W E B Griffin - Honor 1 - Honor Bound

by Honor Bound(Lit)

  But when the flare run began, the Devil Fish would not be moving. Or if it was moving, it would only be just fast enough to maintain steering way. Turning would take time, more time than the duration of the flare burn.

  And after the first flare run, meanwhile, the crew of the Reine de la Mer would not only be alerted but would have time to man the heavy machine guns and the Bofors cannon-if they weren't already manned.

  And there would be enough light from the first-run flares to illuminate the Beechcraft. When the second flare run started, the Reine de la Mer would be prepared for it.

  It was unpleasant enough to dwell upon what heavy machine bullets would do to the fuselage, wings, and gas tanks of the Beechcraft without considering what would happen inside the air-craft if 40-mm exploding projectiles struck it and sympathetically detonated Tony's homemade (quarter-inch cotton rope impreg-nated with nitroglycerine) primercord, and thus set off a dozen flares.

  "Well, what the hell, Clete," Tony said. "It will be a spec-tacular way to go."

  [FIVE]

  Maria-Teresa's father almost ran to greet Tony when he stepped inside the Ristorante Napoli; and he treated Tony like royalty when he bowed and scraped him to a table.

  "I'm profoundly sorry, Se¤or Pelosi, that Maria-Teresa is away at the moment," Se¤or Alberghoni announced in a rush to Tony, once he was seated. "She certainly would have been here for you if she had known you were coming. But she has gone to confes-sion at the Church of San Juan Evangelista. That's not far away, as you know. She'll certainly return shortly, and she'll be de-lighted to see you. And remorseful that she was not here when you were kind enough to call at the restaurant.

  "In the meantime, would Se¤or Pelosi like a glass of wine and a little something to eat?"

  The "Se¤or Pelosi" business made Tony uncomfortable, and so did the bowing and the scraping, but that wasn't as bad as when Maria-Teresa's father wept and kissed his hands after Maria-Teresa gave him the paid-off mortgage.

  "Grazie," Tony said. "I'd like a glass of wine." Half a bottle of vino tinto and a huge platter of vermicelli with a mushroom-tomato sauce later, Maria-Teresa still hadn't shown up. So Tony decided to walk over to San Juan Evangelista and wait for her. He didn't want to say what he had to say to her with her father hanging over him anyway. Maybe he would meet her on the street.

  But he didn't meet her on the street. And when he went inside the baroque church, he didn't see her there either. Maybe she took a back alley or something on her way back to the ristorante.

  A priest was sitting outside one of the confession stalls. It wasn't that way at home. When you went to confession there, you couldn't see the priest. Maybe you could recognize his voice, or he could recognize yours; but you couldn't see him and he couldn't see you.

  What the hell, he doesn't know who I am.

  He entered the confession stall and dropped to his knees.

  "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned."

  "Habla espanol? Italiano?"

  Tony switched to Italian.

  Aside from not going to mass, the only sin he could think of was one that had been troubling him since he was thirteen years old.

  "Father, I have been having impure thoughts. About a specific girl."

  Priestly interrogation brought out that he had also been guilty of the sin of Onanism in connection with his impure thoughts about the specific girl. He received a brief lecture on forcing impure thoughts from his mind and the harm that self-abuse in-flicts on the body and the soul; and then he was given absolution and a relatively minor penance.

  He left the confession stall and dropped to his knees before a larger than life-size statue of Saint John the Baptist, lit a votive candle, and asked God to make it easy for his mother and his father and his brothers to understand if he didn't come through the business with the Reine de la Mer. And he asked Him not to let them mourn so badly. And then he stood up.

  When he turned around, he saw Maria-Teresa standing by one of the enormous pillars. Her head was covered with a shawl.

  Jesus Christ, she's beautiful!

  "I saw you come in," she said.

  "I was looking for you."

  "What are you doing here?"

  "I told you, I was looking for you. Then I went to confession."

  "I thought you would come," Maria-Teresa said. "But not here."

  "Excuse me?"

  "What do you want, Anthony?"

  "I want to talk to you for a minute. Can we go get a cup of coffee or something?"

  "To the ristorante?"

  "Not to the ristorante."

  "There is a caf‚ near here."

  He took her arm on the street. She didn't shrug it away, but she didn't seem to like it much, either.

  They took a tiny table in a small, crowded cafe, and a waiter came and took their order. Tony was going to order coffee, but changed his mind and asked for a glass of vino tinto. He asked Maria-Teresa if she wanted a cake or a dish of ice cream or something, but she said no thank you, all she wanted was coffee.

