He paused to ask rhetorically, “Does Frade have the Froggers?” and then answered his own question:
“I just don’t know. When I went to Oberst Perón, the oberst seemed to think this was a possibility. He said it had come to his attention that there was unusual activity at a small house, Casa Chica, Frade owns some distance from his estancia, near a place called Tandil. The late Oberst Frade used it, according to Perón, for romantic interludes with our Hansel’s mother-in-law.”
“Our Hansel” was Luftwaffe Major Freiherr Hans-Peter von Wachtstein, the embassy’s assistant military attaché for air. He was married to Alicia de Carzino-Cormano, the youngest daughter—she was twenty—of la Señora Claudia de Carzino-Cormano, a widow who was one of the most wealthy women in Argentina.
“Perón said Casa Chica is quite charming—a small house on a mountainside, with a stream running past, far from curious eyes. That description was why I thought there might be something to Oberst Perón’s notion that Don Cletus Frade might have been behind the disappearance of the Froggers and might in fact have them there.
“I asked Herr Raschner to look into it, and he sent Günther Loche down there to make discreet inquiries.
“And I must say our Günther did a good job,” Cranz went on. “The details of what he found are unimportant except that they convinced me that there was a very strong likelihood that the Froggers were enjoying the hospitality of Don Cletus Frade.
“You will recall that shortly before SS-Brigadeführer von Deitzberg returned to the Fatherland, he issued orders that the security of the Reich demanded that the Froggers be eliminated wherever and whenever found. In the absence of orders to the contrary from Berlin, von Deitzberg’s order remained in force. And I considered it my duty to carry out that order.
“The question then became, ‘Now that we have found the Froggers, how do we eliminate them?’
“Günther reported there were at least ten of Don Cletus Frade’s peones tending the two milk cows at Casa Chica, under the supervision of a man named Rodolfo Gómez, who we know is a retired cavalry sergeant who usually spends his time guarding Doña Dorotea Frade. That suggested that some of the peones might have military experience of their own. This theory was buttressed by Günther’s report that, except for several of them armed with Thompson submachine guns, they were all armed with Mauser rifles.
“That then raised the question, ‘How do we do what we feel has to be done? Where do we get the necessary forces to overcome a dozen or so well-armed men?’
“Raschner, in his usual tactless manner, quickly pointed out to me that the solution was right there in front of my nose. And—I always like to see that credit goes to where it belongs—came up with the solution to our problem.
“You will recall that Oberst Perón arranged with the commander of the Mountain Troops in San Martín de los Andes—a dedicated National Socialist and friend of Germany—to provide the security for the discharge of the special cargo from U-boat 405 at Samborombón Bay.
“So what I proposed to Perón was that he arrange for a suitable force of these men—say, forty men; two truckloads; about what they provided for Samborombón Bay—to be quietly moved to Tandil on a routine road-march maneuver.
“The Mountain Troops, noticing unusual activity at the late el Coronel Frade’s little love nest, would investigate. Ten or a dozen gauchos, even those with prior military service—or perhaps because of that service—would not attempt to resist forty Mountain Troops, especially if they were armed with two water-cooled Maxim machine guns.
“The Froggers would be released, Oberst Perón could claim the credit for their being found and liberated, and Don Cletus Frade would have a good deal of explaining to do.”
“That’s absolutely brilliant, Herr Cranz,” von Gradny-Sawz said.
“So Oberst Perón thought,” Cranz said dryly. “But please let me continue. What was brilliant, Herr von Gradny-Sawz, was Raschner’s modification to that plan. At Raschner’s suggestion, I suggested to Oberst Perón the one flaw in the plan, and the solution for the flaw.
“Actually, if the plan Perón and von Gradny-Sawz thought was so brilliant had played out, it would have left us with the problem of the Froggers being alive. Getting them back to Germany would have been difficult at best, and once there, God only knows what they would have said to save their miserable lives.
