The Princess Spy

by Larry Loftis

  Everyone had to be out of the country by August 15, he said, as that was the official date for closing the office.

  Aline and Robert shuffled back to the code room, unsure of what to do next. They had to close all files, contact and pay subagents, and otherwise drop Safehaven right when the action was heating up.

  The next morning Aline asked Thomas if she could finish the Safehaven work she was doing with her subagents and he shook his head.

  “Sorry, Aline. It’s useless. You must prepare to leave the country. I have received strict orders to terminate all chains, all agents’ work, and all espionage.”

  So that was it. The game was over.

  Aline was terribly disappointed, but she had much to be pleased about. She had fulfilled her original goal of serving her country in the war, and she had done so on the front lines of espionage. After Robert Dunev, she had been the top coder in the OSS Madrid office, her original duty, but she also had proved herself as a valuable field agent. With the possible exception of Larry Mellon, who coordinated the escape chain, she had more subagents and filed more field reports than anyone in the Madrid office, including Edmundo. She also had been Madrid’s top Safehaven agent, finding, among other things, Prince Max’s financial conduit to Mexico. What all of that meant was that she had made a valuable contribution to defeat Hitler and his Nazis. And for that she was proud.

  Frank Ryan and James MacMillan, she would soon learn, were extremely proud of her as well.

  * * *

  Back in Washington, Frank Ryan was well aware of the dangers of not only foregoing future intelligence but of jettisoning the contacts and networks they had so diligently acquired over the last three and a half years. While he had already resigned from the OSS, he began working behind the scenes to keep two Madrid staffers in play: Robert Dunev and Aline. This was no small feat, though, since even James MacMillan, Larry Mellon, and Edmundo Lassalle were being sent home.

  Dunev was the easier of the two to save, since he had been the first staffer to arrive in Madrid, was the senior coder, and had been Gregory Thomas’s personal assistant for special projects. Ryan would have him transferred to X-2, which would be keeping a skeleton staff in Madrid beyond OSS’s official termination date. Afterward, Dunev could be employed in the new Allied Mission in Spain—a British-French-American entity created to assist in embassy transitions. He had already supervised the closing of the German embassy in Madrid—an overnight vigil on May 8 to 9—so he would be the logical OSS agent to join them.

  Placing Aline would be a little trickier. After making a few phone calls, he found interest from the most logical place: Madrid’s Foreign Economic Administration office. The FEA supervised Safehaven—a project that would continue for years—and with Aline’s inside knowledge of suspected Nazi collaborators and Madrid front businesses, she was a perfect fit. But it would have to occur in two stages, they said, with Aline being “on loan” from the OSS until the slow wheels of bureaucracy could formally accept the transfer. Until such time, OSS would have to reimburse FEA for Aline’s salary. It was possible, Ryan thought, that money could be utilized from OSS’s Special Funds account, which was managed in Washington.

  Ryan was successful; Aline was accepted into FEA on August 8, effective September 1, and Dunev was accepted into X-2 on August 9, effective August 16. Before Ryan could tell Aline about her transfer, though, the deal between the OSS and FEA fell through. For their part, the FEA decided at the end of August that Aline could be employed only at a government pay scale of CAF-5, rather than the CAF-7 level she had earned with the OSS. And from the OSS standpoint, the account director decided that the organization—which was in the process of dissolution—would not be in a position to reimburse the FEA.

  Undeterred, Ryan made alternative plans for her; plans that were unknown to anyone outside the highest ranks of American espionage.

  * * *

  Since Aline had acquired forty days of paid leave, she decided to remain in Madrid after the others left. She had fallen in love with the city—and with all of Spanish culture, really—and the thought of looking for a mundane job in New York was disheartening. No doubt she had been spoiled; after all, she had just spent the last year and a half of her life immersed in a world of espionage, embassy receptions, country club parties, state dinners, bullfights, and flamenco parties. And now she would have all of September—the best time to be in Madrid—to take in the cafés, restaurants, museums, and cathedrals she hadn’t had time to frequent during the last eighteen months.

