A young Army lieutenant whom Pickering did not remember from his first visit to the house opened the door. As he was pulling the door fully open. Lieutenant Colonel Ed Banning appeared in the corridor behind him. The two men shook hands. «I'm glad you're here, Ed,» Pickering said.
«I'm sorry I wasn't at the airport. General.» Banning said. «I was in the cryptographic room. They call it 'the dungeon' here, too.»
«1 understand,» Pickering said.
«I came as soon as General Albright told me you were here, sir.»
«No time lost,» Pickering said. «I was 'received' by General Stillwell.»
«General Albright told me. How did that go?»
«I may be kidding myself, but I think I have calmed him down to the point where he no longer wants to cut me in small pieces with a dull saw and will settle for something like crucifixion. He's one tough cookie.» And then he added what he was thinking: «But I like him. I understand why he was sore.»
«You were the bearer of bad tidings, sir,» Banning said. «Didn't that kill-the-messenger business start over here?»
Pickering chuckled, then asked, «Where's McCoy, Ed?»
«I don't know, sir,» Banning said.
«How did that happen?» Pickering asked.
«Right after I had my initial run-in with General Dempsey, I told him to make himself scarce. He's good at that.»
«I got that much from your Special Channel. McCoy has made no attempt to contact you at all?»
«He was here once…«
«Albright told me.»
»… and apparently had words with Colonel Platt.»
«He told me that, too,» Pickering said. «That doesn't sound like McCoy. What was that all about?»
«Platt felt that as the OSS station chief here, everybody in the OSS belonged to him. McCoy didn't think so—« He cut himself off in midsentence when he noticed Colonel John J. Waterson and Lieutenant Colonel Richard C. Platt walking across the foyer toward them.
«Good evening, General,» Waterson said.
«We were about to get into the subject of Captain McCoy,» Pickering said. «But I need first to visit the head, and then I want a drink.»
«The facility is right over there, General,» Platt said, pointing. «And we could talk in the bar, if you'd like.»
«I'd hate to run your people out of the bar, Colonel.»
«All of my people have Top Secret clearances, General.»
«But none of them, so far as I am aware, have the Need To Know about Operation Gobi,» Pickering said.
«Sir,» Platt said uneasily, «Washington has been keeping us up-to-date on Operation Gobi.»
«That was done without my knowledge, Colonel,» Pickering said. «From this moment, no one is to hear anything more about Operation Gobi unless it comes from Colonel Banning or myself.» He turned and walked across the foyer to the toilet.
«I don't really understand this, sir,» Lieutenant Colonel Platt said to Colonel Waterson.
«I'm sure the General is about to explain it all to you, Colonel,» Waterson said. «Right now, I suggest that you either clear everybody out of the bar, or find some other place where we can all talk.»
When Pickering entered the room Platt was calling the «bar,» he found Waterson, Platt, and Banning standing at a bar, but there was no liquor in sight. George Hart, seeing his boss, lifted himself out of the chair in which he had been sitting at a small table. Pickering signaled for him to keep his seat.
He looks about as tired as I feel.
«Is there any scotch?» Pickering asked.
«No Famous Grouse, sir,» Banning said. «I guess I should have thought to bring some with me.»
«Beggars can't be choosers,» Pickering said. «I'd like a weak one, Ed, if you'd—«
«Coming right up, sir.»
«And I'd rather not drink alone,» Pickering said.
Banning went behind the bar. Hart got out of his chair and joined him. Hart found glasses and put ice in them. Banning rummaged under the bar and came up with two bottles of scotch whisky. Cutty Sark, and a brand Pickering had never seen before. He held them up to give Pickering his choice.
«The Cutty, please, Ed,» Pickering said. «And, if there is any, a little soda.»
«There isn't any, sir. Water?»
«Please,» Pickering said.
Hart poured water from a pitcher into a glass and then carried it to Pickering.
Pickering waited until the others had drinks. «I feel that a toast is called for,» he said. «But all I can think of is somewhat obscene, so I'll have to settle for 'your health, gentlemen.' «
Everybody took a sip.
«Jack, the first thing that comes to mind,» he said to Colonel Waterson, «is getting you back to Brisbane. Unless you go back on the B-17 that brought me here, God only knows how long it will take to get you there. So make sure that airplane doesn't leave without you.»
«Yes, sir.»
«Next question, Jack, how much did you tell Colonel Platt about what brought you here?»
«Almost nothing,» Platt answered for him.
«I told Colonel Platt, sir, that I was not at liberty to discuss why I was here, other than that I carried a letter to General Stillwell.»
«I should have known that, but I had to ask,» Pickering said. «You did the right thing. And what did you tell Colonel Banning?»
«I thought the Colonel should know you were on your way here, sir. And that the relief of Generals Dempsey and Newley had been ordered. And that General Albright was also en route. I told him all of that.»
«You spoke with General Albright, Ed. How much did he tell you?»
«Not much, sir, other than that you were en route, that Generals Dempsey and Newley were out of the Special Channel loop, that he had been appointed acting signal officer of USMMCHI, and, until further orders from you, we would be taking our orders from him—we being Easterbrook, Rutterman, and me.»
«Okay,» Pickering said. «Colonel Platt, there has been a possible breach of security. I'm afraid I can't tell you more than that, except it was of such importance—
potentially
of such importance—that Generals Dempsey and Newley here have been relieved of their duties, and so have the Secretary of the JCS and the OSS's Deputy Director for Administration.»
«Jesus Christ!» Colonel Platt said.
«I hope you understand, Colonel,» Pickering said, «that the fact that you cannot be given more information about this is in no way a reflection on you. You just don't have the Need To Know.»
«I understand, sir.»
«You've said you were advised of Operation Gobi?»
«Yes, sir.»
«By the Deputy Director Administration?»
«Yes, sir.»
«That was something else he shouldn't have done,» Pickering said. «Or at least shouldn't have done without my knowledge and permission.»
«Sir…«
«That wasn't your fault,» Pickering said. «And General Albright tells me you have some ideas of your own—a proposed Opplan—on how Operation Gobi should go forward?»
«Yes, sir.»
«And that you sent this Opplan to Washington?»