“Zorro it is,” Clete said. “Now that I think about it, it has a nice ring to it.”
He typed quickly.
“And for Zorro’s aide? What was the name of Zorro’s sidekick?”
That drew a blank.
“Little Zorro?” Chief Schultz suggested.
“How about Big Z and Little Z,” Sawyer suggested.
“Better yet,” Clete said, and typed again.
“That leaves the sailor,” the chief said.
Clete and Sawyer spoke at the same time. “Popeye,” they both said.
Clete typed for a few more seconds, then tore the paper from the typewriter and handed it to the chief.
* * *
URGENT
TOP SECRET LINDBERGH
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
&n
bsp; FROM TEX
MSG NO #### TIME TIME GREENWICH 2 MAY 1943
TO ORACLE EYES ONLY AGGIE
1 GALAHAD REPORTS HE, SAUSAGE AND BAGMAN ORDERED BERLIN PRESUMABLY REGARDING INQUIRY INTO MARITIME PROBLEMS. SUSPECT NEXT LUFTHANSA FLIGHT DUE HERE WITHIN 72 HOURS WITH DEPARTURE 24 HOURS LATER.
2 FLIGHT FROM BERLIN WILL CARRY GENERALMAJOR MANFRED VON DEITZBERG, HEREAFTER BIGZ, STANDARTENFÜHRER ERICH RASCHNER, HEREAFTER LITTLEZ, AND DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER GEORG FRIEDRICH VON LÖWZER, HEREAFTER METTERNICH. KORVETTENKAPITÄN KARL BOLTITZ, HEREAFTER POPEYE, WILL FOLLOW ETA UNKNOWN
3 BIGZ IS ACTUALLY OBERFÜHRER-SS AND HAS BEEN HIMMLER’S ADJUTANT. LITTLEZ IS HIS DEPUTY. POPEYE WORKS FOR CANARIS.
TEX
* * *
The chief read it.
“No problem, skipper,” he said. “Give me the code book, and let me have the chair. You want to wait until it’s acknowledged? There may be something coming in.”
“Yeah,” Clete said. “I don’t suppose you’d have a cold beer?”
“Dorotéa!” the chief called loudly. “Cerveza, por favor.”
A moment later, Dorotéa, the chief’s “housekeeper,” a widow of the estancia, came into the room with two bottles of beer in each hand.
Dorotéa doesn’t know about Dorotéa, Clete thought. I wonder how she’s going to react when she finds out.
He took two beers from her and went outside to give Enrico one.