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“And I really would be grateful, Jimmy, if you accepted my apology.”

“Accepted.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Frade went back into the house.

Sixty seconds later, three sturdy women came out. They picked up the luggage with no apparent effort and started off with it.

Jimmy walked to the house.

Just inside, Marjie was waiting for him in the dark foyer.

“Hi,” she said, a little shyly, and kissed him, a little shyly.

“We’re going to have to work on that,” Jimmy said. “I’m sure we’ll get better with a little practice.”

She shook her head and said, “What did Clete want?”

“Your mother made him apologize for the evil thoughts he had about us.”

“Really? He actually apologized? What did you say?”

“I told him no apology was necessary.

He was right. You and I are madly in love and thinking of eloping.”

“You didn’t!”

“I did. But I had the feeling he didn’t believe me.”

“Oh, Jimmy,” she said, laughing. “You’d better pray he didn’t!”

Then she kissed him again, this time not quite as shyly as before.

[THREE]

“The Officers’ Mess”

Estancia Don Guillermo

Km 40.4, Provincial Route 60

Mendoza Province, Argentina

0555 21 October 1945

When Clete led Cletus Marcus Howell, Captain Alfredo Garcia, Second Lieutenant James D. Cronley Jr., Doña Dorotea Mallín de Frade, and Enrico Rodríguez into the room, four men were already seated at the long table reserved for the senior “Good Gehlen” former officers. One was Major Maxwell Ashton III. The other three were Germans. All of them stood.

“Sorry to get everybody up so early,” Frade said, “but we have a hell of a lot to do, and the sooner we get started, the better. So, first things first—”

“Excuse me,” Cletus Marcus Howell said. “I don’t believe I know these gentlemen.”

“Sorry,” Clete said. “Gentlemen, this is my grandfather, Cletus Marcus Howell, who is with us not in that role but as the representative of President Truman. And this is Lieutenant Cronley, who is the officer courier who brought us all that from Kloster Grünau.”

Frade then pointed to the stacks of documents already taken from the canvas suitcases and spread out on the table.