  "Do you want me to come with you, Anthony?" Maria-Teresa asked.

  "Come with me where?"

  She shrugged. He understood.

  "Jesus Christ, no! Nothing like that."

  "Then what do you want?"

  He reached inside his jacket, came up with an envelope, and handed it to her.

  2nd Lt A.J. Pelosi, 0-538677, CE

  Army Detachment

  Office of Strategic Services

  National Institutes of Health Building

  Washington, D.C.

  Military Attach‚

  U.S. Embassy

  Buenos Aires

  Argentina

  'What's this?"

  'If you don't see me again in a week," Tony said, "I want you to take that to the U.S. Embassy. You know where that is?"

  Maria-Teresa shook her head no.

  "What is this?"

  "It's in the Bank of Boston Building," Tony said. "There will be a Marine guard."

  "A what?"

  "A Marine guard. Sort of a soldier. You tell him you want to see the Military Attach‚. He'll probably ask you why, and you tell him that it's about an American Army officer."

  "An American Army officer?" Maria-Teresa asked, now wholly confused.

  "Yeah. Look here." He pointed at the envelope. "That's me, up in the corner."

  "That's you? I don't understand."

  "Maria-Teresa, for Christ's sake, just listen to me. You give this to the guard and tell him you want to see the Military Attach‚"

  "Why don't you just give him this letter yourself?"

  "I may not be here."

  "You're leaving Argentina?"

  "Yeah. Maybe."

  "And not coming back?"

  "If I leave, I won't be coming back."

  "Where are you going? Back to the United States?"

  "Something like that."

  "What's in the envelope?"

  "A couple of letters."

  "What kind of letters?"

  "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. If I don't come back, there will be some money for you. But to get the money, you have to take this letter to the Military Attach‚."

  "I don't want any more of your money. What are you talking about, giving me more money? This is crazy."

  "Goddamn it, if I go away, I won't need any money, and I want you to have it."

  "I want to know what's in this envelope," Maria-Teresa said firmly.

  "Help yourself. They're in English; you won't know what you're reading."

  She opened the envelope and took from it two sheets of pa-per.

  Tony was right. She couldn't understand much of either of them.

  Buenos Aires, Argentina

  28 December 1942

  To Whom It May Concern:

  Through: The Military Attach‚

  U.S. Embassy

  Buenos Aires, Argentina

  I desire to change the beneficiary of my National Service Insurance from
Mrs. Pasquale Pelosi, 818 Elm Street, Cicero, Illinois USA, to Miss Maria-Teresa Alberghoni, c/o Ristorante Napoli, Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

  Anthony J. Pelosi 0-538677

  2nd Lieut CE, AUS

  (On TDY from Army Detachment

  Office of Strategic Services

  National Institutes of Health Building

  Washington, D.C.)

  * * * * *

  December 28, 1942

  Somewhere in Argentina

  PLEASE FORWARD TO:

  Mr. Pasquale Pelosi

  818 Elm Street

  Cicero, Illinois

  Dear Pop:

  If you get this, I will have done what you always said I was going to do, test the detonator after I hooked up the charge.

  Maybe after the war, somebody will tell you what I was doing down here, but right now it's classified, and all I can tell you is that it was important, and I volunteered to do it.

  What comes next is probably going to upset you a little.

  I fell in love down here. Her name is Maria-Teresa Alberghoni, and she is a nice Italian girl whose family comes from around Naples someplace. Pop, she and her family don't have a dime. They work hard, but they're really poor.

  So what I've done is make her the beneficiary of the ten thousand dollar GI insurance policy I get from the Army, and I want you to somehow arrange to get her the money I inherited from Grandpa, less thirteen thousand dollars I owe First Lieutenant C.H. Frade, USMCR, c/o OSS. If he doesn't come through this either, the OSS can get you the name of his family in New Orleans.

  Since I can't use it, I think Grandpa would like what I want to do with his money. If he told me once he told me a hundred times how he came from Italy with sixteen dollars and the clothes on his back. You don't need the money and it will help Maria-Teresa get a start on life here in Argentina.

  Kiss Mamma, those ugly brothers of mine, and maybe light a candle for me every once in a while.

  Love, your son

  Anthony

  "This is a letter to your father?" "Right."

  "What does it say?"

  "It says that if something happens to me, I have some money I want him to send to you."

  "What's going to happen to you?" "Maybe nothing."

  "And maybe what?"

  "Maybe I'll get killed."

  "How?"

  "I can't tell you about that."

  "Why not?"

  "I just can't tell you, that's all."

  "It has to do with the war?"

  Tony nodded.