  On September 7, the first Friday of the month, she spent a carefree afternoon and early evening at a café on the Castellana, and then headed home at sunset. When she arrived at her apartment, Angustias met her at the door.

  “Señorita, a man has been waiting for quite a while.” She motioned toward the salon. “He refused to give his name.”

  Puzzled and a little anxious, Aline went in to find the last man she expected.

  Frank Ryan.

  He was impeccably dressed, as always, sporting a handsome gray herringbone suit. His hairline had receded a bit since she had last seen him, though—or perhaps it was simply more gray—but his smile was the same and his sapphire eyes were as confident as ever.

  “I can’t believe that you’re really here,” she said. “What are you doing in Madrid?”

  “My main purpose is to see you. Come, let’s sit down and talk. I don’t have much time.”

  Aline asked Angustias to bring in some water and they sat on the sofa.

  “It’s important I speak to you before you are shipped back to the US.” Ryan paused to light a cigarette, exhaling the smoke slowly. “Are you pleased to have received word of returning to Washington?”

  “Not at all.”

  “OSS is being disbanded, but a small organization for the collection of intelligence is being created to preserve a nucleus of trained espionage professionals. IntrepidI and Bill Donovan himself are the driving forces behind this endeavor and—” Ryan paused, formulating his next words carefully, and then said: “You’re one of the lucky ones to be included.”

  Aline wasn’t familiar with Intrepid, but Bill Donovan? The founder and head of the OSS? She wondered who else was among the lucky ones. Gregory Thomas? MacMillan? Mellon? Dunev? Lassalle?

  But there was a catch, Ryan said. Remaining in Spain would require her to renew her visa, which could only be done with the approval of the American ambassador. “And you must convince him that you won’t be doing any espionage in the future.”

  Aline laughed. “Lie.”

  Ryan grinned. “Well, after working in this business for almost two years, I take it for granted that you’ve mastered that.”

  Aline nodded and Ryan went on.

  “We now have a good group of professionals and General Donovan doesn’t intend to lose them. At the moment, the State Department wants to control us, but Donovan and the rest of our group believes that intelligence should be a separate entity, so it can operate with total secrecy.”

  Total secrecy. From her first days at The Farm, Aline learned that this was the unwritten but universally understood motto of the OSS. And Frank Ryan, better than anyone else, knew how to wield it like a conductor’s baton.

  He told her to send a cable to New York seeking employment and scribbled down an address: 36 Wall Street.

  Aline glanced at it. No suite number. Before she could inquire further, Ryan stood and said his time was up. He bid her good luck and left without further details.

  Aline sent the cable as directed and two days later she received a response. It was an offer of employment for a job in Madrid. Her eyes fell quickly to the signatory: John J. Ryan & Sons.

  She shook her head. John? Frank’s brother? Well, she wasn’t entirely surprised since the selling point of her blind date with Frank in 1943 had been that the family was loaded. That, combined with a landmark address like 36 Wall Street suggested that the family probably owned a giant investment banking business.

&nb
sp; Typical Ryan. Operate in the shadows.

  * * *

  That very month an international trade company was quietly formed in Panama, but headquartered in New York City. It was called the British American Canadian Corporation, and its founders read like a who’s who of espionage: General William Donovan, head of the OSS; Sir William Stephenson, head of British Security Coordination (BSC); Sir Charles Hambro, head of Special Operations Executive; John Pepper, MI6 agent and Stephenson’s deputy; and David Ogilvy, BSC officer. Also included was Edward Stettinius, former US secretary of state.

  Oddly, none of the founders had any experience in international trade.

  Nor did its president—Frank T. Ryan.

  I. “Intrepid” was the code name for William Stephenson, head of British Security Coordination, the branch of MI6 operating in the US and Canada and headquartered in New York City.

