The Assassination Option Part 49

"Mattingly is a very good politician. You need people like that. I was telling you how you got in the spook business."

"Sorry."

"So Cletus said, what about Jim Cronley? What they've got him doing is sitting at an unimportant roadblock in the boonies, or words to that effect, to which Mattingly replied, that wouldn't work. You'd need a Top SecretOSS clearance to work at Kloster Grnau. You didn't have one, and he couldn't imagine anyone giving you one. Mattingly said he was surprised that you even had a Top SecretCIC clearance, or words to that effect.

"This seemed to p.i.s.s ol' Cletus off. I don't think he likes Mattingly much anyway. Cletus said, 'Well, I'll bet you his Uncle Bill would give him one.' And Mattingly bit. 'His Uncle Bill? Who the h.e.l.l is his Uncle Bill?'

"He's not really his uncle. But Jimmy calls him that.

"And Mattingly bit again.

"What's Cronley's Uncle Bill got to do with Top SecretOSS clearances?

"'Just about everything,' Cletus said. 'I'm talking about General Donovan. He and Jimmy's father won World War One together.'

"I was looking at Mattingly. I could see on his face that he was weighing the advantages of having Wild Bill's nephew under his thumb against the risks of having Wild Bill's nephew under his thumb, and as usual was having trouble making a major decision like that. So he looks at me for a decision, and since I had already decided-wrong decision, as it turned out-that you couldn't cause much trouble at Kloster Grnau, I nodded. And that is how you became a spook."

"Did Cletus know you were a colonel?"

"Sure."

"So why were you pretending to be a major?"

"When David Bruce set up OSS Forward, he knew it would be facing two enemies, the Germans and the U.S. Army. Colonel Mattingly is very good at dealing with U.S. Army bureaucrats, if properly supervised. I provided that supervision and dealt with the enemy. It was easier to do that if people thought I was a major."

"And then, when DCI came along . . ."

"The admiral thought that I was the guy who should keep an eye on Gehlen."

"And the chief, DCI-Europe?"

"And the chief, DCI-Europe, and Schultz thought I could do that better if everybody thought I was a major. It never entered anybody's mind that Little Jimmy Cronley would be the one to figure this out, and then Little Jimmy does. Or figures out most of it. And tells me, touching the c.o.c.kles of my heart, that he has decided to trust me and needs my help. So I confess to him what I think needs to be confessed, and hope that's the end of it.

"And then you appear, in the middle of the G.o.dd.a.m.n night, and tell me you've been thinking. As I said, Clete warned me not to underestimate you, but I did. And, this taking place in the middle of the night, I told you more than I should have. Frankly, the a.s.sa.s.sination option occurred to me."

"You wouldn't tell me that if you planned to use it."

"At least not until after we get Mrs. Likharev and kiddies across the border," Wallace said. "Any more questions?"

"Where does Claudette fit in all this?"

"I haven't quite figured that out myself," Wallace said. "I'm tempted to take her and Freddy's version, that she wanted out of the ASA . . ."

"She's not working for you?"

Wallace shook his head.

". . . and was willing to let Freddy into her pants as the price to be paid to get out."

"Freddy's not f.u.c.king her," Cronley said.

"He said with a certainty I find fascinating."

Cronley didn't reply.

"One possibility that occurs to me is that you know Freddy has not been bedding Brunhilde because you are."

Again, Cronley didn't reply.

"Well, that went right over my head," Wallace said. "You're a regular f.u.c.king Casanova, aren't you, Boy Wonder? f.u.c.king Brunhilde is pretty G.o.dd.a.m.n stupid for a number of reasons."

Then Wallace saw the look on Cronley's face.

"Okay. So what else is there that you don't want to tell me?"

Cronley remained silent.

"G.o.ddammit, Jim. Answer the question. What else do you know that I should?"

Cronley exhaled audibly.

"You're not going to like this," he said.

"Understood. That's why I insist you tell me."

"I suspect-suspect, not know-that Gehlen was responsible for that gas water heater explosion."

"Gehlen had Tony Schumann and his wife killed, is that what you're saying?"

Cronley nodded.

"Why would he order that?"

"Because the Schumanns were NKGB agents."

"That's preposterous!"

"It's true."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"You know that the NKGB was waiting for Likharev when he went to Buenos Aires?"

"Yes. So what? The Soviet Trade Mission to the Republic of Argentina knew we had him, they knew we were sending people to Argentina, so they started watching the airport. That's what Cletus thinks, and I agree with him."

"They knew exactly when he would arrive in Buenos Aires," Cronley said. "They probably had six, eight, maybe ten hours to set up that ambush. The ambush involved a lot of people, at least a dozen. They even used Panzerfausts. A lot of planning had to be involved. They weren't just keeping an eye on the airport on the off chance that Likharev would show up."

