"Damn!" Commander Delojo said, realizing that the message placed him in an even more difficult position than having to decide whether or not to mes-sage Oracle vis-a-vis the coup d'‚tat and Sergeant Whatsisname.
Obviously, if he was to locate Aggie-Colonel A. F. Graham, USMCR- that meant he was down here somewhere.
Why? Has something else gone wrong that I'm not aware of?
Delojo had no idea where Tex-Major Cletus H. Frade, USMCR-was ex-cept that he had left Buenos Aires by train five days ago.
The last word he had from Snoopy-Captain Maxwell Ashton III, AUS- was that he was in Santo Tome and his team and their equipment were in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Porto Alegre was the last known location of Parrot-the airplane that Frade had gone to Porto Alegre to pick up and, against Delojo's objections, bring into Argentina black, while carrying the rest of Team Snoopy and their radar equip-ment with him.
Since he had no idea of the identity, much less the motivation, of Galahad, he obviously could not locate him and query him regarding the " 'repatriation plan materiel' possibly aboard grocerystore two," whatever the hell that might be.
But an order was an order, and there was nothing to do but reply to Oracle's 3002, even though he was quite sure it was going to make him look like a fool. He sat down and rapidly typed his reply on a blank sheet of paper:
TOP SECRET URGENT
FROM STACHTOF BUENOS AIRES OO1O GREENWICH 19 APR 43
TO ORACLE WASH DC REFERENCE YOUR 3003
&nb
sp; RECEIVED 1050 GREENWICH 19 APR 43.
HAVE BEGUN EFFORT TO LOCATE AGGIE.
LOCATION TEX UNKNOWN LAST REPORTED ENROUTE BIRDCAGE. NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE RE SNOOPY, TEAM, OR EQUIPMENT. HAVE BEGUN EFFORT TO DEVELOP REQUESTED INFORMATION.
CANNOT QUERY GALAHAD INASMUCH AS IDENTITY UNKNOWN.
UNUSUAL MILITARY AND POLICE ACTIVITY EARLY THIS AM SUGGESTS POSSIBILITY COUP DETAT MAY BE UNDERWAY. PRESENTLY AVAILABLE INTELOGENCE INSUFFICIENT TO PREDICT OUTCOME.
UNCONFIRMED INTELLIGENCE REPORTS SARNOFF MISSING.
END
STACHEF BUENOS AIRES
TOP SECRET
He carefully read what he had typed, then took it to the cryptographic offi-cer and instructed him to dispatch the message immediately.
Of all the missions Oracle had ordered, he decided, the priority mission was the location of Colonel Graham. The problem was that he had absolutely no idea where Colonel Graham might be.
The best thing to do, he concluded, was stay right where he was. For one thing, if Colonel Graham were here and became aware the coup d'‚tat was probably taking place, he would either contact the Embassy or telephone. If that was true, it was his place to be available. Furthermore, the Embassy was prob-ably the best place to gather additional information about the coup d'‚tat.
Delojo returned to his office, left it to pick up a cup of coffee from the ma-chine in the room housing the typing pool, and returned to his office.
He stepped out on the balcony and gazed down at the street. A group of na-tives was in the process of rocking a bus. As Delojo watched, they succeeded in turning it onto its side. Gasoline began to spill from the fueling mouth. Some-one tossed a match, and the gasoline caught fire.
A minute or so later, the gas tank exploded.
Delojo stepped back from the edge of the balcony. There was no point in making oneself conspicuous in a situation like this.
An Argentine Army Piper Cub flew overhead, from the direction of the Casa Rosada. Delojo had several questions about it. Was it a loyalist, so to be speak, aircraft, or aligned with the revolutionaries? And what was it doing? De-lojo had had several conversations with the Army Attach‚ about such aircraft. For the Attach‚ had discussed with his Argentine Army counterparts the con-cept of direction of artillery fire by airborne forward observers, and had been told that this would be quite impossible until Argentine Army artillery units were equipped with radios capable of communicating with aircraft.
Commander Delojo set out to find the Army Attach‚. This was an interest-ing development, and discussing it with the Army Attach‚ would be a fruitful way of passing the time until something happened.