Top Secret Part 63

[ SEVEN ].

Commanding Officer's Quarters Kloster Grnau Schollbrunn, Bavaria American Zone of Occupation, Germany 1425 8 November 1945 Father Welner and Staff Sergeant Lewis came into the room. Cronley, Gehlen, and Dunwiddie were sitting at the table.

"Orlovsky has accepted your kind invitation to lunch," the priest said. "But that's all I got out of him."

"Shall I get him, Captain?" Lewis asked.

"f.u.c.k him," Cronley said.

"That's not very charitable, Jim," the priest said.

"I'm fresh out of charity so far as he's concerned," Cronley replied.

"What was your impression of him, Father?" Gehlen asked.

"I think that you're right, General. He is more than he appears to be, more than he wants us to think he is. I wouldn't be surprised if he is a more senior officer than a major."

"Can you tell us why?"

"He didn't say anything specific, if that's what you're asking. It's more his att.i.tude."

"You mean his casual dismissal of the possibility that we're going to shoot him in the back of the head?" Cronley asked.

"I don't think he thinks that's going to happen," the priest said, then added, "Is it?"

"If we didn't really need the names of the people the NKGB has turned, I think I'd do it myself," Cronley said.

"I don't think you mean that, Jim. I hope you don't."

"I don't know if I do or not. But no. It's not on my agenda. Why do you think he doesn't care about that as a threat?"

"I had the feeling that he thinks his situation is about to change."

"Change how?"

"That he'll somehow be freed. Is there any possibility of that?"

"Absolutely none. If the general is right, and I think he is, he's a colonel or whatever. And you agree with that. And Sergeant Lewis agrees with that. Let's take it as a given."

Cronley looked between them, then went on: "What would you do if you were Major/Colonel/General Orlovsky's superior in the ranks of the NKGB and your hotshot screwed up and found himself in the hands of the Americans who didn't know he was a hotshot, but inevitably were going to find out?

"You'd try to bust him out, and failing that, to whack him. That's what you would do. That's what they are going to try to do. Now that I think of it, I'm surprised they haven't already tried. And that settles it."

"Settles what?" Dunwiddie asked.

Gehlen said: "Although they are not supposed to, I'm sure that some of my people have weapons. Especially those who, having turned, have to consider the possibility they may need them. And some of my people are highly skilled in that sort of thing. I'm afraid Jim is right. And I further suggest that if such an attempt will be made, it will take place before the move to the Pullach compound is complete."

"And that really settles it," Cronley said. "Konstantin is about to go to the Paris of South America."

"Involuntarily, you mean?" Gehlen asked thoughtfully.

"I don't think he's about to volunteer, do you?" Cronley replied. "Father, who flew the Connie from Buenos Aires?"

"Hansel," the priest said.

"Who the h.e.l.l is Hansel?" Tiny asked.

"Former Major Hans-Peter Graf von Wachtstein, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross from the hands of Hitler himself," Cronley said. "Who by now is probably at 44-46 Beerenstra.s.se in Berlin."

"I'm lost," Tiny admitted.

"Father, I presume you brought ident.i.ty doc.u.ments and a pa.s.sport for Seor Orlovsky?"

"Yes."

"Does anything have to be done to them?"

"Just the addition of a photograph and a name."

"There was a photograph of him on his forged German Kennkarte," Gehlen said. "And then Bischoff took some photos of him."

"We'll have to get Felix Dzerzhinsky's doc.u.ments in order as soon as possible," Cronley said.

Gehlen laughed.

"Can you handle that, General?"

"Of course."

"That's what you're going to call him?" Tiny asked. "Why? It has some meaning?"

"Felix Dzerzhinsky was the founder of the Cheka," Cronley said.

"He was not a very nice man, Tiny," Gehlen said. "He said a lot of terrible things, but what most people remember was his hope that the bourgeoisie would drown in rivers of their own blood."

"An evil and G.o.dless man!" Father Welner blurted with, for him, unusual bitterness.

