"No," Canidy said.
"You are going to be at the Austro-Hungarian border, noisily 'pursuing the investigation with all diligence."
" Muller snorted.
"And the Countess and I will go to the hunting lodge?" von HeurtenMitnitz said thoughtfully, "in Muller's car? With you in the luggage boot?"
"Unless you've got a better idea," Canidy said.
"The plane will attract attention," von Heurten-Mitnitz said.
"And it will come out that we were
there."
"The day before, maybe two days before," Canidy said.
"But it will come out," von Heurten-Mitnitz repeated.
"Unless you've got a better idea," Canidy repeated.
Muller snorted again.
Canidy looked at him coldly.
"And in case you think you have a better idea, Standartenfuhrer Muller," he said, "I think I had better tell you that if this operation goes sour, ReichsfiihrerSS Himmler will receive, mailed from Sweden, an hour-by-hour report of how you spent your last forty-eight hours in Morocco. With photographs, showing you with Eric in his U.S. Army uniform."
Muller's eyes, very cold, met Canidy's, but he didn't say anything.
"At the risk of repeating myself," Canidy said, "it may be necessary to do whatever is necessary to keep Fulmar and the professor from falling into the hands of the SS. But I will make that decision."
Muller snorted again, and pursed his lips.
"When I first saw you, Major," Muller said finally, "what I thought was they had sent an amateur. Obviously, I was wrong."
[ EIGHT ]
Captain Stanley S. Fine resisted the temptation to let It. Colonel Peter Douglass, Jr." who was riding as copilot, land the B-17F. Doug Douglass, despite the expected fighter pilot's denigration of the "flying barge," was obviously fascinated with the bomber. He would have liked to make the landing, and he probably would have handled it onto the wide and long runway without any trouble at all. He was an experienced pilot, and he had been an apt pupil.
But the moment they had taken off from Fersfield, Fine had been very much aware that they had crossed a line. From now on, everything was dead serious. There was no excuse whatever for taking any kind of a chance, no matter how slight.
Nothing had been said between them, but Douglass had seemed to understand and had conducted himself as a copilot should, making no control movements at all without first getting Fine's permission.
Fine set the B-17F down smoothly within two hundred feet of the threshold, then lowered it gently down onto the tail wheel.
"Call the tower?" Douglass's voice came over the intercom.
"Please," Fine said.
"Cairo, Army Triple Zero Four on the ground at twenty-five past the hour," Douglass said.
"Request taxi instructions."
"Triple Zero Four, take Taxiway Two Right and find yourself a place to park with the other B-17s on the line."
Douglass looked over at Fine. He was surprised. Ten minutes before, Cairo had acknowledged the "This is Eighth Air Force Plight Five Six Six" message that was supposed to alert OSS Cairo that they had arrived. Douglass did not expect the B-17 to be ordered to find itself a place to park with the other 17s on the line.
Fine looked surprised, too.