I might be able to tell you.’
David, stunned, took several steps into the office. ‘What?’
‘There was a surveillance report from La Boca – that’s Ellies district. His
department must have cleared it up, given it a clean bill. It was dropped.’
‘What was dropped? What are you talking about?’
‘A trawler in La Boca. It had cargo with a destination lading that violated
coastal patrols . . . they called it an error. The destination was
Tortugas.’
The outer office door suddenly opened and Bobby Ballard walked in.
liesus I’ he said. ‘The Munchkins go to work early in this wonderful world
of Ozl’
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33
The code schedules with Ballard took less than a half hour. David was amazed
at the cryptographer’s facile imagination. He developed – on the spot – a
geometrical progression of numbers and corresponding letters that would take
the best cryps Spaulding knew a week to break.
At maximum, all David needed was ninety-six hours.
Bobby placed Washington’s copy in an official courier’s envelope, sealed it
chemically, placed it in a triple-locked pouch and called the FMF base for
an officer – captain’s rank or above – to get to the embassy within the
hour. The codes would be on a coastal pursuit aircraft by nine; at Andrews
Field by late afternoon; delivered to General Alan Swanson’s office in the
War Department by armored courier van shortly thereafter.
The confirmation message was simple; Spaulding had given Ballard two words:
Cable Tortugas.
When the code was received in Washington, Swanson would know that Eugene
Lyons had authenticated the guidance designs. He could then radio the bank
in Switzerland and payment would be made to Rhinemann’s accounts. By using
the name’Tortugas,’ David hoped that someone, somewhere, would understand
his state of mind. His anger at being left with the full responsibility
without all of the facts.
Spaulding was beginning to think that Erich Rhinemann was
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demanding more than he was entitled to. A possibility that would do him
little good.
Rhinemann was to be killed.
And the outlines of a plan were coming into focus that would bring about
that necessary death. The act itself might be the simplest- part of his
assignment.
There was no point in not telling Jean and Bobby Ballard about the guidance
designs. Kendall had flown out of Buenos Aires -without explanation; David
knew he might need assistance at a moment when there was no time to brief
those helping him. His cover was superfluous now. He described minutely
Rhinemann’s schedule, the function of Eugene Lyons and Heinrich Stoltzs
surfacing as a contact.
Ballard was astonished at Stoltz’s inclusion. ‘Stoltz! That’s a little bit
of lightning…. I mean, he’s a believer. Not the Hitler fire ‘n’ brimstone
– he dismisses that, I’m told. But Germany. The Versailles motive, the
reparations – bled giant, export or die – the whole thing. I figured him
for the real Junker item.
David did not pay much attention.
The logistics of the morning were clear in Spaulding’s mind and at eight
forty-five he began.
His meeting with Henderson Granville was short and cordial. The ambassador
was content not to know David’s true purpose in Buenos Aires, as long as
there was no diplomatic conflict. Spaulding assured him that to the best of
his knowledge there was none; certainly less of a possibility if the
ambassador remained outside the hard core of the assignment. Granville
agreed. On the basis of David’s direct request, he had the ‘Caves’ checked
for files on Franz AltmiUler and Leslie Jenner Hawkwood.
Nothing.
Spaulding went from Granville’s office back to Jean’s. She had received the
incoming passengers manifest from Aeroparque. Eugene Lyons was listed on
clipper flight 101, arriving at two in the afternoon. His profession was
given as ‘physicist’; the reason for entry, ‘industrial conferences.’
David was annoyed with Walter Kendall. Or, he thought, should his annoyance
be with the bewildered amateur, Brigadier General Alan Swanson? The least
they could have done was terin, Lyons a ‘scientist’; ‘physicist’ was
stupid. A physicist in Buenos Aires was an open invitation to surveillance
– even Allied surveillance.
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He walked back to his own isolated, tiny office. To think.
He decided to meet Lyons himself. Walter Kendall had told him that Lyons’s
male nurses would settle the mute, sad man in San Telmo. Recalling the two
men in question, David had premonitions of disaster. It wasn’t beyond
Johnny and Hal -those were the names, weren’t they? – to deliver Lyons to
the steps of the German embassy, thinking it was another hospital.
He would meet Pan Am Clipper 101. And proceed to take the three men on a
complicated route to San Telmo.
