United States Constabulary
Sonthofen, American Zone of Occupation, Germany
1455 24 April 1946
Major General I. D. White signaled for the people in his office doorway to come in.
“Now that I’ve had time to think it over, why am I worried that you’ve accepted my gracious invitation?” the stocky, forty-six-year-old White greeted them.
No one saluted, but, in turn, Cohen, Cronley, and Tiny Dunwiddie approached White’s desk, came to a stance very much like attention, then shook White’s extended hand. When they had finished, Justice Jackson went to the side of the desk and shook hands with him.
“My spies tell me you have been infiltrated by the NKGB,” White said. “Where’s Serov?”
“I can only conclude he’s afraid of you,” Jackson said. “I can’t imagine why. Anyway, he sends his respects.”
“As well he should. And you, Chauncey, has the Texan here managed to completely corrupt you? Or are you still redeemable?”
“Unfortunately, I’m afraid it’s the former, Uncle Isaac. I have the strength of zero because in my heart I’m completely corrupted.”
“In a manner of speaking? Or is there something specific?”
“I think for once Super Spook is right.”
White’s eyes went from Dunwiddie to Cronley.
“I’m now afraid, Captain Cronley, to ask what I can do for you. What is it you want from me?”
“Sir, your Fourteenth Light Engineer Company.”
White’s eyebrows went up.
“Now you have piqued my curiosity. What in the world would you do with it?”
“Would you believe,” Jackson said, “that as a token of his admiration for yourself specifically, I.D., and the Constabulary generally, he intends to use it to convert an existing structure into the U.S. Constabulary NCO Academy.”
White grunted. “No. I would not.”
“Sir,” Cronley said, “I would apply its many talents in my unending war to save the world from the Thousand-Year Reich.”
White’s eyes went back to Dunwiddie.
“Chauncey, can you tell me what Super Spook is talking about?” Then he immediately changed his mind. “No, Cronley, you try—hard—to tell me what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, would you be surprised if I told you I forgot one of the basic principles of warfare?”
“I’d be surprised if you remember any of them. Which particular one, pray tell, are you referring to?”
“‘Never underestimate your enemy,’ sir.”
White lit a cigarette, exhaled, and said, “Okay, this game of Twenty Questions is over. Let’s have it, Cronley. Nothing cute.”
“Sir, yes, sir. Sir, you’re aware that just as the war was ending, Colonel Cohen smelled something was off about Castle Wewelsburg and took it under his wing.”
White nodded. “Whereupon he learned that the Nazis had attempted to start a lunatic and/or obscene religion with the castle as its Vatican?”
“Yes, sir. That’s correct.”
“I also heard the Nazis abandoned it after trying and failing to blow it up?”