The Fighting Agents Part 34

Harrison smiled and kept going.

David Bruce looked at him with surprise and annoyance.

The Chief of London Station and the Deputy Commander of SHAEF were lunching on small steaks, oven-browned potatoes, and asparagus. Harrison knew that the steaks and asparagus had come from OSS stocks. The usual fare at the Savoy Grill was broiled fish and Brussels sprouts. The Savoy was, however, happy to prepare whatever ingredients a guest might wish to send to its kitchen ahead of time. The price charged was the same as if they had furnished the ingredients.

What that meant was that Bruce, as Helene Dancy had suggested, was b.u.t.tering up Beetle Smith by providing an unusually nice luncheon at the Savoy. And that meant he was likely to be greatly annoyed to have the nice luncheon interrupted.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir," Paul Harrison said. "But I could see no other choice."

He thrust a large manila envelope at him.

"Captain Fine is not available?" Bruce asked, courteously enough.

"He was sent for, Sir," Harrison said. "He was out of the office."

"Oh, excuse me," Bruce said. "Beetle, this is Captain Harrison. And this is General Smith. Or do you know each other?"

h.e.l.l, yes, we're old pals. How the h.e.l.l are you, Beetle?

"No, Sir," Capt. Harrison said. "How do you do, Sir?"

General Smith smiled and offered a firm handshake.

"Captain," Smith said. " 'Harrison,' is it?"

"Yes, Sir."

Bruce tore the envelope open carefully, glanced inside, then took the Eyes Only doc.u.ments from it.

"I'm happy to meet you, Captain," General Smith said.

Harrison could not think of a reply.

Dear Harriet, You'll never guess who I met at lunch at the Savoy Hotel.

Smith, naturally curious, turned his attention to David Bruce.

"Important, David?" General Smith asked.

"Not particularly," Bruce said. And then he corrected himself. "I don't mean to suggest that you should not have brought this to my attention here, Harrison. That was the correct thing to do."

"Yes, Sir," Harrison said.

"You said that Captain Fine has been sent for?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I don't think there's any point in involving Captain Fine in this, Captain," Bruce said. "What I think you should do is see that Was.h.i.+ngton gets a copy of this as quickly as you can. And then get in touch with Colonel Stevens and ask him to be in my office at four. A little earlier, if he can make it. And I think it might be a good idea if you were to ask him to bring Lieutenant Hoche with him."

"Yes, Sir," Harrison said.

Lt. Hoche, Capt. Harrison recalled, was the newly arrived, absolutely splendiferous blonde who was supposed to be Helene Dancy's man . . . woman . . . at Whitbey House.

What the h.e.l.l has she got to do with this?

Bruce returned the doc.u.ments to the envelope and handed it back to Harrison.

"Thank you, Captain," he said.

Harrison was wondering whether or not the Customs of the Service required him to salute a three-star general in a hotel dining room, when General Smith solved the problem.

He gave Harrison his hand.

"Pleasure to have met you, Captain," he said. "I look forward to seeing you again."

"Yes, Sir," Harrison said. "Thank you, Sir."

3.

OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES NATIONAL INSt.i.tUTES OF HEALTH BUILDING WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C. 0655 HOURS 17 FEBRUARY 1943.

Chief Boatswain's Mate J. R. Ellis, USN, pushed open the plate-gla.s.s door, marched into the lobby of the building, and crossed to the elevator, his metal-tapped heels making a ringing noise on the marble floor.

He was almost at the elevator when a guard, whose nose had been in the sports section of the Was.h.i.+ngton Star, Was.h.i.+ngton Star, spotted him. The guard, in a blue, police-type uniform, erupted from his chair. spotted him. The guard, in a blue, police-type uniform, erupted from his chair.

"Hey!"

Ellis looked over his shoulder and saw the guard headed for him.

"Where do you think you're going?" the guard demanded as he caught up with Ellis and put his hand on Ellis's arm.

Ellis fished in his trousers pocket with his free hand and came up with an ident.i.ty badge sealed in plastic and fitted with an alligator clip. He held it out for the guard to see. The card bore his photograph, diagonal red "anytime, anyplace" stripes, his name, and in the Duty a.s.signment box, the words "Office of the Director."

