Top Secret Part 37

It would be one more proof for both of them that while Little Jimmy Cronley might be a nice boy, even a bright nice boy, that's all he is, and thus any ideas he has are beneath the consideration of Frade, Gehlen, Bischoff and Company, the Wise Old Men of Kloster Grnau.

"We're waiting, Captain Cronley," Frade said.

Try to sound like a fellow intelligence professional. Use big words.

"When I realized that Major Bischoff's deprivation of senses and humiliation tactics of interrogation were not working on Major Orlovsky, and actually were counterproductive-Orlovsky has resigned himself to being shot-I decided something else had to be done.

"'What does this skilled NKGB officer want? What can I give him to get those names?'

"The answer was hope."

"I don't understand," Gehlen said.

"I told him, General, that if he turned, I would move him to Argentina, and once he was there, if he gave us the names of your people that he has turned, I would get you to get his family out of Russia."

The eyebrows on Gehlen's normally expressionless face rose.

"I see what you mean about a fertile imagination," he said.

"I went to see Major Orlovsky just now, General," Frade said. "I walked into his cell, gave him a moment to wonder who I might be, and then said, 'Well, Major, have you decided whether or not you want to go to Argentina?'"

"And?" Gehlen asked.

"What would you have expected his reaction to be, General?" Frade asked.

Gehlen considered the question for a moment before replying.

"I would guess that he wouldn't reply at all," Gehlen said. "Or that he would appear to play along, to see what he might learn."

"What he did, General, was lose control. And if he was acting, he's a better actor than John Barrymore."

"He lost control?"

"Only for a moment, but in that moment, his chest heaved, he sobbed, and his eyes teared."

"Interesting," Gehlen said, softly and thoughtfully.

"He quickly regained control, but for a moment he had lost it."

"And what did he say?"

"When he thought he had his voice-and himself-under control, he said, 'Until you walked in here, Colonel, I really thought your young captain was desperately reaching for straws.'"

"Go on, please," Gehlen said.

"I suppose," Frade said, "I should've walked in there at least considering the possibility that my young captain had actually cracked Orlovsky-but I didn't. So, I said the only thing I could think of: 'Answer my question, Major Orlovsky.'"

"And?" Gehlen said softly.

"He said, 'It is possible, unlikely but possible, that we might be able to work something out.' To which I cleverly replied, 'We'll talk more about working something out,' and left."

Gehlen shook his head in disbelief, smiled, and said, "Jim, I underestimated you."

"It would appear we both did," Frade said.

"When I tell Konrad Bischoff this-if I tell him-he'll be devastated," Gehlen said, smiling. "I'm afraid he was looking happily forward to Jim getting his comeuppance from Colonel Mattingly."

"You're saying you think we can strike a deal with Orlovsky?" Frade asked.

"I think we would be foolish not to look very carefully at that possibility, no matter how remote it sounds."

"General, I happily defer to your greater expertise," Frade said. "Would you do that for us, sir? Lay it out?"

"Very well," Gehlen said. "Simply, what we have is a skilled NKGB agent now in possession of information regarding Operation Ost that we cannot permit him to pa.s.s on to his superiors. What we want from him are the names of those of my people he's turned. Now, what are we willing to pay for that information?"

Cronley began, "Sir-"

"Just sit there," Frade snapped.

"Colonel, may I suggest that Cronley has earned the right to comment?" Gehlen said.

"Make it quick, Jimmy."

"I was about to suggest that if we can turn him, he's got more to tell us than the names of the Germans he's turned."

"True. But I suggest we're getting a bit ahead of where we should be," Gehlen said.

"Go ahead, General, please," Frade said. "Cronley will hold any further comments he might wish to offer until you're through."

Gehlen nodded. "Colonel, can you make good on the promise to take him to Argentina?"

"Qualified answer, General: Yes, but there are problems with that."

"Let's proceed with your ability to get him there, and deal with the problems later. The next question is: 'Would it be worth the risk to my agents in place for them to try to get his family out of Russia?' The answer to that, too, has to be qualified.

"Simple answer, yes. If we don't get the names of the people Orlovsky-or perhaps someone else in the NKGB-has turned, they can cause enormous damage. So, if you agree, Colonel Frade, what I suggest we do is accept that the information Orlovsky has is worth his price. You will establish a new life for him in Argentina and I will attempt to get his family out of Russia. What are the problems you see?"

"I hardly know where to begin," Frade said. "There's a number of them. Perhaps the greatest of them is that if I went to Admiral Souers with this-you know he's the ultimate authority?"

Gehlen nodded.

"I don't think he'd give me permission to do it. So far, he doesn't even know we have Orlovsky. It almost came out at dinner last night, but the conversation went off at a tangent when Colonel Schumann regaled everyone with his descriptions of Sergeant Dunwiddie and his ferocious fellows, and the subject of NKGB penetration of Kloster Grnau got lost. Fortunately."

"I'm surprised Colonel Mattingly didn't bring Orlovsky to everyone's attention," Gehlen said. It was a question as well as a statement.

