"If at all possible," Graham went on, "the United States government does not wish to again violate Argentine neutral waters by sending in a submarine to sink a ship flying a neutral flag," Graham said. "Even a ship like Comerciante del Oceano Pacifico that is itself violating Argentine neutrality."
Clete nodded.
"If I have to say this, this operation was decided upon before we learned about Lindbergh, and about your source's information that the Germans intend to bring into Argentina an enormous sum of money."
"One hundred million dollars, according to my source," Clete said.
Captain Maxwell Ashton III and First Lieutenant Anthony J. Pelosi of the Army of the United States entered the room, both in civilian clothing.
"Have a seat, gentlemen," Graham said. "Se¤orita Mall¡n's arranging for breakfast."
Dorotea smiled sweetly at him again.
"I asked the housekeeper to lay a buffet," she said. "I hope that will be all right?"
"That will be perfect, thank you," Graham said. "I was just telling Major Frade about the camera," Graham said. "You've checked it out, I hope?"
"Seems to be working perfectly, Sir," Pelosi said.
"When did you become an expert?" Clete asked.
"I don't know about being an expert, but I know how to operate it," Tony said. "I told you I went to photo school in Washington."
"Let's talk about the camera a moment," Graham said. "The problems with aerial photography are threefold. First, the vibration of the aircraft causes obvi-ous problems, in proportion to the distance between the camera and the subject being photographed. Second, the instability of the camera is magnified by air-craft movement, again in proportion to the distance between the camera and the subject being photographed. The third problem is enlargement of the negative. The more enlargement necessary, the more the granules of silver on the film be-come apparent. The term used is 'grainy.'" He paused and looked at Dorotea.
"I'm afraid I'm boring you with this, Dorotea."
"Not at all. I'm fascinated."
"Nice try, Colonel," Clete said. "But you might as well give up, she's not going to leave."
"That was the furthest thought from my mind. Major," Graham said.
Clete chuckled. "Yes, Sir," he said. "I'm sure it was."
"As I was saying," Graham went on. "Eastman Kodak's experimental labo-ratory has come up with two kinds of new film. Both considerably reduce the granularity problem in enlargement. The slower film we have is really extraor-dinary in that regard. But that's daylight film. The second film is much more sensitive; it can record an image in very little light, in almost total darkness. It works well, for example, in moonlight. But the price paid for that is higher granularity. You understand all this, Major?"
"I get the general idea."
"Now, the Signal Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, working with Sperry-Rand, the gyroscope people, have come up with a platform for the camera which is both heavily damped against aircraft vibration and gyroscopically sta-bilized. The camera platform is designed to mount on a standard U.S. Army Air Corps fuselage floor."
"I remember that," Clete said. "But the floor we were talking about was a C-45 floor. What about the floor in the C-56?"
"Captain Ashton checked the floor in the Lockheed," Graham said. "There is no problem there. A window will have to be removed, however. Will that be a problem?"
"I don't know," Clete said after a moment. "Can it be unscrewed?"
"We can cut a hole, I suppose, if it won't," Tony said.
"What this gives us, then, is the capability to photograph the Oceano Paci-fico from a considerable distance."
"How do you define 'considerable distance'?" Clete asked.
"Two miles," Ashton replied. "Maybe a little more."
"The idea was to keep the aircraft far enough away from the Oceano Paci-fico so it won't appear to be a threat," Graham sand.
"But not beyond the range of its antiaircraft, right?" Clete challenged.