  CHAPTER 20 PARIS

  Aline wasn’t exactly sure what she would be doing for her new employer, John J. Ryan & Sons, a textile importer, but she was thrilled to be able to stay in Spain and conduct whatever business Frank Ryan had in mind. For starters she had to open a company bank account and a “branch office,” which she did at No. 11 Calle Marqués de Riscal. Next she had to hire a secretary and conduct bona fide business with Spanish companies, which she soon accomplished with contracts from some of Barcelona’s cloth manufacturers. Then one day in the mail she received her first paycheck from Ryan & Sons—in the exact amount she had been receiving from the OSS.

  Robert Dunev, meanwhile, had important business to attend to as well. He was staying on at X-2, but he and Louise Marie wanted to get married. The problem, though, was that Spain only recognized Catholic weddings and they weren’t Catholic. They decided to resolve the issue by getting married in Gibraltar on September 12. As a favor the British embassy worked out the details, even giving them a nice wedding gift: use of an embassy car for their entire honeymoon.

  On the trip back to Madrid they stopped off in Málaga to have lunch with Aline’s old buddy, Barnaby Conrad. The vice-consul told them that he would be taking his alternative—the test to become a full matador—on September 25 and invited them to come. Robert and Louise Marie said they’d love to see El Niño de California in action, but that their honeymoon called for other plans.

  Barnaby Conrad standing before the poster announcing his upcoming alternative on September 25, 1945. Juan Belmonte came out of retirement to fight on the card and highlight the event.

  * * *

  Over the ensuing weeks Aline heard rumors of Gestapo agents paying enormous sums to gain passage on ships leaving for Buenos Aires and Colombia. Someone said that Hans Lazar caught a boat to Rio de Janiero disguised as a Franciscan monk. What was most interesting, however, was Edmundo’s situation. He had been ordered back to the US and was trying to continue on in the employ of the Walt Disney Company. His plans to marry Princess Agatha, though, continued unabated. How he would work all of that out remained to be seen.

  September and October flew by, and on November 5 Aline received another blessing, albeit unwittingly. James MacMillan, who was now back in the US and unaware that Aline was employed by Frank Ryan, recommended her to Whitney Shepardson, OSS’s number two, for future espionage. There wouldn’t be work with the OSS, he knew, but perhaps a new agency would be formed in the near future and Shepardson would be in a position to hire or recommend new agents.

  “She has a special aptitude for intelligence work,” he wrote, “and an unusual sense of the importance of security. She has the ability to conduct operations under supervision, as evidenced by her handling of a small number of agents of her own selection. Her judgment of people is basically sound, her perception of situations is quick and her deductions have been accurate in a large number of cases…. I suggest that with proper private cover she has great possibilities for further use.”

  Frank Ryan couldn’t have agreed more.

  The following day Ryan boarded the Clipper to make stops across Europe on behalf of Ryan & Sons and the new firm, British American Canadian Corporation. The goal of the trip was to renew OSS contacts across the continent and seed the soil for future business. Donovan, Stephenson, Ryan, and the others involved with BACC were convinced that without economic aid and US financing, many European cities and all of Germany would fall to the communists. It was a global project that would require financial backing from some of the world’s richest families, clearance from some of Europe’s highest-ranking diplomats, and counsel from top Allied spymasters.

  James MacMillan’s letter of recommendation to Whitney Shepardson.

  BACC, in fact, had been stacked for this very purpose; Larry Mellon had persuaded his family to provide financial help, and Ryan would later bring in the Du Pont family. Bache and other New York investment banks were involved. Secretary Stettinius was on board. And BACC boasted an astonishing collection of leaders from the OSS, BSC, SOE, and MI6. Offices would have to be opened in Paris and Zurich, with other important cities to follow. And everyone looked to Ryan to pull it off.

  The unavoidable question is whether Ryan and BACC actually conducted espionage, formally or informally, economic or political. On the one hand, there’s no proof that they did. On the other, why else would BACC (later, World Commerce Corporation) be packed with top-level espionage leaders from the West, none of whom had experience in international trade? It was clear that BACC would not be acting as a US government agency, and one might ponder how “espionage” is defined. If asked, Ryan surely would have stated that neither he nor BACC would be collecting intelligence about any foreign power, the activity one normally associates with espionage. Rather, the group’s intended goal, as stated, was to foster trade. Granted, the purpose of facilitating capitalism in European countries was to prevent them from falling to communism, and he would have said that there was nothing untoward in that aim.

