Jesus, that sounds familiar, Jim Weston thought, and then felt a chill.
" 'If the Army and the Navy,' " he intoned softly, " 'ever look on heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Ma-rines. '
"Bingo!" Lieutenant Ball said. "That has to be it."
"The Marine Hymn," Weston said. "How long will it take you to decrypt the message using that?"
"About ten minutes," Ball said. "After we get the message."
"That's all you've got? You don't have the message?"
"That's all we have," Sergeant LaMadrid said.
"I'm sure there will be more," Fertig said. "And while we're waiting, Captain Weston, would you care for a beer?"
"Yes, thank you, Sir."
The Signal Officer of USFIP, the Intelligence Officer, his deputy, and the Commanding General had considerably more trouble decrypting the number blocks of Message Two when it arrived two hours later.
06 07 06 08 03
18 23 36 40 45
49 81 04 05 06
07 08 IS 23 38
33 39 43 51 53
01 02 06 18 21
34 47 50 07 15
22 46 27 27 38
02 06 83 47 27
49 51 06 11 26
The highest number used was 53. It was therefore logical to presume that the phrase to use for simple substitution contained fifty-three characters.
STREETSGUARDEDBYUSMARINES
1234667890123456789012345
This was twenty-five characters, although it was possible that the phrase would be repeated twice. They could, Lieutenant Ball said, come back to this later if nothing else seemed to work.
STREETSAREGUARDEDBYUNITEDSTATESMARINES
12345678901234567890123456789012345678
was thirty-eight characters, too short by itself and too long if the phrase was to be duplicated.
THESTREETSAREGUARDEDBYUNITEDSTATESMARINES
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901
was forty-one characters, also too short and too long.
THESTREETSAREGUARDEDBYUSMARINES
1234567890123456789012345678901
was thirty-one characters, also too short by itself, but if used twice, not too much longer (sixty-two characters versus the required fifty-three). It was wor-thy of further consideration. Perhaps the extra nine characters in the repeated phrase would not prove to be important.
Finally, the complete phrase from the Marine Hymn-as precisely as it could be remembered by Weston and Second Lieutenant Percy L. Everly- was tried:
THEYWILLFIINDTHESTREETSAREGUAREDBYUNITEDSTATESMARINES
12345678901234567890123456789012348678901234567890123
It was precisely fifty-three characters. It had to be the substitution phrase. The number blocks of Message Two were decrypted. They made some-not very much, but some-sense.
Lieutenant Percy L. Everly had a stab at it. "Lille-who the hell is Lille?- and Erny-that has to be Zimmerman-will eat beans-what the hell does that mean?-thirty miles suuth-that could be, probably is, 'south' but south of what?-this murning-this morning."
"Sir," Sergeant LaMadrid said, "that's iiller.' With an 'r,' Sir, before the 'and.' "
"Killer!" Lieutenant Everly said. "Goddamn, LaMadrid, you're not as dumb as you look. 'Killer and Erny,' that's what it is."
"Killer and Erny meaning the people you knew, Lieutenant Everly?" General Fertig asked.
"Yes, Sir. China Marines, Sir. Ernie Zimmerman and Killer McCoy."
"Will eat beans thirty miles south this morning?" Weston thought aloud. "The key words are 'beans' and 'thirty miles south.' What the hell can that mean?"
"Beans, beans, beans, lima beans, string beans... isn't there a village called 'St. Rose of Lima" or something like that?" Ball asked.
"Yes, there is," General Fertig said. "And there is also a village called Boston on the east coast. Boston baked beans. Weston, for God's sake I hope you still have our one National Geographic Society map of this island?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I suggest you bring it," Fertig said.
"Thirty miles south of St. Rose of Lima is fifty miles from nowhere, up here in the hills," Captain Weston said, using his finger as a pointer on the tattered map. "Thirty miles south of Boston is this little bump sticking into the ocean."
"I believe they call that a 'promontory,' Captain Weston," Fertig said. "How far is that from here?"
Weston measured it with a scrap of paper applied to the legend on the Na-tional Geographic Society map.
"Sixty miles, Sir."
"If we are to accept that these two people will be eating beans there this morning, we have to define 'morning,' " Fertig said. "One of two things is true. They are already on Mindanao, and are suggesting this as a rendezvous point. Or they will land there, presumably from a submarine. I think I'd bet on the latter. If this assumption is correct, and we further assume a submarine would prefer to surface no longer than is absolutely necessary, I would suggest 'morning' would mean at first light."
"My God," Ball said. "Do you really think someone's coming this morn-ing?"
"Are there any arguments to my assumptions?" Fertig asked.
There were none.
"The next question would then seem to be, gentlemen, what are we going to do about it? There is no way we could get anyone from here-you said sixty miles, Weston?"
"Yes, Sir."
"No way we can get anyone to this point," Fertig went on, "sixty miles distant from here by first light. The possibility exists that whoever these people are, they will attempt to make contact with USFIP, fail to do so, and withdraw."
"General, Sir, excuse me?" Sergeant LaMadrid said.
"Yes, Sergeant?"
"I have the motorcycle, General, Sir."
"Shit," Lieutenant Percy L. Lewis said. "I forgot about that."
"Can we get the motorcycle down to the road at night?" Fertig asked.
"More important, is it running?" Weston asked. "Do we have gas for it? Will it make it for sixty miles?"
"It doesn't have a muffler. It'll call every Jap in ten miles," Everly said.
"It has the gasoline," Sergeant LaMadrid said. "And it will go the dis-tance if the oil does not exhaust itself. I will conduct it with great care."
"You're not going, Sergeant," Fertig said. "I can't afford to lose my radio operator."
"I'll go," Weston said immediately.
"Can you ride a motorcycle, Mr. Weston?" Lieutenant Everly asked.
"It can't be that hard," Weston said. "It's only a bicycle with a motor, right? I can ride a bike."
"I'll go," Everly said. "I can ride a motorcycle."
"You'll both go," General Fertig said. "You will both attempt to make your presence known to the submarine, if there is a submarine. If there is a submarine, Captain Weston will remain on the beach to do whatever has to be done, and Lieutenant Everly will get back on the motorcycle to establish con-tact with the patrol which Captain Hedges will be leading from here, and lead it to the rendezvous point. If there is no submarine, Lieutenant Everly will meet Captain Hedges, who will then return the patrol here. In that circumstance, you will have to get back here by yourself, Weston."
"Aye, aye, Sir."