A blond-headed man jumped out of the launch and ran to one of the downed men. Sawyer decided he was probably an officer from the Oceano Pacifico.
There came again the crack of the rifles, and Lieutenant Sawyer saw the body the officer was kneeling over jump as a second high-powered bullet struck it.
"My God, what have you done?" Sawyer asked.
Both old soldiers had pulled themselves down from their firing positions at the military crest of the hill.
Sawyer looked at the beach again. But not for long. He was knocked off his feet by the Argentine called Enrico, and dragged off the crest of the hill.
"We go now," Enrico said in heavily accented English.
"My God, man, do you realize what you have done?"
Enrico did not speak English, but he understood the question nevertheless.
"My Coronel, mi Teniente," he said, "and my beloved sister may now rest among the saints in peace throughout eternity. Their murders have been avenged."
"What? What?"
"We go now, Teniente," Enrico repeated, and started to walk down the hill to where they had tethered their horses.
[FOUR]
The Embassy of the German Reich
Avenida Cordoba
Buenos Aires, Argentina
1G50 19 April 1943
"Captain, we have of course spoken with Major von Wachtstein," Ambassador Manfred Alois Graf von Lutzenberger said, "but he is-with good reason-up-set about the tragic events of this morning, and we thought you might be able to tell us something he didn't."
And I pray God that your story won't give Gradny-Sawz grounds to suspect that Peter is somehow involved in what happened.
"There really isn't much to tell, Herr Ambassador," Capitan de Banderano said. "We had just reached the shore. Major von Wachtstein wasn't even out of the boat when the Communists struck-"
"The Communists?" Gradny-Sawz interrupted.
"You don't think this is the work of the Communists?" de Banderano asked.
"I'm prone to think the Americans are the ones responsible," Gradny-Sawz said, just a little sarcastically, and then had a thought: "Tell me something, if you please. Captain. Did Major von Wachtstein do anything at all to suggest he expected trouble when you landed?"
The question visibly surprised de Banderano.
"No," he said. "He didn't know where we were going until Standartenf?hrer Goltz told him."
"And when was that"
"At the time he showed me his map," de Banderano said, "he said some-thing to the effect that it was time von Wachtstein should know where they were going."
Gradny-Sawz grunted.
"You're not suggesting that Major von Wachtstein had something to do..." de Banderano said.
"I made no such suggestion," Gradny-Sawz said.
"Baron von Gradny-Sawz is simply doing his duty, Captain. Until we find out who is responsible for this, all are suspect."