«It's a long way from there to the Gobi Desert,» he said.
McCoy didn't argue.
«You said Zimmerman's Chinese wife is 'probably' playing it safe in this village. Was there anything significant in that?»
McCoy looked uncomfortable.
«What, Ken?» Banning pursued.
«She may be in the middle of the Gobi Desert with some caravan,» he said.
«Doing what?»
«Trying to make it to India. Or, for that matter, into Russia.»
«Into Russia? Why the hell would she want to go into Russia? Or India?»
«That's what Zimmerman told her to do, get into India, go to the first American consulate she can find. Have the consul send word to Zimmerman's mother that she and the kids are in India. And then try to get them to the States.»
«That seems like a pretty forlorn hope,» Banning said. «The American Consul is not liable to pay a lot of attention to a Chinese woman with some half-breed children who says she's married to an American.»
«They're married. Some Catholic priest married them. There's a wedding certificate, and Zimmerman went to the consulate and made some sort of statement that the kids are his.»
«I don't think that will work, Ken. You have to admire him—both of them— for trying.»
«I don't think it will work, either. But strange things happen.»
«What did you say about Russia?» Banning asked. «You said something about them trying to get into Russia.»
McCoy looked even more uncomfortable.
«Let's have it, McCoy,» Banning said very softly.
«I asked Mae Su to try to take care of Milla if anything happened,» McCoy said, meeting Banning's eyes.
«You never said anything about that to me.»
«I didn't want you to get your hopes up. If I were Mae Su, I would be trying to cover my ass, and protecting the kids, and wouldn't want to have to worry about taking care of a white woman with a Nansen passport.»
«And since she's a typical Chinese, she said 'yes, of course, certainly' and then forgot about it?»
«She said she would think about it,» McCoy said. «Mae Su's all right.»
«You don't really think they're together?»
«I don't know. I've thought about it. On one hand, Mae Su wants to protect her kids, and will let nothing get in the way of that. On the other hand, when I asked her, you weren't married to Milla. I didn't know about that until you told me. But Zimmerman knew, and I'm sure he told Mae Su. A woman married to an American, an American officer, is not the same thing as a stateless woman. Mae Su may have decided that Milla might be useful. Any consulate would do more for a white woman married to an American officer than he would for a Chinese married to a corporal. Mae Su would know that. She's the brains in that family.»
«Jesus Christ!» Banning said.
«Did Milla have any money?»
«Not much.» Banning said. «All I could lay my hands on on short notice. Whatever she could get for my stuff, which probably was damned little. And she had some money of her own—damned little, I'm sure.»
McCoy didn't reply.
«Jesus Christ. Ken, why didn't you tell me any of this before?»
«I didn't think there was anything you could do if you knew,» McCoy said. «I didn't want to open the wound.»
«Because you don't think that they'll…«
«The odds aren't very good,» McCoy said.
«There's nothing wrong with betting on a long shot if it's the only bet open,» Banning said.
McCoy shrugged what could have been agreement.
«The one thing we'd agreed on in here after two days is that we need to talk to someone who knows more about the Gobi Desert than what he's read in the
National Geographic,''
Banning said.
McCoy chuckled.
«So where is Gunny Zimmerman?»
«On his way here,» McCoy said. «Which means he's either still in Brisbane, or in Pearl Harbor, or maybe San Diego. Zimmerman and Koffler—and Mrs. Koffler—are coming on the same orders. They're entitled to thirty-day leaves. There's some kind of a rest hotel somewhere…«
«The Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia,» Banning furnished.
«I guess the idea was they could hold each other's hands. But I don't think that will last after they get off the first plane. Zimmerman will 'get lost,' and the Kofflers will go on without him. And I don't think that Zimmerman is interested in going to a rest hotel someplace. So he's probably at Pearl, 'Diego… anywhere… and will check in at Management Analysis when his leave is up. Maybe even before.»
«We need him here, and now,» Banning said, «which means we're going to have to find him. I'll go see General Rickabee and see what he can do.»
McCoy nodded.
«I need a big favor from you, Ken,» Banning said.
«Yes, sir.»
«When you brief the team tomorrow morning, and you will, I want you to leave Milla and the possibility that she might be with Zimmerman's wife out.»
«Okay. But why?»
«Because if either the DDO or General Pickering hears that my wife is involved in this, they'll take me off this operation. It would be too much of an emotional involvement for me to function rationally. You understand?»
«If I can get to Zimmerman first,» McCoy said. «I'll tell him to leave Milla out.»
«I'll do my damnedest to arrange that,» Banning said.
«Ed, don't get your hopes up,» McCoy said.
That's the first time since I first laid eyes on him that he's ever called me by my first name
, Banning thought.
«I won't. I understand the odds.»
McCoy nodded.
But what if he's wrong ? What if the long shot comes in ? What if Milla is alive ? What do I tell Carolyn?
«I'm going over to T-2032,» Banning said. «We really need Zimmerman. Can you handle the cleaning by yourself?»
«Yes, sir.»
«Then go home and ask Ernie to do something for that sunburn. We can't afford to have you in the hospital.»
«Aye, aye, sir.»
Chapter Ten
note 36
USMC Transient Barracks
U.S. Naval Station
San Diego, California
0720 4 March 1943
Staff Sergeant Karl Krantz had been a clerk for the Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad before a surge of patriotism sent him to the Marine Recruiting Office on December 9, 1941. After graduating from Parris Island, he had been a clerk in the Marine Corps.
That hadn't kept him from being wounded on Guadalcanal; but it had kept him from carrying a rifle on the line. Having seen what happened on the line to people who carried rifles, he was now profoundly grateful for that.
He had been wounded by bomb shrapnel during a Japanese raid on Hendersonfield. a half-inch chunk of jagged shrapnel had struck him in the left buttock— which was not nearly as funny as it sounds. In due course, Corporal Krantz was sent to the Navy Hospital at Pearl Harbor. And on discharge from the hospital, he had been declared «limited duty.» He could walk, but not very far, and it hurt when he did.