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“Is this what Hitler and his mistress used?” Ostrowski asked. “What Magda Goebbels used to kill her children in the Führerbunker?”

Mannberg nodded.

“And what a number of captured agents on both sides chose to use rather than give up what they knew they should not give up,” Wallace said. “Or to avoid interrogation by torture.”

Cronley, Ostrowski, and Schröder looked at the brown peas in their hands, but made no other move.

“Aside from shirt pockets, the most common place to carry one of these is in one’s handkerchief,” Wallace said. “The place of concealment recommended by the OSS, to Jedburghs, was insertion in the anus.”

“Really?” Cronley asked, and then began to laugh.

“What the hell can you possibly find amusing about this, Cronley?” Wallace demanded furiously.

“Excuse me, sir,” Cronley replied, still laughing, as he moved his hand to his shirt pocket and dropped the L-pill in.

“Sometimes I really question your sanity,” Wallace said furiously.

“What I was thinking, sir,” Cronley said, stopped to get his laughter under some control, and then continued, “was that the OSS’s recommendation for concealment of your pill really gave new meaning to the phrase ‘stick it up your ass,’ didn’t it?”

Then he broke out laughing again.

A moment later, Ostrowski joined in. And then Mannberg. Then Wallace was laughing, and finally Schröder.

“You think ‘stick it up your ass’ is funny, huh, Kurt?” Cronley asked. “I finally said something that made you laugh!”

“You are out of your mind!” Schröder said, and then, still laughing, went to Cronley and embraced him.

They walked out of the room with their arms around each other and then got in the Storchs.

[SIX]

Hangar Two

U.S. Air Force Base, Fritzlar, Hesse

American Zone of Occupation, Germany

1525 19 January 1946

“Fritzlar clears Army Seven-Oh-Seven a flight of two aircraft as Number One to take off on One Six on a local flight.”

Cronley shoved the throttle to takeoff power and then answered, “Fritzlar, Seven-Oh-Seven rolling.”

As soon as he was off the ground, Cronley saw that his normal climb-out would take him directly over the three troops of Constabulary soldiers lined up in front of the 11th Constabulary Regiment headquarters.

That would obviously draw the attention of the Constabulary troopers to the two funny-looking black aircraft, which was not a good thing.

On the other hand, it would be a worse thing if he tried to use the amazing flight characteristics of the Storch to make a sharp, low-level turn to the right to avoid flying over the troops and didn’t make it.

He pulled his flaps and flew straight.

As he flew over the troops, he saw General White, Colonel Fishburn, and Lieutenant Colonel Williams looking up at him.

[SEVEN]

Able Seven

(Off Unnamed Unpaved Road Near Eichsfeld, Thuringia)