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Jesus H. Christ! What’s that doing in here?
“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on here? Maybe you, Jefe?”
“Well, Dorotea and Enrico and I talked things over,” Schultz said. “And decided that putting the equipment in here made more sense than having it out in the boonies.”
“For one thing, darling,” Dorotea said, “it’s rather obviously both a nuisance and time-consuming for the team to have to run back and forth to Casa Veintidós every time you get a message, or want to send one.”
He nodded and waited for her to go on.
Schultz picked up their reasoning. “Enrico said your father thought the study—when he was setting up the revolution—was the safest place on the estancia to do things in the dark. . . .”
“Otherwise, Don Cletus,” Enrico chimed in, “El Coronel, may he be resting in peace in heaven with all the angels, would have gone onto the monte himself. He worked here.”
“And what if El Coronel Martín decides to raid the place?” F
rade challenged.
“I rigged thermite grenades,” Schultz said. “We’d have more time to torch this stuff here than if it was in Casa Veintidós. I showed Enrico and Dorotea how to do that. There wasn’t time to teach anyone else, and anyway, Enrico’s still making up his mind about who else he wants to know about this.”
“You know how to set off the thermite grenades?” Frade asked his wife.
She nodded. “And I also know how to operate the SIGABA.”
“You know how that thing works?”
She nodded again. “Would you like me to demonstrate?”
“May I ask why I wasn’t asked whether I thought this was a good idea?”
“Well, for one thing, it’s obviously the thing to do,” Dorotea said. “And this was the time to do it. Carlos isn’t here—”
“Where is he?”
“He told me that Delgano wanted him at El Palomar to assist in teaching mechanics what he knows about the Lodestar,” she said.
What the hell is that all about?
Interest in South American Airways?
Or to get him out of here?
For what reason?
Dorotea went on, “We of course don’t know, darling, when Carlos will show up here again. But since he wasn’t here, he wasn’t able to see Oscar and Enrico moving the equipment into the house and setting up the antennae. And of course you and Delgano were flying back and forth to Brazil, so Delgano doesn’t know. For those reasons, darling, Oscar, Enrico, and I decided that this was the moment to do it. Did we do wrong?”
Frade exhaled audibly.
“No. The only thing you’ve done is embarrass me for not thinking of this myself.”
Dorotea, Enrico, and Oscar looked very pleased with themselves.
“Is it up and running?” Frade said.
“We got the first message right after you took off this morning,” Schultz said. He took a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to Frade.
URGENT
VIA ASA SPECIAL
