiry twenty-two-year-old with closely cropped black hair.

They found six men in the living room, three of them in uniform.

The officers in uniform rose and came to attention in respect to the presence of the Camp Clinton commander. Two of them, a lieutenant and a major, wore MP brassards and the other accoutrements of military policemen, including holstered Model 1911A1 .45 ACP pistols, on their khaki shirts-and-trousers uniforms. The third wore short khaki pants and a khaki tunic onto which had been pinned and sewn the insignia of an oberstleutnant--lieutenant colonel--of the Afrikakorps.

The third was of course Oberstleutnant Wilhelm Frogger, who had been captured when General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim had surrendered the Afrikakorps, and who was the sole surviving son of Wilhelm and Else Frogger.

"At ease," Colonel Ludlow ordered, and turned to the eldest of the three civilians, who was sitting in one of the armchairs. He was wearing a sweat-soaked shirt. He had his sleeves rolled up and his tie pulled down. Gaily striped suspenders held up his pants.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, Colonel," Colonel A. F. Graham, USMCR, said.

"What can I do for you, Colonel?" Colonel Ludlow said, and looked at the two other men in the room, both of whom were wearing sort of a uniform of knit polo shirts, khaki slacks, and aviator's sunglasses as they leaned against the wall and held bottles of Coca-Cola.

"I don't mean to offend," Colonel Ludlow said to the taller of the two, "but has anyone ever told you that you look like Howard Hughes?"

"I've heard that before," Hughes said.

"Hughes is much better-looking, Colonel," the man beside him--Major Cletus Frade, USMCR--said. "And isn't going bald."

Colonel Graham flashed Frade an impatient look, then pushed himself out of the armchair.

"With the caveat that the classification is Top Secret, Colonel," Graham said, "would you please take a look at this?"

He handed Ludlow a four-by-five-inch envelope.

"Didn't you show me this when you first came?" Colonel Ludlow asked as he opened the envelope.

"What I showed you when I came was my authorization to see Colonel Frogger," Graham said. "This is somewhat different."

Ludlow read the document:

Ludlow's face showed his surprise as he looked at Colonel Graham.

"This is a blank check for anything, Colonel," Ludlow said.

"Yes, it is," Graham said. "I have to ask about your lieutenant. Do you want him to participate in what I'm going to need, or would you rather I have Major Frade take him into the kitchen, tell him what certainly will happen to him if he breathes a word of this to anyone for the rest of his life, and send him away?"

Ludlow considered that for a moment.

"Colonel Graham, this is Lieutenant Mark Dalton. I trust him. The question is whether he wants to become further involved with what's going on here." Ludlow looked to the wiry lieutenant. "Dalton?"

"You may show him that note," Graham said.

Ludlow handed the note to Dalton, who read it.

"In or out, Lieutenant?" Graham asked.

"In, sir," Lieutenant Dalton said.

"We don't shoot people who run off at the mouth about things like this, Lieutenant," Graham said. "But what we do, instead, is confine them in Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, where they stay incommunicado at least for the duration of the war, plus six months. If Colonel Ludlow trusts you, I'd like to have you, but I want you to be sure you know what you're letting yourself in for."

"In, sir," Lieutenant Dalton repeated.

"Incommunicado means your family will be informed you are missing in action."

"In, sir," Dalton said after a just-perceptible hesitation.

Graham nodded, then introduced Frade, Hughes, and Frogger, then said: "All right. What we are going to do is give Colonel Frogger a polo shirt and long-legged khakis. Lieutenant Dalton, you are then going to back Colonel Ludlow's staff car up to the back door and open the trunk. As the rest of us form as good a shield as we can, Colonel Frogger will then get in the trunk.

"Colonel Ludlow and Colonel Frogger will then get in that car. Major Frade and Mr. Hughes and I will get in the other car. We will follow you to the Jackson Army Air Base, where we will drive directly to our airplane, a Constellation. We then will again make as good a quick shield as we can while the trunk is opened and Colonel Frogger gets out, then goes up the ladder and into the aircraft.

"We will take off as soon as possible." He looked between Ludlow and Dalton. "You two will return here, and at 2300 hours, you will--in addition to whatever else you do when there is an escape--notify your superior headquarters and the FBI that Colonel Frogger has escaped."

He let that sink in, then added: "Don't let anyone--especially the FBI--know we were here at all."