W E B Griffin - Honor 1 - Honor Bound

by Honor Bound(Lit)

  "I have, for example, two pieces of information about you that I elected not to share with Ambassador von Lutzenberger."

  "Whatever the accusations, Herr Oberst, I plead guilty and throw myself on the mercy of the court."

  Grner laughed.

  "The first makes Krantz's free champagne especially appro-priate," Grner said. "The Ambassador will soon be notified, and he will in his own diplomat's good time notify me, that you have been promoted major."

  "Really? You're sure, Herr Oberst?"

  "The reason I am sure is that my source is impeccable," Grner said, obviously pleased with himself. "A source about whose credibility I have absolutely no doubt."

  "The Fhrer told you I was being promoted?"

  "No." Grner chuckled, then reached into his pocket and tossed a photograph on the table.

  Peter picked it up. It showed two pilots standing under the engine nacelle of a Messerschmitt ME-109, holding between them the bull's-eye fuselage insignia torn from a shot-down Spitfire. Both wore black leather flying jackets, each of which was adorned with brand-new second lieutenant's insignia and brand-new Iron Crosses. One was Second Lieutenant Freiherr Hans-Peter von Wachtstein and the other was Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Johan-nes Grner.

  Did I shoot that Spit down? Or Willi? Or was that piece of fuselage fabric just one of the half-dozen around the officers' mess, and we picked it up to have the photo taken?

  "Willi," Peter said. "France. Calais, I think. Or maybe Cher-bourg. 1940."

  Why the hell didn't I make the connection ? I knew Willi's father was an officer, an Oberstleutnant. Because I don't like to think of Willi Grner? Because the last time I saw Willi was outside London. His aircraft was in flames, and he was on his way down by parachute.

  "Willi," Grner repeated.

  "Have you heard from him?" Peter asked, remembering only now that there had been word from the International Red Cross.

  Willi was a POW, alive but injured.

  "You weren't paying attention," Grner said. "I learned about your promotion from Willi."

  "I don't understand."

  "He had himself named escort officer for a group of seriously wounded prisoners exchanged via Sweden. He's now in Berlin. Hauptmann Willi."

  "I was with him the day he was shot down," Peter said.

  "Yes, he told me. He also told me that you followed him to the ground to make sure the English didn't use him for target practice."

  "He would have done the same for me," Peter said. "In any event, Willi was in Berlin, and looking for you. At the Oberkommando of the Luftwaffe, he found that you've been sent here, but promoted major as well."

  "I'm surprised the word got here so quickly," Peter thought aloud. "It almost got here before I did."

  "Well, there is Condor service, of course. Willi's letter was on last week's flight." German four-engine transports, called "Con-dors," were engaged in transatlantic service via Spain and Africa. "It used to be twice a week, but it's down to once a week, some-times once every other week. The aircraft have been temporarily diverted to supply von Paulus at Stalingrad."

  Well, scratch the Condors from the property books. Stalingrad is lost, and so will be the aircraft trying to supply von Paulus.

  "If you have his address, I'd like to write him," Peter said.

  "Of course. I'll see that it goes in the diplomatic pouch."

  Krantz returned, leading a two-waiter procession bearing cham-pagne bottles in coolers.

  "I think you will find this satisfactory, Herr Freiherr," Krantz said as he popped the cork and began to pour. "It is not quite as good as German, of course, but it is drinkable."

  Peter took a sip and pronounced it very nice.

  The bottle was empty by the time they finished their meal, and then Krantz produced a bottle of French cognac.

  During the meal, Peter couldn't fail to notice that there were indeed an extraordinary number of good-looking, long-legged, nicely bosomed young females parading down the sidewalk out-side.

  "The French," Herr Krantz proclaimed as he poured the co-gnac, "may well be a decadent people, but they do know how to make brandy." Krantz's face was flushed, doubtless from sam-pling the brandy himself.

  And he took a long time to leave.

  "He attaches himself like a leech," Oberst Grner observed. "But his food is not only first-class, but free. And you can bet he will invite you to return as often as your duties permit."

  "That would be very nice."

  "Tell me, Peter," Grner said, for the first time addressing Peter by his Christian name, "how much of Frade's son did you see when you were in Oberst Frade's guest house?"

  Now it comes. Even though Willi and I are close. He is after all, as von Lutzenberger put it, the "embodiment" of the Sicherheitsdienst and the Abwehr in the embassy.

  "Not much. I was there when he walked in. He said hello, had a glass of cognac with me, and went to bed."

  "He is a serving officer of the American Marine Corps. Did you know that?"

  "No, Sir. Really?"

  You have just violated the Officer's Code of Honor, Hauptmann von Wachtstein. An officer has asked you a question in the exe-cution of his office, and you consciously and deliberately lied to him. That von Lutzenberger told you to is not justification, and you know it. So why did you do it? Who are you to criticize Herr Krantz for not knowing his allegiance?

  "You're familiar with the American Marine Corps, of course?"

