‘‘So you’re saying it would be ill-advised.’’
‘‘On the way here from the estancia, in the airplane, I thought of an irregular way to accomplish it.’’
‘‘By ‘irregular’ you doubtless mean ‘illegal,’ ’’ Ramírez said.
"Sí, Senõr."
‘‘How illegal?’’
‘‘Aircraft registration numbers are painted on the tail and on the wing. When an aircraft lands somewhere, the airport authorities write down these numbers and put them in a file. Afterward, they are seldom, if ever, seen again by human eyes.’’
‘‘Oh?’’
‘‘It occurred to me that if someone wished to paint the registration numbers of an already registered aircraft on another aircraft—in other words, to substitute aircraft—I very much doubt anyone would notice.’’
‘‘Unless the original aircraft showed up,’’ Ramírez said thoughtfully.
‘‘I don’t think that’s likely in this case,’’ Martín said.
‘‘Wouldn’t the name of the manufacturer of the aircraft appear somewhere?’’
‘‘Both el Coronel Frade’s missing aircraft and the aircraft Señor Frade wishes to bring into Argentina were manufactured by Beech.’’
‘‘Then there would be no problem at all, is that what you’re saying?’’
‘‘There is one small problem. El Coronel Frade’s missing airplane had one engine. The other aircraft has two.’’
‘‘Well, you’re a very resourceful fellow, Coronel,’’ Ram írez said. ‘‘A little thing like the number of engines shouldn’t be too difficult for you to deal with.’’
‘‘Another thought occurred to me, mi General: If something goes wrong when OUTLINE BLUE is executed, an aircraft that can fly six, and in a pinch, eight, people to Uruguay might be nice to have.’’
‘‘Your resourcefulness never ceases to amaze me, Coronel, ’’ Ramírez said.
[TWO] Office of the Director The Office of Strategic Services Washington, D.C. 1930 11 April 1943
‘‘Come on in, Alex,’’ Colonel William J. Donovan, a stocky, well-tailored man in his fifties, said, looking up from his desk. ‘‘What have you got?’’
Colonel A. (Alejandro) F. (Fredrico) Graham, USMCR, laid a large, torn-open manila envelope on Donovan’s desk and settled himself in a green leather armchair.
Donovan went into the envelope and extracted a slightly smaller envelope, also recently torn open. It was stamped TOP SECRET in red letters, top and bottom, on both sides. From this he extracted three stapled-together sheets of paper.
The first sheet of paper was a U.S. Government Inter-Of fice Memorandum. It was from the Chief of Naval Intelligence and addressed to the Deputy Director for Western Hemisphere Operations, Office of Strategic Services, and announced that transmitted herewith by officer courier was nondecrypted message N-45-7643 (no copies made) of a communication received from Station Aggie at 1505 hours 13 April 1943.
The second sheet of paper contained many lines of apparently meaningless five-letter words (e.g., AKLQE MXCBI PISLA TDEQF).
The third sheet of paper was stamped TOP SECRET in red, top and bottom, and was headed: DECRYPTION OF USN # N-45-7643. Donovan tore that from the top two sheets and dropped them, plus the two manila envelopes, into one of two wastebaskets at the side of his desk. This one held a white paper bag on which was printed in several places, in four-inch-high red letters, the phrase BURN TOP SECRET BURN.
Donovan’s expression clearly intended to convey to Graham the idea that his time was too valuable to waste tearing unimportant pieces of paper from important pieces of paper, and that Graham should have performed this bureaucratic task himself.
If Colonel Graham felt rebuked, he offered no apology. And there was no sign on his face that he regretted annoying Colonel Donovan.
Donovan started to read the decrypted message:
TOP SECRET
DECRYPTION OF USN #N-45-7643
URGENT TOP SECRET
FROM STACHIEF AGGIE 1555 GREENWICH 11APR43
MSG NO 0001
TO ORACLE WASHDC
EYES ONLY FOR DDWHO GRAHAM
1. SARNOFF HAS DEVELOPED HIGHLY RELIABLE INFORMATION THAT AT LEAST ONE GERMAN-JEWISH MALE INCARCERATED IN SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP WAS RELEASED AND PERMITTED TO LEAVE GERMANY AND PROCEED TO ARGENTINA POSSIBLY VIA URUGUAY FOLLOWING PAYMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF MONEY TO GERMAN AGENT, OR REPRESENTATIVE OF GERMAN AGENT, IN URUGUAY.
‘‘This is from Argentina, right? Judging from that very cute ‘Station Chief Aggie’ business?’’
‘‘Right.’’
