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“Carl, this colonel is up to something dirty.”
“Like what, for example?”
“For a long time, ever since I started looking at him, I knew he was dirty. Since I had no idea what, I put my people in that closed-for-the-winter Heuriger across the street from 71 and started them out by having them take pictures of everybody who goes in or out.”
“And?”
“We now have more pictures for our files of heavy-duty money guys and black marketeers. Plus two or three of Fraülein Reithoffer’s brother Alois, who is a used-car dealer in Braunau am Inn, Upper Austria. I checked him out. He has the usual sterling reputation of used-car dealers, but otherwise he’s clean. He buys cars there and sells them here in Vienna.”
“So you’ve got nothing,” Wangermann said.
“Until just now, I didn’t have. But now . . .”
“What?” Zielinski asked. “Now what?”
Holzknecht didn’t reply directly, instead continuing: “We know that Odessa has money. But they have to have been spending it like it’s on fire, so most of what they started out with—I’m talking about currency, English pounds, Swiss francs, and U.S. dollars—is probably gone. We also know they have gold. But gold is not the same thing as money. You can’t sit down at a vingt-et-un table and lay a gold bar on the table.
“So you have to convert gold to currency. And you don’t want to buy reichsmarks, as they’re just about useless. So is the Austrian schilling. You want either Swiss francs or U.S. dollars. The Swiss don’t want to buy any gold that might come from Nazis. Not that they’ve got anything against either Nazis or gold, but because—according to Wasserman—they don’t want to piss off Uncle Sam.”
“There’s about two hundred FBI and Secret Service agents in Switzerland looking for Nazi gold and hanky-panky by Swiss bankers,” Wasserman said.
“So where could Odessa be swapping their gold for currency?” Holzknecht asked rhetorically. “Three places pop into my mind. Leghorn, Naples, and Trieste. All seaports where the U.S. Army has bases and the port is full of ships of all sizes doing business with places like Saudi Arabia and Persia. The Saudis and the Persians have trunks full of U.S. hundred-dollar bills they got from the Americans in exchange for their oil. And what have the Persians and Arabs been putting away for a rainy day for centuries? Gold.”
“I still don’t know where you’re going with this,” Wasserman said.
“Let me guess,” Cronley said. “Odessa is sending gold to one or all of three places on Stars and Stripes trucks, and then bringing stacks of dollars back on the return trip.”
“And can you guess, my new young Ami friend, w
ho drives to all three places in his Buick automobile on a regular basis? To keep an eye on the radio station, to make sure the Stars and Stripes is being delivered daily? And of course to make sure your soldiers are properly indoctrinated?”
“I didn’t know Colonel Wasserman has a Buick,” Cronley said.
“I think I’ll have a chat with Colonel Genetti,” Wasserman said. “When he realizes he’s looking at ten to twenty years in Leavenworth, I suspect he’ll sing like a canary.”
“No,” Cronley said. “That’s the last thing we want to do.”
“Why?” Zielinski asked.
“Because I don’t give a damn about this slimy colonel. I’m looking for von Dietelburg, and through him, Odessa. And I don’t think von Dietelburg or anyone in Odessa is going to take the risk of dealing directly with an American colonel.”
“Point taken,” Wasserman said.
“I don’t think he’s personally taking gold to Italy and bringing dollars back. He’s just checking to make sure things are going smoothly. And I don’t think he knows Odessa is involved. If he even knows what Odessa is. He thinks he’s dealing with the clever characters around the blackjack table to make a quick buck. The questions in my mind center around Fraülein Reithoffer. Has she just latched onto an Ami colonel with a Buick and lots of money? Or did she just happen to introduce him to somebody who could make him a lot of money? Or did sleazy characters introduce him to her, so she could keep an eye on him?”
“So how do you suggest we proceed?”
“We’ve got to move up the food chain,” Cronley replied. “First, find out if he’s dealing with one of the sleazy characters. If he is, then who is the sleazy character dealing with? Find out who Fraülein Reithoffer sees when he’s not around. Eventually, we’ll find a connection to von Dietelburg. Or somebody who has a connection with von Dietelburg.”
“This will take a lot of manpower,” Holzknecht said. “But I think it’s worth it. I really would like to get that bastard.”
“Whatever you need, Bruno,” Wasserman said.
“I’d really like to get someone in the Viktoria Palast,” Holzknecht said. “As a player.”
“That’s the vingt-et-un place?” Cronley asked.
Holzknecht nodded.