“As I was saying, I suggested to Oberst Perón that there was a possible flaw in what he now thought of as his plan: What if, rather than the Froggers, Casa Chica held some dear friends of Don Cletus Frade—or, for that matter, Hansel’s mother-in-law, la Señora Carzino-Cormano herself? Oberst Perón and the Mountain Troops would look pretty foolish if they trained machine guns on prominent Argentines having a more or less innocent romantic holiday in the countryside.
“I also proposed a solution to the problem: that the Mountain Troops bring with them Obersturmführer Heitz and half a dozen of the other SS men enjoying the hospitality of the Mountain Troops.
“They could, I suggested, since they knew—and none of the Argentines knew—what the Froggers looked like—”
“How did they know?” von Gradny-Sawz interrupted. “Heitz and his men have never been to Buenos Aires; they went directly to San Martín de los Andes from Samborombón Bay.”
“Bear with me, please, von Gradny-Sawz,” Cranz said. His tone was icy.
Boltitz thought: Cranz doesn’t like Die Grosse Wienerwurst any more than I do. I suspect the only reason he hasn’t ordered him back to Germany is that he knows he’s going to need a scapegoat sooner or later, and Gradny-Sawz will be the man.
“Before I was interrupted,” Cranz went on, “I was saying, I suggested to Oberst Perón that the SS men could identify the Froggers and solve that problem.
“He thought that was a splendid idea. Then, when we had the schedule, Raschner met the little convoy some fifty kilometers from Tandil and had a private word with Obersturmführer Heitz.
“The plan that agreed with Perón, you will recall, was for the Mountain Troops to surround the house and put the machine guns in place. Obersturmführer Heitz would then reconnoiter the house to determine if it actually held the Froggers. If it did, he would return to the road and call for the occupants of the house to give up the Froggers.
“According to the story I got from Oberst Perón, Heitz had just about reached the house when someone fired at him. He naturally returned the fire—”
“Who shot at him?” von Gradny-Sawz asked.
Cranz gave him a withering look.
“That was a little theater, Gradny-Sawz,” Cranz said. “His returning the hostile fire was a cue to his men to open fire. Can you grasp that?”
Von Gradny-Sawz did not reply.
“Which they immediately did,” Cranz went on. “At that point, Oberst Perón, apparently having decided discretion was the better part of valor, ordered the Mountain Troops back onto their trucks and called to the men manning the machine guns, the storm troopers, to stop firing. Considering the roar of the guns, it is not surprising that they couldn’t hear him. Or didn’t understand his Spanish. In any event, they continued to fire.
“By the time that was straightened out, they had pretty well shot up the house. In Oberst Perón’s professional military opinion, no one in the house could possibly have lived through the machine-gun fire.
“But Oberst Perón hadn’t counted on the Froggers being killed at the hands of the Mountain Troops. It would have been embarrassing for the Mountain Troops and for him, personally, if that came out.
“Obersturmführer Heitz heroically volunteered to stay behind with his men when the Mountain Troops drove off. They would make sure that whoever had been in the house was in fact dead, and then deal with the bodies. Then one of the trucks would come back and pick them up.
“The truck returned for Heitz and his men when planned—that is to say, after nightfall. By then the press of his other duties had forced Oberst Perón to return to Buenos Aires, and the Mounta
in Troops, now all crammed into the other truck, were on their way back to San Martín de los Andes.
“The truck that went back for Heitz was under the command of a lieutenant. He reported to Oberst Perón that they found the bodies of Obersturmführer Heitz and his men in several places on the approaches to Casa Chica.
“Interestingly, there were no bodies in the house, or any blood to suggest that anyone in it had been wounded. It was the lieutenant’s professional opinion that the people in the house had been warned of the coming attack and were prepared for it. In the lieutenant’s opinion, Don Cletus Frade’s gauchos had watched from a distance as the empty house was machine-gunned and as the trucks drove away.
“And then, when Heitz and his men, satisfied there was no one left alive in the house, approached it to make sure the Froggers were among the dead—Heitz’s orders were to bury the Frogger bodies somewhere on the pampas where they would never be found—they were ambushed.”
He paused to let them consider that.
