Death and Honor

[FIVE]

Bolling Air Force Base Washington, D.C. 2205 6 August 1943

The Constellation was not only plugged into a ground-power generator but was also connected with something Frade had never seen—a flexible pipe connected to a truck-mounted air-conditioning unit. Graham had told him that it had been specially made to cool the President’s Sacred Cow while the aircraft waited for him on a typical torrid Washington summer day.

Frade was sitting—drinking coffee with Howard Hughes—near the rear door, through which the eighteen-inch-diameter flexible hose was delivering a steady blast of icy air. Frogger was seated about in the middle of the passenger compartment. He was no longer handcuffed. Fischer was sitting across the aisle from him, and two of Howard’s Saints were sitting on the aisle just forward of Frade. Frogger wasn’t going anywhere.

There were MPs armed with Thompson submachine guns at the foot of the stairs, and just inside the door were two men in suits who Frade supposed were either Secret Service agents or from the OSS.

One of them stepped around the air-conditioning hose and onto the stairs, then a moment later came to where Frade and Hughes were sitting.

“Colonel Graham would like to see you, gentlemen,” he said.

They went down the stairway and got into the backseat of the Packard limousine.

“I haven’t heard from Allen Dulles,” Graham began the moment Hughes had pulled the door closed after them. “No telling where he is, or when I’ll hear from him. But I think Frogger’s telling the truth, so I think we should get this show on the road.”

“Vegas?” Hughes said.

Graham nodded.

“Las Vegas?” Frade asked.

Graham nodded again.

“I think it might be helpful if I knew what’s going on,” Frade said more than a little sarcastically.

“Ignoring your tone of voice, I will tell you,” Graham said. “By now the word is out that we took Frogger to see Hanfstaengl.”

“The word’s out to who?” Frade said. “And, for Christ’s sake, by who?”

“You might want to write this down, Major,” Graham said. “There is no such thing as hole-proof counterintelligence. I’m going on the assumption that among the Hotel Washington’s staff are some people who are generously compensated for reporting to the Spanish embassy, the Mexican embassy, the Argentine embassy—yeah, Clete, the Argentine embassy—and even the British embassy about who goes to see Putzi Hanfstaengl and even more generously compensated if they can provide photographs of the visitors. So we have to get Frogger out of town as quickly as possible.”

“To Las Vegas?”

“Las Vegas is in the middle of nowhere,” Graham explained. “The Las Vegas Army Airfield was established there because it offers a lot of room in which aerial gunners can be trained. What most people don’t know is that across a ridge line or two is another air base, no name, where we conduct tests of various things we don’t want anybody to know about. Don Bell’s jet airplane, for one, and some other things about which you don’t have the Need to Know.

“Frogger can be held there without anybody seeing him, and with virtually no chance of his getting away. There’s no way to walk away, and his chances of getting away in a car are slim to none.

“One of your Lodestars is en route to that air base now, carrying a flight crew for the Constellation—men who know not to ask questions. You and Howard will fly the Lodestar back to Burbank, you having completed your pilot training.

“As soon as I hear from Allen Dulles, Frogger will be flown, with Fischer and two of my men, in the Constellation to Canoas Air Base in Brazil. It’ll be up to you to get him from there to Argentina—any problems with that?”

Frade shook his head.

“And you will fly one of your SAA Lodestars to Argentina. Okay? The managing director of SAA having gotten his ATR first. Still with me?”

Frade nodded.

“By the time you’re ready to move Frogger from Brazil, we’ll get him into civilian clothing and get him a passport. Probably South African.”

Graham looked between them.

“Any questions?”

Both Frade and Hughes shook their heads.

“Okay,” Graham said, “then have a nice flight.”