Frade took a cigar from a leather case, bit off one end, took a kitchen match from the box and struck it on the tabletop, then carefully lit the cigar.
“You’ve heard, no doubt, that we have taken Sicily,” Frade said after exhaling a large cloud of cigar smoke, “and that Mussolini has been removed from office and replaced by Marshal Badoglio. If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d bet that negotiations for Italy’s surrender are under way as we speak.”
Frogger did not reply.
Frade puffed his cigar, then added, “But you probably have not heard about this. It just came in.”
He handed a sheet of teletype paper to Frogger:
OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION
WASHINGTON
2305 5 AUGUST 1943
UNCLASSIFIED
DISTRIBUTION LIST A—GENERAL
GERMAN PROPAGANDA MINISTER JOSEF GOEBBELS IN A 2130 (BERLIN TIME) 5 AUGUST 1943 NATIONWIDE BROADCAST RECOMMENDED THE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF ALL NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL FROM
BERLIN.
THIS IS THE FIRST ADMISSION THAT BERLIN WILL SHORTLY BE UNDER HEAVY AERIAL BOMBARDMENT ATTACK WHICH THE GERMANS BELIEVE NEITHER ANTI-AIRCRAFT NOR THE LUFTWAFFE WILL BE ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY RESIST.
A FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE GOEBBELS BROADCAST HAS BEEN TRANSMITTED TO DISTRIBUTION LIST A—HEADS OF AGENCIES AND WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO INTERESTED PARTIES BY CONTACTING OWI ATTENTION: OFFICIAL GERMAN BROADCASTS SECTION.
END
UNCLASSIFIED
After Frogger read the teletype, he wordlessly laid it on the table, then puffed at his cigarette.
Frade said: “That doesn’t have much personal impact on you, does it? You have no family remaining in Berlin—in Germany, for that matter. Your brothers are dead, and we have your parents.”
Frogger didn’t respond in any way.
“As a professional soldier, of course, it might suggest to you—if you haven’t already come to this conclusion—that you’ve lost the war.”
Frogger met Frade’s eyes but didn’t reply.
“I said a moment ago that this is not an interrogation. Quite the opposite. I’m going to tell you about myself and about your parents. I’m free to do this, because as of now you are not going to be in a position to pass what I tell you to anyone who could pass it on. Have you ever heard of the Aleutian Islands?”
Frogger frowned as he considered the question.
“North Pacific Ocean?” he said.
Frade nodded. “Sort of a tail coming off Alaska.”
Frogger nodded.
“You’re a field-grade officer,” Frade said. “A staff officer, so it will probably come as no surprise to you that we have people in uniform we don’t completely trust. Communists, in particular—especially people who fought in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade—but others as well. We think that some are Germans who still consider Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party the hope of the world, just as some Italians feel the same way about Mussolini. I’m sure you understand what I mean.”
Frogger remained silent.
“I suppose in Germany that these sort of threats to the common good would be shot out of hand, if they were not lucky enough to be put in a concentration camp.”
Frade let that sink in, then went on: “We, however, don’t shoot people out of hand, and with the exception of what we did to Japanese-Americans right after we got in the war, we don’t put them in concentration camps. That was something that shouldn’t have happened, and most Americans are ashamed that it did.