He removed the needle, then looked at Ellen Feller's eyes.
The third man moved to Fleming Pickering.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
Pickering glared at him.
"What was that he injected?"
"Not what it should have been," the man said. "It won't kill her."
"God damn it!"
The man walked past him and picked up the CIC report.
"What happens to that, now?" Pickering asked.
"I don't think we'll have to use it," the man said.
Pickering looked on while Ellen Feller, as if she were drunk, was half carried, half walked out of the house between the first two men. The man with the report walked after them. He stopped at the door and turned to face Pickering.
"General, for what it's worth, I've been thinking that this is the difference between us and the Japs. If I was in the Kempe Tai, she would be long dead. What we do with people like this is lock them up somewhere until the war is over, and then turn them loose."
Then he was gone.
Pickering moved to the bar and took a bottle of scotch and poured three inches in a water glass. Then he picked up the glass and very carefully poured the whiskey back into the bottle. He felt eyes on him, and looked over his shoulder.
George Hart had come into the room.
"They know what they're doing, don't they?" Hart said. "That was pretty impressive, the way they handled her."
Don't open your mouth, Fleming Pickering. No matter what comes out, it will be the wrong thing to say.
He turned back to the bottle and put his hand on it.
"I was talking with the Colonel before you came back," Hart said. "He used to be a homicide captain in Chicago."
"Ls that so?"
"Yeah, cops can spot each other. He was surprised that I hadn't gone in the Army, and the MPs."
"Well, now that you have learned what a sterling fellow and four-star hypocrite I am, Hart, would you like me to see if I can use my influence and have you transferred to the CIC?"
Hart didn't reply. He walked up to the bar, freed the bottle from Pickering's grip, and poured an inch in the glass.
"No, Sir," he said. "I'd like to stick around, if that's all right with you."
He put the glass in Pickering's hand.
"You know what my father told me when I joined the force?" he asked. "He said that I should never forget that women are twice as dangerous as men."
Pickering drained the glass.
"I'll try to remember that, George," Pickering said. "Thank you very much."
"What you should remember, General, is that she was really dangerous. I was hoping that the Colonel could talk you out of sending her home. She didn't give a good goddamn how many people she got killed."
Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, USMCR, looked at Second Lieutenant George Hart, USMCR, for a moment.
I'll be a sonofabitch, he means it! He thinks I should have gone along with that bastard's recommendation that I let them "remove" her.
At least I didn't do that.
So what does that make me, the Good Samaritan?
"Would you like a drink, George? And can we please change the subject?"
"Yes, Sir," Hart said, and reached for the bottle. "Except for one thing."
"Which is?"
"I don't think Lieut-Major Pluto or Moore could handle knowing about this. I don't think we should tell them. Let him think she got sick and they flew her home."
"Whatever you think, George. You're probably right."
"Can I ask, Sir, for a favor?"
"What?"
"I'd really like to have a couple copies of those pictures of me with General MacArthur to send to my folks. And my girl. Could I get some, do you think?"
"I'm sure we can," Pickering said. "The next time you're in the Palace, go to the Signal Section and tell them I sent you."
"Yes, Sir."
I wonder what El Supremo would think if he knew what just happened. Will he find out? Or is that something else not worthy of the Supreme Commander's attention, and from which he will be spared by his loyal staff?
If the decision was Mac Arthur's, would he have done what I did? Or would he have gone along with the Colonel and George and "removed" her?
The telephone rang. Hart picked it up and answered it. '
"General Pickering's quarters, Lieutenant Hart speaking."
Pickering looked at him.
"General," Hart reported, covering the microphone with his hand, "this is Colonel Huff. General MacArthur's compliments, and are you and Major Hon free for supper and bridge?"
"Tell Colonel Huff," Pickering said, "that Major Hon and I will be delighted."
Maybe if I let him win, I could bring up the subject of Donovan's people again.
Pickering had a flash in his mind of Ellen Feller with her skirt hiked high, a needle in her thigh. And then he replaced it with an image of Jack Stecker's boy, wrapped up like a mummy in the hospital at Pearl Harbor.
He reached for the scotch bottle and then stopped himself. He would have to be absolutely sober if he expected to find the tiny chink in El Supremo's armor he would need to bring up the subject of Donovan yet again.
[ONE]
=SECRET=
FROM: COM GEN 1ST MAR DIV 2355 23OCT42
SUBJECT: AFTER-ACTION REPORT
TO: COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, PACIFIC, PEARL HARBOR
INFO: SUPREME COMMANDER SWPOA, BRISBANE COMMANDANT, USMC, WASH, DC
1. AT APPROXIMATELY 1800 23OCT42 HEAVY JAPANESE ARTILLERY BARRAGE WITH PRIMARY IMPACT
IN VICINITY US LINES ON MATANIKAU RIVER, SECONDARY IMPACT HENDERSON FIELD, AND HARASSING
AND INTERMITTED FIRE STRIKING OTHER US EMPLACEMENTS. IT IS BELIEVED THAT WEAPONRY INVOLVED
WAS 150-MM REPEAT 150-MM AND SMALLER, AUGMENTED BY MORTAR FIRE.
2. AT APPROXIMATELY 1900 23OCT42, JAPANESE FORCES IN ESTIMATED REINFORCED REGIMENTAL
STRENGTH ACCOMPANIED BY SEVEN (7) TYPE 97 LIGHT TANKS ATTACKED ACROSS SANDBAR (PRIMARILY)
3RD BN, 7TH MARINES 500 YARDS FROM MOUTH OF MATANIKAU RIVER AND (SECONDARILY) 3RD BN, 5TH
MARINES 1000 YARDS FROM MOUTH OF RIVER.
3. FORTY (40) 105-MM HOWITZERS OF 2ND, 3RD AND 5TH BATTALIONS 11TH MARINES PLUS ATTACHED
I BATTERY 10TH MARINES (COL. DELVALLE) WHICH HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN REGISTERED ON ATTACK AREA
IMMEDIATELY OPENED FIRE. APPROXIMATELY 6,000 ROUNDS 105-MM AND HEAVY MORTAR EXPENDED
DURING PERIOD 1900-2200.
4. WEATHER AND MOONLIGHT CONDITIONS PERMITTED SUPPORT BY NAVY, MARINE AND USAAC AIRCRAFT
FROM HENDERSON FIELD. NUMBER OF SORTIES NOT YET AVAILABLE, BUT EFFECT OF WELL AIMED BOMBARDMENT AND STRAFING WAS APPARENT TO ALL HANDS.
5. AT APPROXIMATELY 2100 23OCT42 ATTACK HAD BEEN TURNED. INITIAL MARINE PATROL ACTIVITY
INDICATES JAPANESE LOSS OF AT LEAST THREE (3) TYPE 97 LIGHT TANKS, AND IT IS RELIABLY
ESTIMATED THAT JAPANESE INFANTRY LOSSES WILL EXCEED SIX HUNDRED (600) KIA.