“You very possibly won’t like his third.”
“We won’t know until you tell me, will we?”
“Gehlen feels it would be a shame—worse, criminal, even sinful—if all the knowledge of Abwehr Ost, acquired at such great effort and the cost of so many lives, should be flushed down the toilet when Soviet tanks roll down the Unter den Linden.”
“What would he like to see happen to it?” Dulles asked softly.
“He believes that his intelligence would be useful, even the determining factor, in defeating the Soviet Union when, inevitably, there is war between the United States and the Soviet Union.”
“And do you believe that war is inevitable between the United States and our Soviet allies?” Dulles pursued.
Von und zu Waching took a moment before replying: “I would say that it is inevitable unless the United States develops and produces atomic weapons before the Soviet Union does and demonstrates its willingness to use them.”
“Even against Germany?” Graham asked.
Von und zu Waching didn’t reply to the question. Graham decided not to push him.
“The Russians are, of course, aware of Gehlen,” von und zu Waching said, “and almost certainly have the names of his important people on their Order of Battle charts. Probably, they have the names of everyone connected with Abwehr Ost down to the last obergefreiter and female civilian typist. It follows that if we have penetrated them, they have penetrated us.”
“Yeah,” Graham thought aloud.
“But they don’t—self-evidently—know the identities of Gehlen’s people in the Kremlin. They will want those names. We would, and I suggest you would, under the same circumstances. The difference being that we would not torture the wives and children of their officers to get that information.”
“You think the Russians would torture women and children?” Dulles asked softly.
“Probably with about as much enthusiasm as the SS does when they have a Russian woman or child in their hands,” von und zu Waching said.
“What do you want from me?” Graham asked. “I don’t seem to be getting an answer.”
“Gehlen wants to set up an operation something like Phoenix for his people,” von und zu Waching said. “What he wants to do immediately is send one of his officers to Argentina to see what has to be done. That’s why I said he needs—I suppose I mean we need—money. Abwehr doesn’t have warehouses full of no-longer-needed gold wedding rings, dental prostheses, and eyeglass frames that can be turned into cash.”
“You don’t think that anyone would notice that one of Gehlen’s officers—and he would have to be one of his senior officers—was suddenly no longer around?” Graham asked.
“The officer Gehlen has in mind—a major—will ostensibly give his life for the Fatherland on the Eastern Front. We can get him as far as here, or Madrid, one or the other, with identity credentials that should get him past the border guards.”
“And from here, or Madrid, to Buenos Aires?”
“That you’d have to arrange,” von und zu Waching said.
“And what do we get?” Graham asked.
“Eventually everything, and that includes Oberstleutnant Gehlen and myself. And possibly even the admiral. Immediately, we will give you the names of the people the Soviets have at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, the University of California at Berkeley, and elsewhere. There are eleven names in all. More will be furnished when they turn up, as I’m sure they will. Stalin wants your bomb and is working hard to get it.”
“And how much money are you asking?” Dulles asked.
“It will probably turn out to be several millions of dollars. Not all at once, of course. In the immediate future, probably not more than a hundred thousand dollars.”
Neither Dulles nor Graham said anything.
After a long silence, von und zu Waching said: “And we will, of course, furnish you with whatever we learn about Operation Phoenix and what von Deitzberg is really doing.”
“The idea, if I understand this correctly,” Graham said, “is that once this officer gets himself established in Argentina, he will then arrange for other officers . . .”
“The admiral has told him he can have no more than two more officers. More than that would attract unwanted attention. The next people to be sent will be the families of those officers and soldiers in which we feel the Russians have the greatest interest. In other words, the selection will be on the basis of who the Russians think has the greatest knowledge, rather than on rank.”
Dulles said, “But by those criteria, Captain, the first officer who would go to Argentina would be the admiral. And then Gehlen. And then you.”
“I’m sure Colonel Graham will understand, Mr. Dulles. It’s naval tradition. The admiral and Gehlen will stay on the bridges of their respective sinking ships until all the women and children are safely off and into lifeboats. And then the men. And, finally, the other officers.”