by Joe Buff
“Much better,” Colonel Stewart said. He threw Jeffrey a left-handed salute.
The stink from an exhaust leak somewhere in the M-113 got so bad that the frogman chief safed his weapon, then opened one of the vehicle’s top hatches and climbed up and manned the machine gun there. Now fresh air and sunlight came in through the roof. The frogman swiveled the heavy machine gun around.
“This protection really necessary?” Jeffrey asked.
Colonel Stewart pointed at the gashes on his own face, and at his bruised and broken right arm. “These answer your question?… Cheer up. Take a nice look outside. Enjoy the tour.” Then his face grew stern. “Wait. Use my sunglasses.”
Jeffrey put them on. They were very dark, and wrapped around to cover the sides of his face. He slid to the bulletproof viewing port vacated by the frogman who’d climbed up through the open hatch, and peered out at Rio de Janeiro.
He noticed that traffic was light, though a gaudy yellow electric trolley they passed was crowded with local people. The city had beautiful architecture, a mix of very old and very new. The ground floors of buildings that Jeffrey could see were open and airy, and bright colors were used everywhere. He knew Rio was mostly a resort city, and business was down with the war. But even so, the area had a population of about twelve million. Shops and food-vending carts were numerous and often frequented now that it was getting toward lunchtime. Most Brazilian men and boys were dressed in short-sleeve shirts and slacks or jeans. The women wore summer dresses, or blouses and skirts, and some wore jeans. Jeffrey saw billboard advertisements, many with themes and celebrities from Formula One car racing, or soccer.
He noticed that the police were everywhere, and heavily armed. But the populace seemed largely unconcerned. Pedestrians glanced at the M-113 more out of curiosity than fear. Rio had a reputation for being a relaxed and friendly place. The vehicle passed lovely gardens, pillared mansions, bustling shopping malls.
Jeffrey noticed more Japanese tourists.
“The locals don’t seem especially worried.”
Stewart shrugged as best he could. “Most of them see what’s happening with Argentina as saber rattling.”
“And bombings in Brasilia? That’s just saber rattling too?”
“Brasilia’s five hundred miles away. Guerrillas and terrorists of all ilks have been nipping at the edges of this society for decades. Remember, the whole place used to be a brutal dictatorship, within the memory of anyone much over age twenty-five you see out there. Death squads and secret police once stalked these streets with impunity. The locals learned the hard way to take things in stride, horrible things that to you and me are barely conceivable…. Besides, for them to show each other anxiety now would be taken as weak or unpatriotic. Brazilians are very patriotic.”
“What about the Atlantic Narrows convoy battle?”
“To the degree they even know about it? That’s thousands of miles away, and the prevailing winds don’t get here from there.”
Jeffrey began to wonder how much even Colonel Stewart was aware of the real situation. “Why so many Japanese?”
“With the war, travel from the U.S. and Europe has dried up completely, right? The Pacific Rim is booming, selling everything from oil to microchips to textiles to parts for battle tanks to America and our allies. And to the Axis. So the Japanese have big money again plus the leisure time to travel. And the Pacific Ocean air routes are fairly safe.”
“But during a tactical atomic war?”
“I think that adds to the kick, the allure, for the Japanese. Remember, they’re the ones who had two A-bombs dropped on them in World War Two. There’s a perverse attraction for them to get close to where the action is now. A ringside seat, voyeurism, getting even vicariously, whatever.”
“Weird,” Jeffrey said.
“Yeah, weird. And double weird, since Japan announced they have their own nuclear weapons.”
Jeffrey looked out the viewport more. They passed public squares with monuments or modern art, then an opulent cathedral, and for a short while rumbled over cobblestones. Moving through traffic circles, they went by delightful fountains and nice statues. Jeffrey saw people riding motorbikes, standing on street corners waiting to cross, chatting at outdoor cafés. The racial diversity was impressive. “I’m still surprised how everybody’s just going about their daily lives…. I mean, I see fewer men of military age, sure, with the mobilization, and I heard a lot of cars and trucks were grabbed by the army.”
