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“Sir, I wanted to get von Dietelburg and Burgdorf out of Vienna.”
“You shot the— What did you say, gambling casino guards?”
“I did, sir,” Spurgeon said.
“That could be interpreted as murder. Kidnapping people is a felony, and any act in . . .”
He was drowned out by the roar of aircraft engines. A heavy roar, much louder than that of an L-4 or Storch.
“What the hell is that?” Seidel asked.
“Sounds like a C-45 to me,” Cronley said.
“Can a C-45 land on that little airstrip?”
“I don’t think I’d try it when it’s snowing. But Colonel Wilson—”
“You think that’s General White’s C-45?”
“I think it’s possible that General White—or at least his airplane—was waiting for Mr. Schultz at Rhine-Main, in order to bring him here.”
“The only thing that could make this situation worse is for Hotshot Billy to kill Mr. Schultz in a crash landing,” Seidel said.
About four minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
“Well, I guess he got it on the ground in one piece,” Cronley said.
“Sir, there’s a lady out here . . .” a trooper said.
He was pushed out of the way by Miss Janice Johansen of the Associated Press.
“You really have grabbed von Dietelburg, sweetheart?”
“Miss Johansen, I’m sorry, but you’re not welcome here,” Seidel said. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
The enormous trooper Janice had pushed aside now entered the room and put his massive hands on her arms, as if to pick her up.
“How about this, General,” Janice asked. “Quote, Major General Bruce T. Seidel, the USFET G-2, had this reporter forcibly removed from the building where this reporter was verifying that former SS-Brigadeführer Franz von Dietelburg, sought for war crimes since the end of the war, had been finally captured by James Cronley of the DCI. End quote. You want that on the front page of the world’s newspapers tomorrow morning?”
Seidel didn’t reply, instead turning to Cronley.
“Did you tell Miss Johansen that you had captured .
. . this wanted war criminal, Captain Cronley?”
“No, sir. Not by name. But I did tell her that she might find visiting here interesting.”
“That’s a distinction without much of a difference,” Seidel said.
“One of Tiny’s Troopers told me, quote, Super Spook has nabbed some Kraut named von Dietelburg that everybody’s been looking for. End quote,” Janice said.
“By Super Spook, presumably, he meant Captain Cronley?”
“That’s what—for obvious reasons—Tiny’s Troopers call him,” Janice said.
“I have a deal with Janice, General,” Cronley said. “She won’t file her story until I tell her she can.”
“Somehow, Captain, I don’t find that at all reassuring.”
