“Some of them are friends of mine, too.”
Boltitz shrugged. “I suppose that’s true,” he said. “A generation ago, Peter, if this confrontation occurred between your father and mine, this would have solved the problem.” He tapped the Luger with his fingertips. “My father would have left your father alone with one cartridge in the pistol, and your father would have done the honorable thing, and that would have been the end of it.”
“My father would probably have tried to take the pistol away from you,” Peter said.
“I wouldn’t try that,” Boltitz said. “I have a full clip in here, and I could get off three shots before you got out of the chair.”
“I think I would rather be shot than shoot myself,” Peter said.
Boltitz quickly picked up the pistol and pointed it at him.
Peter felt pain in his stomach.
“I don’t really want to shoot you, Peter. Please don’t make me.”
“If I’m a traitor, why should you hesitate?”
“Because then your treason would have to come out. And that would hurt other people besides yourself. Your father, for one. I am unable to believe that he’s aware of your treason. General Galland, for another. He thinks you are an honorable German warrior—”
“So do I,” Peter said. “We just see honor differently. My allegiance is to Germany, not Hitler, not National Socialism.”
“—and it would be very awkward for General Galland if it came out that an officer he personally asked the Führer to have assigned to him was a traitor.”
“Christ!”
“And the child your wife will bear would for all of his life be stigmatized by having a traitor for a father.”
“What are you going to do? Turn me loose?”
“My honor forbids that, although, personally, I would like to. I’ve come to like you, Peter.”
“Oh, shit!”
“There is a path you could take,” Boltitz said.
“Really?”
“Tomorrow you’re going to fly to Montevideo.”
“And I should crash into the River Plate?”
“No. That might be suspicious. If you did that, there wouldn’t be a body. But if you crashed at El Palomar on landing, it would be considered a tragic accident. Do you follow my reasoning?”
After a moment, Peter nodded.
“Do you agree?”
Peter nodded again.
“May I lay the pistol down again?”
Peter shrugged.
“I suppose this might be considered, under the circumstances, absurd, but will you give me your word of honor?”
“You have it, Herr Korvettenkapitän,” Peter said.
Boltitz looked at him for a long moment, then stood up, tucked the pistol into the small of his back, and walked out of the sitting.