The Assassination Option Part 59

"Kurt," Cronley said, "I guess we better go wind up the rubber bands."

Schrder's face showed he had no idea what Cronley meant.

"Didn't you have model airplanes when you were a kid?" Cronley asked.

Then he mimed winding the rubber bands in a model airplane by turning the propeller.

Schrder smiled, wanly, and then gestured for Cronley to precede him out the door of the radio room.

[FIVE].

Hangar Two U.S. Air Force Base, Fritzlar, Hesse American Zone of Occupation, Germany 1510 19 January 1946 "Well?" Wallace asked, when Cronley finished his walk around his Storch.

"I don't think anything important fell off," Cronley said. "Is Tiny in the control tower?"

Wallace nodded.

"Where he has dazzled the Air Force with his DCI credentials," Wallace said. "When you call, they will clear you-both of you-to taxi from the tarmac outside to Taxiway Two, then to the threshold of Runway One Six for immediate takeoff."

"I see the pushers are here," Cronley said, pointing to Tiny's Troopers, who were prepared to push the Storchs from the hangar. "So I guess I better get in, and then you get the doors open."

"I need a couple of minutes in private with you, Schrder, and Ostrowski first," Wallace said.

"What for?"

"Over there," Wallace said, pointing to a door in the rear wall of the hangar. "Now."

Oberst Mannberg was already in the room when Cronley, followed by Ostrowski and Schrder, entered. Wallace closed the door.

"If you're going to deliver some sort of pep talk," Cronley said, "I'd just as soon skip it, thank you just the same."

"Shut up for once, Jim," Wallace said, and then he said, "Okay, everybody extend your right hand, palm up. I'm going to give you something."

When the three had done so, Wallace dropped what looked like a brown pea into each palm.

"Pay close attention. Cronley, don't open your mouth before I finish. Got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Those are L-pills," Wallace said. "Inside the protective rubber coating is a gla.s.s ampoule. When the ampoule is crushed by the molars of the mouth, sufficient pota.s.sium cyanide will be released to cause unconsciousness within three seconds, brain death within sixty seconds, and heart stoppage and death within three minutes. That process is irreversible once begun. Any questions?"

No one had any questions.

"I will not insult anyone's intelligence by asking if you understand the purpose of the L-pills."

"We had something like this in the East," Schrder said.

"Almost identical, Kurt," Mannberg said.

"Is this what Hitler and his mistress used?" Ostrowski asked. "What Magda Goebbels used to kill her children in the Fhrerbunker?"

Mannberg nodded.

"And what a number of captured agents on both sides chose to use rather than give up what they knew they should not give up," Wallace said. "Or to avoid interrogation by torture."

Cronley, Ostrowski, and Schrder looked at the brown peas in their hands, but made no other move.

"Aside from s.h.i.+rt pockets, the most common place to carry one of these is in one's handkerchief," Wallace said. "The place of concealment recommended by the OSS, to Jedburghs, was insertion in the a.n.u.s."

"Really?" Cronley asked, and then began to laugh.

"What the h.e.l.l can you possibly find amusing about this, Cronley?" Wallace demanded furiously.

"Excuse me, sir," Cronley replied, still laughing, as he moved his hand to his s.h.i.+rt pocket and dropped the L-pill in.

"Sometimes I really question your sanity," Wallace said furiously.

"What I was thinking, sir," Cronley said, stopped to get his laughter under some control, and then continued, "was that the OSS's recommendation for concealment of your pill really gave new meaning to the phrase 'stick it up your a.s.s,' didn't it?"

Then he broke out laughing again.

A moment later, Ostrowski joined in. And then Mannberg. Then Wallace was laughing, and finally Schrder.

"You think 'stick it up your a.s.s' is funny, huh, Kurt?" Cronley asked. "I finally said something that made you laugh!"

"You are out of your mind!" Schrder said, and then, still laughing, went to Cronley and embraced him.

They walked out of the room with their arms around each other and then got in the Storchs.

[SIX].

