Colonel Edward J. Banning, USMC, and Marine Gun-ner Ernest W. Zimmerman came into the room.
"I didn't know you were here, too, Ed," Dawkins said.
"Good morning, General," Banning said. "It's good to see you."
"Ed Banning I know," Craig said. "Fourth Marines. Hello, Ed."
"Good morning, General," Banning replied, and added, "Mr. Zimmerman and Captain McCoy are old China Marines, too."
Craig shook Zimmerman's hand, then glanced at his watch.
"We are pressed for time," Craig said. "So if there's some place these fellows can wait... "
He nodded at McCoy, Zimmerman, and the aides-de-camp.
"Why don't you go in the bar?" Pickering said, nodding at the door to the room. "There's coffee. McCoy, you stay."
"Aye, aye, sir," McCoy said.
Captain McGowan and General Craig's aide were sur-prised, and possibly a little annoyed, that they were being excused, and Captain McCoy was not, but they and Zim-merman went into the bar and closed the door.
"I'm the self-invited guest, General," Craig said. "When Dawkins told me he was coming to see you, I invited my-self."
"You're welcome, of course," Pickering said.
"I don't think I have to convince you of the value of intel-ligence, General," Craig said. "I have practically none about Korea. If the price of getting some is bad manners..."
"Ken's got some pretty detailed knowledge of the North Korean order of battle," Pickering said, nodding at McCoy. "With the caveat that you don't ask him where he got it, and if you can give him an hour between now and 1830, when we get on a plane for Tokyo, he could brief you."
"I'll find the hour," Craig said. "Thank you."
"You're going to Tokyo, General?" Dawkins asked.
His real question, Pickering understood, is "What are you going to do in Tokyo? " and after a moment, he decided to answer it.
"What you hear in this room stays in this room, Okay?" he said.
"Agreed," Craig said.
"Yes, sir," Dawkins said.
"The President is unhappy that we were so badly sur-prised by what's happening over there," Pickering began. "And he's afraid that he's not going to get the whole pic-ture from MacArthur. He called an old buddy of his, an Army National Guard major general, Ralph Howe, to ac-tive duty, to go over there and see for himself what's hap-pened, and will happen. Then, because I'm acquainted with MacArthur, he did the same thing with me."
Craig nodded.
"May I ask what you're doing at Camp Pendleton?"
"That's Ed Banning's idea, and like most of his ideas, a good one. Howe and I will be reporting directly to the Presi-dent. If we use the normal communication channels, the odds are that our messages would be in the hands of the brass at least half an hour before they were in the President's hands. If, on the other hand, we communicate with your comm center here, with Banning getting the messages, no one would see them but Banning. We haven't worked out the details yet, but I'm sure Ed can find a secure channel from here to Washington."
"That shouldn't be a problem," Dawkins said. "If necessary, we can set up a secure radio-teletype link between here and the White House Signal Agency."
"I have to say this, Dawk," Pickering said. "I don't want one of your commo sergeants making copies of our traffic for you."
"Yes, sir," Dawkins said.
"McCoy, Zimmerman, and I are going to Japan tonight," Pickering said. "I'm going to see General MacArthur. Mc-Coy and Zimmerman are going to Korea."
"Why?" Craig asked McCoy.
"We want to interrogate prisoners, sir," McCoy said. "And see what else we can find out."
"What are you going to do about an interpreter?"
"Sir, I speak Korean, and Mr. Zimmerman speaks Chi-nese."
"At least two kinds of Chinese, General," Ed Banning said. "And Japanese. As does McCoy. McCoy also speaks Russian and-"
"I could really use officers with those skills," Craig said, and looked at Pickering. "I suppose that's out of the ques-tion?"
"I'm afraid so," Pickering said.
"How about access to what they learn?"
"With the caveat that it's not for-what do the newspa-per people say, `attribution'?-and doesn't go any fur-ther than you think it really has to, I can see no reason why Ed Banning can't filter out what he thinks would be useful to you from our traffic, and give it to you and Dawkins."
"Thank you," Craig said.
Dawkins looked at his wristwatch.
"Ed, it's that time. They expect us at the port."
Craig nodded.
"If you don't need Captain McCoy right now," Craig, said, "he could ride along with us, and I could pick his brain in the car."
"Sure," Pickering said, and then saw the look on Mc-Coy's face.
"Something I don't know about, Ken?" he asked.
"Sir, Zimmerman and I were going to go out to Pendleton and scrounge utilities, 782 gear, (Field equipment-for example, web belts, harnesses, canteens, helmets, etc) and weapons," Mc-Coy said.
"I think we can fix that," General Craig said.
He walked to the door of the bar and opened it.
"Charley," he said to his aide, "I can't imagine a Marine gunner needing help from a captain scrounging anything, but you never know. Get a car and take Mr. Zimmerman out to Pendleton and help him get whatever he thinks he needs."
"Aye, aye, sir," Craig's aide-de-camp said.
"And you better go with him," General Dawkins said to Captain McGowan. "We'll link up somewhere later."
Zimmerman looked at McCoy.
"Thompson?" he asked.
McCoy thought that over.
"I think I'd rather have a Garand," he said. "Maybe both? See if you can get a tanker's shoulder holster for me."
Zimmerman nodded.
McCoy turned to General Craig.
"Whenever you're ready, sir," he said.
[FOUR]
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF
HEADQUARTERS, SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED POWERS
THE DAI ICHI BUILDING
TOKYO, JAPAN
0830 14 JULY 1950
Major General Edward M. Almond was in his outer office talking to a tall, intense young lieutenant wearing the in-signia of an aide-de-camp when Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, trailed by Captain Kenneth R. McCoy and Marine Gunner Ernest W. Zimmerman, walked in, Almond broke off his conversation in midsentence and offered Pickering his hand.
"We heard you were here," he said, "But Al"-he nod-ded at the lieutenant-"couldn't seem to find you."
It was a question, and Pickering answered it.
"We're in the Imperial," he said. "My wife's in the hotel business, and hotel people take care of each other. They call it `comping,' and I take advantage of it whenever I can."
"I don't think Al thought of the Imperial," Almond said.
"No, sir, that's the one place I didn't look," the aide con-firmed.
"Well, I guess I don't ask if you're comfortable," Al-mond said. "But I can offer you a cup of coffee. General MacArthur expects you at 0900."
"Thank you," Pickering said. "General, this is Captain McCoy and Mr. Zimmerman."
"You look familiar, Captain," Almond said, as he shook McCoy's hand.
"Captain McCoy was stationed in Japan," Pickering an-swered for him. "With Naval intelligence."