"Orlovsky will probably be flattered," Cronley said.

"How are you going to get him on the airplane if he doesn't want to go?" Welner asked.

"Poor Felix, ill and delirious, will be strapped to a stretcher," Cronley said.

"And if he calls out for help in his delirium?" Tiny asked.

"He will also be wrapped in bandages like a mummy," Cronley said. "But I'd like to dope him, if I could figure out a way to do that."

"That can be arranged," Gehlen said. "I'll have a word with one of my physicians."

"You do that, please, General, while I get on the SIGABA," Cronley said, and then turned to Staff Sergeant Lewis. "I think you'll enjoy Buenos Aires, Lewis."

[ EIGHT ].

PRIORITY.

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH.

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN.

FROM VATICAN.

VIA VINT HILL TANGO NET.

1635 GREENWICH 8 NOVEMBER 1945.

TO SAILOR ATTN HANSEL.

COPY TO TEX.

1-URGENT REPEAT URGENT YOU ARRANGE DEPARTURE FROM RHINE-MAIN 1600 9 NOVEMBER.

2-BE PREPARED TO ACCEPT JESUIT AND MEDICAL TECHNICIANS WHO WILL BE ACCOMPANYING ILL AND PROBABLY UNCONSCIOUS PATIENT BEING SENT TO BUENOS AIRES FOR TREATMENT BY DOCTOR CLETUS.

3-ACKNOWLEDGE.

ALTARBOY.

END.

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH.

[ NINE ].

Das Gasthaus Kloster Grnau Schollbrunn, Bavaria American Zone of Occupation, Germany 1105 9 November 1945 Staff Sergeant Harold Lewis Jr. pulled open the door to the cell under the chapel and Staff Sergeant Petronius J. Clark, who was carrying a napkin-covered tray, entered ahead of him.

Both had bra.s.sards emblazoned with a red cross, identifying them as medics, around their right arms.

"Lunch, Konstantin," Lewis said. "A hot roast beef sandwich and French fries."

"Thank you very much, but I'm not really hungry."

Cronley entered the cell.

"I'd eat, if I were you," Cronley said. "It's going to be some time before you'll have the opportunity again."

Orlovsky didn't reply.

Father Welner entered the cell and leaned against the near wall.

"Bad news for you, I'm afraid, Orlovsky," Cronley said. "The game's over. By that I mean you can abandon hope that you're going to be sprung from durance vile."

"Am I supposed to know what that means?"

"You were winning. Now you're losing. You're good, very good. You even had General Gehlen going for a while. But it's over."

"What's this?" Orlovsky asked, pointing to the tray Sergeant Clark had put on a small table. "The hearty meal the condemned man gets before he's executed?"

"You're so good, Orlovsky," Cronley went on, "that I don't really know if you really would welcome a bullet in the back of the head, or whether that's just more of your bulls.h.i.+t."

"You are not going to be shot, Konstantin," Welner said. "I promise you that. What's going to happen to you is that you're being sent to Argentina."

Orlovsky looked at him with cold eyes. "You're pretty good yourself, Father. You almost had me convinced your sole interest in this was the salvation of my soul."

"Not my sole interest. I was, I am, also interested in the lives and souls of your wife and children. Presuming, of course, that you really have a family back in Russia."

"We should know that soon enough," Cronley said. "General Gehlen has already issued orders to see if there really is an Orlovsky family in Russia and, if there is-frankly, I wouldn't be surprised either way-to get them out of Holy Mother Russia and to Argentina."

"You would do that as a gesture of Christian charity, right?" Orlovsky asked sarcastically.

"No," Cronley said sharply. "If there is a Mrs. Orlovsky, and if we get her to Argentina, maybe she can talk some sense into you. But enough of this. Time flies. Last chance to eat your lunch, Major Orlovsky. Or is it Colonel Orlovsky?"

Orlovsky didn't reply.

"Okay, Sergeant Clark," Cronley said.

The enormous non-com wrapped his arms around Orlovsky.