Then finished: “And now the bodies of Obersturmführer Heitz and his men are buried where they will never be found on the pampas. The Mountain Troops lieutenant correctly decided that that was the option preferable to his having to explain at a roadblock what he was doing with the bullet-ridden bodies of half a dozen men in his truck. And so we have another example of what the Scottish poet Robert Burns had in mind when he wrote, ‘The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley.’”
“Our traitor strikes again,” von Gradny-Sawz said solemnly.
“You think so, Gradny-Sawz?” Cranz asked.
Boltitz thought: Wienerwurst, you are about to have that foot that’s in your mouth shoved up your fat ass.
“Herr Cranz, you yourself said the gauchos had been warned.”
“And they probably had,” Cranz agreed. “But by whom? Only Sturmbannführer Raschner and I knew the details of the operation. And trust me, Gradny-Sawz, on my SS officer’s honor, neither of us betrayed the Fatherland.
“One possibility which must be considered, I suggest, is that, in addition to the gauchos tending the milch cows, there were gauchos elsewhere, and when two army trucks bearing the markings of the Mountain Regiment came down the road, they telephoned to Casa Chica. ‘It may be nothing, Pedro,’” Cranz said in a mock Spanish accent, “ ‘but there are two Mountain Regiment trucks headed your way.’ ”
“I didn’t think of that possibility,” von Gradny-Sawz admitted.
“Well, perhaps your talents lie in the diplomatic area, rather than the military,” Cranz said. “Nor in the field of intelligence.”
Cranz gave von Gradny-Sawz a long moment to consider that, then went on: “So where are we now? The black side of the picture is that the Froggers are not only still alive, but by now are far from Casa Chica.
“And since we must presume that if there were gauchos watching the exercise, they saw both the Mountain Troops and Oberst Perón.
“But I would rather doubt that they would bring this matter to the attention of the Argentine government. That would put Don Cletus Frade in the awkward position of explaining what he had at Casa Chica that was of such interest to Oberst Perón and, of course, the SS-SD.
“Now, with regard to Major Frade of the OSS: He landed in one of South American Airways’ new Lockheed Lodestars at the Aerodromo Coronel Jorge G. Frade in Morón at five past one yesterday afternoon. His copilot was SAA Chief Pilot Gonzalo Delgano.
“They were met by el Coronel Alejandro Bernardo Martín, the Chief of the Ethical Standards Office of the Bureau of Internal Security, and by Sergeant Major Enrico Rodríguez, Cavalry, Retired. They went directly from the airfield to Don Cletus’s house across from the Hipódromo on Libertador, which is currently occupied by Oberst Perón. We can presume that the faithful Sergeant Major Rodríguez told Don Cletus what had transpired at Casa Chica as they drove from the airport.
“I was aware that Oberst Perón had asked el Coronel Martín to bring Frade to him, the idea being that Perón would have a friendly, perhaps even fatherly, word with Frade about the foolishness of attempting to harbor the Froggers.
“Raschner and I, without confiding in Oberst Perón, had come up with an idea to send the Widow Frade an unmistakable message of exactly how dangerous it is to assist traitors to the German Reich. I will get to that shortly.”
“The Widow Frade?” Boltitz asked.
“I’ll get to that shortly, Boltitz. Pray let me continue.”
“I beg pardon,” Boltitz said.
Cranz nodded his acceptance of the apology, then went on: “Loche reported that Frade went to see Perón only after Martín very strongly insisted that he do so. Loche also reported that there was nothing on the airplane but cargo, presumably spare parts for the Lodestars.
“Since Raschner has so far been unable to get someone into the Frade mansion on Libertador, I didn’t know what had transpired during their short meeting until Perón called me last evening and told me.
“I think we may also assume that el Coronel Martín had heard—possibly before Frade returned—at least something of what transpired. We know, of course, that Chief Pilot Delgano is actually Major Delgano of the Bureau of Internal Security, and that his role with SAA is to make sure that SAA does nothing against Argentine neutrality, with the secondary mission of keeping an eye on Frade generally.
