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“No, sir,” Cronley and Dunwiddie said on top of each other.
“Ludwig?”
“I know of the book, sir.”
“But you haven’t read it?”
“No, sir.”
“Not many have. Hessinger has. He can quote from it at length. And did so to prove his point. A very welcome addition to our little staff for this operation, I would say.”
“Yes, sir. I fully agree,” Cronley said. “You noticed in his plan that he said we should determine how long it will take to dig the grave?”
Gehlen nodded.
“Makes sense,” he said.
“Well, we’ve done that. And we told Major Orlovsky we did,” Cronley said.
“And showed him the proof,” Dunwiddie said.
“You showed him a grave?” Mannberg asked, incredulously.
“We showed him Staff Sergeant Clark’s painfully blistered hands, and then Sergeant Clark told him how he’d blistered them. I don’t think Major Orlovsky thought we just made that up.”
Gehlen chuckled.
“You said you had a suggestion about the second message?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” Cronley replied. “Before we get into what else I think we should do, I thought I would suggest that you take Message Two to das Gasthaus and show it to Major Orlovsky.”
“And what would you advise the general to say to the Russian when he’s showing him what you’re calling Message Two?”
“Herr Mannberg,” Cronley said coldly, “the way this system works is that I go to General Gehlen for advice, not the other way around.”
“No,” Gehlen said. “The way this works, the only way it can work in my judgment, is that we seek each other’s advice. This has to be a cooperative effort, not a competitive one. What do you think I should say to Orlovsky when I show him Message Two?”
Mannberg, ole buddy, the general just handed you your balls.
Cronley said: “Sir, we have a saying, ‘play it by ear.’ I wouldn’t know what to suggest you tell him. I just thought he should see Message Two, and I thought—not from logic, just a gut feeling—that it would be better if you showed it to him. Okay, one reason: I think the major has had about all of me and Dunwiddie that he can handle right now.”
Gehlen nodded, then asked, quoting Cronley, “What else do you think we should do?”
“Some of it’s on Hessinger’s OPPLAN. But he didn’t get all of it, because he didn’t have all the facts.”
“For example?” Mannberg asked.
Cronley ignored him.
“The Pullach compound is just about ready,” Cronley said. “A platoon of Dunwiddie’s men are already on the road down there to both augment the Polish DPs—”
“The who?” Mannberg interrupted.
“The guards. They are former Polish POWs who didn’t want to return to Poland because of the Russians. As I understand it, General Eisenhower was both sympathetic and thought they could be useful. So they’ve been declared Displaced Persons—DPs—formed into companies, issued U.S. Army uniforms dyed black, and lightly armed, mostly with carbines. Sufficiently armed to guard the Pullach compound. No one has told me this, but I susp
ect the idea is that once Tiny’s people are in place, they’ll be removed. I’d like to keep them. I’m suggesting that Colonel Mattingly and General Greene would pay more attention to that idea if it came from you, instead of me. And I further suggest your recommendation would carry more weight if you began it, ‘When I inspected the Pullach compound . . .’”
“And when am I going to have the opportunity to inspect the Pullach compound?”
