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“Wouldn’t that also work for some guy getting a blow job from his fräulein while the cameras rolled?” Casey said.

“A PFC would be far more likely to go to his first sergeant, or even his regimental commander, and confess, Some Kraut took movies of me getting a blow job from my fräulein and said unless I smuggle—what? A letter, some kind of medicine in a capsule to Göring—into Göring or—”

“He will send the movies to your commanding officer—or parents,” Cronley finished for him.

“On the other hand, I think it’s far less likely our PFC would go to his first sergeant or his regimental commander and confess that some Kraut had made movies of him locked in the passionate embrace of his boyfriend.”

“Casey, do you think you could find a pansy among the troops?” Cronley asked.

“They’re not that hard to spot, sir.”

“You said ‘Kraut,’” Dunwiddie said. “Are we sure Germans are trying to do this?”

“No,” Cohen said simply.

“This movie-blackmail scenario smells like something good ol’ Ivan would come up with,” Cronley said. “That’s a comforting thought.”

“Comforting?” Dunwiddie asked.

“I thought he might be here to either whack or kidnap me.”

“You mean that?” Dunwiddie asked dubiously.

“I think that’s a distinct possibility,” Cohen said, “and the more religious piety Serov throws at us, the more I tend to believe it. But returning to the immediate situation, we have another problem.”

“Which is?” Henderson asked.

“At some effort, Colonel Rasberry got General Seidel to agree that the guards in the prison should not be eighteen-year-olds straight from basic training at Fort Dix. Seidel got the G-1 to change the assignment policy. Instead of sending kids straight from the 7720th Replacement Depot in Marburg, which is where they go when they get off the troop ship, soldiers assigned to the 26th Infantry are reassigned from other units in Germany. The basic requirements for such reassignment are six months in Germany and a Secret security clearance.”

“Good idea,” Cronley said.

“Except that it means Casey can’t just show up at the prison. He has to be transferred from some other unit. Dunwiddie suggests General White might be useful in this.”

“Presuming General White will go along,” Dunwiddie said. “We take Casey to the Constabulary School. He gets a tour of that, to see what training he would have gone through, and then he sews on the Constabulary patch and is transferred from one of the Constab regiments to the 26th Infantry.”

“How long do you think, providing General White goes along with this, doing this will take?”

“If you fly Dunwiddie and Casey to Sonthofen right now, we can have Casey chasing fräuleins or being chased by a handsome young German youth by tomorrow night,” Cohen said.

“Is it that important?” Cronley asked.

“More pressing, I think, than

your chat with Sturmbannführer Heinz Macher. That can be put off until you come back from arranging to insert Casey into the 26th Infantry.

“Do you still have a duffel bag, Casey? You’re going to have to have one to make your arrival at the 26th Infantry look credible.”

“It’s in the Horch’s trunk, sir.”

“Am I that predictable? You knew I would be willing to let you stick your neck out like this?”

“I don’t know about Casey, Super Spook,” Cohen said, “but I can say with absolute certainty that no one else in the intelligence community thinks you’re predictable.”

[TWO]

Office of the Commanding General

U.S. Constabulary School