After the boat trip back to Canutama, the trio flew to Manaus, to establish the necessary communications for the operation. While McKay made his contacts, Hi sent a telegram to Juan Perón. The items Hi requested arrived by air the next day, along with a tearstained note: "Bring her back to me. Bring back my Evita." That damn Perón. Hi wondered how Juan could explain to his people that Eva was back when her corpse had been displayed to the world. The wimp probably intended to keep Eva hidden in a basement somewhere. But Hi would have to worry about that later.

On the final night in their Manaus hotel, Hi, Diego, and McKay reviewed Hi's plan in minute detail. Though McKay didn't say so, he disliked the plan, because if it worked, Hi would get most of the glory. Diego, sensing this concern of McKay, reminded him, when Hi was not present, that this was a secret operation. There would be no glory involved. That got McKay's goat. He didn't say so, but there would be plenty of glory within the international intelligence community. "I am pleased to hear," he told Diego sarcastically, "there'll be no tickertape parade in New York."

Thereafter, as Diego would note, McKay always referred to Hi's plan as "our" plan.

They took off the next day in the Cessna, after removing the door from Hi's side of the plane. Hi, who had jumped once before back in college, wore his camouflage suit and a parachute. He had a haversack, and attached to a thin leather strap around his neck was a little cloth bag.

When they spotted the compound, Hi got set as Diego maneuvered the plane for the jump. "Remember, exactly a hundred and twenty days," Hi reminded them.

"Right," McKay said, leaning forward from his seat in back.

"At sunrise."

"See you then," Diego said.

Hi glanced back at the Britisher. "McKay, I once dreamed of being an intelligence agent. But nothing like this. Much obliged."

McKay smiled and nodded. He decided that this chap was all right, in his own little way.

Hi jumped.

On the compound the Schützes patrolling had heard the distant plane engine, and spotted the plane banking high overhead. One of the Schützes quickly went to find a superior. He came across the Scharführer (sergeant), dozing in some shade. The Schütze could not have found a worse excuse for a superior than this oxy moron. The Scharführer had a thick-lipped mouth that hung open, and eyes that always looked scared, for the Scharführer was always confused. After looking up through binoculars at the open parachute, the Scharführer went to find a superior. He found the sturdy, square-jawed Hauptsturmführer, who looked up and saw Hi in the sky.

"Someone," said the Hauptsturmführer, "is pulling a Rudolf Hess."

"Who was Rudolf Hess?" asked the Scharführer.

The Hauptsturmführer gave him a look, then said, "Awake Obergruppenführer Kegel."

"Are you sure?" asked the Scharführer fearfully.

"Awake him," his superior ordered.

As the Scharführer hustled to Kegel's quarters in Gebäude Ein, Hi looked down with concern at the same building. He was falling toward it. He had hoped for an accurate landing, but this one looked entirely too perfect. "Good start, Hiram," he said to himself. "You're going to land in the Führer's lap."

The Scharführer, reaching Kegel's marble-pocked downstairs quarters, stepped nervously to the open coffin in which uniformed Kegel slept. "Obergruppenführer Kegel," he addressed him, trying not to startle him by being too loud. Kegel still slumbered. After a moment's hesitation, the Scharführer, his mouth hanging more open than usual, gently shook Kegel's arm and spoke louder: "Obergruppenführer."

Kegel's eyes opened. They looked hard at the Scharführer, the rest of Kegel's body not moving. "How dare you disturb me," Kegel said.

The scared Scharführer said, "I was only following orders."

Kegel began getting out of the coffin. "What is wrong?" he asked wearily.

"We are not sure, sir."

"Not sure?"

"Someone is pulling a Rudolf Hess."

Kegel looked at the Scharführer with shock. "Parachuting into the camp? Who would be fool enough to do that?"

Kegel and the Scharführer headed for the entrance hall. This hall, like the building itself, was two stories high. On one wall was a huge enlargement of a photograph of Hitler leaving his Berlin bunker by night. He was smiling and giving the V sign--for Vampire and Victory. Emblazoned beneath Hitler's image was the name he had given the compound: NEUANFANG.

Just as Kegel and the Scharführer hurried into the hall, Hi came crashing through its thatch roof. Kegel and the Scharführer covered their heads as thatch and wood fragments fell on them.

The Hauptsturmführer and a Schütze came hurrying in. The four Nazis looked up at Hi. His parachute had caught on the roof, leaving Hi dangling several feet off the floor. A wooden roof beam with thatch still attached had fallen against the wall photo. It made smiling Hitler look like he was wearing a ridiculous thatch wig.

"Hi Hickenlooper here," Hi announced. Though Hi said it in English, the Nazis thought it was German, the words sounding the same either way.

Kegel pointed at the photo and screamed at the Schütze, "Get that sash down, Thütze!" Kegel immediately tried to correct himself: "Get that satch down--"

Hauptsturmführer helped him out: "Get that thatch down, Schütze."

"Right," Kegel said. Putting his hands on his hips, he looked up at Hi. "And to what," Kegel asked Hi in German, "do we owe the pleasure of your dropping in?"

Hi smiled cagily and said, "Take me to your leader."

Kegel and the Hauptsturmführer exchanged looks. They took Hi instead, after relieving him of his wallet and little cloth bag, to a small room in Gebäude Drei. They sat him down on a hard wooden stool, which was the room's only furniture. Even the light-bulb socket hanging over Hi's head was empty, till a Schütze came in with a bulb. Somewhere Hi heard a gasoline-powered generator start, lighting the bulb. They then left Hi alone with it burning.

After several minutes, Kegel returned with Obergruppenführer Dorsch. Hi, who was pacing, obligingly sat down as they entered.

"Where do you come from?" Dorsch demanded. "Whose plane brought you here?"

Hi was happy to explain. "I hired a private pilot to drop me off over the jungle. Don't worry. He knows nothing."

The Obergruppenführers couldn't figure Hi's accent. "Are you German?" Kegel asked.

"And proud of it," Hi said. "My mom was from Hamburg. It was Mom who got Dad into hamburgers. My dad's father came from the Rhineland."

"Which part?" Dorsch asked. "I'm from Mainz."

"Who cares where you're from?" Kegel snapped.

Hi saw that Kegel had his little cloth bag. Kegel opened it, and demonstratively poured some plant seeds into one hand.

"What are these?" Kegel asked.

"What do they look like?" Hi said. "They're seeds."

"What kind of seeds?" Kegel smiled meanly.

"Ever heard of the dragon's palm?"

The two Nazis' expressions told Hi they had not.

"I was hoping you hadn't," Hi said. "I hope you realize you're tampering with a gift for the Führer. And he's going to be mighty pissed."

"Who are you?" Dorsch demanded again. "What are you doing here?"

"I've already told your gift-tampering friend here," Hi said to Dorsch. "The name's Hi Hickenlooper. And I'm here to see the Führer."

Dorsch and Kegel looked at Hi as if they could kill him. But Hi knew that they wouldn't. He had planted seeds of doubt in their minds, infertile though those minds seemed to be. They couldn't afford to lay a hand on him--or even sink a tooth in him--yet.