The guard was satisfied with Ellis's bona fides, but not mollified.

"You're supposed to wear that badge, you know," he said.

"Sorry," Ellis said. "I forgot."

Ellis got on the elevator and rode up.

When the second lobby guard returned from the men's room, the guard who had stopped Ellis was curious enough to ask him, "Who the h.e.l.l is the sailor with the anytime, anyplace badge?"

"Navy chief? Big guy? Ruddy face?"

"That's him. He walked in here like he owned the place."

"He almost does," the second guard told him. "That's Chief Ellis. Donovan's shadow. Nice guy. Just don't f.u.c.k with him. The best way to handle him is to remember the only people around here who tell him what to do are Colonel Donovan and Captain Dougla.s.s."

Upstairs, Ellis got off the elevator and walked down the marble-floored corridor to the Director's office.

"Good morning, Sir," he said to the slight, balding man in his late thirties sitting at Colonel Donovan's secretary's desk.

William R. Vole was in civilian clothes, but he was a chief warrant officer of the Army Security Agency, a cryptographer, on what had turned out to be permanent loan to the OSS. The Army Security Agency monitored Army radio and wire communications nets to ensure that no cla.s.sified information was being transmitted in such a manner that it would become available to the enemy. It had also developed a capability, however, to intercept enemy radio transmissions and to break enemy codes.

There were eight such cryptographic experts a.s.signed to the OSS in Was.h.i.+ngton, and one of them was always available to the office of the Director. They had become de facto duty officers in the Director's office, in addition to their cryptographic duties. It had been made official by Colonel Donovan, at Ellis's suggestion. Ellis had pointed out that their cryptographic duties had already made them privy to the contents of incoming and outgoing encrypted messages, so they would learn little they already didn't know by keeping the Director's office manned around the clock. And there were other ways they could make themselves useful in the Director's office.

"Chief," CWO Vole responded with a smile.

Vole liked Ellis, and felt a certain kins.h.i.+p with him as well. They both had long enlisted service before the war. And unlike many of his peers, he did not resent Ellis's authority to speak for Colonel Donovan, or Donovan's deputy, Captain Peter Dougla.s.s. He had been around the OSS long enough to see how Ellis used that authority, and he had never seen him abuse it.

And there was enough vestigial enlisted man in Chief Warrant Officer Vole to take some pleasure in the annoyance and discomfiture of a long line of bra.s.s hats who had tried and failed to pull rank on the salty old chief. Vole could not remember an incident where Ellis had not been backed up by Captain Dougla.s.s when some bra.s.s hat had complained to him about a decision of Ellis's, and he had several fond memories of incidents where some bra.s.s hat, having gotten no satisfaction from Captain Dougla.s.s, had gone over Dougla.s.s's head to Colonel Donovan.

The response then had been a furious, if brief, a.s.s-chewing of the bra.s.s hat, done with the skill and finesse only a former infantry regimental commander-as Donovan had been in the First War-could hand out.

Ellis took off his brimmed cap and hung it atop a bentwood clothing rack. Then he removed a white silk scarf and folded it very neatly and hung it on a wooden coat hanger. Finally, he took off his blue overcoat and hung that carefully on the hanger. Then he turned and looked at the ASA warrant officer.

"The Colonel's home," Chief Warrant Officer Vole reported. "Staley's with him. The Captain's home. I sent Marmon with a car for him. He's going to the Pentagon and will be in about ten, maybe a little later."

Marmon was a former District policeman who served as combination chauffeur and bodyguard to Captain Peter Dougla.s.s.

"That's it?" Ellis asked.

"Mrs. Foster's going to be in late," Vole continued. "She has a dental appointment, but says she can reschedule if you need her. Miss Haley, she says, can handle everything she knows about."

"Fine," Ellis said.

"And I just made a pot of coffee," the ASA warrant officer said.

"And can I use one!" Ellis said. "It's as cold as a witch's teat outside."

He went to the small closet where the coffeepot sat on an electric hot plate and poured a cup.

When he came out, the ASA warrant officer had taken the overnight messages from the safe and laid them out, together with the forms for the receipt of cla.s.sified doc.u.ments, on an oak table. Ellis sat down at the table.