“And you didn’t see any warships sitting in port, did you?”
“No. Nothing big.”
“Welcome to South America. The people here don’t exactly think like you and me. So remember, in this meeting coming up? We’re on their turf. They make the rules here, not us.”
CHAPTER 30
The armored personnel carrier left downtown and got on a highway, picking up speed. The tall hills on both sides of the road were covered from top to bottom with shacks, clinging to the slopes, piled one above another, some sporting TV antennas or laundry drying on lines.
“They call them favelas,” Colonel Stewart said. “Vertical shantytowns. Low-end service workers for all the restaurants and condos and hotels.”
“I thought President da Gama was good for the economy.”
“You should have seen these places five years back. Then very few people had full-time jobs, or even living quarters with running water and electric power.”
Jeffrey stared up at the teeming hillsides. The shantytown districts seemed to go on and on, forever.
“The single best measure is infant mortality,” Stewart said. “It’s a tenth of what it was when da Gama took office.”
The M-113 drove north and then east. It turned into a security area, heading down a concrete ramp toward the base of a mountain. The vehicle halted, then moved forward again. It grew dark, and Jeffrey could see a low-ceiling overhead above the open top hatch now. Thick doors swung closed behind the M-113, and it grew even darker outside and in. Other thick doors in front swung open, and the vehicle advanced again. It stopped under harsh fluorescent lights hanging from springs. As the second set of doors swung closed, the frogmen lowered the troop compartment’s rear exit and the driver shut the engine off.
“This is where we get out,” Colonel Stewart said. “You can leave your wet-suit stuff here.”
Jeffrey helped the injured Stewart from the vehicle. He noticed the colonel favored one leg as he walked. The man also looked very pale now, probably drained by the effort of talking during the ride, and by discomfort from his wounds as the pain drugs wore off. But even so, Stewart’s bearing was dignified, soldierly.
A Brazilian Army officer came up to Stewart and Jeffrey and saluted. He said something in Portuguese and Stewart replied. The three of them went to another door inside the heavily guarded cavernous space. This door led to an elevator. They took the elevator down.
“This is a hardened command post,” Stewart told Jeffrey. “The geology here is ideal. They built it four or five years ago, after that war scare in Asia. Aboveground they have laser sparklers and dazzler strobes to throw off homing smart bombs.”
Jeffrey nodded — since Axis hackers distorted the Global Positioning System signals too, underground bunkers regained some real protection against nonnuclear ground penetrator rounds.
Waiting at the bottom when the elevator door slid open was a man in a purple sport jacket, orange suede slacks, and scuffed leather loafers. His shirt was lime green, and his polyester tie had red and yellow polka dots. Jeffrey figured nobody in their right mind would dress that way except on purpose — as some sort of distraction from his face, or as a disguise by its very conspicuousness. It was working, too: the man’s clothing clashed so badly it was almost painful to look at him.
He nodded to Jeffrey and Stewart. “You can call me Mr. Jones. They’re ready for us.” He was obviously American.
Things were moving a little too fast. “Who are you, or should I say what are you, Mr. Jones?�
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“I work for Langley.” Langley, Virginia — CIA headquarters. “Come. We can’t keep these people waiting.”
“Mr. Jones” led Jeffrey and Colonel Stewart into a conference room. The furnishings were bare and functional, except for the video and communications equipment, which were state-of-the-art.
Two Brazilian generals and an admiral jumped to attention when Jeffrey entered the room. The generals snapped him salutes.
Jeffrey braced to attention, in acknowledgment. This was standard courtesy. Even senior officers saluted someone junior who wore the Medal of Honor. And the U.S. Navy never saluted indoors. The proper etiquette for Jeffrey was to brace to attention instead of saluting someone from a different branch of the services — American or foreign.
I don’t need a protocol officer to tell me that much.
The Brazilian top officers welcomed Jeffrey. They all spoke English fluently. Colonel Stewart murmured to one side with Mr. Jones, who nodded. Stewart told Jeffrey the room was secure.
