Major Charley Canfield laughed, itself a rarity in these stressful days. “Well, look what the cat dragged in. I must admit you look a hell of a lot better than you did the first time I laid eyes on you, what with your pecker all frozen and blue.”
“As the saying goes, I clean up well.”
He and Tom shook hands and the two men sat down. The each took a cup of the viscous tar that passed for army coffee. They were in a tent that served as Canfield’s office.
“So what is a spy from the Pentagon doing up here?” Canfield asked, just a little cautiously.
“Spying,” Tom responded facetiously. “Seriously, several of us are up here just trying to get a feel for the situation. Even General Truscott is having a sit down with your man Fredendall.”
Canfield rolled his eyes. “I wish Truscott well.”
“Really?” Tom and others had heard a lot of rumors about the general.
“Fredendall is, well, a truly unique individual. He’s digging in and waiting for a massive German assault. He’s turned his headquarters into a citadel defended by a whole battalion.”
Tom was surprised. “Didn’t he get the word that we consider it very unlikely that the Nazis will do anything but launch raids?”
“Let’s just say he talks a good fight but it looks like he’s actually very cautious. If the Germans do attack in any strength, we’ll have a hell of a time getting to them because of the way he’s got the army dug in. Mine is just about the only unit with any mobility and that’s because we’ve got all those radar units to protect and that ain’t going too well either.”
“Why is that?”
“Because our orders are to keep patrolling the roads and stay out of the woods. Even though I lost one of my civilian cops to possible Nazis doesn’t get those orders changed. We don’t have enough men to search the woods, or that’s what I was told. Bullshit if you ask me.”
Canfield went on to explain how a replacement deputy went missing and how his body was subsequently found when somebody noticed a flock of crows congregating a little ways off the road and got curious.
“Deputy Curran’s body was a mess. He’d been shot twice and the birds and animals had been feeding on him for a while. Back at the place he’d gone to check, one of my brighter cops brought a dog that sniffed out what might be blood that had been covered by dirt. He sent a bag of the dirt to the local high school so that one of the science teachers could examine it and see if it actually was blood. It was and it was even Curran’s blood type. Curran’s uniform and squad car are missing, too. Curran was an old fart who’d retired and came back to serve. I want to kill the bastards who killed him.”
“Christ,” said Tom. “Even a blind man could see where either would be hugely useful to any saboteurs.”
“Now it’s my turn. Just how good are the rumors that April second is the day?”
“As good as anything. In Washington, there are more rumors than there are people, but April the second seems to be the consensus. Endeavors like starting a war take a lot of time and planning and coordination, and that involves letting people in on the secret. And that, of course means people talk.”
Canfield shook his head in disbelief. “So they talk and we listen? Great. Any chance of us good guys launching a first strike to knock them on their fucking keesters?”
“The chances of that are zero. If we hit first, then we’re the bad guys, just like the Japs were at Pearl Harbor.”
“Not even if it saves lives? American lives? Jesus wept, what a way to run a war.”
Tom shrugged. “I’m just the messenger, not the message. These things are always decided way above my pay grade.”
“Could it be because somebody wants to run for a fourth term?”
“Nothing would surprise me. I know a nice young lady who likes me. She used to be a schoolteacher before she became a WAC officer and, even though some Canadian Nazis tried to kill her, she thinks it would be terrible to strike first. Oh yeah, she also feels that FDR would be making a big mistake to run again.”
Canfield had heard the story of the attack and was impressed. He’d also read a report saying that Grant had been involved in the freeing of the Jews from the Beaufort. Grant and his girlfriend, he thought, seemed to get around. “She’s probably right on both counts. She’s also probably too good for you.”
“I just hope she never finds out.”
Tom checked his watch and stood. A C47 would be taking off from Buffalo for Washington in an hour. Truscott would be on board and, if the general was on time, the plane would not wait for any lowly major who wasn’t there. Tom had made one trip from Buffalo where he’d had to scramble and didn’t want a second. He told Canfield to use the remainder of the coffee to repair the local roads. It was time to go and he would be on the plane before Truscott showed up.
As he drove off, Tom could not help but wonder if everything was being done. Why weren’t American soldiers being used to chase down what were probably Nazis instead of digging in against an attack that wasn’t going to come? It didn’t make sense. Was Fredendall going to sit back and be a punching bag when he could be out scouring the woods for the bad guys?
On a happier note, he had more than a week to grab some time with Alicia.
The rivalry between army intelligence and the OSS was intense, almost as intense as that between the army and the navy, and despite what the president had done to calm the troubled waters. General Marshall hated the necessity of speaking with OSS head Wild Bill Donovan, but he buried his pride. Nothing less than American blood was at stake.
The two men met in a small room at the venerable Hay Adams Hotel where each had ostensibly gone for lunch with others. As neutral sites went, it was a good one and nothing the media or other rumor mongers would notice.
At first, Donovan was shocked, then hurt, that his friend Roosevelt would cut him out of the loop regarding the change of the date for the German attack. However, he calmed quickly.
“Obviously, you want something from me,” he said to Marshall.
“I want an excuse to alert my troops at the last minute in order to save lives while still keeping the secret of Ultra. Is there anything your people have discovered that would help? Have there been any significant troop movements, anything? I cannot abide the thought of our troops being attacked without at least having a chance to get to their weapons. I don’t want anything like Pearl Harbor. Even an excuse that would give us a few minutes and not give away our secrets would save countless lives. And, by the way, I know I am speaking for Admiral King as well.”
Marshall laughed harshly and continued. “I’ve even gone so far as to issue another War Warning, but that was several weeks ago. Human nature being what it is I’m sure that many are beginning to think that any threat is fading and that life will go back to normal. Of course, I did make sure every unit got it and hammered home the fact that it applied to everyone, no matter how far they might be from the Canadian border. To the best of my ability, there will be none of that it can’t happen to me mentality.”
“I rather think that attitude disappeared after Pearl Harbor. However, I’ll do what I can,” Donovan said softly. He shared Marshall’s anguish at the thought of defenseless Americans being slaughtered. “We have people monitoring airfields and army emplacements. Right now, we see nothing; however, that could change in a heartbeat. Do you agree that any initial attack will come from the air?”
“I do, although I also believe that follow-up attacks will come from ground forces and saboteurs. German submarines will, of course, do their own evil work.”
“Good. We will focus on watching the Luftwaffe. Right now, major German army and tank units are still well away from the border, but emplacements to hold them have been built just inside Canada. Right now, they are empty, but they could be filled with soldiers and tanks in very short order.”