The Fighting Agents Part 25

"Certainly," Bruce said.

"If you were to tell Lieutenant Jamison that Miss . . . or Lieutenant, which would probably be better . . . that Lieutenant Hoche Lieutenant Hoche will be devoting half of her time to dealing with female personnel at Whitbey House for me, there would be no reason not to go ahead and send her out there as originally planned." will be devoting half of her time to dealing with female personnel at Whitbey House for me, there would be no reason not to go ahead and send her out there as originally planned."

"Good idea," Bruce said after a moment. "We'll just have to get Jamison some other help."

"I would say that it would take her two or three days to read the files here," Dancy said. "In the meantime, she can stay with me."

"That's very kind," Charity said.

"Not at all," Captain Dancy said. "I'm going to run you by the bar in the Dorchester. Maybe I can latch on to one of your rejects."

Charity laughed with delight. They smiled at each other.

Womanly smiles, Bruce thought. Bruce thought. Even girlish. Even girlish.

But there was more to both of them than that. He reminded himself that another of his weaknesses was underestimating the female animal.

"I'll go fetch Colonel Stevens, Sir," Capt. Dancy said.

6.

PEARL HARBOR U.S. NAVAL BASE OAHU ISLAND, TERRITORY OF HAWAII 1615 HOURS 15 FEBRUARY 1943.

Commander Edwin R. Lennox, wearing the trousers and s.h.i.+rt of a tropical worsted uniform-the blouse hung from a protruding bolt on the Drum Drum's conning tower- watched as the last of the fresh food was carried aboard. An hour before, an officer courier had delivered his sailing orders. They were in two sealed envelopes, numbered "1" and "2."

The first order, by authority of COMSUBFORPAC, directed Lennox to take the Drum Drum to sea at 0600 16 February 1943. He was to sail to coordinates that would put him two hundred miles south-southwest of Pearl. Upon arrival there, he was directed to open envelope "2." The second envelope would define the area the to sea at 0600 16 February 1943. He was to sail to coordinates that would put him two hundred miles south-southwest of Pearl. Upon arrival there, he was directed to open envelope "2." The second envelope would define the area the Drum Drum was to patrol, engaging enemy naval forces and s.h.i.+pping "until such time as the expenditure of torpedoes, fuel and victuals, in your sole judgment, dictates your return to Pearl Harbor." was to patrol, engaging enemy naval forces and s.h.i.+pping "until such time as the expenditure of torpedoes, fuel and victuals, in your sole judgment, dictates your return to Pearl Harbor."

As soon as the last of the fresh food was stowed aboard, it was Lennox's intention to go ash.o.r.e, mail his last letter to his wife, and then go to the officers' club for a steak and as many drinks of Kentucky sour mash bourbon as he could handle and still make it back to the Drum Drum under his own power by midnight. under his own power by midnight.

A Navy gray Plymouth sedan came onto the wharf and stopped beside the ton-and-a-half rations truck. A white hat jumped out from behind the wheel, opening the rear door and then standing to attention as a full commander in a crisp white uniform got out and walked to the center of three gangplanks laid from the wharf to the deck of the Drum. Drum. The thick golden rope of an aide to a flag officer hung from the shoulder of the crisp white uniform. The thick golden rope of an aide to a flag officer hung from the shoulder of the crisp white uniform.

The admiral's aide walked down the gangplank, stopped, and crisply saluted the officer of the deck, who was wearing shorts, a T-s.h.i.+rt, an incredibly dirty brimmed cap he thought was a lucky piece, and a .45 in a holster slung low on his hip like a gunfighter's.

"Request permission to come aboard, Sir," the admiral's aide said in the prescribed nautical manner.

"Permission granted," the officer of the deck said, returning the salute far more casually than it had been rendered. There was in it faint overtones of the scorn felt by submarine officers about to go back on patrol for officers who walked around Pearl Harbor in crisp white uniforms dog-robbing for an admiral.

The admiral's aide saluted the colors and stepped onto the deck.

"I wish to see the captain, Sir," the aide said.

"Ask the commander to come up," Lennox called down. He didn't want to go into the hull. It was hot down there, and he was freshly showered and in a fresh uniform.

Very carefully, so as not to soil his uniform, the admiral's aide climbed the ladder welded to the side of the conning tower.

"What can I do for you, Commander?" Lennox asked.

"I have two doc.u.ments for you, Captain," the admiral's aide said. "Your operational order has been revised. May I suggest we go to your cabin?"

