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Bendick went on: “I shall never forget what he said to me on that memorable occasion: ‘When we saw you coming in, son, the odds were ten-to-one that nobody was going to walk away from your landing. You do know this isn’t Henderson Field?’”
“That sounds like The Dawk,” Clete said, smiling. “And fists full of medicinal bourbon bottles? Getting more than one little bottle from Colonel Dawkins meant he thought you had done good.”
“So I later learned,” General Bendick said. “So, welcome, welcome to Val de Cans. What do I call you?”
Colonel Dawkins, wherever you are, you have just saved my ass again.
How many times does that make?
“My name
is Cletus Frade. My friends call me Clete. I wish you would.”
The general offered his hand. “Bob Bendick, Clete.”
Clete, pointing to them as he did so, said, “Peter von Wachtstein, Karl Boltitz, Enrico Rodríguez. My commo guy, Siggie Stein, is already in your radio shack; we have a Collins 7.2 aboard that needs fixing.”
“An airborne Collins 7.2?”
“Siggie Stein is an amazing commo guy,” Clete said.
“So, what can I do for you?”
“Tell me about the other Connie.”
“It’s classified Top Secret,” General Bendick replied.
“Manhattan Project?”
“Excuse me?”
“Excuse me, but are you saying ‘Excuse me’ because you don’t want to admit knowledge of the Manhattan Project?” Clete asked with a smile.
“I never heard of it,” General Bendick said. “What is it?”
“I can’t tell you. But it’s the only thing I know that would justify classifying a passenger flight Top Secret.”
General Bendick looked at Frade for a long moment.
“How about a planeload of Secret Service agents bound for Frankfurt?” he asked finally.
“Is that what it is?”
Bendick nodded.
“What would be so secret about that?” Clete asked.
“President Truman going to Germany?”
“I don’t think that’s very likely,” Clete said. “Why?”
Bendick shrugged.
“The Secret Service is under the Treasury Department,” Clete then said. “And the secretary of the Treasury suspects that Nazis are being smuggled out of Germany to Argentina.”
“I know,” Bendick said.
“You know that Nazis are being smuggled out of Germany, or that Morgenthau thinks they are?”