"So was I," Frade said. "I'm guessing he wanted to dump the problem in my lap. He would have preferred to hang Jimmy out to dry, but right now Admiral Souers-and for that matter, the President-think Cronley can walk on water. So that would be risky."

"Do you think you could go to Admiral Souers and argue the merits of taking Orlovsky to Argentina?"

"No, I don't," Frade said simply. "He would decide the risk to what I've got going in Argentina would be too great. And he'd probably be right. Which means that we're going to have to keep both Mattingly and the admiral in the dark about this operation."

"One, you're willing to do that? Two, can you do that? And, three, if you can do it, for how long?"

"I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to protect Operation Ost. As far as keeping how I do that from the admiral and Mattingly, all I can do is hope that when they finally find out-and they will-it will be a done deal.

"Now, for obvious reasons, we can't just add Orlovsky to our family of refugees in Argentina . . ."

"Obvious reasons?" Gehlen asked.

"Before this interesting development came up, General, I was going to come see you with this"-he took an envelope from his tunic and handed it to Gehlen-"with the compliments of Oberst Otto Niedermeyer."

"I've been expecting this," Gehlen said.

"What is it?" Cronley asked.

"Why do I suspect, General Gehlen," Frade asked, smiling, "that you and Oberst Niedermeyer have a communications link I'm not supposed to know about?"

Gehlen smiled back. "Because you have a naturally suspicious mind. Which is very useful in our line of endeavor."

"What is that?" Cronley asked again.

And was ignored again.

"And," Gehlen went on, "possibly because Otto tells me that, for an Anglican, you have an unusually close relations.h.i.+p with a certain Jesuit priest and he told you."

Frade laughed. "No comment."

"You're wondering why Otto sent this with you, rather than using this communications link you suspect us of having?"

"Yeah."

"Because if he used-what should I say?-the Vatican channel, not only that Jesuit but others would have read it. There are some things we prefer not to share with Holy Mother Church."

"Shame on you," Frade said.

Gehlen and Frade were smiling at each other.

Gehlen has smiled more in this room in the last twenty minutes than in all the time I've known him.

And cracked jokes.

They just met and they're already buddies.

Even if Niedermeyer got word to Gehlen that he thinks Clete is a good guy, that wouldn't have made them pals.

They're kindred souls . . . what else could it be?

"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Cronley asked for the third time.

Gehlen looked at Frade, who nodded his permission.

"Jim, it's a list of the n.a.z.is who SS-Oberst Niedermeyer thinks would cause us the greatest embarra.s.sment if the Russians could prove they're here at Kloster Grnau. And a list of my people, some of them here, some in Argentina, who Niedermeyer suspects have already been turned or, in his judgment, are likely to turn if properly approached."

"What are you going to do about them? The people who have been turned?" Cronley asked.

Gehlen acted as if he had not heard the question.

"I think we're in agreement that we're going to have to move all of the people who can embarra.s.s us out of Kloster Grnau as quickly as that can be done," Gehlen said.

"Mattingly suggested there may be a pa.s.sport problem," Frade said. But it was a question.

"Our friends in Rome are very cautious," Gehlen said. "Perhaps that's why they have been so successful for so long. In this connection, they dole out pa.s.sports very sparingly, never more than a dozen at a time."

"Mattingly told me that. But you have a dozen blanks?"

Gehlen nodded. "But they won't give us any more until our Jesuit friend in Buenos Aires reports to them that the travelers have pa.s.sed through Argentine immigration and disappeared. After handing him their Vatican pa.s.sports, which he has destroyed. I understand their concern, of course-this way no more than a dozen pa.s.sports are ever at risk of coming to light at one time-but it causes problems."

"There will be an SAA Constellation here on Sat.u.r.day," Frade said. "It will refuel in Frankfurt before flying to Berlin, and will refuel again in Frankfurt on the return trip. That will be on Sunday or Monday. Can you select the dozen people who pose the greatest embarra.s.sment and have their pa.s.sports ready in that timeframe, so we can load them on the Connie when it refuels in Frankfurt?"

"Two hours after I give the names to Oberst Mannberg, the pa.s.sports will be ready."

"Mattingly has done all this before, and his system seems to work," Frade said. "When I see him in Munich tonight I'll tell him there are no problems about this."

"Does he know about Otto's list?"

"I'll tell him about it tonight-there was no opportunity at that Schlosshotel."

"Can I ask what you want me to do," Cronley said, "or what you're going to do about the people Colonel Niedermeyer thinks may have been turned?"

When he saw the looks on both men's faces he knew he had asked a question that he should not have asked. Confirmation came immediately.

"Did you say something, Captain Cronley?" Frade asked.

"It wasn't important, sir."

The moment Gehlen has proof that any of his people have been turned, that's the end of them. I should have known that.

Cletus knows that, and has decided it's Gehlen's problem, and Gehlen should deal with it.

But he seems to agree that Orlovsky is our problem, and that our solution should not be turning him over to Gehlen to be shot.

Why? Because he's a Russian?

And we captured him?

And what would have happened if Orlovsky hadn't broken down when Clete saw him?

Would Clete have then told me what Mattingly did-"Mind your own f.u.c.king business"?