“And knowing that Delgano would inevitably hear of what had happened at Casa Chica, I suspect that Doña Dorotea Frade would report to the authorities that there had been an attack for unknown reasons by a roving band of bandits, or whatever, on the house.
“We just don’t know. We will have to find out. Raschner’s working on that, and we all know how good our Erich is at that sort of thing.
“We do know what Oberst Perón told me on the telephone last night, and I’m afraid it was proof that once again I committed the cardinal sin of underestimating one’s enemy.
“Frade lost no time whatever, it seems, in showing Oberst Perón that he had photographic proof that Perón had been at the machine guns with Heitz and his men, as well as photographs of the bullet-riddled bodies of Heitz and his men.
“He also told Perón that he had photographs of the map SS-Brigadeführer von Deitzberg had given him of postwar South America.”
“Excuse me?” von Gradny-Sawz asked, visibly confused.
“Oh,” Cranz said. “That’s right. You weren’t made privy to that, were you, Gradny-Sawz?”
Neither was I, Boltitz thought. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
But he is intimating that Wienerwurst was the only one who doesn’t know.
“No, I wasn’t,” von Gradny-Sawz said, somewhat petulantly.
Did someone steal your ice-cream cone, Wienerwurst?
“It was a map prepared by the Army Topographical people showing South America after our Final Victory,” Cranz explained. “Briefly, Uruguay and Paraguay will become provinces of Argentina.”
I will be damned. Is that a fact, or something created to dazzle Perón?
“Frade told Perón that the first time he suspected an attempt was made on his life or on the lives of anyone close to him, the photographs and the map would be placed in the hands of the president of the Argentine Republic and appear in the world’s newspapers.”
“He’s bluffing,” von Gradny-Sawz said firmly.
“Possibly, even probably,” Cranz said. “But we don’t know that, do we, Gradny-Sawz? And do we want to chance he is not?”
Von Gradny-Sawz did not answer.
“Finally,” Cranz said, “Frade told Perón he wanted him out of his house by today. And then—after Frade was attacked—he called Perón and said he was going to give Perón the benefit of the doubt, that Perón simply had not had the time to call his German friends off before the attack, but that he suggested that Perón should make that call now.”
“What attack on him?” Boltitz asked.
“According to today’s La Nación,” Cranz said conversationall
y, “three criminals bent on robbing the Frade mansion—actually, it didn’t say ‘Frade mansion’; it said ‘a residence on Avenida Coronel Díaz’—were interrupted by alert police and died in a gun battle that followed.”
And that explains the message you were going to send to the Widow Frade, doesn’t it, you murderous bastard?
“To recapitulate, gentlemen: Both operations—eliminating the Froggers in Tandil and eliminating Frade here—failed. The only good thing to come out of it is that we have further leverage with Oberst Perón.
“We must presume that the Froggers are still alive. That situation is unacceptable. I think we can safely presume that Don Cletus Frade has them. Or at least had them. There has been a report that a British cruiser in Rio de Janeiro took aboard a middle-aged couple, but until we know it was the Froggers, we must presume it wasn’t them.”
He looked around the room.
“Any questions, comments?”
“We have to get rid of Frade,” von Gradny-Sawz said solemnly.
“You think so, Gradny-Sawz?” Cranz asked softly.
“To me it is self-evident.”
“Let me tell you what is self-evident to me, Gradny-Sawz, and probably to these other gentlemen. We have been sent a message by el Coronel Martín. And that message is that he knows we have failed, for the second time, to remove el Señor Frade from the scene. Otherwise, you see, Gradny-Sawz, el Señor Frade would be facing criminal charges for manslaughter. He could probably successfully plead self-defense, but it would be all over the newspapers.
“If that happened, people would ask, Gradny-Sawz, who could possibly want to assassinate the son of one of Argentina’s beloved sons, who was himself assassinated. Give your imagination free rein, Gradny-Sawz, and guess who would come under suspicion. The French, perhaps? The Uruguayans?
The Honor of Spies Page 8