“Yes, and you have advanced in rank, Commandant, since I last saw you?” Harry was letting Rojelio know that he had inside information, knowing Rojelio’s rank, even though the Commandant was in plain clothes. He also knew he would have a hard time dealing with Rojelio because the man was one of the few decent and honest people he knew in the Policia Armada.
“Who are you working for now, Harry?” Rojelio, a deeply religious man, was especially suspicious of Harry Baker. He knew that Harry worked as an independent contractor and that meant he had no allegiance to anything, anyone, any ideology or faith. “You have piqued my curiosity, Bird Dog. are you in love with Iniga?”
Harry knew his body language would not go unnoticed by the Commandant, “Nothing romantic, I can assure you. I’m doing this one on personal business. I am more interested in the salamander growing in her womb. I know I can’t bend you with money but you can still help me, if you will. Can I say, on humanitarian grounds?”
“Then you are in love with Iniga, si?”
“Yes, Rojelio, maybe: and you are a Carlist at heart. You already knew she was pregnant?” Harry was reticent to admit he was in love with her but he was glad that Rojelio came directly to the point. This saved them both a lot of time.
“Oh good... love is a good thing Bird Dog." his face broke out in a sly grin. "She was fortunate I was her interrogator…” he finally lit his pipe, “I can tell, strangely enough, our Lord and Savior must have a special love for you and that woman.”
“You can help then?” Harry ignored the usual religious clap-trap. He knew he was known well enough by Commandant Rojelio that he didn’t have to bother with cow-towing. He was relieved that the conversation returned to business.
“Donate some pesetas to the nuns at la Venta and you can get the child out if you act quickly. An adoption is in order, but I have to warn you, the vultures were circling with bids before Iniga’s belly even began to swell. I’m not so sure what it would take to get her released too, but negotiations...”
“… I have a marriage certificate.”
“That might help but I can’t promise anything.”
“Do you find this park to be disorienting?” Harry didn’t like getting confused and the wavy undulations, swirling lines of the walkways and niches, evoked a touch of vertigo in his gut. Harry’s mind preferred straight lines… or, it could have been the carafes of wine from yesterday.
“No, it is a glorious tribute to the convolutions of the Catalonian politics we have to engage in to survive.” He let out a wisp of smoke adding, “You ought to be used to that, Bird Dog, and you also must have known before that, Iniga would have to escape. The only way she will be released would be via the Ley de Fugas,” he added while putting a forefinger to the back of his head. He then paused to consider, "I will pull a few strings if I can."
The necessity of Alesander’s escape, and Harry’s efforts to spirit him back into France, at the behest of Marcel Fournier, might have been less than an uneasy fellowship: of the betrayed with the betrayer. Nothing tasted worse on Harry’s tongue than his betrayal of Iniga and the certain knowledge that Alesander’s instincts were keen enough to know what was done on his behalf. Regardless, Iniga had to sit with the nuns in La Ventas until Harry could somehow spring her. He was compelled to devote himself whole heartedly to this task using whatever fees he’d earned for managing Alesander’s release to somehow get her out. His efforts finally came to a head after Nicholas was born in prison. Even Harry’s forged marriage certificate and testimony by the priest (he’d bribed to sign it to verify that the marriage took place) wasn’t enough for the stubborn mother superior.
A few guards that were bribed to look the other way, and the help of the underground to create a diversion, converged to facilitate a rather easy escape. Had she not been able to break free of la Ventas, she would have been shipped to another of the hundreds of prisons to be then let out and unceremoniously shot... another escapee, as had hundreds of others who had disappeared before her.
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