"Anything interesting in here?" he asked as he began to sign the forms.

"Mostly routine," Vole said. "The Philippines have been heard from again, but that's about all."

Ellis looked at him with a question on his face.

"Seventeen," the ASA warrant officer said.

When Ellis had finished signing the receipts and pushed the receipt forms away from him, he picked up file number seventeen and opened it. The first thing he saw was that it was an intercept, rather than a message intended for the OSS.

On his own authority, as "Special a.s.sistant to the Director, " he had sent a "Request for Intercept" to the ASA, asking that the OSS be furnished with whatever ASA intercept operators around the world heard on either American or enemy frequencies that had anything to do with American guerrilla activity in the Philippine Islands. Inasmuch as the ASA and every other military and naval organization knew that the alternative to not giving the OSS whatever it asked for was explaining to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff why this could not be done, the "request" had been in fact an order.

Ellis had decided that if Dougla.s.s or Donovan asked him why he had done so, and he didn't think they would, he would tell them it was because of the Whittaker mission. That was logical, of course. But the truth was that Ellis had put in the Request for Intercept long before it had been decided to send Whittaker into the Philippines. He had suspected that the reason there had been no reply to Fertig's original transmissions to MacArthur's headquarters in Australia was that some bra.s.s hats of MacArthur's palace guard, or perhaps even MacArthur himself, considered the very existence of guerrillas embarra.s.sing. MacArthur's liaison officer to Was.h.i.+ngton had flatly announced that "effective guerrilla operations were impossible. "

The ASA intercept operators were good. They had furnished Ellis with the radio message from MacArthur appointing Philippine Scout Major Marcario Peralta "military guerrilla chief of temporarily occupied enemy territory," and with Fertig's response to that, a request for drugs to cure venereal disease-as much as telling MacArthur he considered himself f.u.c.ked.

Today's message showed that Fertig had his temper under control and was thinking:

URGENT FROM WYZB FOR KSF.

Pa.s.s TO SECRETARY OF WAR WAs.h.i.+NGTON DCAS SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICER IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS I HAVE a.s.sUMED COMMAND OF MINDANAO AND VISAYAS WITH RANK OF BRIGADIER GENERAL.I HAVE REACTIVATED UNITED STATES FORCES IN THE PHILIPPINES.USFIP HAS REESTABLISHED PHILIPPINE CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE HANDS OF ELECTED COMMONWEALTH OF PHILIPPINES OFFICIALS.LAWFUL GOVERNMENT OF PHILIPPINES IN AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY OF USFIP IS PRINTING AND PLACING INTO CIRCULATION MONEY.USFIP IS BORROWING NECESSARY OPERATIONAL FUNDS FROM COMMONWEALTH OF PHILIPPINES GOVERNMENT.USFIP URGENTLY REQUIRES MINIMUM ONE MILLION DOLLARS IN GOLD.USFIP URGENTLY REQUIRES FOR MORALE OF PHILIPPINE POPULATION ANY SORT OF AID. MEDICINE FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION PREFERABLE.FERTIG BRIG GENERAL USA COMMANDING USFIP.

Ellis frowned.

"What the h.e.l.l is that all about?" Vole asked.

"Fertig is being f.u.c.ked by the system," Ellis said. "But he's too mean to lie down and take it."

The telephone rang. Vole answered it, and then held his hand over the microphone.

"There's an Eyes Only Operational Immediate for either Donovan or Dougla.s.s," he said. "They want to know if anybody's here that can take it."

"Decrypted?" Ellis asked.

"Yeah. Dispatched at 1207 London time."

"Would you run down there and get it?" Ellis asked.

Vole nodded, and took his hand away from the telephone microphone.

"Put it in a cover," he said. "I'll be right down."

Vole was gone no more than five minutes. By the time he returned, Ellis had gone through the overnight messages and arranged those he felt Colonel Donovan should personally see in the order of their importance.

He took the two Eyes Onlys from Vole.

"I thought you said one Eyes Only," he said.

"They're related," Vole said.

He opened Dolan's message first, read it, and grunted. Then he opened the message Canidy had laboriously encrypted in the monks' cave on the Island of Vis.

TOP SECRET.