The Fighting Agents Part 11

"Poorly, now that you ask," Whittaker said, smiling at him. "Didn't your mother warn you to avoid evil companions when you joined the Navy?"

Then he saw that his joke had fallen flat and that the young sailor was uncomfortable, not amused. Whittaker came quickly around the pool table and, smiling, offered his hand.

"h.e.l.lo, Garvey," he said. "If you're with Chief Ellis, you must be somebody special. I'm happy to meet you."

Garvey shook his hand and smiled uneasily.

"You ever know somebody named Fertig?" Ellis asked.

Whittaker thought it over. "There is a faint tinkle of the bell of memory," he said.

"In the Philippines?"

"I put that together," Whittaker said, "but that's as far as it goes. Is there some reason I should know him?"

"He's still in the Philippines," Ellis said.

"Poor sonofab.i.t.c.h," Whittaker said.

"Garvey's been talking to him on the radio," Ellis said.

Whittaker's face fit up with curiosity.

"He's in the mountains of Mindanao," Ellis said. "He says there's an army sergeant named Withers with him."

"I knew a guy named Withers over there," Whittaker said.

"You want to find out if it's the same one?" Ellis said.

"I don't think this is just idle curiosity on your part," Whittaker said.

Ellis shrugged.

"How could we do that?" Whittaker asked.

"You got time to take a ride over to the Navy commo facility in Virginia?" Ellis asked.

"You're starting to act like Captain Dougla.s.s," Whittaker said. "You answer questions with another question."

"Well, I don't 'manifest a belligerent and uncooperative att.i.tude,' " Ellis said.

"Is that what that sonofab.i.t.c.h said?" Whittaker asked.

"There was more," Ellis said. "There was something about 'subjecting a trainee to a humiliating public display of affection.' Two pages, single s.p.a.ced."

"Has the Colonel seen it?" Whittaker asked.

"Not yet," Ellis said. "I intercepted it. I can lose it, but Baker's going to expect some kind of a reply, so you better start thinking about that. And about the fact that the Colonel thinks you're in Virginia running around in the woods."

"Hmmm," Whittaker said, considering that.

"You want to take a run over to Virginia?" Ellis asked.

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure," Whittaker said. He turned to put the pool cue in its rack. "We'll have lunch on the way," he said. "I want to go to that three-for-a -quarter hamburger place."

"White Castle?" Ellis asked incredulously.

"White Castle," Whittaker confirmed happily. "And eat a dollar's worth, with a large fries and a Dr Pepper."

"Maybe Baker's right," Ellis said. "He says he thinks you may be crazy."

"In that case, you can buy your own hamburgers," Whittaker said as he took his tunic from a bentwood coatrack.

An hour and a half later, a lieutenant commander signed them into his log, then took them past a Marine MP guarding access to a gray painted steel door with RADIO ROOM- POSITIVELY NO UNAUTHORIZED VISITORS painted on it.

The officer on watch, a young lieutenant j.g. with a blond crew cut, got up from his desk and walked to meet them.

"These people wish to use one of your transmitters," the lieutenant commander said. "They have their own operator. "

"Sir?" the j.g. asked, not sure he had heard correctly.

"We'd like to use that Collins, Lieutenant," Chief Ellis said, nodding his head toward one of a row of transmitters lining the wall.

The j.g. looked at the lieutenant commander for instructions. Strange people coming into the transmitter room was unusual; it was absolutely out of the lieutenant's experience that they should be given access to the equipment.

"Do it, Mr. Fenway," the lieutenant commander said.

"Aye, aye, Sir," the j.g. said, and motioned Garvey to follow him. He led him to a small cubicle holding a telegrapher's key, a typewriter, and a control panel. Garvey, still wearing his peacoat, pulled up a chair and reached for a set of earphones.

He tapped the key tentatively, then adjusted set screws on its base and tried it again. He rolled paper into the typewriter, then tuned both the receiver and the transmitter.

Then he started to tap the key.

Ellis and Whittaker walked and stood behind him, and looked over his shoulder.

"All they've got is an old M94," Ellis said. "There's no sense even trying to encrypt. We're talking in the clear."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Whittaker said.

"It's a coding device," Ellis explained. "But we have to presume the j.a.ps got at least one of them."

"Oh," Whittaker said.

"When we raise them, you're going to have to think of some way to find out if this Withers guy is the one you were with, and do it so the j.a.ps will be as confused as possible. "

"Ask him if he still has the watch," Whittaker said. "Call him Sergeant Boomboom. Sign it, Polo."

Garvey's fingers flew over the typewriter keys. It was an automatic reaction to what he had heard in his earphones. Ellis and Whittaker looked at what he had typed: MFS FOR KGS BY.

