Death and Honor

[SIX]

Office of the Director Office of Strategic Services National Institutes of Health Building Washington, D.C. 0845 23 July 1943

“If you have a moment, Bill?” the deputy director for Western Hemisphere operations of the Office of Strategic Services inquired of the director of the OSS from the latter’s office door.

“I always have time for you, Alejandro,” William J. Donovan said, waving him in. “But only if you’re the bearer of good tidings.”

“We have a response from Frade,” Graham said, gesturing with the folded sheet of paper in his hand.

“From our loose cannon? Why am I afraid what you bear in your hands is not good tidings? Let me see it.”

“Shit,” Graham said.

“Alejandro!” Donovan said in mock horror. “I’m shocked.”

“Well, I was so pleased with it, and anxious to tell you, that I forgot to leave it in my office.”

Donovan gestured for him to hand it over.

“There are things in here I’m not going to like?” Donovan said.

“Almost certainly.”

Graham gave it to him, then walked to a couch, stretched out his legs, and waited while Donovan read the message.

URGENT

VIA ASA SPECIAL

TOP SECRET LINDBERGH DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

FROM TEX

TO AGGIE

1—YOUR MESSAGE RE: LEICA ACKNOWLEDGED

2—INASMUCH AS LIEUTENANT FISCHER (HEREAFTER FLAGS) HAS DEPARTED AND I CAN’T ASK HIM HOW GOOD THE NEW TOY YOU SENT IS, I WILL USE THE SAME CUTE VERBAL CODE WITHIN AN ENCRYPTED MESSAGE THAT YOU DID. PLEASE ADVISE IF I HAVE TO DO THIS IN THE FUTURE.

3—FLAGS LEFT BIRDCAGE APPROXIMATELY 1400 TODAY TO CATCH THE NEXT BUS HOME FROM YOU KNOW WHERE. HE HAS WITH HIM UNEXPOSED ROLL OF FILM SHOWING FROGGERS (HEREAFTER TOURISTS) HOLDING COPY OF DAY-OLD LOCAL NEWSPAPER. HERR TOURIST (HEREAFTER GOOD KRAUT) GAVE US SOME DATA ABOUT LOCAL DIPLOMATIC ORGANIZATION THAT GALAHAD HAS CONFIRMED AS ACCURATE. FRAU TOURIST (HEREAFTER OLD BITCH) REGRETS GOOD KRAUT’S ACTIONS AND WOULD RETURN HOME IN A MINUTE IF GIVEN THE CHANCE.

4—TOURISTS ARE IN THE BEST, MOST REMOTE AND MOST SECURE LOCATION I CAN PROVIDE.

5—A SECOND ROLL OF UNDEVELOPED FILM, ESSENTIALLY THE SAME PICTURES, ADDRESSED TO YOU OR YOUR BOSS, EN ROUTE VIA USAAF OFFICER COURIER, WHO IS PILOTING A BIRDCAGE BIRD UP NORTH.

6—BRIGADIER CHICKEN AT BIRDCAGE, AT FIRST VERY DIFFICULT, BECAME PICTURE OF COOPERATION AFTER I SHOWED HIM MY CREDENTIALS. NOT ONLY DID HE PROVIDE A SPECIAL BIRDCAGE BIRD TO TAKE FLAGS TO THE BUS STOP BUT PROVIDED ARMED GUARD TO MAKE SURE FLAGS GOT

SAFELY ON THE BUS. HE EVEN OFFERED TO BUY ME DINNER BEFORE I FLEW HOME.

7—I CONFESS THE FIRST TIME I SAW THOSE CREDENTIALS, I THOUGHT, NO SURPRISE, THAT SOMEBODY UP THERE WASN’T PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK. I APOLOGIZE ABJECTLY. GIVE THE SOB BOTH EARS AND THE TAIL.

8—WITH REGARD TO FLAGS: NOT ONLY IS HE ONE HELL OF A TECHNICIAN, BUT A HELL OF A FINE OFFICER. IT LOOKED FOR ABOUT TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AS IF WE WERE ALL ABOUT TO BE STOOD AGAINST A WALL. I OFFERED TO GET HIM OUT OF THE LINE OF FIRE. FLAGS SAID HE WOULD TAKE HIS CHANCES AS HE FELT THE PICTURES THE CAMERA GUY WANTED WERE MORE IMPORTANT THAN MAYBE WE UNDERSTOOD. CAN YOU GET HIM A MEDAL?

9—MORE IMPORTANT, CAN YOU GET HIM TO QUOTE VOLUNTEER END QUOTE FOR THE BOY SCOUTS THE WAY YOU DID ME? FOR ONE THING, HE ALREADY KNOWS WHERE MOST OF OUR SKELETONS ARE BURIED, AND WILL LEARN ABOUT THE REST WHEN HE’S WORKING THE OTHER END OF THE TELEPHONE. IF THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE, I VERY STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU GET HIM A BADGE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THERE’S BOUND TO BE A GENERAL OR COLONEL CHICKEN AT HIS PLACE OF WORK WHO WILL BE TOO CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT HE’S DOING FOR THE BOY SCOUTS, AND A BADGE WILL CERTAINLY HAVE THE SAME BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON HIM THAT IT DID ON GENERAL CHICKEN AT BIRDCAGE.