‘‘This just came in?’’
‘‘It was sent at five minutes to four Greenwich time. That’s one in the afternoon Buenos Aires time, and eleven in the morning our time. For once the Navy brought it over here in a hurry.’’
‘‘You’re not going to change that ‘Aggie’ business now that we have a new station chief down there?’’
‘‘(a) We don’t have a new station chief down there, for one thing. (b) I don’t think I’d change it if we did. What’s wrong with it?’’
‘‘What do you mean we don’t have a new station chief down there? What’s Delojo?’’
‘‘Commander Delojo is the titular station chief,’’ Graham said. ‘‘And I have—we have—complied with Roosevelt ’s order that we identify the station chief to the Ambassador and the FBI, also known as the Legal Attach é.’’
‘‘And Frade?’’
‘‘Frade is Frade. I was a little vague about who has the actual authority. If the Ambassador and the FBI think Delojo ’s the station chief, fine. I think we can also safely assume that someone down there will let the Argentines know—by accident or on purpose—that the Naval Attaché, Delojo, is the OSS station chief. With a little bit of luck, the Argentines may decide he really is, which would take some of the pressure off Frade. But I want Frade running things.’’
‘‘You can’t do that, for God’s sake, Alex. You can’t be a ‘little vague’ about who has the actual authority.’’
‘‘Wait a minute, Bill,’’ Graham said coldly. ‘‘After the fiasco your pals caused running their own war down there, we made a deal. So long as I tell you everything I’m doing down there, which is what I’m doing now, Argentina is my pie, and nobody—including you—puts their fingers in it. I either run it, or you get somebody else to run it, and I go back to running my railroad.’’
Before he went on active duty, Colonel Graham was the president of either the second- or the third-largest railroad in the United States—depending on the factors used to make the determination. While he had a good deal of respect for Colonel Donovan, he was no more awed by him than by any other lawyer who had made a fortune on Wall Street.
‘‘Don’t be touchy, Alex,’’ Donovan said.
‘‘Sometimes you have a short memory span,’’ Graham said. ‘‘Read on.’’
Donovan dropped his eyes to the message, and almost immediately asked, ‘‘Who’s Sarnoff?’’
‘‘His name is Ettinger. Detailed to us from the Army’s CIC. He’s a Spanish Jew whose family had a Berlin branch. Or vice versa. Before he went into the Army, he worked for Dave Sarnoff at RCA. Electrical engineer, and according to Dave, a damned good one.’’
‘‘Yeah,’’ Donovan said, and resumed reading.
2. SARNOFF HAS REASON TO BELIEVE THAT AS MANY AS SEVERAL THOUSAND JEWS HAVE BEEN RANSOMED. DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. MEMBERS OF REFUGEE AND PREEXISTING JEWISH COMMUNITY ARE EXCEEDINGLY RELUCTANT TO TALK, EVEN THOUGH MEMBERS OF REFUGEE COMMUNITY WERE WELL KNOWN TO SARNOFF IN GERMANY, AND ARE AWARE MOST OF HIS FAMILY HAS GONE INTO CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
‘‘ ‘Several thousand’ have been gotten out?’’ Donovan said. ‘‘You believe this, Alex?’’
‘‘Ettinger is a very clever fellow,’’ Graham said. ‘‘Yeah, I believe it, and so does Cletus Frade, or he wouldn’t have sent that.’’
‘‘If Mr. Hoover has
heard anything about this, he hasn’t felt the urge to say anything about it to me,’’ Donovan said.
‘‘Or anybody here I asked—at least anyone here who felt I had the need to know,’’ Graham said.
Donovan dropped his eyes to the message again.
3. INFORMATION DEVELOPED SO FAR INDICATES RANSOM OPERATION (HEREAFTER LINDBERGH) OPERATING WITH SACHSENHAUSEN (POSITIVE) AND BELSEN (PROBABLE) BUT SARNOFF BELIEVES OTHER (PERHAPS ALL) CONCENTRATION CAMPS MAY BE INVOLVED.
4. INASMUCH AS VACUUM HAS CLOSE TIES TO BUENOS AIRES JEWISH COMMUNITY STRONG POSSIBILITY EXISTS THAT VACUUM IS AWARE OF LINDBERGH. POSSIBILITY EXISTS THAT FURTHER INVESTIGATION BY SARNOFF MIGHT HINDER VACUUM INVESTIGATION. REQUEST DIRECTION.
‘‘Vacuum is Hoover, right?’’ Donovan asked. ‘‘The FBI?’’
