Meet Saa flight 744 ETA Tempelhof 1730 9 February with blackened window school bus or similar vehicle to securely transport one adult male, one adult female, two adolescent males and eight man security detail to secure location.
Polo
End
Top Secret Lindbergh
Oh, shit!
Admiral Souers has decided to swap the Likharevs for Mattingly.
I should have known that the minute things seemed to be going well enough for me to pat myself on the back, things would really fuck up!
Well, that swap just is not going to happen.
How I’m going to stop it, I don’t know.
But I am going to stop it.
“Florence, get me a seat on the next Air Force flight to Berlin.”
“I’ve already done that, sir. You couldn’t make the last flight today . . .”
Which means I won’t be able to meet the SAA flight!
“. . . so you’re on the first flight tomorrow at 0715, ETA Berlin 0810. And I called Mr. Dunwiddie to tell him about the bus. I thought you’d want me to.”
“Florence, you’re a jewel,” Cronley said. “Have somebody meet me at Tempelhof.”
“You’ll be met, sir.”
“Pierre, I’m going to try to convince Comrade Serov that Luther is valuable enough to swap for Colonel Mattingly.”
“I don’t think that will work, but good luck.”
[ FIVE ]
44–46 Beerenstrasse
Zehlendorf, U.S. Zone of Berlin
O835 10 February 1946
There were three staff cars, their exhausts showing they were anticipating passengers, lined up in the drive when Cronley arrived in the staff car that had picked him up at Tempelhof.
He was out of the car before it came to a complete stop, and ran into the building.
There were four men in the foyer, all of whose clothing indicated concealed firearms. One of them was large and burly, and the other three were small and wiry, almost delicate.
Part of that fucking “security detail” in the SIGABA message.
Who are they?
Doesn’t matter.
“Where’s Colonel Likharev?” Cronley demanded.
“Excuse me?”