Almost a decade earlier, an eighteen-year-old Hauptgefreiter (Sergeant) Wachtstein had flown a Messerschmitt Bf 109B on Oberleutnant von und zu Aschenburg’s wing in the Condor Legion in Spain, and later a Hauptfeldwebel (Flight Sergeant) Wachtstein had flown a Messerschmitt Bf 109E on Major von und zu Aschenburg’s wing in the war in France, the Battle of Britain, and over Berlin.
Oberstleutnant von und zu Aschenburg had presented a newly promoted Oberleutnant Baron von Wachtstein to their Führer on the occasion of von Wachtstein’s award of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross for extraordinary valor in aerial combat over Berlin while flying a Focke-Wulf 190 as one of von und zu Aschenburg’s squadron commanders.
So long as he had been an enlisted man, von Wachtstein had not used the aristocratic “von”’ and his noble rank, so as not to embarrass his father. This was the new Germany, of course, but there was still enough of the old Germany left that Generalleutnant Graf Karl-Friedrich von Wachtstein had been more than a little uncomfortable to have a son serving in the ranks.
It was another of the reasons that Oberst von und zu Aschenburg liked von Wachtstein.
He had several thoughts when he saw von Wachtstein.
Well, Hansel’s out of the insanity in Germany, at least for right now. With a little luck, he can fly that Storch around the pampas until the war is over.
Good for him. He did his duty. Enough is enough.
And thank God he’s here. I can give him his father’s letter right here at the airport without the SS asshole being the wiser.
Otherwise, I’d have had to carry it around until I could get it to him, and that might have been—hell, would have been—dangerous.
Von und zu Aschenburg turned to First Officer Nabler.
“If you will deal with the paperwork, Nabler, I will deal with our distinguished passenger.”
“Jawohl, Herr Oberst,” Nabler replied crisply.
If there was room, he’d have clicked his heels and given me the Nazi salute.
As von und zu Aschenburg walked past the flight engineer’s station, Flight Engineer Hover met his eyes and said, “I make it an hour and five minutes of remaining fuel, Herr Oberst.”
“What shall we do, Willi, burn it off going back to Montevideo?”
Von und zu Aschenburg pushed open the door from the cockpit and entered the passenger compartment. There were twenty-five seats, eight rows of three—a single seat on the left of the aisle and two on the right—plus a single seat next to the door to the toilet in the rear, but there were only thirteen passengers plus the steward.
Von und zu Aschenburg had seated Cranz in one of what he thought of as the best seats on the Condor, then told the steward that nobody was to be seated with him.
The best seats were just behind the trailing edge of the wing, so there was a good view downward from their windows; they were near the center of gravity of the aircraft, so there was less movement; and they were only a few steps from the toilet, which was located at the rear of the passenger compartment.
There were three of these best seats, one on the left side of the aisle and two on the right. Herr Cranz was sitting in the window seat on the right. He smiled charmingly at von und zu Aschenburg.
“Dare I hope our flight is really over, Kapitän?”
Von und zu Aschenburg smiled back.
“There are representatives from the embassy waiting for you, Herr Cranz, so whenever you’re ready—”
“I saw Baron von Wachtstein. Who’s the young one?”
He knows von Wachtstein? I wonder how.
“That’s Untersturmführer Schneider,” von und zu Aschenburg said. “He comes to take charge of the diplomatic pouch. Today, pouches, four of them.” He paused. Let’s get it out in the open; see what happens. “You know my old comrade von Wachtstein, do you, Herr Cranz?”
Cranz smiled charmingly again.
“Your old comrade, Kapitän?”
Why do I think—hell, know—that you know all about Hansel and me, and are simply playing dumb?
“Hansel and I flew Me-109Bs with the Condor Legion,” von und zu Aschenburg said.
“ ‘Hansel’?” Cranz parroted, still smiling. “Is Hansel in keeping with the dignity that comes to an officer decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross?”