Wallace considered that a moment.

"How could they possibly know exactly when he would arrive?"

"Because I told Rachel Schumann and she told her-their-handler."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"

"After we loaded him on the plane at Rhine-Main, I went to the Park Hotel . . . next to the bahnhof?"

"I know where it is."

"And Rachel came to see me there."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because the Boy Wonder called her. The Boy Wonder had just loaded an NKGB major-this was before Clete turned him, and we learned Likharev's really a colonel-on an airplane, and the Boy Wonder thought he was ent.i.tled to a little prize for all his good work. Like some good whisky and a piece of a.s.s."

"You were f.u.c.king Rachel Schumann?" Wallace asked incredulously.

"In hindsight, in a non-s.e.xual sense, Rachel was f.u.c.king me. At the time, I thought it was my masculine charm. And I thought all her questions about Kloster Grnau were simply feminine curiosity. So, when she showed up at the Park Hotel for fun and games, I proudly told her what I had just done. And thirty minutes later, she left. She had to go home, she said, to her husband."

"So when we heard what had happened in Buenos Aires, I put two and two together. The only way the Russians in Buenos Aires could have heard the precise details of when Likharev would get there was because they had gotten them from Rachel. And I'd given them to Rachel. The only other people who knew the details were Tiny and Hessinger, and I didn't think either one of them would have tipped the NKGB. So I finally gathered my courage and fessed up."

"To Gehlen?"

"Gehlen, Tiny, and Hessinger. Gehlen wasn't as surprised, or as contemptuous, as I thought he would be. He said that he'd always wondered what Colonel Schumann was doing on that obscure back road in Schollbrunn, the day I shot up his car, why he had been so determined to get inside Kloster Grnau right then."

"That's all?"

"Well, he talked me out of my solution to the problem."

"Which was?"

"I wanted to shoot both of them and then tell General Greene why I had. General Gehlen said the damage was done, and my going to the stockade, or the gallows, would accomplish nothing. And so, coward that I am, I accepted his advice."

After a long moment, Wallace said, "We joke about the a.s.sa.s.sination option, but sometimes . . ."

"So I've learned."

"You're sure . . . ?"

"The other thing I've learned is never to be sure about anything."

"And Tiny? And Hessinger? Are you sure they can be . . ."

"Trusted? As sure as I am of anything."

"What does Brunhilde know about this?"

"I don't know what she knows, but I'm presuming she knows everything."

"And do you think she might somehow try to use this knowledge to further her intelligence career?"

"I don't know she wouldn't, but how could I be sure?"

"You can't. Have you told her what you've been thinking?"

"No."

"You ever hear that the bedroom is usually where the most important secrets are compromised?"

"I guess I'm proof of that, aren't I?"

"That argument could be reasonably made," Wallace said drily.

"Colonel," Cronley began, and stopped.

"What, Cronley?"

"Sir, the only thing I can say in my defense is that I very seldom make the same mistake twice."

"I'm glad you said that," Wallace said. "Both things."

"Sir? Both things?"

"I'm glad you seldom make the same mistake twice, and I'm glad you said 'Colonel.'"

"Sir?"

"For one thing, you are hereby cautioned not to say it out loud again," Wallace said. "But don't forget it. Now that my secret-that I'm the senior officer of the DCI present for duty-is no longer a secret to you, remember that when you have the urge to go off half-c.o.c.ked. Get my permission before you do just about anything. For example, like forming an alliance with Commandant Jean-Paul Fortin of the Strasbourg office of the DST to investigate Odessa. I have a gut feeling that somehow that's going to wind up biting you in the a.s.s. And if your a.s.s gets bitten, so does mine."

"You want me to try to get out of that?"

"To coin a phrase, that cow is already out of the barn. But I want to hear everything that comes your way about that operation."

"Yes, sir."

"So long as you don't FUBAR anything that would necessitate your being relieved, the longer, in other words, everybody but you-correction: you, Hessinger, and Dunwiddie-believes you to be the chief, DCI-Europe, the better. So conduct yourself accordingly, Captain Cronley."

"Yes, sir. Sir, you didn't mention Gehlen."

"An inadvertent omission. Gehlen knows. But let's keep him in the dark a little. He's smarter than both of us, but I don't think he should be the tail wagging our dog. And unless we're very careful, that's what'll happen. That which-tail-should-wag-whose-dog a.n.a.logy, by the way, came from the admiral, via Schultz."

"Yes, sir."

"Anything else?"

"Can't think of anything, sir."

"Then go to bed, Captain Cronley."