“Only if one has known the holder of the Knight’s Cross since he was an eighteen-year-old hauptgefreiter who had to shave only every third day, Herr Cranz.”
“You’re right, you’re right,” Cranz said. “That would have a certain bearing, wouldn’t it?”
He smiled once again, then got out of his seat and followed von und zu Aschenburg to the door.
The instant von und zu Aschenburg stepped onto the shallow flight of roll-up steps, Untersturmführer Schneider threw out his arm in the Nazi salute and barked, “Heil Hitler!”
Major Hans-Peter Baron von Wachtstein was so surprised to see Cranz standing in the door behind him that he almost didn’t salute at all.
Oh, shit! What’s that bastard doing here?
The first time von Wachtstein had seen the affable, charming SS officer was in Lisbon in early May.
As soon as word of what happened at Samborombón Bay had reached Berlin, an investigation personally directed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had begun. Himmler’s adjutant, Brigadeführer Manfred von Deitzberg— wearing the uniform of a Wehrmacht generalmajor—and Sturmbannführer Erich Raschner, von Deitzberg’s deputy, had been on the next Condor flight to Buenos Aires.
Within twenty-four hours of their arrival, von Deitzberg had ordered First Secretary Anton Gradny-Sawz, Sturmbannführer Werner von Tresmarck, the senior SS officer in Uruguay, and von Wachtstein to be on the returning Condor flight, “to assist in the investigation.”
They had all understood that they were the primary suspects for being the traitor responsible for the disaster. Proof of that had come when their Condor flight had been met in Lisbon by Cranz and a navy officer, Korvettenkapitän Karl Boltitz, who immediately began the interrogation. The interrogation had been no less thorough—or frightening—because it had been conducted with smiles . . . a conversation between loyal officers of the German Reich simply trying to deduce what had happened.
Cranz and Boltitz had shown up a week later in Augsburg. Cranz was in charge of the elaborate funerals of Oberst Grüner and Standartenführer Goltz. By then, von Wachtstein had decided that while the SS officer was far more charming than the naval officer, he was also the most dangerous.
When von Wachtstein had been ordered back to Argentina, he thought he had seen the last of Cranz. And now here Cranz was in Argentina, where he was liable to find out not only that von Wachtstein was the man responsible for letting the enemy know what had been about to happen at Samborombón Bay but that Boltitz and Ambassador von Lutzenberger were also actively engaged in treason against the Führer and his Thousand-Year Reich.
Cranz was traveling on a diplomatic passport, so there were virtually no immigration or customs formalities.
Cranz smiled at the Argentine official who returned his passport, saluted, then, smiling even more broadly, walked up to Schneider and von Wachtstein.
Schneider gave another stiff-armed Nazi salute. Cranz ignored it and put out his hand to von Wachtstein.
“I am flattered tha
t you could tear yourself away from your bride to meet me, Peter,” he said.
“Well, for one thing, Herr Obersturmbannführer, I didn’t know you were coming,” von Wachtstein said.
Schneider assumed an even more rigid posture, as befitting a junior SS officer in the presence of a senior one.
“Yes, that’s true, isn’t it?” Cranz said. “And, Peter, I have been seconded to the foreign ministry. It would be best if you forgot my SS rank for the time being.”
“Yes, sir,” von Wachtstein said, then turned to von und zu Aschenburg. “It is always a pleasure to see you, Herr Oberst.”
“You are only saying that, Hansel, because I am no longer your commanding officer.”
“The Herr Oberst is absolutely correct,” von Wachtstein said.
Cranz laughed delightedly.
“But I must tell you both,” von Wachtstein said, “that I met you because I have the duty. If I did not, Schneider here would have been your welcoming committee. But all that aside, welcome to Argentina.”
Von und zu Aschenburg thought: Well, why am I surprised that the charming Herr Cranz is actually Obersturmbannführer Cranz? He showed up at Tempelhof in an SS Mercedes.
But why isn’t Hansel awed by the Herr Obersturmbannführer?
Is that stupidity, or on purpose?
“What’s this about a bride, Hansel?” he asked.
“You hadn’t heard about that?” Cranz put in.