Morrissette walked past Donovan's secretary to his open door. In his judg-ment, Donovan's secretary, like doctors' and dentists' receptionists, had as-sumed to herself entirely too much of her employer's prestige. Morrissette did not like to be a supplicant before her desk for permission to seek The Great Man's attention.
"When you have a moment, Bill," Morrissette said. "There's something I think you should see."
Donovan's eyes showed annoyance when he looked up from his desk, but a moment later, his face broke into a charming Irish smile.
"Unlike some people around here, you rarely waste my time, Mo. Come in. What have you got?"
Morrissette walked to Donovan's desk and laid a long sheet of teletype-writer paper on it.
"This just was decrypted," he said.
"Let me see," Donovan said.
T O P S E C R E T
URGENT URGENT
BRISBANE NUMBER 107
0900GREENWICH2DEC42
FROM CHIEF OSS STATION
BRISBANE AUSTRALIA
TO DIRECTOR OSS
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OP HEALTH BLDG
WASHINGTON DC
SUBJECT OPERATION WINDMILL
YOUR MESSAGE NUMBER 403 0845 GREENWICH 31N0V42 RE LOSS BROWNLEE RECEIVED 0715GREENWICH 2DEC42 XXX THIS STATION NOT REPEAT NOT PREVIOUSLY ADVISED OF INCIDENT BY OSS LIAISON
OFFICER SWPOA XXX OSS LIAISON OFFICER SWPOA ADVISES YOUR 403 RECEIVED BY SWPOA 1908GREENWICH 31N0V42 XXX DELAY IN DELIVERY TO OSS BRISBANE ATTRIBUTED TO QUOTE LARGE VOLUME OF CLASSIFIED TRAFFIC REQUIRING DECRYPTION ENDQU0TE XXX SITUATION POINTS OUT ABSOLUTE NECESSITY THIS STATION BE AUTHORIZED ACCESS TO SPECIAL CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS
FACILITIES FOR URGENT TRAFFIC XXX
UNDERSIGNED HAD BEEN INFORMED OF BROWNLEE LOSS 1615 LOCALTIME 29N0V42 AS FOLLOWS:
A 1440 LOCAL TIME 29N0V42 MACKLIN TELEPHONED EMERGENCY CONTACT NUMBER AND REQUESTED IMMEDIATE CONFERENCE WITH STATION CHIEF XXX DUTY OFFICER SUGGESTED RENDEZVOUS POINT XXX MACKLIN REFUSED TO LEAVE HIS SWPOA BOQ STATING HIS LIFE WAS IN DANGER XXX DUTY OFFICER UNABLE TO CONTACT UNDERSIGNED DISPATCHED AGENT TO MACKLINS BOQ XXX
B 1550 AGENT CONTACTED UNDERSIGNED AND STRONGLY RECOMMENDED PERSONAL VISIT TO MACKLIN AT BOQ XXX UNDERSIGNED MET WITH MACKLIN AT BOQ 1615 LOCALTIME XXX FOUND HIM IN HIGHLY EXCITABLE STATE XXX DURING MEETING MACKLIN:
1 Stated he had been informed of brownlee loss BY COLONEL JACK NMI STECKER USMC AT APPROXIMATELY 1130 LOCALTIME 29NOV42 XXX STECKER INFORMED HIM THAT BRIGGEN PICKERING INTENDED TO CONTINUE OPERATION REGARDLESS XXX
STATED THAT HE HAD REQUESTED TO SEE PICKERING AND THIS REQUEST WAS DENIED XXX
STATED THAT HE THEN INFORMED STECKER THAT HE DID NOT FEEL QUALIFIED TO LEAD
OPERATION BECAUSE OF LACK OF TRAINING AND ALSO BECAUSE HE HAS NOT FULLY RECOVERED FROM WOUNDS SUFFERED AT GAVUTU XXX
STATED THAT STECKER HAD THEN TOLD HIM THAT ALTHOUGH MACKLIN WOULD BE SENIOR OFFICER MISSION WOULD ACTUALLY BE UNDER COMMAND OF FIRST LIEUTENANT K R MCCOY
USMCR WHO HE SAID WAS QUOTE KNOWN AS KILLER MCCOY BECAUSE HE HAD BRUTALLY KNIFED TO DEATH FOUR ITALIAN MARINES IN INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT IN SHANGHAI IN 1941 ENDQUOTE XXX
STATED THAT HE HAS HAD TROUBLE IN PAST WITH BOTH STECKER AND MCCOY AND THAT BOTH WERE FORMER ENLISTED MEN CONSPIRING AGAINST HIM TO RUIN HIS NAME AND PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION XXX
STATED THAT STECKER HAD THREATENED TO HAVE MCCOY KILL HIM AS SOON AS MISSION LANDS AT DESTINATION XXX
