The Honor of Spies

"That--his connection with Peron--may be Three. But it could be something else. I just know, and the admiral agrees, that there's more to Himmler's sending von Deitzberg to Argentina than checking to see if the 'transport mechanism' works and eliminating Frade."

"You said when Il Duce has been freed?" Dulles asked.

"By now the Carabinieri, in whose hands the king placed him, should have moved him to a ski resort--the Campo Imperatore Hotel on the Gran Sasso--" He paused and looked between Dulles and Graham to make sure they understood him, and after they nodded he went on: "From which, in the next few days, a task force of paratroops augmented by some special SS troops will try to rescue him."

"You're suggesting that you're not sure the operation will work?" Graham asked.

"The admiral isn't sure, either. On one hand, the paratroops are very good, and the SS are special troops. On the other, there's a battalion of Carabinieri who are also very good."

"Why is rescuing Mussolini so important?" Dulles wondered aloud. "There is no way he could resume power."

"Because the Bavarian corporal thinks it is," von und zu Waching said. "Case closed."

Dulles nodded a sad agreement.

"Okay," Graham said. "What is it you want from me in Argentina? And what do you offer in return?"

"Money is the primary thing I want from you," von und zu Waching said.

"Money is usually the last thing mentioned," Graham said. "After you convince the other fellow that he really wants what you're selling, then you tell him how much it costs. What are you going to give me for my money?"

"Abwehr Ost," von und zu Waching said. "Files, dossiers, analyses, even agents in place. How much would you like to have that?"

"We have a saying, Captain, that when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is," Graham said. "The first thing that comes to mind is: 'How could he possibly deliver on that?' And the second is: 'Why would he want to?' "

"Oberstleutnant Gehlen . . . you know of whom I speak?"

Graham nodded. "He runs Abwehr Ost for Admiral Canaris. I've always wondered why he's only a lieutenant colonel."

"To keep him from Hitler's attention," von und zu Waching said. "He met the Fuhrer for the first time a week or so ago."

"Okay," Graham said. "I can understand that."

"Oberstleutnant Gehlen wants three things," von und zu Waching went on carefully. "In the following order: To protect the families of his officers and men. To protect, insofar as this may be possible, the lives of his officers and men and agents and assets in place in the Soviet Union."

Graham nodded, grunted, and said, "That's two things."

"You very possibly won't like his third."

"We won't know until you tell me, will we?"

"Gehlen feels it would be a shame--worse, criminal, even sinful--if all the knowledge of Abwehr Ost, acquired at such great effort and the cost of so many lives, should be flushed down the toilet when Soviet tanks roll down the Unter den Linden."

"What would he like to see happen to it?" Dulles asked softly.

"He believes that his intelligence would be useful, even the determining factor, in defeating the Soviet Union when, inevitably, there is war between the United States and the Soviet Union."

"And do you believe that war is inevitable between the United States and our Soviet allies?" Dulles pursued.

Von und zu Waching took a moment before replying: "I would say that it is inevitable unless the United States develops and produces atomic weapons before the Soviet Union does and demonstrates its willingness to use them."

"Even against Germany?" Graham asked.

Von und zu Waching didn't reply to the question. Graham decided not to push him.

"The Russians are, of course, aware of Gehlen," von und zu Waching said, "and almost certainly have the names of his important people on their Order of Battle charts. Probably, they have the names of everyone connected with Abwehr Ost down to the last obergefreiter and female civilian typist. It follows that if we have penetrated them, they have penetrated us."

"Yeah," Graham thought aloud.

"But they don't--self-evidently--know the identities of Gehlen's people in the Kremlin. They will want those names. We would, and I suggest you would, under the same circumstances. The difference being that we would not torture the wives and children of their officers to get that information."

"You think the Russians would torture women and children?" Dulles asked softly.

"Probably with about as much enthusiasm as the SS does when they have a Russian woman or child in their hands," von und zu Waching said.

"What do you want from me?" Graham asked. "I don't seem to be getting an answer."