Hangar Two U.S. Air Force Base, Fritzlar, Hesse American Zone of Occupation, Germany 1525 19 January 1946 "Fritzlar clears Army Seven-Oh-Seven a flight of two aircraft as Number One to take off on One Six on a local flight."

Cronley shoved the throttle to takeoff power and then answered, "Fritzlar, Seven-Oh-Seven rolling."

As soon as he was off the ground, Cronley saw that his normal climb-out would take him directly over the three troops of Constabulary soldiers lined up in front of the 11th Constabulary Regiment headquarters.

That would obviously draw the attention of the Constabulary troopers to the two funny-looking black aircraft, which was not a good thing.

On the other hand, it would be a worse thing if he tried to use the amazing flight characteristics of the Storch to make a sharp, low-level turn to the right to avoid flying over the troops and didn't make it.

He pulled his flaps and flew straight.

As he flew over the troops, he saw General White, Colonel Fishburn, and Lieutenant Colonel Williams looking up at him.

[SEVEN].

Able Seven (Off Unnamed Unpaved Road Near Eichsfeld, Thuringia) Russian Zone of Occupation, Germany 1555 19 January 1946 There was a small truck on the road.

As Cronley flew closer, he saw that it was an old-ancient-Ford stake body truck, and that red stars were painted on the doors.

He remembered seeing on March of Time newsreel trucks like that driving over the ice of a lake, or a river, to supply Stalingrad.

A stocky man in what looked like a Russian officer's uniform got out of the cab of the truck . . .

He's wearing a skirt?

That's not a man. That's Seven-K. Rahil.

. . . and went quickly to the back.

A boy jumped out of the truck.

Is that the old one, or the young one?

And then a woman.

Mrs. Likharev.

Mrs. Likharev turned and helped a smaller boy get out of the truck.

Seven-K pointed to the approaching Storchs, and then took the woman's arm and propelled her into the field beside the road.

Cronley signaled to Schrder, who was flying off Cronley's left wing, to land. Schrder nodded and immediately dropped the nose of his Storch.

Cronley slowed the Storch to just above stall speed so that he could watch Schrder land.

Schrder got his Storch safely on the ground, but watching him put Cronley so far down the field that he knew he couldn't-even in the Storch-get in. He would have to go around.

By the time he did so, Mrs. Likharev and the boys were standing alone in the field, making no move to go to Schrder's Storch.

Seven-K was getting into the truck. As soon as she did so, the truck drove off.

Cronley put his Storch on the ground. At the end of his landing roll, he was twenty feet from Schrder's Storch.

Ostrowski was out of Cronley's Storch the instant it stopped, and ran to Mrs. Likharev and the boys. He propelled them toward Schrder's Storch.

Christ, the little one has Franz Josef!

What the h.e.l.l?

Christ, I've got to turn around.

Why the h.e.l.l didn't I think about that?

Ostrowski hoisted Mrs. Likharev into Schrder's airplane, and then handed her the smaller boy and the dog.

Schrder's engine roared and he started his takeoff roll.

Ostrowski came to Cronley's Storch, hoisted the larger boy into it, and then got in himself.

Cronley turned the Storch, shoved the throttle to takeoff power, and started to roll.

When he had lifted off, he turned to look at Likharev's elder son, thinking he would rea.s.sure him.

He quickly looked away.

He had never before in his life seen absolute terror in anyone's eyes. He saw it now.

[EIGHT].

Hangar Two U.S. Air Force Base, Fritzlar, Hesse American Zone of Occupation, Germany 1630 19 January 1946 The hangar doors opened as Cronley taxied up to them. He stopped and killed the engine. Before that process was over, half a dozen of Tiny's Troopers appeared and pushed the Storch into the hangar. Then the doors closed.

Schrder's Storch was already in the hangar, and its pa.s.sengers had gotten out of the aircraft.

There were two ambulances in the hangar, and what looked like two doctors and twice that many nurses. And someone Cronley really didn't expect to see. The general's wife.