Muller waited for that to sink in, and then went on,”If you’ve got some idea of getting them out of that jail, you had better do it now.”
“Major Canidy has asked for a team of specialists,” von HeurtenMitnitz said.
“The reason he’s here is to arrange for a landing site.”
“A landing site? You mean for parachutists?” Muller asked.
Canidy nodded.
“How long will that take? What’s wrong with using the underground?”
Muller asked.
“The underground can’t be involved in this,” Canidy said.
“How long will it take to get your’ specialists in here?”
“Forty-eight hours, maybe twenty-four, after we find a place to drop them,” Canidy said.
“The story I get,” Muller said, “is that there are parachutists dropping all over Yugoslavia and Hungary.”
“This has to be kept separate from that,” Canidy said.
“We may not have forty-eight hours,” Muller said.
“We may not even have twenty-four.” He looked at Canidy.
“If they catch Fulmar, he knows von HeurtenMitnitz and me. And, sooner or later, he would tell them everything he knows.”
“And me,” the Countess said.
“He knows me.”
“We’ll arrange to get you out,” Canidy said.
“Von Heurten-Mitnitz’s family would probably be all right if he disappeared,” Muller went on, “and the Countess doesn’t have anything to lose. But they would go after my mother and my brothers and sisters.”
“Then the thing to do is get Eric and the professor out of the jail, isn’t it?”
Canidy replied.
“Under the circumstances,” Muller said, “I would say the thing to do is arrange for them to be shot while being arrested,” Muller said.
“If they are to be shot, I’ll make that decision,” Canidy said.
“I really don’t need your permission, Herr Major,” Muller said.
“How large an area do you need for your parachutists, Major?” the Countess asked.
Muller glared at her.
“For the time being, Johann,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said, “we will go along with Major Canidy.”
“A minimum of eight hundred meters by three,” Canidy said.
“So large?” she asked, disappointed, and then went on: “There is a field, a meadow, in the mountains above Pecs. We have a hunting lodge there. But it’s not that big.”
“What’s around it?” Canidy asked.
“A forest,” she said.
“Would a low-flying aircraft attract attention?”
“Of course,” she said.
Canidy exhaled.
“If that’s all there is, we’ll have to use it,” Canidy said.
“Could you find it on a map?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“And I don’t have a map.”
Canidy gestured impatiently at Ferniany, who went to his sheepskin coat, dug into a pocket, and came out with a map.
With some difficulty, the Countess found the meadow she was looking for on the map.
“It’s damned small, and it’s thirteen miles from Pecs,” she said.
“But it hasn’t been used, has it?” Canidy said.
“No,” Ferniany said.
“There’s that.”
“Take the coordinates,” Canidy ordered, “and then burn the map. And then you better get going.”
“Where’s he going?” Muller asked.
“To radio the location of the drop zone,” Canidy said.
“And to make arrangements to move the professor and Eric once we get them out.”
“And what do you plan to do? “von Heurten-Mitnitz asked.
“The next problem is to get me from here to the Countess’s hunting lodge,” Canidy said.
“How do you plan to do that?” Muller asked.
“Gisella told me you have an Opel Admiral,” Canidy said.
“How about that?”
“I can’t afford to be seen anywhere near Pecs,” Muller said.
“No,” Canidy said.
“You are going to be at the Austro-Hungarian border, noisily ‘pursuing the investigation with all diligence.”
” Muller snorted.
“And the Countess and I will go to the hunting lodge?” von HeurtenMitnitz said thoughtfully, “in Muller’s car? With you in the luggage boot?”
“Unless you’ve got a better idea,” Canidy said.
“The plane will attract attention,” von Heurten-Mitnitz said.
“And it will come out that we were there.”
“The day before, maybe two days before,” Canidy said.
“But it will come out,” von Heurten-Mitnitz repeated.
“Unless you’ve got a better idea,” Canidy repeated.
Muller snorted again.
Canidy looked at him coldly.
“And in case you think you have a better idea, Standartenfuhrer Muller,” he said, “I think I had better tell you that if this operation goes sour, ReichsfiihrerSS Himmler will receive, mailed from Sweden, an hour-by-hour report of how you spent your last forty-eight hours in Morocco. With photographs, showing you with Eric in his U.S. Army uniform.”