"Send 'For Sergeant BoomBoom,' " Ellis ordered, " 'Have you got the watch. Signed Polo.' "

Garvey tapped the message out with his key.

"What's with the watch?" Ellis asked.

"I gave him my watch, just before I left," Whittaker said.

There was a long wait before Garvey started typing again.

MFS FOR KGS AFFIRMATIVE WHERE POLO MFS BY.

"Send 'Polo Was.h.i.+ngton,' " Whittaker ordered. " 'Where Scarface.' "

MFS FOR KGS SCARFACE EVERYBODY HERE MFS BY.

"Send 'Send Third Letter Scarface Last Name,' " Whittaker ordered.

MFS FOR KGS VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV MSF BY.

"Send 'Glad You All Made It,' " Whittaker said.

MFS FOR KGS FOR POLO FROM SCARFACE VAYA CON DIOS MFS BY.

"Send," Whittaker began, and then his voice broke, and when Ellis turned to look at him, he saw tears running down his cheeks.

"Send," Whittaker went on, " 'Hold On. The Twenty-sixth Will Ride Again. G.o.d Bless You All. Polo.' "

MFS FOR KGS MFS OUT.

Captain James M. B. Whittaker, rather loudly, blew his nose. When he spoke, he had his voice under control.

" 'Scarface' is Master Sergeant Victor Alvarez, late of the Twenty-sixth Cavalry, Philippine Scouts. He was in the habit of calling Sergeant Withers 'Sergeant BoomBoom' because Withers blew things up."

"Clandestine station in the Philippines?" the lieutenant commander asked. Whittaker nodded. "Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

"Thank you for your a.s.sistance, Commander," Whittaker said formally. "Let's get out of here, Ellis."

When they got in the Buick Roadmaster, Ellis reached into the glove compartment and came out with a pint bottle of Old Overholt. He handed it to Whittaker.

"Good for the sinuses," he said.

"I wish I had gone with you to Warm Springs, Ellis," Whittaker said tensely. "It would have given me a chance to ask Uncle Franklin why the h.e.l.l we have abandoned those guys."

"I suppose that's why the Colonel wanted you to run around in the woods in Virginia," Ellis said. "Every time you tell off your uncle Franklin, he has to pick up the pieces."

"And what, exactly, he plans to do about it," Whittaker said.

"You might as well hear this now," Ellis said. "They asked for money. There is Army bra.s.s, both here and in Australia, who are against it, because they think the j.a.ps are using those people . . . what the Colonel calls 'turned agents.' "

"How much did they ask for?" Whittaker asked.

Ellis thought it was a strange question, but told him.

"A million, in gold, gold coins, for openers."

"They say what for?"

"We're talking in the clear, Captain," Ellis said. "You can't expect them to offer details."

"When can I get to see the Colonel?" Whittaker asked.

"He said that I should go to Virginia and pick you up and see if we could raise MFS," Ellis said. "I think he wanted to see if you thought they were being controlled by the j.a.ps. To answer your question, Captain, that's where we're going now."

3.

OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES THE NATIONAL INSt.i.tUTES OF HEALTH BUILDING WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C. 4 FEBRUARY 1943.

Colonel William J. Donovan was in civilian clothing: a well-cut, double-breasted Glen plaid suit, a crisp white s.h.i.+rt, and a red-and-blue finely patterned necktie. He looked, Whittaker thought, like a successful lawyer about to sue Chrysler or DuPont for a lot of money.

When Whittaker entered the office, Donovan walked around his desk with his hand extended, and then the handshake gave way to a quick embrace.

"Good to see you, Jimmy," he said. "How did you find the place in Virginia?"

"I'd been there before," Jimmy said. "And Staley drew a map. No problem."

"Why do I suspect you purposely misunderstood me?" Donovan asked.

"You mean 'what did I think of the place'?"

Donovan nodded.

"Baker and I crossed swords again," Whittaker said. "He seems to feel I 'manifested a belligerent and uncooperative att.i.tude.' I also 'subjected a trainee to public humiliation.' "

"Oh, Jimmy," Donovan said, both angry and resigned. "What the h.e.l.l was that all about?"

"Well, the belligerent and uncooperative att.i.tude is something that seems to happen when I get in the same room with Baker," Whittaker said. "It seems to be contagious. Canidy has the same thing happen to him."

"We're talking about you, not d.i.c.k Canidy," Donovan said. "What happened with the trainee? What was he doing so wrong you felt you had to humiliate him?"

"Her," Whittaker corrected him. "I kissed Whittaker corrected him. "I kissed her. her."

"Cynthia?" Donovan asked. Whittaker nodded. "I don't know why I'm smiling," Donovan added. "I'm sure she didn't think it was funny. You'll notice that I am a.s.suming she didn't want to be kissed."