"Yes, Sir," Lennox said. "You want the original back?"

"Please," the admiral's aide said.

"Watch yourself," Commander Lennox said as he entered the conning tower. "It's pretty greasy in here."

They made their way to the captain's cabin, which was the size of a small closet. Lennox worked the combination of the safe and exchanged envelope "2" in it for an identical envelope handed him by the admiral's aide.

"Can I lock it?" Lennox asked. "You said 'two doc.u.ments'? "

"You can lock it," the admiral's aide said, and, when Lennox had closed the safe and twirled the dial, handed him a second envelope.

Lennox opened it and looked at it incredulously.

MR. AND MRS. H. FREDERICK DENNISON REQUEST THE HONOR OF THE PRESENCE OFLt. Commander Edwin R. Lennox, USNAT c.o.c.kTAILS AND DINNER 5:30 p.m. February 15, 1943 411 OCEAN DRIVE, WAIKIKI "What the h.e.l.l is this?" Lennox blurted.

"Beautiful place," the admiral's aide said. "Mr. Dennison owns most of the movie theaters in Hawaii. And some other things, like maybe half of downtown Honolulu."

"Well, would you please express my regrets to Mr. Dennison? " Lennox said. "I have other plans."

"The Admiral thought you might," the admiral's aide said. "That's why he sent me to deliver the invitation. It is the Admiral's desire, Commander, that you accept Mr. Dennison's invitation."

"I'm sailing at 0600," Lennox said.

"The Admiral is aware of that, Commander," the aide said.

"He's going to be there?" Lennox asked.

"Oh, yes," the admiral's aide said. "The Dennisons really know how to throw a party. Ever been to a luau, Commander? I mean a real one?"

"Oh, what the h.e.l.l!" Lennox said. "But why me?"

"The Dennisons like to do what they can for the fleet," the admiral's aide said. "I don't suppose you've got whites, do you?"

"No, I don't," Lennox said.

"Pity," the admiral's aide said. "You about ready to go?"

VIII.

1.

"ROLLING WAVES" WAIKIKI BEACH, OAHU, TERRITORY OF HAWAII 15 FEBRUARY 1943 It was a forty-five-minute drive from Pearl Harbor to the Dennison estate on the beach at Waikiki. The party was well under way by the time Lennox got there. The red-brick curved driveway before the long, low house was packed with cars, more than half of them military and naval staff cars. Lennox saw that many of the service cars had what looked like a second license plate covered with a canvas sleeve. He knew what they concealed: the starred plates identifying the pa.s.sengers as admirals and generals.

Lennox realized that not only was he going to be out of place in his tropical worsted uniform but outranked by a platoon of bra.s.s hats and their entourages. This was no place for a simple submarine sailor to be.

And when they were inside, and a houseboy had led them to a two-bartender bar set up by a large swimming pool, he saw two movie stars. Floating around in the pool with sort of inner tubes under their arms and drinks in their hands were Lana Turner and one of those too-handsome, too-perfect actors. It took him a minute to place the guy as Greg Hammer.

How does a large, splendid physical specimen like that avoid his draft board?

He realized there must be two hundred people in the Dennison mansion. One in five was female. For woman-scarce Hawaii, that was an unusual percentage of females. Some of them were wives, but many were unattached.

Why am I surprised? Where did I expect the pretty girls to be, in downtown Honolulu trying to pick up sailors?

He saw COMSUBFORPAC, which wasn't surprising, and CINCPAC, which was. He wondered why the h.e.l.l COMSUBFORPAC had wanted him at the party. Probably, he thought somewhat bitterly, to give the condemned man a last hearty meal.

COMSUBFORPAC saw him, nodded, and gave him a quick smile, but made it clear by quickly looking away that Lennox was not expected to pay his respects to him in person at that time.

And then the Admiral's aide disappeared, and Lennox was left alone. He finished his first drink, had the bartender make him another, and then wandered around until he came to the buffet.

What he would do, he decided, was eat. They weren't serving the steak he had been looking forward to, but it was beyond reasonable argument a hearty, luxurious meal. There were roast pigs, "steamboat" restaurant rounds of roast beef, fish, and chicken. He tried to remember where he had seen a more luxuriant display of food, but nothing came to him.

He carried his tray outside the building and sat on a low brick wall beyond which was the white sand beach and the ocean. The food turned out to taste as good as it appeared, and he ate everything he had heaped on his plate.

Lennox had just lit a cigar when the Admiral's aide came for him.

"I wondered what had happened to you," the aide said.