‘‘Right,’’ Graham said. ‘‘As in Hoover vacuum cleaner, sucking things up down there. That very cute code name was your idea, as I recall.’’
This earned him a dirty look from Donovan, who for a moment seemed about to respond, then changed his mind and resumed reading.
5. SS-SD STANDARTENFUHRER JOSEF GOLTZ (HEREAFTER BLACKSUIT) ARRIVED BUENOS AIRES BY LUFTHANSA 9 APRIL. SARNOFF BELIEVES HIGHLY PROBABLE THAT BLACKSUIT MISSION INVOLVES LINDBERGH WHICH COULD NOT OPERATE WITHOUT INVOLVEMENT OF HIGHLY PLACED GERMAN OFFICIALS.
6. RELIABLE SOURCE (HEREAFTER CAVALRY) INFORMED STACHIEF BLACKSUIT TODAY ORDERED ELIMINATION OF SARNOFF ONLY REPEAT SARNOFF ONLY AS PRIORITY PROJECT. CAVALRY BELIEVES BLACKSUIT PROBABLY ORDERED ASSASSINATION OF WHITEHORSE.
‘‘Whitehorse is . . . was . . . Frade’s father, right?’’ Donovan asked. ‘‘Who’s this reliable source, ‘Cavalry’?’’
‘‘I can only guess. The Ambassador messaged that the red carpet was really rolled out for Frade when he arrived in Argentina. The War Minister, General Ramírez, met his plane and took him to the place where they had his father laid out in state. It could be Ramírez, but I doubt it. Ram írez was Infantry, and Frade’s calling whoever it is ‘Cavalry. ’ Maybe General Rawson. He was Cavalry, and he and Colonel Frade were close. Whoever it is, it’s somebody high enough up to have access to their intelligence about German activities. Which also means they must have somebody in the German Embassy.’’
Donovan considered that, nodded, and went on reading.
7. STACHIEF BELIEVES BLACKSUIT SPECIAL INTEREST IN SARNOFF MAY ALSO BE DUE SARNOFF’S QUESTIONING SHIPPING INTERESTS WHICH MIGHT INVOLVE NEW GROCERYSTORE ACTIVITIES.
8. IF FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF LINDBERGH BY SARNOFF IS DIRECTED REQUEST AUTHORITY TO DISCUSS AND POSSIBLY EXCHANGE INFORMATION WITH VACUUM. ABSENT DIRECTION TO CONTRARY SARNOFF WILL CONTINUE INVESTIGATION OF LINDBERGH.
9. STACHIEF BELIEVES OPERATION OVERTURN WILL CONTINUE DESPITE LOSS OF WHITEHORSE. MEETING OF OVERTURN LEADERS THIS WEEKEND SUGGESTS STRONG POSSIBILITY OF EXECUTION IN NEAR FUTURE.
STACHIEF END
‘‘Do we have anything on this Blacksuit?’’ Donovan asked.
‘‘We have Goltz listed as Himmler’s liaison officer to Martin Bormann—to the Nazi party,’’ Graham replied. ‘‘Longtime Nazi. I think we have to presume that (a) Frade’s source is reliable and (b) this fellow has given orders to take out Sarnoff . . . Ettinger. I’m surprised.’’
‘‘Why are you surprised? They took out the entire team we sent down there before we sent Frade’s team.’’
‘‘I’m surprised that Blacksuit ordered the elimination of Ettinger only. You picked up on that?’’ Donovan nodded. ‘‘Why not the whole team? The team poses the same threat it did before to their replenishment vessel. So why only Ettinger?’’
‘‘You tell me.’’
‘‘By meeting Frade with that delegation of brass hats— which included Rawson, who is likely to become President if Ramírez doesn’t—it looks to me that Ramírez went out of his way to send a message to the Germans that he (a) didn’t like what happened to Colonel Frade, (b) he’s not afraid of the Germans, and (c) neither are a great big bunch of the other brass.’’
‘‘I wish we knew who ‘Cavalry’ is,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I don’t like this.’’
‘‘You believe this ransoming business?’’
Donovan nodded.
‘‘Neither Frade nor Ettinger are investigators,’’ he said. ‘‘Ettinger is a radio engineer. Frade is a pilot. If they turned this up, I think we have to presume that the FBI guy down there already knows all about it. More about it than Ettinger does. Would you agree?’’
Graham nodded.
‘‘I can just see J. Edgar going in to see the President with this ransom business—that is, if he hasn’t already been in to see him,’’ Donovan said: ‘‘ ‘I told you all along, Franklin, that the only thing the Oh So Social23is doing down there is spending money and assets and spinning its wheels. My trained investigators, following my mandate to handle all intelligence gathering in the Western Hemisphere, have known about this business from the beginning. The nation would be better served if you left this sort of thing to the professionals, to the FBI.’ ’’
Graham smiled and chuckled.
