«Colonel Platt suggested I go with you, sir, to take care of things at the house.»
«Fine. Thank you,» Pickering said, although he was annoyed. He had things to discuss with Albright he could not discuss within the hearing of Sampson.
Or for that matter, in the hearing of either Albright's aide or his driver. So no harm done.
«You never told me where Banning is,» he said to Albright.
«He's either in the crypto room—with the Special Channel up; there's a lot of traffic—or out looking for McCoy.»
» 'Looking for McCoy'? That sounds as if he's missing.»
«Yes, sir,» Albright said.
Pickering bit off the impulse to ask for details.
That, too, will have to wait until we're alone.
It was impossible to tell from the cobblestone street what was behind the gray stucco wall surrounding the building on three sides. The compound backed up against a vertical sandstone hill. The wall was topped with broken glass bottles that looked as if they had been there for half a century, and by coiled barbed wire now uniformly covered with rust. On an ornate wrought-iron gate now-rusty corrugated-steel sheets had been affixed, to keep people from seeing what was inside.
A guard shack was occupied by two Chinese soldiers, wearing quilted cold-weather jackets and trousers. Both were armed with Thompson .45-caliber submachine guns. One of them came out of the guard shack when the Studebaker stopped before the gate. He saluted and then pulled the gate open.
Pickering wondered if the guard knew Albright by sight, which was possible, or if he simply passed any car with a general's star on it, in which case security might just be a little lax.
Inside the wall, Pickering saw a three-story, tile-roofed old building, with its rear wall against the sandstone hill, and four small outbuildings, three against the left wall and one against the street-side wall.
Several vehicles were parked nose-in against the front wall of the house: four jeeps, battered and unwashed; a Dodge three-quarter-ton weapons carrier; adodge ambulance, with the usual Red Crosses painted over not quite completely with a brownish paint that did not match the olive drab of the rest of the body; and another Studebaker President sedan.
Heavy closed shutters were on all the windows. Pickering wondered if they were closed for security or as protection against the freezing winds.
Captain Sampson jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped. «I'll get things set up inside,» he said.
«All I need, Hugh, is a place to take a shower and to have a word with you.» Pickering said to General Albright.
«You make these people nervous, General,» Albright said, «in case you haven't noticed.»
Pickering got out of the car and walked to its rear, intending to help Hart with their luggage.
Three Chinese in black ankle-length gowns not unlike a priest's vestments came trotting out of the house and snatched the luggage from their hands.
Captain Sampson appeared at the door. «What I've done. General, is put you into our visitor's room,» he said. «It's not much—«
«All I want to do, Captain,» Pickering said, «is have a quick shower and change my uniform.»
«Yes, sir.»
They followed him into the house, through an empty foyer furnished with large, dark, and uncomfortable-looking furniture, and up a narrow flight of stairs to the second floor. Halfway down a narrow corridor illuminated with bare bulbs, Sampson pushed a door open and waved Pickering into a large, sparsely furnished room. The house boys scurried into the room after them with the luggage and started to unpack it.
«That can wait,» Pickering said. «Where's the shower?»
«Right in here, sir,» Sampson said, and showed him a small bathroom. It was equipped with a showerhead on a rubber hose and a hole-in-the floor toilet. A china toilet bowl and seat had been jury rigged over the toilet.
«If you like, sir, I can put you in Colonel Platt's room.»
«This will do,» Pickering said. «Thank you, Captain. That will be all.»
«Would the General like a cup of coffee? Something else, perhaps?»
«That will be all, Captain. Thank you,» Pickering said.
He waited until Sampson had left.
«Okay, Hugh, first of all, tell me about Captain McCoy. What is this missing business?»
«When Banning got here and Dempsey was being an ass, Banning told McCoy to disappear. To stay in touch, but to disappear. He's disappeared, except for one visit here, when he asked for Banning and disappeared again. He had a run-in with Platt.»
"what kind of a run-in?»
«Platt told him to stay here, consider himself part of the station, no matter what his orders from Banning. Frankly, I would have told him the same thing under the circumstances.»
«And McCoy elected not to?»
«That's the last time anyone has seen him. Or Zimmerman.»
«Do you think something's happened to him?»
«Banning feels that McCoy can take care of himself,» Albright said. «I wish I shared his confidence.»
«See if you can get word to Banning to come here. Before I go to see General Stillwell, if possible. But come here. I need to talk to him.»
«Yes, sir.»
«Is there anything I should know before I see Stillwell?»
«He really doesn't like what's happened,» Albright said. «He made a point of telling me I was
acting
signal officer, pending his discussion with you.»
«I guess I should have asked this first: how badly has magic been compromised?»
«I don't really know. General Dempsey won't talk to me.»
«What do you mean, Dempsey won't talk to you?»
«He has the right, under
The Manual for Courts-Martial
, 1928, to refuse to answer any question that might
tend
to incriminate him. And that's what he's doing.»
«Christ!»
«The sooner you get over there and see Stillwell, the better,» Albright said. «By now, he knows you're here.»
«I need a shower, and I'm going to have one,» Pickering said.
«I suggest you make it a quick one,» Albright said.
«Anything else I should know?»
«To further brighten your day, General, Platt knows all about Operation Gobi, and has his own Opplan—already furnished to Donovan—which he feels is considerably better than yours.»
«That wouldn't be hard,» Pickering said. «But who told him about Operation Gobi?»
«I don't know,» Albright said.
«Okay, Hugh, that's enough bad news for now. Let me have my shower.»
Pickering came out of the bathroom wearing only a used towel. It offered little protection against the damp chill, and he was shivering.
He saw with genuine gratitude that Hart had laid out a change of underwear and a clean shirt on the bed for him. He walked quickly to it and pulled a T-shirtover his head. hart, meanwhile, was trying to get the wrinkles out of their clean uniforms, which were hanging from a light fixture on the wall.
«Thanks, George,» he said, as he reached for his shorts.
«We have a shoe problem, General,» Hart said.
«What?»
«This is no place to wear low-quarters,» Hart said. «Snow, mud, dirt, et cetera. The Army's wearing—did you notice?—boots, like boondockers, except that they have a strap thing on the top, you tuck your trousers in it. General Albright was wearing them?» The USMC ankle-high field shoe, constructed with the rough side of the leather out, were known as boondockers.