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“Excuse us, gentlemen,” he said. “Feel free to retire, which is what I’m going to do as soon as the brigadeführer is through with the fregattenkapitän and me.”

He led von Deitzberg into the living room, with von und zu Waching following, waved them into chairs, and sat down.

“I had hoped to see you earlier today, Admiral, and I really think it might be best if we were alone.”

“Earlier today, the Führer sent for me,” Canaris replied. “As so far as the fregattenkapitän is concerned, I like him to be present at meetings where no one is making written notes. What’s on your mind, von Deitzberg?”

Canaris’s curtness with von Deitzberg was intentional on several levels, starting with the psychological. He knew von Deitzberg would interpret ordinary courtesy, and certainly amiability, as recognition on Canaris’s part that he was dealing with an equally powerful man. The pecking order had to be maintained.

The curtness came easily; Canaris despised the handsome SS officer. He knew more about him than von Deitzberg suspected, and the more he learned, the more he despised him.

The SS was—and always had been, from the beginning—laced with common criminals and social misfits. Not only in the ranks—the SS had been formed to provide bodyguards for Hitler, and thugs were naturally going to be part of something like that—but also at the very top of the SS hierarchy.

SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was a case in point. Until he had been assassinated by Czech agents in Prague the year before, he had been the number-two man under Himmler, the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. Before Heydrich had joined the SS he had been cashiered from the navy for moral turpitude.

SS-Brigadeführer Ritter von Deitzberg, who was working hard to be named Heydrich’s replacement, had been forced to resign from the army for “the good of the service,” which Canaris had taken the trouble to find out meant that he had been caught with his hand in the regimental officers’ mess cash box and having an affair with a sergeant’s wife.

And now he was getting rich ransoming Jews from the concentration camps.

Heinrich Himmler was something of a prude, and among other things that made him dangerous was that he really believed in the honor of the SS. Learning of the ransoming operation would really enrage him.

But as much as it would have pleased Canaris to see von Deitzberg and his cronies exposed to Himmler’s wrath, he knew it was a card he had to keep hidden until it could be played for something more important—probably something to do with Operation Valkyrie—than the satisfaction of having von Deitzberg and his slimy cronies hung from a butcher’s hook by Himmler himself.

“I’m very concerned about Operation Phoenix, Herr Admiral,” von Deitzberg said.

“Why?”

“Well, you know what’s happened over there.”

“Why don’t you say what you mean?”

“It doesn’t look as if Cranz is up to handling his responsibilities, does it?”

“What specifically are you talking about?”

“Not only has he not been able to neutralize the traitorous Froggers, but he has been incredibly inept in his efforts to do so. I presume you’ve heard that Obersturmführer Heitz and his men have been killed.”

Canaris nodded.

“I personally selected Heitz to guard the special shipment funds. He was no Skorzeny, but he was a fine SS officer,” von Deitzberg went on. “And considering his mission, guarding the special shipment funds, I would have thought twice before sending him to attempt to get the Froggers back from Frade.”

“Where are you going with this?” Canaris asked.

“I think I should go to Argentina and straighten things out.”

“What’s that got to do with me? Shouldn’t you make that recommendation to Reichsleiter Himmler?”

“I have. The Reichsleiter sent me here to discuss this with you; to ask for your cooperation.”

That’s interesting. Himmler can just order him onto the Condor.

Does this mean Bormann did tell Himmler of Hitler’s sudden interest in Operation Phoenix?

Why do I think he didn’t?

“I don’t think I understand.”

“I think the Reichsleiter would prefer that the idea of my going to Argentina come from someone other than himself.”