  "I thought so," she said. "I knew you were doing something. You told me you were an American, and you told my father you were from the North of Italy. You lied."

  "I had to."

  "Are you lying to me now?"

  "About what? No, I'm not lying to you."

  "Se¤or Mallin said you would come to me."

  "Mallin? You saw that sonofabitch? What did he want?"

  "He came and said that he would forgive me if I promised not to see you again."

  "And?"

  "I told him that I did not want to be with him anymore, and he said that you would come to see me, and want to be with me."

  "Not like that, I don't want to be with you."

  "When I saw you go in the restaurant, I thought that was what you wanted."

  "Look, Maria-Teresa, just take the goddamned envelope to the U.S. Embassy if I don't come back, all right?"

  "If you wish," she said, and stuffed it in her purse.

  He drained his wineglass, looked around for the waiter to order another, changed his mind, stood up, and fished in his pocket for money.

  "You're going?"

  "Right."

  "Where?"

  "I don't know. To my apartment, I guess."

  Maria-Teresa stood up, and he followed her out of the cafe.

  She stopped and waited for him, and put her hand on his arm.

  "You want me to walk you back to the ristorante?"

  "No."

  "Then what?"

  "Is there anyone at your apartment?"

  "No."

  "Then we will go there," Maria-Teresa said.

  "I told you, I didn't come here for anything like that."

  "I want to go with you to your apartment."

  "Why?"

  "It will be an interesting experience," Maria-Teresa said matter-of-factly. "I have never made love before because I wanted to."

  Chapter Twenty-One

  [ONE]

  Bureau of Internal Security

  Ministry of Defense

  Edificio Libertador

  Avenida Paseo Colon

  Buenos Aires

  1905 29 December 1942

  "Would you wait outside, please, gentlemen, to give Coronel Martin and myself a word alone?" el Almirante Francisco de Montoya, Chief of the Bureau of Internal Security, Ministry of National Defense, said to el Comandante Carlos Habanzo, of the Bureau of National Security, and el Capitan Gonzalo Delgano, Air Service, Argentine Army, Retired, who stood before his desk, their hands folded on the smalls of their backs. El Teniente Coronel Bernardo Martin sat slumped on a leather couch at one side of the room.

  The two left the office, wearing looks of self-approval. After they were gone, Martin leaned forward, picked up a small cup of coffee, and took a sip. When he set it down, he saw that el Al-mirante de Montoya had left his desk and assumed what Martin thought of as his Deep-In-Thought position: He was standing in front of his window, staring out over the Rio de la Plata. His hands were behind his back, his fingers were moving nervously, and he was rocking slightly from side to side.

  Finally, he snorted and turned to face Martin.

  "I am curious, Martin, why I was not aware until just now that you had this man Delgano reporting on el Coronel Frade."

  "I was aware, mi Almirante, of your friendship with el Coronel Frade..."

  "Friendship is not the point, Martin. Friendship is friendship; information is information."

  "... and if Delgano went to Frade and informed him of his relationship with me, I wished to leave you in a position where you could truthfully tell el Coronel Frade that you knew nothing about that... that you stopped the surveillance the instant you did hear about it; and that you are dealing harshly with the man who ordered it."

  "I am touched by your loyalty to me, and your willingness to sacrifice your career to protect me," de Montoya said.

  "I am loyal to you, mi Almirante," Martin said. "And 1 feel I can serve you best by not sacrificing my career unless absolutely necessary."

  El Almirante de Montoya looked at Martin with a frown, then he slowly smiled.

  "El Comandante Habanzo is the officer who put his career at risk by enlisting Delgano," Martin said.

  "You are a devious fellow, Bernardo," el Almirante de Mon-toya said approvingly. "I'm sure this was a painful decision for you to make."

  "At first, it was. And then I began to develop suspicions about el Comandante Habanzo."

  "And have these suspicions been confirmed?"

  "Let me say this, mi Almirante: If sacrificing el Comandante Habanzo's career for the greater good of the BIS becomes nec-essary, I will not consider it a particularly heavy loss."

  "There is such a thing as being too discreet, Bernardo."

  "Nevertheless, I am not completely sure of my facts. It seemed odd to me, however, after I personally charged Habanzo to surveil young Frade, and to use any assets and personnel he considered necessary, that the men who tried to kill young Frade, and who murdered that poor housekeeper, were able to gain access to the house without being seen."

  "But you did not pursue this line of thought?"

  "Young Frade made that impossible, mi Almirante. It's diffi-cult to interrogate dead men."

  "Yes, you're right, Bernardo," el Almirante said thoughtfully. "Curious. And what do you conclude?"