«Yes, sir.»
«Ed, several questions. Are you familiar with Platt's proposed Opplan?»
«Yes, sir. General Albright showed it to me.»
There was a look of surprise on Platt's face.
«Among Ed's other responsibilities, Colonel,» Pickering said, «is keeping me up to speed on whatever's going on. To do that, he gets to read everything.»
«Yes, sir, of course,» Platt said.
«Same thing applies to Hart,» Pickering said.
«Yes, sir.»
Pickering turned back to Banning. «Was Moore up all night, Ed?»
«No, sir, the Easterbunny had the duty.»
«General Stillwell wants to talk to you before you talk to Generals Dempsey and Newley. What I'm thinking of doing is sending you there with last night's Special Channel and this one—and Lieutenant Moore.»
«Yes, sir?»
«I don't want General Stillwell to get the idea we're not showing him everything he has every right to know,» Pickering said. «And I want him to meet Moore and to know what Moore's function is. That make sense to you?»
«Yes, sir.»
«That 'yes. sir,» Platt,» Pickering said, «was not an automatic reflex on Banning's part. If he doesn't agree with me, he says so. I want you to do the same thing.»
«Yes, sir.»
«It's not hard, Colonel,» Banning said. «The Boss is usually right.»
«Flattery will get you everywhere. Colonel Banning.» Pickering said. «And while you're with General Stillwell, Platt will show me his Opplan.»
«Makes sense, sir,» Banning said.
«And when you have finished with General Stillwell, Ed, you go find McCoy.»
«Aye, aye, sir,» Banning said. «I'll try, sir.»
«I'm really getting concerned, Ed.»
«I don't think he would take off without telling me,» Banning said.
«The operative words in that sentence, Ed. are 'I don't think.' «
«Yes, sir.»
«You have any ideas on that subject, Platt?» Pickering asked.
«Chungking is a large city, General,» Platt said. «If someone wants to make himself scarce here, it's not hard.»
«Even for two westerners with beards?» Pickering asked.
«He's right, General,» Banning began. «I'll look—«
«If the plane is leaving at four,» Pickering interrupted him. «That means Colonel Waterson will have to leave here at three. Be back here by then, Ed. Whatever you learn from Dempsey and Newley I'll want Waterson to know so that he can tell MacArthur the minute he gets to Australia.»
«Aye, aye, sir.»
note 77
OSS Station
Chungking, China
1450 8 April 1943
After breakfast, Pickering and Hart followed Platt to his office, which had been set up for a briefing. On either side of a blackboard, there were two easels, supporting maps covered with a sheet of canvas. Four armchairs faced the easels and blackboard.
«Sir,» Lieutenant Colonel Platt said to Pickering a little uneasily, «I'm aware, sir, of what you said about no more information about Operation Gobi being made available to my people without your permission…«
«But?»
«Captain Sampson has spent a good deal of time with my proposed Opplan. He knows details about it I don't.»
«And you would like him in on this?»
«The truth is, he can give you a better briefing than I can.»
«Okay,» Pickering said. «Let's get on with it.»
The briefing lasted more than an hour, and Captain Sampson did a good job, calling to Pickering's attention facts about the Gobi Desert that he had not learned in Washington. Platt's proposed Opplan—mostly written by Sampson, Pickering quickly concluded—to go into the Gobi and establish a weather station had obviously been given a good deal of thought. With one major exception, Pickering could find nothing wrong with it. The one exception: despite Platt's obvious ability and experience in China, and Sampson's intelligent attack on the problem, the two of them had no more idea how to find the Americans thought to be in the desert than he did.
Platt's Opplan was essentially based on the premise that the Americans could not be found. It was also obvious that neither of them thought much of the idea of sending the meteorological team into the Gobi on Navy reconnaissance aircraft. The phrasing they used was, of course, polite: «
In the event transport of the meteorological personnel and equipment by Naval aircraft proves not to be feasible
…«
»
In the event that it proves impossible to locate the American personnel believed to be somewhere in the Gobi Desert
…«
The tone of the Opplan made it clear that they regarded «in the event» to be as likely as the sun rising.
Practically, their Opplan called for two companies of Nationalist Chinese infantry, mounted on trucks, accompanied by a six-man team of OSS agents. These would take the meteorologists and their equipment through the desert on known caravan routes until they found the Americans who were supposed to be there.
In the event
Americans could not be found, the weather station would be in the desert ready to go to work. Meanwhile, the two companies of Chinese infantry would provide adequate security for the weather station against the possibility that the Japanese would learn they were there, and against the bands of bandits roving the area.
After the.briefing, Pickering made no comments, announcing—truthfully— that before he offered his own thoughts he wanted to think it over, and discuss it with both Banning and Captain McCoy, if and when he turned up. At one point, however, he openly disagreed with Platt, when Platt announced that «Chungking agents have more experience in this sort of thing than Captain McCoy does, and that certainly is not intended as a reflection on Captain McCoy.»
The implication was clear: he and Sampson didn't think McCoy was necessary, and further that he would get in the way of the local experts. Pickering decided he couldn't let that pass unchallenged. «I don't think there is anyone in the Marine Corps, or the OSS, better equipped for this sort of thing than Captain McCoy,» he said. «And no matter what we ultimately decide is the best way to go about doing what we have to do, McCoy will be involved.»
Am I doing the right thing
? he immediately wondered.
Platt has offered me a perfectly valid reason for not sending McCoy off
—
again
—
on a dangerous mission
.
And how much is my ego involved: Bill Donovan will be delighted to report to Leahy and the President that
, «once he got over there, Pickering decided that the OSS people on the scene were better able to carry out the mission than that young captain he had originally put in charge.»
Pickering spent the rest of the morning reading Platt's after-action reports of the various operations OSS Chungking station had carried out.
After making half a dozen trips to the filing cabinet, taking out one file at a time and then replacing it when he was finished, he finally—with Hart helping—took all the files from the cabinet and stacked them on the floor on the right side of his armchair, and then as he read them, stacked them, none too neatly, on the left.