The 34th Degree

108

A faint blue dawn was coming up over Algiers the next morning when Churchill finished reading Prestwick’s signal. Churchill then reached for a match, lit his second Havana of the morning, and settled back in his wickerwork chair on the terrace of Eisenhower’s Moorish villa.

The signal was marked: MOST SECRET AND PERSONAL. From the Commanding Officer, H.M. Submarine Cherub. Date: 31st May, 1943. To the Director of Naval Intelligence.

Churchill read it over a couple of times before he finally lowered his hand and looked up at Colonel Ellery Huntington, the OSS chief in Algiers who had personally delivered the message. “Are they sure?”

“Positive, sir,” Huntington replied. “ALSOS confirms the authenticity of the technical papers Andros photographed and the atomic nature of General von Berg’s research program.”

Churchill nodded grimly. The ALSOS team was a select group of scientists who worked with the OSS in stealing information about experiments in nuclear physics by the Germans. Their code name came from the Greek word for “grove,” after Major General Leslie R. Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, the American program to develop the atomic bomb.

General Eisenhower, who, for the last several minutes, had been pacing the terrace’s tiled floor in his riding boots and breeches, let out a long whistle. “That boy Andros found more than either he or we bargained for,” said the supreme Allied commander.

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” said Churchill, still dazed by the other signal from the Cherub, the encoded one from Captain Whyte that he would not be sharing with the Americans-for now. Her devastating revelation of Brigadier Andrew Eliot as the Minotaur would only jeopardize American confidence in future joint SOE-OSS ventures. In any case, Churchill resolved then and there that an SOE shake-up was in order, not only in Greece, but at the highest levels in SOE Cairo.

Eisenhower marched to the balustrade of the terrace, staring off to sea. “Good grief, Colonel,” he said, addressing Huntington. “You’re telling us that von Berg is building an atomic bomb below some palace on a Greek island?”

“So it appears, sir.”

“And it appears that he’s hidden this even from Berlin,” Churchill added. “You are supreme commander, General. Any ideas?”

Eisenhower turned to Churchill. “You know damn well what we’re going to do. This is a job for your boys in the RAF. Surgical strike, dawn tomorrow. We’ll make it look like we’re bombing Greece’s coastal defenses, knocking out a key naval station, and softening up our target before the invasion. But I want this so-called Flammenschwert facility taken out, permanently.”

Huntington cleared his throat. “It will take quite a pilot to pull it off, sir.”

“You know as well as I do, Colonel, that there’s only one pilot for this job.”

“Jack MacDonald?”

“Tell him to have his squadron ready for takeoff at midnight.”

“I’m on my way to Blida right now, sir.” Huntington turned to leave through the French doors.

“Oh, and Colonel,” said Churchill, stopping Huntington in his tracks. “Have Captain Safire set a course for Corfu. I want the Cherub to linger off the coast to survey the bomb damage.”