“Ach, du lieber Gott,” Hessinger said resignedly.
“Lieutenant Winters, this is my executive assistant, Mr. Hessinger,” Cronley said.
The two shook hands.
“I’m sure Mr. Hessinger will have some clever ideas about how we’re going to get Mrs. Winters, Lieutenant and Mrs. Moriarty, and their household goods down here from Fritzlar,” Cronley said.
Claudette handed Hessinger the orders.
“Fact bearing on the problem,” Cronley said, “both ladies are in the family way. Conspicuously so.”
“How much household goods are involved?” Hessinger asked. “Specifically, could we get it all in the back of an ambulance?”
Winters thought that over before replying, “Unless Bruce and Ginger have more than I think they do, yeah.”
“POVs?” Hessinger asked.
“I have a Plymouth, Bruce has a Buick, a great big one, a Roadmaster. I was thinking that my Barbara could ride with Ginger in that and Bruce could drive my Plymouth—”
“It’s not that simple, Tom,” Cronley interrupted.
“I suggest we send two ambulances, four Poles, and four of Tiny’s Troopers,” Hessinger said. “The Poles could drive the POVs. On the road, it would be one ambulance with the household goods, then the POVs and then the second ambulance with Tiny’s guys.”
“That’d work,” Cronley said, after thinking it over. “Set it up, Freddy. Get them on the road as soon as you can.”
“Sir, I’m a little confused,” Winters said.
“That’s par for the course around here. What are you confused about?”
“‘Poles’ and ‘Tiny Troopers’?”
“For security,” Cronley said. “We had a little problem last night.”
“What kind of a problem?”
Cronley visibly considered what he should say. Then he shrugged and said, “Four guys—probably NKGB agents—tried to kidnap Dette and one of our WAC ASA cryptographers just after midnight.”
“Holy Christ!” Winters exclaimed. And then, “What h
appened?”
“Dette shot three of them and wounded the fourth guy in the shoulder,” Cronley said.
“By shot, you mean killed, right?” Winters asked, looking at Claudette in disbelief.
She shrugged.
My God, she did kill three people! And wounded a fourth man!
“And to answer the question in your mind,” Cronley said, “your wife, and Bonehead’s Ginger, are going to be perfectly safe in the Pullach compound. Well, as safe as three barbed wire fences and a battalion of guards can make them.”
“I didn’t know about this when you were in Fritzlar,” Winters said.
“It hadn’t happened when we were in Fritzlar,” Cronley said, a bit impatiently. “So, what you do now is get on the phone to Bonehead. We’ve got encrypted lines, but if we used one now, Colonel Fishburn would hear about it, and I’d rather have him learn of the transfers from the orders when he gets them. Talk in tongues, in case anybody is listening . . .”
“Anybody meaning the NKGB?”
“And the FBI and maybe the CIC and the CID. So whenever you have to get on an unsecure line here—and always make every effort not to get on an unsecured line—talk in tongues.”