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“Okay. So now what?”
“I told you. Polo and I are on the next SAA flight to Buenos Aires. Leaving you here to deal with Major McClung and the others by your lonesome.”
“Christ!”
“Hand Mr. Cronley the telephone, Sergeant Tedworth.”
“My father could do that,” Captain Dunwiddie said thoughtfully. “Look in my eyes and tell if I was lying.”
“Thank you for sharing that with us, Captain Dunwiddie,” Major Ashton said. “And now that I think about it, several young women I have known have had that ability.”
The telephone was an ordinary handset and cradle mounted on an obviously “locally manufactured” wooden box about eig
ht inches tall. There were three toggle switches on the top of the box, and a speaker was mounted on the side. A heavy, lead-shielded cable ran from it to the room in which the SIGABA system was installed.
“The left toggle switch turns the handset on,” El Jefe said. “The one in the middle turns on the loudspeaker, and the one on the right turns on the microphone. I suggest you leave that one off.”
“The line has been checked, and you’re into the ASA control room in Frankfurt, Mr. Cronley,” First Sergeant Tedworth said. “Just flick the left toggle.”
“Is that the truth? Let me look into your eyes, First Sergeant,” Cronley said, as he flipped the left toggle switch, and then the center one.
Almost immediately, there came a male voice.
“Control room, Sergeant Nesbit.”
“J. D. Cronley for Major McClung.”
“Hold one.”
Thirty seconds later, the voice of Major “Iron Lung” boomed from the speaker.
“What can I do for you, Cronley?”
“I want to steal one of your people from you.”
“I was afraid of that. General Greene showed me that EUCOM will provide letter.”
“Actually, I want more than one of your people,” Cronley said, and as the words came out he realized he was in “automatic mouth mode.”
“I was afraid of that, too. Okay, who?”
“I’ve only got one name right now, somebody I know wants to come work for us.”
“Okay, who?”
“One of your intercept operators, Tech Sergeant Colbert.”
There was a just perceptible pause before McClung asked, “What do you want her for, besides intercepting messages between Colonel Parsons and the Pentagon?”
Christ, he knows!
Why am I surprised?
Because you forgot “to know your enemy,” stupid.
So what do I do now?
I don’t know, but lying to Major McClung isn’t one of my options.