"I was about to come looking for you, Commander," Lennox said. "I've got to think about getting back to Pearl."

"We'll get you back to the Drum, Drum," the aide said. "But right now, will you come with me, please?"

"Where are we going?"

The aide did not reply. Lennox followed him around the pool, then through a long, high-ceilinged living room, and then down a corridor. The aide stopped before a door and knocked.

"Come!" a male voice said.

It was a den, a private office.

Inside were CINCPAC, COMSUBFORPAC, CINC-PAC'S aide, a very good-looking young woman, an Air Corps captain, and movie star Greg Hammer in the uniform of a first lieutenant of the Army's Signal Corps.

Lennox was a little embarra.s.sed about what he had imagined when he saw Hammer floating around in the pool. He was clearly not a draft dodger. But not too embarra.s.sed. He'd heard about Hollywood movie stars going into the services. There was a Marine aviation squadron with Macdonald Carey and Tyrone Power in it, conveniently stationed in Diego, where they had rented a hotel so they wouldn't be forced to put up with the discomfits of a BOQ. Clark Gable had been commissioned a lieutenant in the Air Corps. Ronald Reagan was making training films in Hollywood as a first lieutenant. It was therefore not surprising to find Greg Hammer in an officer's uniform.

"Miss Chenowith," CINCPAC said, "may I present Commander Lennox, captain of the Drum? Drum?"

Cynthia Chenowith gave him her hand and said she was glad to meet him. Her hand was the first female hand Lennox had touched in a year, and it was warm and soft, and he unkindly wondered who was privileged to jump Miss Chenowith.

"Miss Chenowith is connected with Continental Studios, " CINCPAC said. "And I'm sure you recognize Lieutenant Greg Hammer?"

"Yes, of course," Lennox said, shaking the movie star's hand.

"And this is Captain Whittaker, of the Air Corps," CINCPAC said.

"How are you, Commander?" Whittaker said, and gave Lennox his hand.

Lennox couldn't remember having seen Whittaker in a movie, but then he had never paid all that much attention to Hollywood pretty boys. At least Whittaker had gone to flight school; there were aviator's wings, if no ribbons, on his blouse.

"You may have wondered, Commander," CINCPAC said, making his little joke, "why I have called this meeting. "

Lennox laughed, dutifully.

"Yes, Sir," he said, "I have."

"Continental Studios," CINCPAC said, "has decided to make a motion picture doc.u.mentary of a submarine patrol. The Navy has promised its full cooperation, and, after consulting with Admiral Keene, I have selected the Drum Drum to partic.i.p.ate." to partic.i.p.ate."

"I don't quite understand, Sir," Lennox said. He didn't quite believe what he was hearing.

"Captain Whittaker and Lieutenant Hammer will be sailing with you, Lennox. Plus a Navy enlisted photographer's a.s.sistant."

"On patrol, Sir?" Lennox asked, incredulously.

"As I understand the way it will work," CINCPAC said, "Greg Hammer will serve as narrator, Captain Whittaker will function as director/producer, and the white hat will operate the camera."

If you open your mouth and say one word, Lennox, it will run away with you and you will tell CINCPAC, COMSUBFORPAC, and the pretty lady with the gorgeous b.r.e.a.s.t.s precisely what you think of the dumbest f.u.c.king idea you have ever heard of.

"Yes, Sir," Commander Lennox said.

And then, in desperation, he thought of something that just might keep them from putting this idiotic idea into practice.

"I presume that you gentlemen and the sailor have gone through the school at New London?" Lennox asked.

"No," Captain Whittaker said. "We thought about it, but we couldn't find time in the schedule."

"Sir, may I respectfully suggest that poses a pretty severe problem?" Lennox said. "We have no way of knowing if these gentlemen can take the atmospheric pressures of the boat."

"We checked with the fleet surgeon about that, Lennox," COMSUBFORPAC said. "He feels that, after examining their last physical examinations, there is no reason they will have trouble."

"Sir, may I suggest there are psychological considerations as well? There is the question of confinement, claustrophobia . . . "

"Perhaps Admiral Keene didn't make himself clear," CINCPAC said, a little sharply. "The potential medical problems have been considered, and judged to be manageable. "

"Yes, Sir," Lennox said.

"Captain Whittaker and Lieutenant Hammer, and the white hat, will come aboard the Drum Drum at 0530," COMSUBFORPAC said. "Their gear will be loaded aboard between now and then." at 0530," COMSUBFORPAC said. "Their gear will be loaded aboard between now and then."