The Honor of Spies

"And knowing that Delgano would inevitably hear of what had happened at Casa Chica, I suspect that Dona Dorotea Frade would report to the authorities that there had been an attack for unknown reasons by a roving band of bandits, or whatever, on the house.

"We just don't know. We will have to find out. Raschner's working on that, and we all know how good our Erich is at that sort of thing.

"We do know what Oberst Peron told me on the telephone last night, and I'm afraid it was proof that once again I committed the cardinal sin of underestimating one's enemy.

"Frade lost no time whatever, it seems, in showing Oberst Peron that he had photographic proof that Peron had been at the machine guns with Heitz and his men, as well as photographs of the bullet-riddled bodies of Heitz and his men.

"He also told Peron that he had photographs of the map SS-Brigadefuhrer von Deitzberg had given him of postwar South America."

"Excuse me?" von Gradny-Sawz asked, visibly confused.

"Oh," Cranz said. "That's right. You weren't made privy to that, were you, Gradny-Sawz?"

Neither was I, Boltitz thought. I have no idea what he's talking about.

But he is intimating that Wienerwurst was the only one who doesn't know.

"No, I wasn't," von Gradny-Sawz said, somewhat petulantly.

Did someone steal your ice-cream cone, Wienerwurst?

"It was a map prepared by the Army Topographical people showing South America after our Final Victory," Cranz explained. "Briefly, Uruguay and Paraguay will become provinces of Argentina."

I will be damned. Is that a fact, or something created to dazzle Peron?

"Frade told Peron that the first time he suspected an attempt was made on his life or on the lives of anyone close to him, the photographs and the map would be placed in the hands of the president of the Argentine Republic and appear in the world's newspapers."

"He's bluffing," von Gradny-Sawz said firmly.

"Possibly, even probably," Cranz said. "But we don't know that, do we, Gradny-Sawz? And do we want to chance he is not?"

Von Gradny-Sawz did not answer.

"Finally," Cranz said, "Frade told Peron he wanted him out of his house by today. And then--after Frade was attacked--he called Peron and said he was going to give Peron the benefit of the doubt, that Peron simply had not had the time to call his German friends off before the attack, but that he suggested that Peron should make that call now."

"What attack on him?" Boltitz asked.

"According to today's La Nacion," Cranz said conversationally, "three criminals bent on robbing the Frade mansion--actually, it didn't say 'Frade mansion'; it said 'a residence on Avenida Coronel Diaz'--were interrupted by alert police and died in a gun battle that followed."

And that explains the message you were going to send to the Widow Frade, doesn't it, you murderous bastard?

"To recapitulate, gentlemen: Both operations--eliminating the Froggers in Tandil and eliminating Frade here--failed. The only good thing to come out of it is that we have further leverage with Oberst Peron.

"We must presume that the Froggers are still alive. That situation is unacceptable. I think we can safely presume that Don Cletus Frade has them. Or at least had them. There has been a report that a British cruiser in Rio de Janeiro took aboard a middle-aged couple, but until we know it was the Froggers, we must presume it wasn't them."

He looked around the room.

"Any questions, comments?"

"We have to get rid of Frade," von Gradny-Sawz said solemnly.

"You think so, Gradny-Sawz?" Cranz asked softly.

"To me it is self-evident."

"Let me tell you what is self-evident to me, Gradny-Sawz, and probably to these other gentlemen. We have been sent a message by el Coronel Martin. And that message is that he knows we have failed, for the second time, to remove el Senor Frade from the scene. Otherwise, you see, Gradny-Sawz, el Senor Frade would be facing criminal charges for manslaughter. He could probably successfully plead self-defense, but it would be all over the newspapers.

"If that happened, people would ask, Gradny-Sawz, who could possibly want to assassinate the son of one of Argentina's beloved sons, who was himself assassinated. Give your imagination free rein, Gradny-Sawz, and guess who would come under suspicion. The French, perhaps? The Uruguayans?

"Do you think it's possible people would suspect us? And if that came to pass, do you think that Frade's photographs, sure to be introduced at his trial, would serve to confirm that suspicion?