Cronley said, “What I’ve been wondering is what Serov is up to with getting a Christian burial for the people Claudette took out in the ambulance.”
“Simple answer is that he wants to know which of the four is still alive, which he will know if you go through with the burial of the others,” Bischoff said.
Cronley saw on the faces of Wallace, Gehlen, and Mannberg that they agreed with him.
“General, do you think we should go through with the burial?” Cronley asked.
Gehlen seemed to be framing his reply when Wallace said, “Anything that may help get Bob Mattingly back.”
Cronley thought: This is not the time for me to say I have absolutely no intention of swapping the Likharevs for Mattingly.
What I have to do is let Cletus Frade know what’s going on.
He can arrange to get the Likharevs somewhere where they’ll be safe not only from the Russians in Argentina, but from the Pentagon and USFET G-2 types who will be more than willing to swap them for Mattingly.
And how the hell am I going to do that?
If I get on the SIGABA there are people both in Iron Lung McClung’s station in Fulda and at Vint Hill Farms who will fall all over themselves making sure USFET G-2 and the Pentagon hear my “hide the Likharevs” message.
And that will get me relieved!
“Surely no one is actually considering exchanging the Likharevs for Colonel Mattingly,” Bischoff said.
“What did you just say?” Wallace asked incredulously.
Cronley’s mouth went on automatic: “That decision hasn’t been made.”
“Making the exchange would simply encourage Serov to kidnap somebody else,” Bischoff said.
Cronley’s mouth was still on automatic: “And returning the Likharevs would just about kill any chance we have to turn any NKGB officer in the future. Serov obviously plans to march Likharev and his family back and forth in Moscow before middle- and senior-level NKGB brass, saying, ‘Take a good look at what happens to people who think they can desert to the Americans.’”
“Precisely,” Bischoff said.
Major Wallace glared at Bischoff and then at Cronley.
“It had better be understood from this point that we’re going to do whatever it takes to get Colonel Bob Mattingly back,” he said. “Understood especially by you, Captain Cronley.”
“I intend, Colonel, to do everything possible to get Colonel Mattingly back, short of exchanging the Likharevs for him.”
Two fucking mistakes. I shouldn’t have said “short of exchanging the Likharevs for him.”
And I shouldn’t have called him “Colonel.”
What the hell, everyone in here knows he’s really a colonel.
“That’s not your decision, fortunately, to make, Cronley,” Wallace said.
Just in time, Cronley managed to shut off his automatic mouth.
Instead, he said, “About the first thing we have to do is get somebody to Berlin. Where’s Hammersmith?”
“What do you want with him?” Wallace demanded.
“He’s holding down the office in the Vier Jahreszeiten,” Tiny said.
“I’m presuming he has CIC friends in Berlin,” Cronley said.
“He does,” Wallace said.