«What do you mean, what did I do? Nothing. I was twelve years old. What the hell could I do? But I'll tell you this, I have never smoked Camel cigarettes.»
Rutterman chuckled, then asked, «What's Zimmerman doing in the armory?»
«He went nosing around and found they've got all sorts of weapons. He found some Chinese copies of Mauser Broomhandle machine pistols—they fire that Luger nine-millimeter Parabellum cartridge—and he's working them over to make sure they shoot.»
«What's that all about?»
«Zimmerman says that's what the camel drivers carry, and he wants to look like a camel driver.»
At ten minutes to ten, Gunnery Sergeant Ernest W. Zimmerman, USMC, walked into the billiards room of the Congressional Country Club. He was wearing a brown sport coat, brown gabardine trousers, and a yellow shirt with a polka dot (white on blue) necktie. He smelled of bore cleaner and Hoppe's #9. «I was going to test-fire them Broomhandles,» he announced somewhat indignantly.
«It will have to wait. Banning said he wanted everybody here at ten.»
«What's up?»
McCoy shrugged, indicating he didn't have any idea. He looked at his watch, then went to one of the tables and started folding the oilcloth that covered it.
Zimmerman examined a rack of cues mounted on the wall, rejecting three of them before finding one that matched his standards. Then he walked to the table.
«There's no fucking holes!» he announced, surprised and annoyed.
«They call this 'billiards,' « McCoy said.
«How the fuck do you play it?»
«I have no idea,» McCoy confessed. «I think you have to hit three cushions and then another ball.»
«Fuck that,» Zimmerman said. «I'll play you close-to-the cushion for a nickel a shot.»
«A quarter,» McCoy countered.
«You ain't that good, Killer.»
Why is Ernie the only man in the world who doesn't piss me off when he calls me «Killer»? Maybe because he was there and knows I only did what I had to do ? Or is it because he is such a simple sonofabitch that I hate to jump on him?
«Knowing you're playing for a quarter, are going to
lose
a
whole quarter
, will make you so nervous a six-year-old could beat you.»
«Fuck you, Killer,» Zimmerman said. «Get yourself a fucking cue stick.»
Ten minutes later, McCoy blew the shot he was making when Zimmerman suddenly barked, «Ten-hut!»
As he came to attention, he saw that Colonel Edward Banning, USMC, and Colonel H. A. Albright, USA, had entered the billiards room.
«Stand at ease,» Banning said. «Go on with your game. The others will be here in a minute.»
«Yes, sir,» McCoy said, and then, turning to Zimmerman, said in Wu, «Ernie, try to remember you don't call 'attention' when you're in civvies, will you?»
«Sorry,» Zimmerman said in Wu, sounding as if he meant it. Then he asked, «What's that fat doggie colonel got to do with us? That's the third time I've seen him with Banning.»
«I think he's in charge of getting us to China,» McCoy replied. «He must be all right. Banning seems to like him. My shot, right?»
«Your shot, my ass, Killer! You blew your fucking shot!»
«Only because you shouted 'attention' in my ear when Banning and the doggie colonel came in here,» McCoy replied.
Colonel H. A. Albright had learned to speak Wu (and some Cantonese and Mandarin) during a three-year tour with the 15th Infantry in China. Even though he understood what Zimmerman had said about him, he was not really offended. Neither Zimmerman nor McCoy had any reason to suspect that he spoke Wu; very few Americans did, even those soldiers, Marines, and sailors who had spent long years in China.
Their ability to speak Chinese probably explained why they were being sent into Japanese-occupied Mongolia. That and the fact that they had both worked for Banning in Shanghai before the war. He wondered if they knew—or, for that matter, if Banning knew—what the Deputy Director (Administration) of the OSS thought of their chances of getting back alive.
Five minutes later, Second Lieutenant Robert F. Easterbrook and Master Gunner Harry Rutterman entered the room.
Rutterman looks old enough to be Easterbrook's father
, Banning thought.
«Sorry to be late, sir,» Easterbrook said to Banning. «I was in the commo section.»
«Problem with the radios?» Banning asked.
«No, sir. We were testing the packaging.»
«How?»
Easterbrook looked uncomfortable.
» '
How'
?» Banning repeated.
«Actually, sir, we disassembled one of them—took the tubes out, like that— packed everything in the bags with foam rubber, and then I stood on a table and dropped all the bags onto the floor a half-dozen times. Then we put the radio back together to see if it would still work.»
«Did it?»
«Yes, sir.»
«At the Signal Corps Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, Lieutenant,» Colonel Albright said, «we call the 'drop it on the floor and see if we can bust it' testing technique, 'simulated extensive field use testing.' It's really the only way to do it.»
«Yes, sir,» the Easterbunny said.
Christ, he actually blushed!
«That's why I was late, sir,» the Easterbunny blurted. «I just had to see if it would work when I put it back together.»
«No problem, you're here,» Banning said. «Harry, you want to check the doors, please?»
Rutterman locked the door he had just passed through, then checked the other two doors to make sure they were locked, and finally drew blinds across the windows, after making sure the windows themselves were closed.
«This won't take long,» Banning began. «Making reference to Section Two, Paragraph Five(a) of Opplan China Clipper, you may consider that as of this moment, you are alerted for overseas movement. You will depart the United States by military aircraft from Newark, New Jersey, sometime in the morning of 17 March—that's Wednesday—for service in the China-Burma-India theatre of operations.»
Colonel Albright heard Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman mutter, in Wu,» 'China Clipper'? What the fuck is that?»
«Having been so alerted,» Banning went on, «you are advised that under the Articles for the Governance of the Naval Service, any failure to appear at the proper place at the proper time in the properly appointed uniform until you have physically departed the Continental Limits of the United States will be regarded not as Absence Without Leave, but as Absence Without Leave With the Intent to Avoid Overseas and/or Hazardous Service, and will make you subject to the more severe penalties for that offense as a court-martial may prescribe.»
Colonel Albright heard Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman mutter in Wu, «What the fuck is that all about?» to which Captain McCoy hissed, in muttered Wu, «Put a fucking cork in it, Ernie!»
«Colonel Albright is in charge of the movement, which he will now explain to you, following which we will all go to the firing range and qualify with the weapons with which we will be armed.»
«What the fuck is that all about?» Captain McCoy asked in English.
«Did you say something, Captain McCoy?» Lieutenant Colonel Banning asked.
«Sir, did the Captain correctly understand the Colonel to say, sir, that we are going to the range to qualify with the weapons with which we will be armed?»