"The death of el Coronel Frad
e makes Clete's continued presence in Ar-gentina even more important," Graham said. "Will you grant that point, or should I elaborate?"
"If I didn't think that my grandson's presence down there was important to the war effort, I would never have gone along with any of this," the Old Man said.
"There are a number of people in Argentina who are distinctly unhappy with Clete's presence there. Starting-I don't know if you are aware of this, Mr. Howell-with Admiral Montoya, who is Chief of the Argentina Bureau of In-ternal Security. Montoya did not expel Clete from Argentina only because el Coronel Frade went to him and exerted the pressure necessary to dissuade him."
"Cletus did not tell me that," the Old Man said. "I wondered why they didn't throw him out of the country."
"To get back to the Naval Attach‚ business," Graham said. "As Naval Attach‚, Clete would have had the protection of diplomatic status. While he could have been declared persona non grata, this could not have been done without his father's knowledge, and, furthermore, would have caused the usual diplo-matic response: We would have expelled an Argentine diplomat of equal, or su-perior, rank. Under those circumstances, there was, we believed, little chance that he would be expelled. Those circumstances have changed. Coronel Frade is dead. Those who don't want Clete in Argentina will be perfectly happy to have their Naval Attach‚ here-for that matter, any Argentine diplomat-ex-pelled tit for tat."
"Meaning, the minute Clete gets down there, he'll be shipped out on the next plane?" Martha asked. "While I suppose this will open my patriotism to some question, that really wouldn't bother me at all. It seems to me that he's al-ready done more than one young man can reasonably be expected to do. Let somebody else take his chances down there."
"Martha, come on!" Clete said.
"It would bother us a great deal. We would be losing the most important in-telligence asset we have in Argentina."
"The way you're talking, it's a done deal," the Old Man said.
"There is an option," Graham said. "Argentine citizens cannot be expelled from Argentina. And Clete is an Argentine citizen."
"He's an American citizen. He just had the misfortune of being born down there," the Old Man said.
"Under Argentine law, he's an Argentine," Graham said flatly.
"What are you suggesting, Colonel?" Martha asked.
Graham did not reply directly.
"Furthermore, under Argentine law, on the death of his father, as the sole heir, he comes into possession of everything his father owned."
"He doesn't need his father's money," the Old Man said. "He's got enough money in his own right."
"It would be perfectly natural for Clete to go down there to claim his patri-mony," Graham said.
"If he claims he's an Argentine," the Old Man said, "and they catch him do-ing work for you, there's a word for that: treason. What do they do to traitors in Argentina, Colonel?"
"Am I permitted to join this conversation?" Clete asked. "Since it concerns me?"
"What?" Graham asked.
"What's this business about me being-what did you say?-'the most im-portant intelligence asset' you have in Argentina? How do you figure that?"
"There's going to be an attempted coup d'‚tat. You know that. The G.O.U. is behind it. You know that."
"The what?" Martha asked.
"It stands for Grupo de Oficiales Unidos," Clete said. "Group of United Of-ficers."
"Colonel Frade was the President of the G.O.U., and the source of most of its money," Graham said.
"What's that got to do with Cletus?" Martha asked.
"We think he will be in a position to get close to whoever will replace his father. The G.O.U. officers were all close friends of his father. He will be in a position to influence-"
"And if this coup d'‚tat fails," the Old Man interrupted. "Then what hap-pens to Clete? They stand him against a wall?"
"If things go wrong, we'll get him out of Argentina," Graham said.