“Come,” the most senior of the Brazilians, an army general, said. He guided Jeffrey to a chair at one end of the table. Stewart and Jones sat on Jeffrey’s left and right. The Brazilians also took seats. The chair at the other end of the table was empty.
The tabletop was spotless and bare: no writing tablets, no pitcher of water, no coffee service, nothing. Jeffrey wondered what this might signal in the language of diplomacy.
“We want to show you something,” the general said.
The Brazilian admiral turned on a digital video player, and a flat-screen TV monitor on the wall came alive. Jeffrey shifted his chair for a more comfortable view; he was stiff and achy from the pounding ride in the speedboat and the rough ride in the M-113.
“This is infrared,” the general said, “from one of our reconnaissance drones.”
At first Jeffrey saw nothing.
“The altitude is three thousand meters. The location is about fifty miles outside the Rio de la Plata estuary.” The la Plata estuary, Jeffrey knew, was a wide bay and tidal basin, a sharp indentation of the South American coast, between southern Uruguay and northern Argentina. Outside its mouth, on one side, stood Mar del Plata, an Argentine beach resort and Argentina’s primary naval base. At the inner end of the estuary, where major rivers met the sea, stood Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital….
Jeffrey saw an aircraft enter the picture. It looked like an old transport plane, a DC-9 or something.
“The aircraft is Argentine.”
“When was this taken?” Jeffrey asked.
“Last night,” Mr. Jones said.
“With respect, how do we know this is genuine?”
“Good question, Captain,” Jones said. “President da Gama gave permission for an AWACS to make overflights of Brazil. For purely humanitarian reasons, of course. To supervise the evacuation of Americans into Peru… None of us want to see a planeful of women and children fly into a mountain in the Andes in the clouds.”
“The AWACS held radar contact on this?” Jeffrey pointed at the plane on the TV.
Jones nodded. “From takeoff to landing, at an airfield near Buenos Aires. Just watch.”
A door in the side of the Argentine plane popped open. Objects began to drop out, over the ocean from high altitude in the dark.
The recon-drone camera zoomed in.
The objects were people, and they were being thrown out.
Jeffrey watched in horror, his heart pounding. One by one twenty victims cartwheeled and flailed in the air as they fell from the transport plane. It seemed to take forever before each made a gigantic splash in the sea.
Jeffrey was grateful when the recording stopped.
“This has been going on almost every night for most of a month,” the Brazilian general said.
Jeffrey took a deep breath. He made eye contact with Stewart and then Jones. “Okay. Who were they killing?”
“Mostly journalists and teachers,” Jones said. “Clergy too, priests, nuns, rabbis, ministers, anyone who is speaking out for peace in Argentina, against fascism and the Axis.”
“So it’s another Dirty War.”
Everyone in the room nodded.
Jeffrey turned and stared at the now-blank TV screen. “Why are you showing me this?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” a new voice said.
Jeffrey glanced over his shoulder, startled. A stout, bearded, dark-skinned man had just entered the room. Jeffrey recognized President Getulio da Gama — older than last time they’d met, but then Jeffrey must seem older to da Gama too. The Brazilian president wore a gray pinstripe business suit.
Everybody jumped to attention again. Jeffrey joined them.
Da Gama came up to Jeffrey and shook his hand very hard. “It’s good to see you again, Captain. Thank you for coming.”
“Yes, sir,” was all Jeffrey could think to say.
“Sit, everyone, please.” Da Gama took the seat at the other end of the table, facing Jeffrey. Everyone else sat only after the president did.
“This is why you insisted on me coming here, isn’t it, Mr. President?” Jeffrey said. He gestured at the video player.
“I wanted you to judge for yourself who the true aggressors are.” Da Gama’s English was impeccable.
“I thought it was you who wished to be convinced of certain things.”
“That too, Captain. Your presence already has me largely convinced of your sincerity. But I had another selfish agenda. Do you see it?”
