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“I didn’t know you were a pilot.”
“I don’t advertise it, but yes. Cletus taught me how to fly . . . and did so in this aircraft.”
“You’re very good at what you do, aren’t you, Bernardo?” the vicealmirante said admiringly.
“I would say we both are—the proof being we’re still alive.”
They smiled at each other.
“What’s so important, Guillermo?” Martín then asked.
“Those German submarines you’ve been so interested in?” Crater said. “One of them appeared here at first light this morning to surrender. U-405. I hid it between the Rivadavia and Moreno and put her crew aboard the Rivadavia.”
To counter Brazil’s two Minas Geraes–class battleships, Argentina had built two American-designed battleships. They had seen little service and no combat during World Wars I and II. They were kept manned and ready for service. By 1945, though, they were absolutely obsolete.
“Her captain,” Crater went on, “denies having put anything, or anyone, ashore. I’m sure he’s lying.”
“Interesting.”
“Which is why I called you,” Crater said. “If we can tie him to Perón, that’d solve a great many problems. And you’ll know how to find out if he is or not.”
“I never asked, Guillermo, because I didn’t want to know until just now. Are you part of the group who wants Perón either out of the government or dead?”
Crater did not respond directly. Instead, he said, “Perón is not only a disgrace to the officer corps and the government but a danger to the Republic, and you know that as well as I do.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Martín said.
“I know it doesn’t, Bernardo,” Crater said. “But let sleeping dogs lie. Would you like to talk to this man before I have to report the submarine to Buenos Aires? As I already should have done.”
Martín was not willing to let go.
“The president knows about the threats to assassinate el Coronel Perón—”
“Who told him?”
“I did. It was my duty.”
“Did you give him names?”
“No. But I’m sure he’s figured them out himself.”
“Would you say I’m one of the suspects?”
Martín considered that. “I don’t think so.”
Crater did not reply.
“Guillermo, yesterday, at the order of President Farrell, General Ramos and I arrested Perón.”
“And charged him with what?”
“For his own protection, President Farrell believes that if Perón is assassinated, it will mean civil war, and I’m afraid he’s right,” Martín said. “He doesn’t want, I don’t want, and I don’t think you want, Guillermo, what happened in Spain to happen here.”
“Of course not. But neither do I want Argentina turned into a South American version of Fascist Italy, or Nazi Germany, under Juan Domingo Perón.”
“Well, then we’ll both have to try to see that doesn’t happen, won’t we?”
“Where did you take the sonofabitch? To the Circulo Militar?”
