“Anyway, the ridge that marks the northern edge of the Depression closes on the coast and it forms a funnel. As an army advances eastward, that funnel compresses it, making it harder and harder to deploy the troops available. It becomes very easy for a small force to defend itself against a much larger one. Also, there are no ports here. The supply line stretches all the way back to Tobruk, Benghazi and ultimately Tripoli. As an army advances eastward, it becomes harder and harder to support. Everything, even water, has to be brought forward from ports hundreds of miles to the rear. But, as the opposing army retreats eastward, it gets closer and closer to its port of supply, Alexandria and the Suez Canal. So, it gets stronger and stronger as the invading army gets ever weaker. Eventually, a point of balance is found where the invader simply cannot advance without a massive supply injection. That is the point Marshal Graziani has reached now. He needs a great injection of supplies before he can advance. He needs to bring those supplies up and stockpile them close behind his lines. That will take weeks or months. Only then will he be able to advance on Alexandria.”
“So we have time to negotiate an agreement.” Butler sounded satisfied.
“We have better options than that.” Halifax was looking at the map intently. “Much better options. We have an opportunity here to reestablish our authority and stamp our mark on the situation. General Dill, you say Graziani is at the end of his tether and cannot attack our positions in Egypt without great risk, yet we are in a secure position ourselves, well-defended and wellsupplied?”
“That is correct.” Sir John Dill was fascinated by the change that was coming over Halifax while he watched. The man was swinging from servile appeaser to school bully within a moment. Quietly, Dill wondered what he would have done if the campaign in France had gone just a little bit more favorably.
“And General Wavell is determined to hold fast?”
“He is.”
“Then it is up to us to support him. Herr Hitler has said that this is a matter between us and the Italians and that how we resolve it is of no interest to the German nation. So, if we are in such a secure position, it makes sense to use it to gain the best terms that we can from Senor Mussolini. Yes, that is the way to go. Sir John, telegraph General Wavell and advise him that we will be guided by his opinions on the situation and he can count on our support.”
“Yes, Prime Minister.”
“I don’t understand why.” Achillea took a drink out of her bottle of beer and sighed.
“Perhaps because, when you took your last boyfriend out for a country afternoon, you rode him into the ground, outshot him on a skeet shooting range, out-fenced him, arm-wrestled him for the restaurant bill and won, and finished off by drinking him under the table.” Igrat surreptitiously winked at Suriyothai.
“But, I just…”
“On a first date?” Igrat’s voice was incredulous.
Suriyothai burst out laughing. That segued into a fit of coughing as the beer went up her nose. She delicately wiped her eyes and put her own bottle down. Quietly, one of her attendants checked it, saw it was empty, and replaced it with a full one. It was very hard to stay sober in a Thai party. “So, Achillea will be helping you with courier runs from now on, Iggie?”
Igrat thought for a second. “Perhaps. I’m trying to find qualified couriers to help me out, but it’s harder than it seems. I thought Nell would be perfect, but she isn’t hard enough. I set up a little test and she allowed herself to be bullied into handing a package over to an assistant rather than the person it was destined for. I’ve found some outsiders who qualify for the routine stuff; a couple of them are pretty good, but I’ve struck out with couriers for family stuff.”
“I got my package through and gave it to the right person.” Achillea sounded aggrieved.
“You did.” Igrat admitted that readily. “But the whole point of this job is to avoid confrontations, rather than to go looking for them. And you must remember spoken words exactly, not paraphrase them. That way, if they are misunderstood, nobody can blame you.”
Achillea looked upset and took another drink out of her beer. Suriyothai looked at her sympathetically. “Igrat’s work is harder than it seems, I think. So, Iggie, what are the developments in Washington?”
When Igrat spoke, her voice was flat and uninflected. To the initiated, it was the sound of Phillip Stuyvesant in briefing mode. “The U.S. cabinet, as a whole, is sympathetic to Thailand, but Cordell Hull is violently antagonistic to you. Why this is, I do not know, but his mind is set on the matter and he will not listen to argument on the matter or on any issues related to it. There was a major confrontation between the State, Treasury and War Departments on this issue. Treasury and War took note of the intervention of India on your behalf and suggested that a further investigation of the position adopted by your country was merited by their favorable counsel. Cordell Hull tried to shut them down and close off the avenue of approach but Treasury would not countenance this and forced him to re-open the issue. Cordell Hull will be visiting Thailand soon. You should prepare for him and show him where your true interests are placed, but do not forget you are dealing with a person who, if not an avowed enemy of yours, is something very close to it.”
Suriyothai sighed. The adverse relationship with the United States was the greatest single roadblock to her plans, and she honestly could not understand why it was there. “One person has so much power in your government? To block the desires of the rest?”
“Where that man is Cordell Hull, yes.” Once again, Igrat’s voice dropped into a near-perfect facsimile of Stuyvesant’s. “Cordell Hull is an intimate of FDR and greatly trusted by him. He is a man of firm beliefs and opinions and does not easily change his mind. You would do well to recall the St. Louis incident in 1939 where his advice caused almost 900 Jewish refugees to be sent back to Germany. He did try to persuade Cuba to accept them, but when that failed, he would not retreat from his decision that they should not land in the United States. He uses his close relations with FDR to by-pass any government decisions that he does not like. Snake, even getting him to come and visit you is a major achievement. Do not waste this opportunity; for you will not get another.”
Igrat looked up and her voice snapped back to her own husky tones. “Snake, I’m going to break a rule here and give you my own impressions, alright? I’ve met Cordell Hull, and he struck me as being one of those people who is too proud and arrogant to change his mind once it is made up. He won’t change his mind about you, but he might be persuaded that his opinion of you is of lesser weight than his opinion of the situation out here. Show him, however much he dislikes you, the alternatives are much worse.”
“That makes much sense.” Suriyothai noticed that Igrat had finished her bottle of beer. “There is more beer on the way.”
“Don’t give Igrat any more.” Achillea still sounded resentful. “She’ll get drunk and end up dancing naked on the table top.”
“Not,” Igrat said firmly, “on a first date.”
“Just what the devil is happening in London?” General Archibald Percival Wavell was stunned by the telegram he had just received. He had been expecting one that instructed him to surrender his forces to General Graziani; he would have consigned that to the waste paper basket. Then he would have struck out on his own, for better or for worse. But the message that had arrived threw everything into doubt.