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“I’ll be damned!”
“How can we help you, Colonel?” Kellogg then said cordially but with authority.
“My boss wants to chat with a couple of your guests,” Frade replied.
“Colonel, may I see some identification?” Kellogg said.
Frade handed him the leather wallet holding his spurious credentials.
The lieutenant colonel examined them c
arefully, then handed them to the master sergeant, who did the same before handing them back to Frade.
“We don’t see many credentials like those,” Kellogg admitted.
“Well, so far we’ve managed to keep them off the cover of Time,” Frade said.
“And your . . . boss . . . your boss is who?”
“Colonel Alejandro F. Graham, USMCR—”
“I know Colonel Graham,” Kellogg interrupted.
“—sometimes known as the Terrible Tiger of Texas A&M,” Frade finished. “Whose bite is far more deadly than his growl.”
Kellogg smiled somewhat uncomfortably.
“And you say Colonel Graham sent you out here to chat with two of our prisoners?”
“No. What I said was that he wants to chat with two of them, and sent me out here to fetch them.”
Frade went into a pocket on his tunic and came out with a sheet of paper.
“One of them is a Kapitän zur See Karl Boltitz and the other is Major Freiherr Hans-Peter Baron von Wachtstein. Now, that’s what I call a mouthful! I wonder how they get all that on his identification card?”
The master sergeant smiled.
“It’s not easy, Colonel,” he said. “And some of these Krauts have names that are even worse than that.”
“Colonel, this is more than a little unusual,” Kellogg said. “We didn’t even know you were coming. Do you have any kind of authority—written authority?”
“You mean, you want me to sign for them? Sure. Be happy to.”
“No, I meant a document authorizing you to take these officers with you.”
Frade sighed. “Colonel, let me explain how I came to be here. I got to Washington two days ago. I can’t tell you . . . Hell, why can’t I? The Germans have surrendered. I was in Portugal . . .
That’s true. I was in Lisbon not long ago, smuggling even more Nazis out of Europe.
“. . . as area commander . . .
Now I’m lying again. I’ve done so much of that it comes as natural to me as it did to Baron Munchausen.
“. . . I haven’t worn a uniform in years. Anyway, I got to Washington two days ago. Good Marine and fellow Aggie that I am, I immediately reported to the Terrible Tiger of A&M. Colonel Graham showed me a chair, handed me copies of Time and Life, and said to read them while he looked around for something for me to do. An hour ago, he handed me the names of these two Krauts and told me to go fetch them.”
“Colonel, how do I know that’s true?” Kellogg asked.
“Well, you could trust my honest face. Or you could ask yourself, ‘If Colonel Graham didn’t send this guy, how come he’s riding in the colonel’s chauffeur-driven Cadillac?’ Or you could call the Terrible Tiger and ask him. I would recommend Options One and/or Two.”
