"Oh, yes. In two ways. Maybe three. For one thing, he could simply ig-nore the order. In effect, he's already done that. The way it's supposed to work is that when the desires of the Commander-in-Chief are made known, every-body is supposed to jump through a hoop to see the desires satisfied. MacAr-thur has not yet found time in his busy schedule to even talk to Donovan's people. That's why I was sent over here this time, to sell Donovan's people to him."
"What's El Supremo got against the OSS?" Hart asked.
"El Supremo doesn't want anything going on in his ballpark that he can't control; and he thinks-probably correctly-that he will not be able to control the OSS because Bill Donovan has the President's ear. This is the proof of that, come to think of it," Pickering said, waving Knox's Special Channel Personal in his hand.
Hart looked confused.
I have no business explaining this to them, Pickering thought. But on the other hand, Roosevelt and Knox had no right putting me in the middle of their chicanery.
Another seed of thought appeared in the back of his mind, quickly sprouted, blossomed, and then gave fruit.
Of course, that's what this is all about! Or at least has a hell of a lot to do with it! Roosevelt is one of those people who believe that "If you're not with me, you're against me" nonsense. If I quietly go along with this business, which would mean not telling MacArthur, deceiving MacArthur, then I will have chosen sides, joined Roosevelt's team. His political team, not his military team. When he ordered me over here to try to sell MacArthur on the OSS, as a serving officer, I had no choice but to obey my orders, even though I thought that Donovan's OSS will probably be more trouble here than they're worth, and that Bill Donovan personally is an arrogant, goddamned Democrat New York lawyer and New Dealer.
And Christ knows I tried to sell Donovan's people to El Supremo.
I went to work for Knox to be his eyes and ears over here. While I really think I could be of more use to this war running a shipping operation- God knows I could do a better job of that than three-quarters of those chair-warming admirals in Pearl Harbor-there was a certain value to that. I think I've done some good.
But I did not sign on to be a political errand boy for Knox. Or for Roose-velt. And that's what they're asking me to become.
I'll be damned if I'll go along.
He became aware that both Pluto and Hart were waiting for him to go on.
"When in doubt, Pluto," Pickering said, "tell the truth. Write that on the palm of your hand so you don't forget it."
"Sir?"
"Let me at that phone, George," Pickering said. He squeezed past Hart, picked up a red telephone, and dialed a number.
"Fleming Pickering, Sid," he said into it-telling Pluto and Hart that he had dialed MacArthur's personal number and that Lieutenant Colonel Sidney L. Huff, MacArthur's aide-de-camp, had picked up the telephone-"I would like a few minutes of the Supreme Commander's time at his earliest convenience."
There was a pause.
"No, Sid, squeezing me in for a minute or two at nineteen thirty will not be satisfactory."
There was another pause.
"I'll tell you what you can do, Colonel," Pickering said, his voice icy. "You can speak to the Supreme Commander, relay my request to him, and then relay his reply to me."
There was another pause, a longer one.
"Thank you very much, Colonel," Pickering said. "Please inform the Su-preme Commander that I'm on my way up."
Hart started to slide the metal bars out of place.
"You wait for me here, George," Pickering said. "Aides-de-camp are not invited to this t€te-…-t€te."
"Aye, aye, Sir."
"Fleming, my dear fellow," General Douglas Mac Arthur, Supreme Com-mander, SWPOA, said, smiling and waving his hand in a come in gesture. "Come in, curiosity overwhelms me. Sid said this was an emergency of some kind?"
MacArthur was dressed in his customary washed-soft khakis.
"No, Sir. I said nothing about an emergency. What I told Colonel Huff was that I would be grateful if you could find time for me before half past seven."
"I can always make time for you, Fleming. Sid should have known that," MacArthur said. "Sid, you may leave us."
Huff looked as if he had just been kicked.
Did El Supremo sense that I didn't want Huff to hear what I have to say? Or did he do that to humiliate him and thus placate me? He's just as Machia-vellian as Roosevelt, and I better not forget that.
MacArthur waved Pickering into a chair and looked at him expectantly.
Pickering handed him Knox's Special Channel Personal and then sat down.
MacArthur picked up a long, thin, black cigar from an ashtray and puffed on it as he read the message twice. Then he met Pickering's eyes.
"I appreciate your loyalty in showing me this, Fleming."
"General, with all the respect I can muster, loyalty was not my motive."
"Indeed?"
"I did not want you to believe I had any part in this."
"I would have known that without your telling me," MacArthur said. "Whatever terrible things may be said about you around here, no one I know has ever accused you of being devious."
Pickering found himself smiling.
"Among the things that are said about you around here is that you are mounting a supply mission to Lieutenant Colonel Fertig on Mindanao," MacArthur said. "I've been wondering when you were going to discuss this with me."
"More of a reconnaissance mission, Sir," Pickering said. "To see what's really going on with him."
"General Willoughby believes Fertig suffers from delusions of gran-deur."
"Yes, Sir, he's made that clear to me."
"I had plans, you know, Fleming, to conduct extensive guerrilla opera-tions against the Japanese-using the materiel and personnel available to Gen-eral Sharp's Mindanao Force."
"No, Sir, I did not."
"That, and good deal else, went down the toilet when the chain of com-mand became confused. You know what I'm speaking of, of course."
"No, Sir. Not exactly."
"When I was ordered to leave Corregidor by the President, it was my un-derstanding that I was simply moving my flag, not relinquishing my command and its concomitant responsibilities. I conferred with General Sharp on Min-danao-at the Dole Plantation, incidentally, do you know it?"
"Yes, Sir. I was a guest there many times before the war."
"Lovely place. It pains me to think of Japanese boots treading on the verandah of the main house... but I digress. I spoke with General Sharp at some length while waiting for the airplane. My orders to him were to hold on, that immediately on my arrival here, I would institute a resupply operation for the Mindanao Force; and, looking to the worst case-if it appeared to him that further organized resistance was not possible-to make provisions, select per-sonnel, and cache supplies and materiel for irregular operations."
"I wasn't aware of that, Sir."
"Oh, yes," MacArthur said. "But the moment that B-17 broke ground at the Dole Plantation airstrip to bring me here, General Marshall began to com-municate directly with General Wainwright on Corregidor. General Wainwright naturally assumed the chain of command had been changed, that I had been taken out of it, and that he henceforth would be getting his orders from Washington. Nothing about that was said to me, then or now."