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“I wasn’t given much of a choice.”

“May I ask what you did before you . . .”

“I’m Portuguese. I’m a fisherman. Someone once calculated that we provide twenty percent of the fresh seafood served in the better restaurants between Boston and Washington. And then, too, we import foodstuffs—anchovies, for example, and olive oil, that sort of thing—into the United States. My grandfather founded that business. I was born here and spent a good deal of time here before the war; no eyebrows rose when I showed up and stayed.”

“Give me the account numbers and routing information, and as soon as I get to Buenos Aires, I’ll have the money cabled.”

Aragão smiled at him.

“Graham said he thought I’d like you.”

[FOUR]

Portela Airport

Lisbon, Portugal

2245 30 September 1943

Capitán Cletus Frade of South American Airways, trailed by a flight engineer and one of the backup pilots, took a little longer to perform his “walk-around” of the Ciudad de Rosario than he usually did, and he habitually performed a very thorough walk-around.

He had an ulterior motive: He wanted to have a good look at the passengers as they filed down a red carpet to the boarding ladder, and the best place from which he could do so was standing under the wing, ostensibly fascinated with Engine Number Four.

The passengers had just been served their dinner, but in the airport restaurant. That would keep the weight of their dinner and the Marmite containers and the rest of it off the Ciudad de Rosario. Once on board, they would be served hors d’oeuvres, champagne, and cocktails. Capitán Frade had made it very clear to the chief steward that every empty bottle, soiled napkin, and champagne stem was to be taken off the aircraft before the door was closed.

The headwind he expected over the Atlantic Ocean worried him. Depending on how strong it was, every ounce of weight might well count if they were to have enough fuel to make it back across. And if not, at least he could see nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution.

Frade paid particular attention to the clergy and religious as they mounted the ladder. There were four nuns escorting half a dozen children. He didn’t even try to guess which of them were the children of the two SS officers he was going to fly to Argentina. And any of the nuns could have been the children’s mothers, except for one, who looked as if she was well into her eighties.

All but one of the Jesuits were in business suits, looking like Welner; the exception was wearing a black ankle-length garment. The Franciscans were all wearing brown robes held together with what looked like rope. They all wore sandals, and most of them did not wear socks. Clete had no idea which of them usually wore a black uniform with a skull on the cap.

When the last passenger had gone up the stairway, Clete motioned for the people with him to get on board, and then he followed.

As Frade walked down the aisle to the cockpit, Father Welner caught his hand.

“No kiss-anything-good-bye jokes, all right?”

Ten minutes later, Clete eased back on the yoke.

“Retract the gear,” Clete ordered.

“Gear coming up,” the copilot responded.

“Set flaps at Zero.”

“Setting flaps at Zero,” the copilot responded. A moment later, he announced: “Gear up and locked. Flaps at Zero.”

“You’ve got it,” Capitán Frade said, lifting his hands from the yoke. “Take us to 7,500 meters. Engineer, set power for a long, slow, fuel-conserving ascent to 7,500.”

“Sí, Capitán.”

Ten minutes after that, there was nothing that could be seen out the windscreen.

“Passing through four thousand meters,” the copilot reported.

“Give the passengers the oxygen speech,” Clete said.

“Are we going to come across somebody up here, Capitán?”