«So what you're saying, Major,» General Sun said, «is that it will take you something like two weeks from the time you leave here to reach the point where the Americans
may
be?»
«Yes, sir. That could vary. Downward say two days if we have a smooth desert, no ice or snow, and maybe a little moonlight. And upward for only God knows how long. We're going to go as far as we can on our fuel, and then get on the radio.»
«And how soon do you plan to leave?» General Sun asked.
«At 0600, sir.»
«Excuse me?»
«Six in the morning, sir.»
«Tomorrow morning? More accurately,
this
morning?» General Sun asked incredulously.
«Yes, sir. We're going to rendezvous with the supply convoy about twenty miles out of town.»
«I didn't know you were going so soon,» Pickering said.
«You were told not to go into the desert without letting anyone know,» Banning said.
«It was either go now, Colonel, or wait for ten days or two weeks. I decided to go-«
Banning looked at Pickering to get his reaction to that. Seeing none, he correctly concluded that Pickering agreed with McCoy's decision. «What about communication?» Banning said.
«I'll get on the radio to Pearl Harbor when we find the Americans or run out of gas. whichever comes first,» McCoy said. «Is that what you're asking, sir?»
«No, it wasn't,» Banning said. «What if we have to communicate with you?»
«About what, sir?»
«Maybe we'll hear from the Americans, for one example.»
«I don't think that's likely, sir,» McCoy said. «We haven't heard from them for some time. Their radio is probably shot.»
Or, they have been discovered by the Japanese, or murdered by bandits, or just starved to death out there
, Pickering thought.
«We should have some way to communicate with you when you're out there, Ken,» he said.
«Sir, neither Zimmerman nor I are very good with radios. Neither one of us takes code very fast, and we can't send any faster than we receive. And I'd really rather not run the risk of taking a radio from its case, setting it up, and then taking it apart again until we really need them to call Pearl Harbor.»
«What kind of radios are they?» Captain Sampson asked.
«Special,» McCoy said, looking at him as if on the verge of telling him to mind his own business.»
«How special?» Sampson pursued.
«We got them from the Collins Radio Company. That's about all I know about them.»
«I know about radios,» Sampson said. «As a matter of fact, I know a lot about the shortwave radios Collins makes. So far as I'm concerned, they make the best shortwave equipment.»
McCoy looked disgusted. «Who cares what you think?» was written all over his face.
«General,» Sampson said, «I'd like to go with Captain McCoy, if he'll have me.»
«To do what?» McCoy asked.
«Before my commission came through, I was a high-speed radio operator, a corporal, in the Signal Corps,» Sampson said. «Before that, before the war, I was a Ham.» He looked at McCoy. «I can send Morse at thirty words a minute, and take it that fast.»
«You know how they work? Can you fix them if they break?» McCoy asked.
«I made a lot of my own equipment,» Sampson said.
«General?» McCoy asked.
I'll be damned
, Pickering realized,
McCoy is asking me if he can have Sampson
.
«It's up to you, Ken,» Pickering said.
«The Chinese may not like it,» Zimmerman said.
«I don't want to find myself in the middle of the goddamned Gobi Desert trying to call in the Catalinas with a radio that's not working,» McCoy said.
Zimmerman shrugged. «Okay by me,» he said.
«Okay by me, too, Sampson,» Pickering said. «Thank you.» He looked at his watch. It was quarter to two in the morning. «McCoy, if you're leaving in four hours, you'd better get some sleep,» he said. «There's beds here.»
«We've got to go back to the Fattened Goose and finish loading, sir,» McCoy said. «We'll be able to sleep on the road.»
«In that case, gentlemen,» General Sun said, «let me wish you Godspeed and good luck.»
«Thank you, sir,» McCoy said.
Sun offered his hand to Zimmerman, who looked a little embarrassed.
«If you are really going with us, Sampson,» McCoy said when General Sun reached him, «and it's not too late to change your mind, go get your gear.»
The departure was completely without ceremony. General Pickering, Colonel Banning, and Major Kee, in the Packard Clipper, followed McCoy, Zimmerman, and Sampson in the ambulance back to the Inn of the Fattened Goose.
They stood in the snow while the Chinese «soldiers» McCoy had hired lashed, under Zimmerman's direction, an astonishing amount of supplies—including ten five-gallon jerry cans, two fifty-five-gallon drums of gasoline, and an assortment of burlap sacks—wherever space could be found on the bumpers, fenders, and running boards of the weapons carrier and ambulance, and onto the roof of the ambulance.
Finally, Zimmerman walked up to the other Americans. «Anytime you say, Killer,» he said.
Banning gave his hand to McCoy, and then to Zimmerman.
«You guys be careful,» he said.
«We'll try,» McCoy said.
«Consider that an order,» Pickering said, touching McCoy's shoulder.
«Aye, aye, sir,» McCoy said. He and Pickering looked at each other a moment, and then McCoy saluted. «By your leave, sir?»
Pickering nodded, and he, Banning, and Kee returned McCoy's salute, but no one said anything.
McCoy turned and gave an order in Chinese.
«Freely translated, sir,» Banning said, «that was, «Okay, let's get this circus on the road.' «
Major Kee chuckled.
The Chinese «soldiers» squeezed themselves into the back of the ambulance and the weapons carrier. McCoy pointed to Sampson, indicating that he was to ride with Zimmerman in the weapons carrier, and then climbed behind the wheel of the ambulance beside one of the Chinese. He slammed the door, started the engine, and drove off, with the weapons carrier following him.
As he turned into the street, McCoy tapped the horn in the rhythm of «Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits.»
And then they were gone.
Though Pickering expected Brigadier General Sun Chi Lon to be in bed soundly asleep, the General was instead wide awake and waiting for him when Pickering, Banning, and Kee returned to the VIP Quarters. When they made their appearance Sun was wearing an ankle-length silk dressing gown and holding a brandy snifter. «Did they get off all right?» he asked.
«You wouldn't believe all the stuff they had lashed to their vehicles,» Pickering replied. «To the bumpers, the fenders, on the roof…«
«Captain McCoy—or should I say Major MeeKoy?—obviously knows if you need something in the desert, you'd better take it with you,» Sun said.
«He's a very clever fellow,» Pickering said.
«His Chinese—Mandarin, Wu,
and
Cantonese—is impeccable,» Sun said, his voice showing mingled surprise and admiration. «You don't often encounter Americans with that ability.»