‘‘We took out the Reine de la Mer,’’ he said. ‘‘How will Hoover get around that?’’
‘‘In the Gospel according to Saint Edgar, the Navy took out the Reine de la Mer. If it hadn’t been for the subcommander ’s After Action Report, we would have had a hard time getting Frade and Pelosi Good Conduct Medals, instead of what they got.’’
Graham nodded again, remembering the words: When the President read them—Graham had personally taken theAfter Action Report to him—he ordered the award of the Navy Cross to Frade, and the next-highest award for conspicuous valor, the Silver Star, to Pelosi.
19. The undersigned desired to state in conclusion that accomplishment of this mission would have been impossible had it not been for both the professional skill and personal valor of First Lieutenant C. H. Frade, USMCR, and Second Lieutenant A. J. Pelosi, AUS, who, in order to illuminate the target, flew their small unarmed aircraft deliberately into range of the heavy machine gun and automatic cannon antiaircraft weaponry aboard the Reine de la Mer in the certain knowledge that their aircraft would be hit, and probably destroyed, which in fact proved to be the case. Their dedication to duty and personal courage in the face of what appeared to be near-certain death was inspirational, and in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service and the United States Army.
Bryce J. Stevens
Commander, USN
Commanding, USS Devil-Fish
‘‘What do you want me to tell Frade, Bill?’’ Graham asked.
‘‘What do you think? (a) Continue the investigation as a matter of the highest priority. (b) Do not communicate to the FBI in any manner whatsoever anything remotely involved with the ransoming. (c) Identify the source he calls ‘Cavalry.’ ’’
‘‘What do you think this whole thing is all about, Bill? You think it’s a matter of policy? And if so, why haven’t we heard anything about it here in the United States?’’
‘‘I really don’t know. My suspicion is that it’s some sort of a private operation. Some high-ranking SS sonofabitch has decided there’s money to be made, personally, and is in a position to make it. Why not here? Because it’s not German policy, and he doesn’t want his private operation to get back to the top-level people in the SS. Or maybe they’re involved, the top-level Nazis, and are worried about public opinion. I just don’t know, Alex. The only thing I know is that the more we learn about this, and the quicker, the better.’’
Graham grunted again.
‘‘We call it ‘Lindbergh,’ right? And how do we classify it?’’
‘‘Top Secret—Lindbergh. Eyes Only, you and me. And I mean that. Just you and me. We can’t afford somebody with a large mouth on this one.’’
‘‘Right,’’ Graham said, and stood up.
‘‘When I go to the President with this, Alex, I want facts, not suppositions.’’
‘‘Right,’’ Graham repeated, and walked
out of his office.
[THREE] Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo Near Pila, Buenos Aires Province 1730 11 April 1943
As Clete and Rudolpho rode back to the main house, Clete’s mind kept jumping back and forth—
I probably should not have given OUTLINE BLUE to Mart ín before reading it thoroughly. I am, after all, an intelligence officer, and there was certainly something in OUTLINE BLUE which would interest Graham. Consciously, I know everything is the OSS’s business, but did I decide, unconsciously, that since the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos are not any kind of a threat to the United States, it’s really none of our business. And just to satisfy Graham’s idle curiosity does not justify putting Ramírez and Rawson at risk?
What the hell is Henry Mallín going to do when that Jesuit shows up at his door with Claudia and Humberto and tells him the Virgin Princess is pregnant. And who did it?
I have to get in touch with Peter and tell him I have his father’s letter and the records. I didn’t tell Graham about that, either, and I know damned well the OSS would be interested in a German general who plans to assassinate Hitler.
But there are some dangerous sonsofbitches in the OSS, like the two who sent me down here hoping the Germans would kill me so that my father would be pissed off. Those two are gone, but there are probably others who would want to help assassinate Hitler, and that ‘‘help’’ just might get Peter’s father killed. If they didn’t worry about getting me killed, for the greater good, they certainly wouldn’t worry about getting a German general killed. If Peter’s father wanted American help, he would have asked for it.
Is marrying Dorotéa really the right thing to do, presuming the Jesuit can do something? Or is marrying me going to get her killed? Her and the child she’s carrying?
What the hell is going on with this ransoming of Jews from concentration camps? Is Ettinger onto something? Is that the reason that Nazi bastard ordered him killed?
Blood and Honor Page 36