INASMUCH AS COLONEL STECKER WAS UNKNOWN TO UNDERSIGNED DISCREET INQUIRIES WERE MADE OF COLONEL LEWIS R MITCHELL USMC SPECIAL LIAISON OFFICER BETWEEN CINCPAC AND SWPOA XXX MITCHELL ADVISES THAT ALTHOUGH HE DOES NOT KNOW NATURE OF PICKERING STECKER RELATIONSHIP HE KNOWS STECKER WHO WON MEDAL OF HONOR IN WWI IS HIGHLY REGARDED BY MAJ GEN A A VANDEGRIFT OF US FIRST MARINE DIVISION UNDER WHOM HE COMMANDED BATTALION IN GUADALCANAL INVASION XXX MITCHELL STATES THAT FROM PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE LIEUTENANT MCCOY IS HIGHLY REGARDED BY BRIGGEN PICKERING AND THAT STECKER TOLD HIM THAT MCCOY PARTICIPATED IN MARINE RAIDER OPERATION ON MAKIN ISLAND
IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING AND OF UNDERSIGNED PERSONAL BELIEF THAT SOMEHOW MACKLIN SLIPPED PAST PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION BOARD VIS-A-VIS STABILITY IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT MACKLIN NOT REPEAT NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE AS MEMBER OF OPERATION WINDMILL AND THAT HE BE RELEASED FROM OSS AS UNSUITABLE XXX
UNDERSIGNED RECOMMENDS IN STRONGEST POSSIBLE TERMS THAT SUITABLY TRAINED AND THOROUGHLY EVALUATED REPLACEMENT FOR MACKLIN BE SENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE XXX IF THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE THREE (3) AGENTS HERE ARE MARGINALLY QUALIFIED AND WOULD PROBABLY VOLUNTEER IF ASKED XXX
FOR YOUR GENERAL INFORMATION MITCHELL ALSO ADVISED THAT PICKERING CONFERRED WITH REAR ADMIRAL WAGAM OF NIMITZ STAFF 29N0V42 PRESUMABLY IN RE AVAILABILITY OF SUBMARINE XXX TIME IS THEREFORE PROBABLY OF ESSENCE TO FIND REPLACEMENT FOR MACKLIN XXX
WATERSON
STATIONCHIEF BRISBANE
T O P S E C R E T
Donovan finished reading and raised his eyes to Morrissette's.
"Well?" he asked.
"What do I do about this, Bill?"
"Aside from finding the idiot who sent this idiot Macklin to Brisbane, you mean? Or are you asking me what we should do to him before we fire him? How about nailing his balls to that large oak tree beside the first tee at the Congressional Country Club? With a rusty nail, of course."
"What do we do about Captain Macklin?"
"What would you suggest, Mo?"
"(a) That we Urgent Radio Waterson telling him to go to Pickering and tell him that Macklin has been relieved and a replacement is on the way and (b) get a replacement on the way."
"We can't do that, Mo," Donovan said.
"Why not?"
"What you will do, Mo, is Urgent Radio Waterson and tell him to keep his opinion of Captain Macklin to himself. The last thing I want Douglas MacArthur to find out is that we sent Pickering this idiot."
"Knowing what we now know about him, you'd rather send Captain Macklin on Operation Windmill than suffer a little embarrassment? Mis-takes happen, Bill. We made one."
"The decision has been made, with the approval of the President, to send two OSS agents on Pickering's mission to Fertig. If we say, 'Hold it a minute, fellows, there's been a minor little mistake here, one of the agents we sent is paranoid,' we're going to look like fools. I don't want to look like a fool before the President, Knox, and MacArthur. Is that so hard to understand?"
"Not to understand, I suppose," Morrissette said. "But to believe. What about the other people on this mission? Have you considered the threat to them, to the mission itself, of taking this man along?"
"Subject closed, Mo," Donovan said. "Having considered everything in-volved, it is my decision that Captain Macklin goes on the mission. Clear? Send Waterson an Urgent Radio to that effect."
"May I speak frankly?"
"Certainly."
"This stinks, Bill, to high heaven."
"I don't like it any more than you do. It's a question of the greater good."
"What is 'the greater good'?"
"That the OSS operate in the Pacific. I believe, and I hope you do, that we can make a bona fide, substantial contribution to the war effort over there. All we have to do is get around MacArthur standing in our way."