  "No, Sir."

  "An elite force, like the Waffen-SS," Grner said.

  "Really?"

  Cletus was furious when 1 made that comparison.

  "Like yourself, he is an aviator. His father introduced him at the Centro Naval-that's the downtown officers' club, used by both services, I will get you a guest membership-as a veteran of the Pacific, specifically Guadalcanal."

  "Interesting. What is he doing in Argentina, if I may ask? For that matter, how did he wind up in the American Army-"

  "Marine Corps," Grner corrected him. "It is part of the U.S. Navy."

  "-excuse me, in the Marine Corps-if he's an Argentinean?"

  "His mother was an American. He was raised there. He has dual citizenship. I have an agent in Internal Security, a Comandante-Major-Habanzo. He showed me his dossier."

  "Fascinating. What did you say he's doing here?"

  "No one seems to know. He came ostensibly to make sure that American petroleum is not being diverted from here to Ger-many."

  "And obviously the Americans don't like that."

  "No, of course they don't. We managed to acquire some pe-troleum products here at the start of the war-at a great cost, I might add. But the Americans solved that problem early on by controlling the amount of petroleum they are willing to sell Ar-gentina, and by applying diplomatic pressure. Meanwhile, the Ar-gentines have a growing need for oil, so there is less and less available to us, no matter what we're willing to pay for it.

  "So, while it is possible that young Frade is here to make sure Germany is not buying American oil, I doubt it. That leaves sev-eral more likely possibilities. The most logical is that he is here to influence his father."

  Grner stopped, and looked at Peter.

  "The only way I can explain that is to deliver a lecture on Argentinean politics. I'd planned to do so in a day or two anyway. But why not now?"

  "Please do, Herr Oberst."

  "Their politics are Byzantine. Or perhaps Machiavellian, or Spanish, or perhaps simply Argentinean. But certainly not dem-ocratic, as Northern Europeans understand the term. They have elections every once in a while-between takeovers of the gov-ernment by military juntas. The election of the current president of Argentina was, by local standards, remarkably honest. The man's name is Castillo-and he is quite sympathetic to Germany. But he has lost favor with the people, not in small part because of British influence here. The British built the Argentine rail sys-tem and the telephone network, and they trained their Navy. The Navy is therefore sympathetic
to the British. German engineers built their dams and power stations, and we trained their Army: The Army is therefore pro-German-generally speaking, with certain specific exceptions."

  "I understand. I hope I understand."

  "It takes some getting used to. And the British do better with propaganda, frankly, than we do. That recent declaration, for ex-ample."

  "Sir?"

  "Where they accused us of murdering hundreds of thousands of Jewish women and children."

  "I'm afraid I don't understand, Herr Oberst."

  "They put out a proclamation, in the name of the King, Stalin, the President of the United States, and even that ludicrous French-man, de Gaulle, charging Germany with murdering hundreds of thousands of Jews. An absolutely fantastic accusation, but one which got wide play in the local press, including, so help me, Die Freie Presse." (The Freie Presse, a German-language newspaper, was then published daily in Buenos Aires.)

  "I haven't heard anything..."

  "You were on the ship. I have a copy in the office, and I'll let you read it. It's absolutely outrageous. I can't believe they actu-ally thought anyone would believe a word of it, but unfortunately, many people seem to take the document seriously.

  "Anyway, whether because of British propaganda or not, Castill¢ has lost much of his support. Thus, if the elections were held today, he would almost certainly lose. So he has naturally decided to ignore the results of the next election."

  "Can he get away with that?"

  "If it weren't for the G.O.U.-the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos-he probably could. But if El Presidente does not voluntarily relinquish power when he loses the election-or even if he wins it-the G.O.U. will almost certainly stage a coup d'‚tat. And to anticipate your question, Peter, can they get away with that? Yes, I think they can. And so does the Bureau of Internal Security, I'm reasonably certain."

  "And that junta would not be pro-German, but pro-Allies?"

  "Not necessarily. There are both pro-German and pro-Allied factions within the G.O.U. The power within the G.O.U., how-ever, the money and the brains, belongs to el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade. On the one hand, Frade is the uncle of the heroic Hauptmann Duarte, who died fighting godless communism with von Paulus at Stalingrad. And on the other, he is the father of Lieutenant Frade of the United States Marine Corps."

  "I see."

  "Which very possibly explains the presence of 'ex'-Lieutenant Frade, in civilian clothing, in Argentina. He has been sent here to tell his father that the Americans will help him in any way they can. And, very probably, to establish a line of communica-tion with him."

  "Yes," Peter said thoughtfully.

  "Now, with Oberst Frade, there is another factor involved,"

  Grner said. "You met, I believe, Oberst Juan Domingo Per¢n in Germany?"

  "Yes, Sir. He came as far as the Franco-Spanish border with me."

  "And your relationship with Oberst Per¢n?"

  "Actually, Sir, we got along rather well. He told me I would enjoy my time in Argentina and was quite gracious to me."

