I
will report that splendid marksmanship to General Adamson with more than a little pleasure
.
«Actually sir, when they fired, Lieutenant Easterbrook, the officer who looks so young? He actually shot a little better with the Thompson than Master Gunner Rutterman did'.'
Captain McCoy and Gunny Zimmerman fired last. Both put all seven shots from their pistols into John Dillinger's torso, and when the holes had been patched, went to the wooden table and attached the removable stocks to the Broomhandle Mausers, then loaded the pistols.
Colonel Albright heard Captain McCoy quietly issue an order, in Wu, to Gunny Zimmerman: «Shoot him in the head, Ernie.»
They stepped to the firing line, and Banning went through his range officer's routine. Zimmerman finished firing a second or two before McCoy did.
McCoy checked to see that his Mauser was no longer loaded, then handed the weapon to Zimmerman. Then he walked to the targets, followed by Banning and Albright.
«It would appear that Gunny Zimmerman shot a little high, Colonel,» Banning said. «Most of his rounds seem to have struck John Dillinger in the face.»
He then began to count the holes out loud. There were nineteen. A twentieth hole was a quarter of an inch away from John Dillinger's ear.
«I wonder why he missed?» Captain McCoy asked innocently. «Usually he's a pretty good shot.»
«You have made your point, Captain,» Colonel Albright said, smiling at him.
Banning walked to McCoy's target. The .45 in John Dillinger's hand was no longer visible. Nor was the hand itself. McCoy's twenty shots had obliterated them. There was just one hole in the target, no larger than two balled fists held together.
«Colonel,» Banning said, «in the Marine Corps, that's what we call 'a nice little group.' «
«I'm suitably impressed,» Albright confessed.
«And does that mean we have crossed all your
t's
and dotted all your i's?»
«Yes, I think we can say that,» Albright said.
«If you're going back into Washington, Colonel, I think Captain McCoy would like a ride into Union Station.»
«You're not going?» McCoy asked evenly.
«He's not going where?» Albright blurted. He had naturally presumed that no one would leave the Country Club until, per Paragraph 12(d)(2) of Opplan China Clipper, the two station wagons departed at 0515 hours on Wednesday to drive everybody and their luggage and equipment to Newark Airport.
«I've decided the best thing for me to do, Ken, is stick around here.»
«Where are you going, McCoy?»
«I've decided, Colonel, there being no reason that Captain McCoy has to be here, that he can have a pass until 0900 Wednesday morning, when he will report to base operations at Newark airport. He's going to be in New York City, and I know where to reach him, if necessary.»
There is no reason General Adamson has to know that
, Colonel Albright decided.
«You want me to call somebody for you?» McCoy asked, and Albright understood that the conversation was now not between colonel and captain but between close friends.
«I don't think that would be a good idea, Ken,» Banning said, confirming this. «I may call her from here, but I think everything that has to be said has been said.»
McCoy nodded.
Chapter Fourteen
note 52
U.S. Army Air Corps Staging Area
Newark Airport, New Jersey
0845 17 March 1943
«Just so we understand each other,» Miss Ernestine Sage said, as the silver 1939 LaSalle convertible splashed through the slush of a now mostly melted early-morning snowstorm, «You are
not
just going to get out of the car at the gate and wave goodbye to me. I'm going to see you take off.»
«I'm not sure I can get you inside, Ernie,» McCoy said.
«Wave your goddamned magic wand,» she said. «Either that, or I'll throw an hysterical fit at the gate.»
«I'll try,» he said.
They had spent the night at Rocky Fields Farm. Though he had gone there more than a little reluctantly, Ernie had announced that if they spent the night at her apartment in New York City alone, she would go crazy. And in fact it had turned out better than he thought it would. Ernie's father and mother had not only been very nice, but he finally accepted that they were sorry to see him go. Maybe only because that was going to make Ernie unhappy, but so what?
Her mother had tears in her eyes when they loaded his suitcase—one of two farewell gifts from Ernie: a folding canvas Val-Pak and a leather toilet kit, the nicest he had ever seen, from Abercrombie & Fitch—into the LaSalle; and she had sounded as if she really meant it when she told him to hurry back and to take care of himself.
Her father had been uncomfortable, but McCoy understood that. Ernie hadn't made it easy for him when she ended the evening by announcing, «Ken and I are going to bed now.» No father wants to hear his only daughter announce that she's about to do what married people do with a man she is not married to.
But her father was already up the next morning when they went into the kitchen. He made steak and eggs for the both of them, then walked with Ken to the barn to get the LaSalle.
«Honey,» McCoy said, as he slowed to stop at the gate, «why don't you drive this thing while I'm away?»
«Because it's a gas guzzler,» she said.
«So what?»
An Army military policeman stepped out of his guard shack and looked very suspiciously at the civilian-who-really-needed-a-shave.
«This is a restricted area, sir,» he said.
«Magic wand time,» Ernie said softly.
McCoy produced his Office of Naval Intelligence credentials. They produced the expected result.
«And the lady, sir?»
«She's with me. Where do I find base operations?»
«I'll have to get you a sign for the car, sir,» the MP said. «And I'll get you a map.»
«See, I told you it would work,» Ernie said as the MP stepped back into the guard shack. «Why can't you wave it around, say the magic words, and stay home for a while?»
He didn't reply.
After a moment, she said, «Sorry, honey,» and took his hand.
«It's okay,» McCoy said.
«You want me to call Carolyn?»
«And say what? I think you better stay out of that, honey.»
«She loves him, Ken. I know what she's thinking.»
«She knew he was married when they started,» he said. «That something like this was likely to happen.»
«You think Ed's wife is alive?»
«I think he has to find out, one way or the other.»
«That's not what I asked.»
«No, I don't,» he said, then corrected himself. «I don't know. I think if she was going to get out, through India, it would have happened by now.»
«So you think she's dead?»
She's either dead, or sleeping with some Japanese officer, or officers, to stay alive.
«I can't root for Carolyn, Ernie. I like Milla.»