Once he’d settled Lyons, David estimated that he would have about two,
possibly three, hours before Rhinemann – or Stoltz -would make contact,
Unless Rhinemann was hunting him now, in panic over the killings in the
Colinas Rojas. If so, Spaulding had ‘built his shelter.’ His irrefutable
alibi…. He hadn’t been there. Ae’d been dropped off at C6rdoba by two in
the morning.
Who could dispute him?
So, he would have two or three hours in midafternoon.
La Boca.
Discreetly, Jean had checked naval surveillance at FMF. The discretion came
with her utterly routine, bored telephone call to the chief of operations.
She had a ‘loose end’ to tie up for a ‘dead file’; there was no
significance, only a bureaucratic matter -someone was always looking for’a
good rating on the basis of dosing out. Would the lieutenant mind filling
in? … The trawler erroneously listed for Tortugas was moored by a
warehouse complex in Ocho Calle. The error was checked and confirmed by the
embassy attach6, Mr. William Ellis, Import-Export Clearance Division.
Ocho Calle.
David would spend an hour or so looking around. It could be a waste of
time. What connection would a fishing trawler have with his assignment?
There was none that he could see. But there was the name ‘Tortugas’; there
was an attach6 named Ellis who crept silently outside closed doors and lied
about nonexistent conferences in the early morning.
Ocho Calle was worth looking into.
Afterward, he would stay by his telephone at C6rdoba.
‘Are you going to take me to lunch?’ asked Jean, walking into his office.
‘Don’t look at your watch; you haven’t got one.’
Spaulding’s hand was in midair, his wrist turned. ‘I didn’t realize it was
so late.’
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‘It’s not. It’s only eleven, but you haven’t eaten -probably didn’t sleep,
either – and you said you were going to the airport shortly after one.’
‘I was right; you’re a corporate executive. Your sense of organization is
frightening.’
‘Nowhere near yours. We’ll stop at a jewelry store first. Ive already
called. You have a present.’
‘I like presents. Let’s go.’ Spaulding got out of his chair as the
telephone rang. He looked down at it. ‘Do you know that’s the first time
that thing has made a soundT
‘It’s probably for me. I told my secretary I was here. . . . I don’t think
I really had to tell her.’
‘HelloT said David into the phone.
‘Spaulding?’
David recognized the polished German of Heinrich Stolz. His tension carried
over the wire. ‘Isn’t it a little foolish to call me hereT
11 have no choice. Our mutual friend is in a state of extreme anxiety.
Everything is jeopardized.’
‘What are you talking aboutT
‘This is no time for foolishness! The situation is grave.’
‘It’s no time for games, either. What the hell are you talking aboutT
‘Last night! This morning. What happenedT
‘What happened whereT
‘Stop it! You were therel
‘WhereT
Stoltz paused; David could hear his breath. The German was in panic,
desperately trying to control himself. ‘The men were killed. We must know
what happenedl’
‘Killed? … You’re crazy. HowT
‘I warn you. . . .’
‘Now you cut it out! I’m buying. And don’t forget it…. I don’t want to be
mixed up in any organization problems. Those men dropped me off around one
thirty. Incidentally, they met your other boys, the ones covering my
apartment. And also incidentally, I don’t like this round-the-clock
surveillancel’
Stoltz was blanked – as David expected he would be. ‘The others? … What
othersT
‘Get off it I You know perfectly well.’Spaulding let the inference hang.
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‘This is all most disturbing. Stoltz tried to compose
himself.
‘I’m sorry,’ said David noncomn-dttally.
Exasperated, Stoltz interrupted. ‘I’ll call you back.’
‘Not here. I’ll be out most of the afternoon…. As a matter of fact,’
added Spaulding quickly, pleasantly, ‘I’ll be in one of those sailboats our
mutual friend looks down upon so majestically. I’m joining some diplomatic
friends almost as rich as he is. Call me after five at C6rdoba.’
David hung up instantly, hearing the beginning of Stoltzs protest. Jean was
watching him, fascinated.
‘You did that very well,’ she said.
‘I’ve had more practice than him.’
‘Stoltz?,
‘Yes. Let’s go into your office.’
‘I thought we were going to lunch.’