“Sir?” Jeffrey noticed Stewart and Jones were keeping quiet, as were the Brazilian brass. This exchange was strictly between Jeffrey and da Gama.
An exchange, or a face-off?
“What did you think of Rio, Captain?”
“A beautiful city, Mr. President.”
“A city is nothing but buildings and roads. I speak of the people, the citizens. They are the true heart of Rio.”
“Friendly, happy, thriving, from what I could tell.”
“That described most of my country, until a short while ago.”
“I understand, sir. I wish I didn’t have to be here.”
“I wanted, needed you to be here. To see some things for yourself, in flesh and blood. So they would not remain as mere abstractions, but could come alive in front of your eyes, to compel you to perform the work you must do with the utmost skill… Including what the fascists are already doing to those who oppose them in Argentina. The new wave of disappearances.”
Da Gama turned abruptly to Mr. Jones. “How much does Colonel Stewart know?”
“Nothing of the latest problem, Mr. President.”
“Very well,” da Gama said. “Then let me summarize. Captain Fuller, you tell me if you feel I’m mistaken.”
“Yes, sir.”
Da Gama turned to his commanders. “The Americans would have us believe that a German nuclear submarine is off our shores, heading for Argentina, for the specific purpose of starting atomic war on land between Brazil and Argentina. The Americans tell us this submarine carries a supply of atomic warheads for the pro-Axis faction plotting to take over in Buenos Aires. They also tell us the Germans have stolen one or several American atomic warheads, which they intend to detonate themselves to create an atrocity to make the war appear to be Brazil’s and America’s fault.”
The Brazilians remained impassive; Colonel Stewart looked shocked, aghast.
“Is that essentially correct, Captain Fuller?” da Gama said.
“Yes, Mr. President.”
“Have you made any recent detection of this supposed German submarine? Any indication, other than your own surmisings or fears, as to its whereabouts?”
“No, sir,” Jeffrey said reluctantly. “Only supportive circumstantial evidence, plus a lack of negative proof to the contrary.”
“What do you mean by the latter?”
“That the German submarine—”
“The Admiral von Scheer?”
“Yes, sir. That the von Scheer has not for days attacked the A
llied convoy to Africa, although she is designed primarily for that purpose and has had every opportunity to make such an attack.”
“I have other problems with your theory,” da Gama said.
“Mr. President?” Jeffrey thought the best way to be convincing would be to listen first.
“Admiral?” Da Gama gestured.
The admiral worked the video player again. A map of Argentina appeared on the big screen.
“Where would the fascists detonate an American warhead so as to serve as adequate provocation?” da Gama asked.
Jeffrey studied the map.
“You needn’t answer,” da Gama said. “My staff have been studying the issue. This is where my understanding is stymied. If they set off the bomb, or bombs, in a wilderness area, the detonation lacks military value from our perspective, and thus begs the question of our practical motive or goal, if we truly were the culprits. Such a blast also has little effect on Argentina as a whole, except for possible fallout, which is quite invisible to the average citizen. So it would hardly serve to incense the Argentine people, and therefore would not help the fascists much.”
“I have to agree,” Jeffrey said.
“Yet to detonate the bomb on an Argentine military facility, or on a major Argentine urban center, while certainly making Brazil look like a great villain, also does terrible harm to the Argentine fascists themselves and to their supporters…. Most of the population of that country is concentrated right around Buenos Aires. The fascists might wish to dispose of the shantytowns, or of the Jewish quarter, but to use a nuclear bomb would do massive damage to other people and establishments the fascists would want to protect. And again, it raises the problem of credibility for the entire ruse. Why would Brazil want to kill people in Argentina who oppose the fascists?”
Jeffrey saw that da Gama was making very telling points. He began to wonder himself if he and his superiors had misjudged the entire basis of Axis intent, and began as well to better understand how da Gama had earned his reputation as a charismatic and spellbinding orator and debater. Da Gama also displayed his trademark combination of working-class pragmatism and ex-army skills as organizer and administrator. No one could have poked holes in the American arguments with greater clarity or fewer words.