“Before he gets here, I want to hear what this SS officer has to say,” the president said.
“From behind a sheet, and Colonel Frogger asks the questions. Right, Don Cletus? I don’t think we want to let this SS officer know the president is here.”
[THIRTEEN]
1725 16 October 1943
“I wondered,” Doña Dorotea said to her husband, “if you were going to be able to find time in your busy schedule one of these days to drop in and say a few words to your wife and son.”
He walked to the bed and looked down at his son, who was being nursed.
“A lot has happened, and is going on,” Clete said.
“Who was in the airplanes? That was you, right? Who else would be crazy enough to fly in here?”
“How about the president of the Argentine Republic?” Clete asked, then: “Doesn’t he hurt you doing that?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, he does. Mother Superior says it will hurt less over time. What about the president of the Argentine Republic? You’re not telling me Arturo Rawson’s here? That you flew him in here? Up here?”
“Yeah, I am. And just as soon as he finishes talking to some people, he’s going to come in the house and watch Father Welner baptize the baby.”
“He’s here, too?”
“And General Nervo.”
“I don’t want our son to be a Roman Catholic. Do you?”
“No, but between Father Kurt and Mother Superior, I don’t think we have a choice.”
“Tell me the truth about you and Arturo Rawson and the airplanes,” she said. “And look me in the eye when you tell me.”
“Okay. First thing tomorrow morning, we’re going to go looking for Colonel Schmidt, who is somewhere around General Alvear and out of contact. . . .”
“I should have known that wouldn’t work,” Dorotea said ninety seconds later. “But it’s useful to know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That you can look right into my eyes and lie through your teeth,” she said. “That man Schmidt—who thinks God is on his side, which makes it worse—is not going to tuck his tail between his legs and go back to San Martín, even if Arturo Rawson personally tells him to. And you know it. So then what happens?”
“I just don’t know, sweetheart.”
“Who’s the ‘some people’ Rawson is talking to?”
“Enrico and Stein caught some SS people in the vineyard. They’re being interrogated. Colonel Frogger is telling Stein what questions to ask and when he thinks the lieutenant we caught is lying. They’re doing it behind a sheet so the SS guy won’t know Rawson is here.”
“How many SS people did Enrico and Stein catch in the vineyards?”
“Five.”
“That means there were seven, all told, including the two they killed?”
He didn’t reply.
“There’s a window in here, Cletus. I saw them bring the bodies in on horses.”
“They killed one of ours and we killed one of theirs.”
“And how many more are still out there?”