  "That cordiality almost certainly will be valuable later on," Grner said. "The point is that, despite their different back-grounds-Frade is one of the most wealthy men in Argentina, and Per¢n 's background is simple-Per¢n and Frade are quite close. They became friends in the army when they were both lieutenants."

  "I see what you mean, Sir, by Byzantine."

  "Per¢n is very sympathetic to Germany, in particular with Ger-many's socialist political philosophy, and with Germany's dem-onstrated concern for the welfare of the working man. (It is perhaps germane to note here that "NAZI" was the shortened form of NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party), and that the root of Hitler's power when he was first elected Chancellor, quite legally, was from Germany's socialists.)

  It is to study our system that he is in Germany. And the reason he wishes to become expert, so to speak, in German socialist social policy is that, when the G.O.U. stages its coup d'‚tat and takes over the government, Oberst Per¢n will become what we would call the Minister for Public Welfare."

  "A military man as Minister of Social Welfare?" Peter asked, surprised.

  "The military runs Argentina, Peter. You must keep that in mind. Which means that our mission is to ensure that our colo-nels, and not the British colonels, are in charge."

  "I understand," Peter said.

  "The third possibility is that 'ex'-Lieutenant Frade is a member of the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, and that he is here to damage or sink a U-boat replenishment vessel we have in the River Plate."

  "Really? How?"

  "Good question. He probably knows no more about sinking a ship than you do.

  "Now all this leads to a distasteful aspect of our duty here, one that frankly troubles me personally, but which I have come reluctantly to decide is essential. There is no civilized way to wage war, and we are fooling ourselves when we think there is."

  "Yes, Sir. I agree."

  "It is not in Germany's interests to permit a cozy relationship between Lieutenant Frade-that is to say, the American govern-ment-and Oberst Frade, who will almost certainly be a major influence on Argentine policy."

  "Obviously."

  "Considering the stakes-Germany needs and buys enormous quantities of Argentine wool, Argentine leather, Argentine food-stuffs-we cannot afford to have someone in a position of influ-ence who will lead Argentina into the war on the side of the Allies... or stand by while our supply line is cut. Since removing Ob-erst Frade is obviously out of the question, that leaves 'ex'-Lieutenant Frade. The question then becomes how."

  What does he mean by remove? Certainly not "assassinate"?

  "Excuse me, Herr Oberst. 'Remove'?"

  "There is no civilized way to wage war, and we are fooling ourselves when we think there is," Grner quoted himself, met Peter's eyes for a moment, and then went on. "To that end, in my conversations with Major Habanzo of BIS, I have been ad-vancing the theory that Lieutenant Frade is an OSS agent sent here to violate international law vis-a-vis the actions permitted of belligerent powers resident in a neutral country. I have suggested specifically that young Frade is here in order to cause harm to neutral vessels suspected of supplying German submarines. The BIS knows there was a team of OSS agents here with that mis-sion."

  "Was, Herr Oberst?"

  "They disappeared. No one seems to know what happened to them. They were not successful."

  "And you think that the BIS will arrange for Lieutenant Frade to similarly disappear?"

  "That would be the ideal solution," Grner said. "But in my business-in our business, Peter-one seldom finds an ideal so-lution. No, I don't think that the BIS will cause Lieutenant Frade to disappear. What I am hoping is that Oberst Frade will soon learn from his friends within the BIS that the BIS believes his son is an OSS agent sent here to cause damage to our replenish-ment vessel."

  "I don't think I understand, Herr Oberst."

  Grner didn't respond to the question.

  "The new replenishment vessel is here," he went on. "At an-chor in the Bay of Samboromb¢n, within Argentina's territorial waters. It arrived several days ago."

  "Herr Oberst, you're moving too fast for me."

  "Bear with me. It would be ideal for us if Lieutenant Frade is in fact an OSS agent. As I said, I doubt that is the case. But if he were, he would get on with his mission of trying to cause damage to our U-boat replenishment vessel. That attempt would be doomed to failure. The ship is thirty-odd kilometers offshore; and it is moved five or ten kilometers every day or so. It is armed. It is highly unlikely that Lieutenant Frade could even find it, and no way that he and his men could come close to it."

  Peter was now wholly confused.

  "Unfortunately, I'm afraid, the impossibility of harming our ship will be evident to him. They already lost one team trying to damage the last one. So he won't try it. And that leaves him in place to do what I believe he is really here for,
to influence his father."

  "May I ask a question?"

  "Certainly."

  "Why don't the Americans simply sink our boat with their Navy?"

  "Our ship," Grner corrected him. "For propaganda purposes. When the British damaged the Graf Spee, they were very careful not to violate Uruguayan and Argentinean territorial waters or Uruguayan and Argentinean neutrality. This paid off in enormous goodwill for them. We Germans were regarded as the aggressors, the violators of neutrality. The Americans follow the English lead in most things diplomatic; they are not going to ignore that lesson of history."