The files showed that Platt, generously using OSS nonaccountable funds, had been running a wide range of generally successful operations intended to harass the Japanese and/or garner information about their troop dispositions. As he read through them, Pickering had a growing feeling that Platt really knew what he was doing here, and that he himself did not.
I'm a mariner, a business executive. What the hell am I doing in the intelligence business, trying to tell
—
from a position of monumental ignorance
—
people who know all about this sort of thing how they should do it
?
McCoy—the missing McCoy—was never out of his mind for long, and McCoy was the first thing that came to his lips when Brigadier General H. A. Albright, USA, and Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Banning, USMC, came into Platt's office.
«You find McCoy, Ed?»
«I have no idea where he might be, General,» Banning said.
«For the good news, General…« Albright said.
«Let's have some of that,» Pickering said.
«We talked to Dempsey and Newley. General Stillwell had them come to his office, and we talked in his conference room. Banning and I are agreed that they are telling the truth when they say that, with the exception of Dempsey's sergeant major, they told no one else about magic.»
«And the sergeant major?»
«He told us that it went no further,» Banning said. «I believe him.»
«Maybe because he felt that was what you wanted to hear?»
«I don't think so, sir. I believe him.»
«What do we do about him?» General Albright asked.
«That would seem to be up to you, Hugh,» Pickering said. «You're going to need a sergeant major.»
«I think I'll keep him,» Albright said. «He understands the importance of magic now, for sure. Banning really read the riot act to him.»
«Your decision, Hugh. But I think you had better apply that 'no duty in which there is any chance at all that he would be captured' restriction to the sergeant major.»
«He was a cryptographer at one time,» Albright said. «Since he already has his nose under the tent flap, how do you feel about getting him a magic clearance? Banning's going to need more people to handle the Special Channel than he has.»
«Up to you.»
«No, sir. It's up to you.»
«Ed?»
«I'd go along with him,» Banning said. «Rutterman likes him.»
«Okay, then. I wouldn't even mention his name to Waterson when we tell him he can tell MacArthur we think the genie didn't get out of the bottle.»
«You're going to have to let Washington know that, too,» Albright said.
«Draft a message for me to Admiral Leahy, copy to Donovan, Ed, please, right here and now. I don't know the jargon.»
«Aye, aye, sir.»
«There's a typewriter over there,» Pickering said, pointing. «Do it now, so I can have a look at it before I take Waterson to the airport.»
«Aye, aye, sir.»
«And there is more good news,» Albright said. «Stillwell seemed pleased with Lieutenant Moore. He apparently fancies himself an analyst of the Japanese mind himself. And he told me I can consider myself his signal officer, not just acting.»
«I like him,» Pickering said. «In his shoes, I think I would have been just as angry.»
There was another knock at the door. Banning opened it. Colonel Waterson was standing there.
«Sir, I'm going to have to leave for the airport right about now,» he said.
«I'll see you off,» Pickering said. «George, can you find the airport?»
«Yes, sir, I'm sure I can.»
«Then get us one of those Studebakers, without a driver. Then I can talk to Colonel Waterson on the way.»
«Aye, aye, sir.»
General Pickering rode to the airfield with Colonel Waterson in the backseat of the Studebaker. After Waterson was safely aboard the B-17 and the aircraft had taken off, Pickering got in the front seat beside Hart for the trip back into town. Five hundred yards beyond the gate, as they drove down the dirt road paralleling the runway, Pickering became aware of a horn bleating imperiously behind them. He turned and looked out the rear window. «It's an ambulance with the red crosses painted over,» he said. «Let him by, George.»
«Goddamn Chinamen,» Hart said, and steered to the left of the road. He cursed again when the Studebaker leaned precariously with its right wheels in the ditch beside the road. The ambulance pulled parallel but did not move ahead. Hart got a brief glimpse of a Chinese officer in the passenger seat. He was gesturing for Hart to pull over.
«I don't like this, General,» Hart said. Hart's hand was inside his overcoat, obviously reaching for his pistol.
Then the ambulance cut them off, and Hart slammed on the brakes.
Pickering took out his pistol and worked the action. He noticed that Hart merely pulled the hammer back on his pistol. «You better charge that piece, George,» he said.
«I carry it charged,» Hart said matter-of-factly. He was now holding the pistol in a position essentially out of sight from outside, but from which he could easily fire it through his side window.
The passenger door of the ambulance opened and the Chinese officer stepped out and walked back toward the Studebaker. He was wearing a well-tailored Nationalist Chinese army uniform, complete to a shiny Sam Browne belt, from which hung a molded leather pistol holster.
«Oh, shit!» General Pickering said.
The Chinese officer walked to the driver's side of the Studebaker, leaned down to it, and smiled. Hart cranked the window down.
«Do you realize, young man,» the Chinese officer said, «that you were going forty-five in a twenty-five mile zone?»
«McCoy, goddamn you,» Brigadier General Pickering said. «Where the hell have you been?»
«Good afternoon, sir,» McCoy said. «Sir, I didn't know for sure until about half past one that you were here.»
«You sonofabitch,» Pickering said. «I'm really glad to see you.»
«I'm glad to see you, too, sir,» McCoy said. «I'm even glad to see your dog-robber. You can put your pistol away now, George.»
«He almost shot you,» Pickering said. «Goddamn it!»
«He's probably a lousy shot, sir.»
«Was this necessary?» Pickering said. «Why didn't you just go to the OSS house?»
«I'm not one of Colonel Platt's favorite people, sir. And I wanted to talk to you before he made good on his promise to have me thrown in the stockade.»
«Who's driving the ambulance?» Pickering asked.
«Zimmerman, sir.»
«Well, tell him to follow us to the OSS house,» Pickering said. «And then get in here.»
«Aye, aye, sir,» McCoy said. Then he added, to Lieutenant Hart, «You have an honest face, young man. I'm going to let you off with a warning this time.»
«Fuck you, McCoy!»
McCoy laughed and walked to the ambulance, which immediately started to move out of the way. He started back to the Studebaker.
«I'll be a sonofabitch if he doesn't look like a Chinese, dressed up that way,» Hart said. «I wonder what the hell that's all about?»
«Me, too, George,» Pickering said, and waited for McCoy to get in the backseat.