  And Ryan’s personal openness about his activity reinforces the point. While secrecy was his general rule, this trip was different. Because his profile with the OSS had been low, it was important for him to establish personal public credibility for the overall mission, yet keep BACC’s name out of it.

  That very day the New York Times announced his trip, identifying him as a partner in the Wall Street firm Bache & Co., and vice president of John J. Ryan & Sons. The newly formed BACC went unmentioned. If he were going to be conducting espionage, he’d established the perfect cover.

  And just when Aline couldn’t have been busier, Luis reappeared. He invited her to dinner one evening, mentioning that Casilda was in Portugal. They went to Jockey, a trendy new restaurant, and then to La Reboite for dancing. Luis’s cool green eyes enchanted as always, as did his embrace. “When we danced,” she remembered, “the touch of his arm around me, his body next to mine put me in a spell like before.”

  Ryan’s trip announced in the New York Times, November 6, 1945.

  It was three in the morning when he dropped her off, and for two agonizing days she waited for his call. Finally it came, and he invited her to golf at Puerta de Hierro. It was a wonderful club—twenty-five holes, a swimming pool, a bar at the nineteenth hole—and she had fond memories of the swing lessons Luis had given her there.

  After several minutes on the drive over, Luis turned to her.

  “You seem lost in thought.”

  Aline shrugged. She was thinking about Casilda.

  “The war’s ended,” she replied. “I realize that things can change. So much of the time one spends planning and worrying about the future turns out to be useless. I’m not going to do that anymore.”

  Luis eased off the gas, cruising slower. “You’re perfectly right. I’ve gone through some changes too.” He drove for a while and then asked, “So from now on you’ll live for the moment?”

  “Who knows.” Aline paused, and then grinned. “Yes, on second thought, perhaps I will.”

  Luis nodded and held her eye. “We agree on that. I’m ready to live for many more moments like thi
s.”

  For two weeks they golfed by day and dined by night, never mentioning Casilda or the cares of the world. To keep up with work and play, Aline sacrificed sleep, often catching no more than a few hours. Yet, she didn’t mind.

  One evening she met Luis for dinner at El Pulpito, a quaint restaurant on the Plaza Mayor. Taking her by the hand, he explained that he had broken up with Casilda, and that one day he’d explain why.

  Aline said it wasn’t necessary, but her heart wanted to say more. She wanted to tell him that nothing could make her stop seeing him, not even Casilda, whom she still considered her best friend. She wanted to tell him that he was the only thing she thought of, night and day.

  When Luis dropped her off that evening, he said he wanted her to meet his father and stepmother. At the door, he kissed her and said he’d be in Toledo for the next two days visiting his grandfather.

  Aline went inside, thoughts racing. Why would Luis want her to meet his parents, and in the next sentence say he needed to speak to his grandfather, who was out of town? Why couldn’t Luis just wait until his grandfather returned to Madrid?

  Could it be?

  The next morning when Aline arrived at the new John J. Ryan & Sons office, her secretary handed her a cable. Her expression suggested it was less than pleasant news.

  It was from Frank Ryan.

  CLOSE MADRID OFFICE IMMEDIATELY STOP PROCEED TO PARIS STOP ROOM RESERVED AT HOTEL SAN REGIS STOP NEW OFFICE IS IN THE HOTEL PLAZA ATHENEE STOP OUR PARIS REPRESENTATIVE IS AWAITING YOU WITH INSTRUCTIONS THERE.

  Aline closed her eyes.

  No.

  The odds. Between the job and Luis, everything had been working out perfectly until now. Ryan had moved her seamlessly to Ryan & Sons, and she hadn’t missed a paycheck. Luis had broken up with Casilda and his actions suggested he was thinking about asking her to marry him.