«You don't often encounter people like Captain McCoy,» Pickering said.
«I have received an encoded message from USMMICHI,» General Sun said. «I thought I would discuss it with you before we went to bed.»
«What did it say?» Pickering asked.
«Actually, it's gibberish,» Sun said. «It will say what I tell General Chow it says.»
«I don't quite follow you,» Pickering said.
«Whenever I make a trip like this, I arrange to receive one message a day,» Sun said. «While I don't suggest that General Chow's cryptographic people would even think of attempting to decode a message addressed to me personally, if they did, they would fail. Not because the code is so good, but because the message is a random series of characters, having no meaning whatever.»
«General, you're a devious fellow,» Pickering said.
«You're surprised? I thought it was a rule of faith among westerners that all Orientals are devious.»
«Aren't you?» Pickering asked innocentlyi
Pickering was surprised when Major Kee touched his arm and handed him a brandy snifter.
«Thank you,» Pickering said.
Kee handed Banning a snifter.
«To the success of Captain McCoy's mission,» General Sun said.
«Hear, hear,» Banning said.
They raised their glasses.
«I suggest that my message will say, General,» Sun said, «that you and I are directed to report to General Stillwell immediately for consultation, even though this will require you to cut short your visit here.»
«But the girls are coming tomorrow night,» Banning said.
«And I was further going to suggest to General Pickering,» Sun went on, «that he leave you here in his stead, so that at least you will be able to receive the briefing General Chow has scheduled.»
«Please extend my regrets to the ladies, Colonel,» Pickering said.
«If you stay for several days, Colonel, that will alleviate any suspicions General Chow might have about the real purpose of our trip here.»
«I understand, sir,» Banning said.
«Thank you very much, General,» Pickering said.
«I think the time has come, don't you, after all we've been through together, that we can use our personal names?»
«Thank you very much,
Sunny
,» Pickering said.
«You're entirely welcome, Fleming.»
note 87
Headquarters
U.S. Military Mission to China
Chungking, China
1615 14 April 1943
As the C-47 taxied up to the area before base operations, the eyes of Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, USMCR, fell on Second Lieutenant Robert F. Easterbrook, USMCR, leaning on the fender of a Studebaker President staff car, cradling a 12-gauge trench gun in his arms. The sight brought a smile to his lips.
So the Easterbunny has seen Rutterman with one of the «people killers
,» he thought,
and is
—
the most sincere form of flattery
—
imitating him
.
What was incongruous, so far as Pickering knew, was that Master Gunner Rutterman, who looked as if he had been sent over from Central Casting in response to a request for an actor who looked like a seasoned, veteran Marine, had yet to hear a shot fired in anger in this war, and nineteen-year-old Lieutenant Easterbrook had two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star.
It occurred to Pickering that Master Gunner Rutterman never referred to Easterbrook as «The Easterbunny» either. That privilege seemed to be reserved for those who had been with him on Guadalcanal.
After the airplane was parked, Easterbrook waited for Pickering to say goodbye to Brigadier General Sun Chi Lon and Major Kee, and then for their mountain of luggage to be loaded by their orderlies into the two cars sent to meet them, before coming over to Pickering and Hart. He saluted, then started to help Hart carry their suitcases to the car.
«You know how to use that shotgun, Bob?» General Pickering said, beating him to his own suitcase and picking it up.
«Yes, sir, I do,» Easterbrook replied. «Did you know, General, that every one of those itty-bitty little balls it shoots—there's a dozen of them in every shell— is like a .32 pistol bullet? Just as powerful?»
«I think I remember hearing that somewhere,» Pickering said.
«I have a hell of a time with the Thompson,» Easterbrook went on. «I can't keep the muzzle from climbing. But I can handle a trench gun.»
So much for my theory that the Easterbunny is aping Rutterman.
«Colonel Banning and that OSS captain still on the plane, sir?»
«Colonel Banning is at the moment learning more about the Thirty-second Military District than he really wants to know,» Pickering said. «He won't be back for a couple of days.»
«By now, the Colonel is probably working very hard to preserve the reputation of the Marine Corps,» Hart said.
«That is quite enough on that subject, Lieutenant,» Pickering said.
«Yes, sir,» Hart said, unabashed.
«And McCoy took Sampson with him into the Gobi,» Pickering said. «To work the radios.»
«I'll be damned,» Easterbrook said. «Did he want to go or did the Killer volunteer him?»
«He wanted to go,» Hart said. «And Captain McCoy—who isn't happy when somebody calls him 'the Killer' —said he could go.»
«I'm not too happy when people call me 'Easterbunny' either,» Easterbrook said. «When the Killer stops calling me the Easterbunny, I'll stop calling him the Killer.»
«The difference,
Lieutenant Easterbrook,'»
Hart said, smiling broadly as he slammed the trunk closed on their luggage, «is that you're a second lieutenant and he's a captain.»
«McCoy wouldn't pull rank about something like that,» Easterbrook said with absolute confidence.
Well, he's got McCoy figured correctly
, Pickering thought.
There really is more to the Easterbunny than at first meets the eve
.
«There have been no messages for me, Bob?» Pickering asked.
«There's one, sir. I thought I'd wait until we got in the car, out of the wind. Will you drive, George?»
«Sure,» Hart said.
That was an order
, Pickering thought.
It was phrased as a question, but it wasn't even a request, it was an order
.
«I don't think you're going to like it very much, sir,» Easterbrook added.
When they were in the backseat of the Studebaker together, and Pickering had read the two Special Channel messages, Pickering realized that Easterbrook was right. He didn't like what the Special Channel message said.
T O P S E C R E T
FROM ACTING STACHIEF OSS HAWAII
1115 GREENWICH 13 APRIL 1943
VIA SPECIAL CHANNEL
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
TO BRIGGEN FLEMING PICKERING USMCR
OSS DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR PACIFIC OPERATIONS