10—FOR YOUR GENERAL INFORMATION, THERE WAS A STORY IN LA NACIÓN THAT SAID SOUTH AMERICAN AIRWAYS WILL SHORTLY RECEIVE ITS SECOND LODESTAR AIRCRAFT, WITH MORE COMING SOON, AND THAT OPERATIONS WILL SOON BEGIN FROM SOUTH AMERICA’S NEWEST AIRFIELD, WHICH, AT THE SUGGESTION OF COLONEL JUAN D. PERON, HAS BEEN

NAMED AEROPUERTO CORONEL JORGE G. FRADE. THE STORY WENT ON TO SAY THAT INITIAL OPERATIONS WILL BE TO MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY, AND POSADAS, WITH OTHER DESTINATIONS TO BE ADDED AS AIRCRAFT AND PILOTS FOR THEM BECOME AVAILABLE.

11—I WILL BE OUT OF TOUCH FOR THE NEXT THIRTY-SIX HOURS AS I WILL BE VISITING GOOD KRAUT TO SEE WHAT ELSE HE CAN TELL ME, AND TO KEEP OLD BITCH FROM GOING HOME. IN THIS CONNECTION, GALAHAD INFORMS THAT A CONTRACT HAS BEEN PUT OUT ON BOTH BY VON DEITZBERG, WHEN AND WHERE FOUND.

TEX

“I don’t think, Colonel Graham, I have ever seen a document quite like this,” Donovan said.

“That’s why I regret forgetting to forget it in my office,” Graham said. “I thought you might react that way.”

“It’s not an intelligence report, or at least like any other report from the field that I have ever seen.”

“Think of it as good news, Bill.”

“I’ll need a little translation of what Major Frade calls ‘the cute verbal code within an encrypted message.’ ”

“I’ll do my best. It might be easier if I wrote you a memo.”

“Let’s do it now, please, Alejandro. Why does he call this ASA officer ‘Flags,’ for example, do you think?”

“I think it makes reference to the Signal Corps insignia—you know, the crossed semaphore flags?”

Donovan nodded.

“ ‘Tourists’ I think I understand. But ‘Good Kraut’ and ‘Old Bitch’?”

“I think he means Frogger is cooperating and Frau Frogger is not.”

“That’s the first time I have even seen ‘old bitch’ in an official communication, ” Donovan said, and dropped his eyes to the sheet of paper again. “ ‘Brigadier Chicken’? ”

“As in ‘chickenshit.’ Implying the general was reluctant to understand that our operations don’t always follow established protocol or regulations.”

“And I see that I was right when I told you take those badges down there.”

Graham shook his head in mock disgust.

“That’s the lawyer coming out in you again, Bill. Twisting the facts to support your position. You wanted to impress on Frade that he was in the OSS with a badge saying so. That’s all. You didn’t any more think that he would wag them in some Air Forces general’s face than I did.”

Donovan smiled, then went on, “ ‘Give the SOB both ears and the tail’? ”

“I think that Frade is suggesting that the SOB who got him the credentials—which would be you, of course—be given, as is a very good matador in a bullfight, both ears and the tail.”

Donovan shook his head.

“What about this Lieutenant Flags? Can we recruit him?”

“Only, Bill, at the risk of greatly annoying the Army Security Agency. Let me think about that.”

“Well, obviously we can’t give him a medal.”

“You could write him—or I will write and you can sign—a very nice letter to the ASA extolling his many virtues.”

“And the badge Frade says we should give him?”

“That makes sense. I want to talk to Fischer just as soon as I can.”

“When will that be?”

“There’s a B-26 waiting for him to get off the Clipper in Miami. Six, seven hours after that.”

“The film?”

“I don’t know which will get here first, the one Fischer has with him, or the one the pilot-courier is bringing.”

“And we won’t know, will we, until we get the film developed, if there’s anything useful on either roll?”

“There you go again, Counselor, looking for the black cloud. Look on the bright side.”

“Which is?”

“The next-to-last paragraph,” Graham said. “Your friend Franklin’s got the competition to Juan Trippe’s Pan American that he wanted.”

“You think that’s it, Alejandro? That Roosevelt wants to stick it to Trippe with that Argentine airline?”

“That’s all I can think of.”

“I want to see that film the moment it’s developed,” Donovan said. “You think we should send Allen Dulles a message telling him it’s on the way? He’s really—”

“It may be all blank. Why don’t we wait and see?”

Donovan considered that a moment, then said, “You’re right. That makes— what?—twice this year, doesn’t it?”

“Three times. My secretary said you really are a bastard, and I agreed with her.”

Donovan laughed out loud and waved the message.

“Can I have this?”

“You’re the boss.”

“I’m going to put it in the safe under ‘Documents of Historical Interest’ and let some historian try to figure it out fifty, sixty years from now.”

Graham laughed, pushed himself off the couch, and extended his hand to Donovan with the first and index fingers crossed.

“What’s that for?” Donovan asked.

“Crossed fingers. Let’s hope those pictures are usable.”

They shook hands; then Graham walked out of Donovan’s office.