The Fighting Agents Part 36

"Did Jamison give you any indication which was better? " Fine asked.

"There is a problem," Stevens said. "The teams that have finished their training have been trained to go in to t.i.to, not Mihajlovi."

"G.o.d!" Bruce said. There were two major guerrilla forces in Yugoslavia. Colonel Draa Mihajlovi led a force of Royalists, and Josip Broz, who called himself "t.i.to," led a larger force of Communists.

"It was necessary, David," Stevens said. "We had to appear even-handed, and that meant sending teams to t.i.to."

"What about the team in training?" Bruce asked.

"Mihajlovi," Stevens said. "But it's a communications team. No specific training for something like this."

"What about Janos?" Helene Dancy asked. "When does he get out of his cast?"

"Friday," Charity said.

"Who the h.e.l.l is Janos?" Bruce asked.

"The first lieutenant who broke his ankle," Dancy furnished.

"Well, we can hardly take his cast off one day and jump him in the next," Bruce said.

"Janos was trained to go in to Mihajlovi," Dancy said.

"And we're not going to jump them in anyway," Charity said. Bruce snapped his head around to look at her. Charity smiled, and added, "Are we?"

"We may have to," Stevens said. "With Dolan under the weather, I think we have to leave him out of the equation. And that means there's no one but that young pilot . . . whatsisname?"

"Darmstadter," Helene Dancy furnished.

"Darmstadter," Stevens said, ". . . to fly the B-25. Which means either parachuting them onto Vis or, for that matter, into Hungary, or sending them by submarine."

"I can fly the B-25," Fine said.

"No," Bruce said. "You're the control."

"Doug Dougla.s.s can fly the B-25," Charity said.

Bruce looked at her.

"He's not . . . a.s.signed to us," he said.

"Can't that be arranged?" Charity asked. "TDY or something?"

"We're getting ahead of ourselves," Fine said. "The first decision that has to be made is about the team. Do we send in a t.i.to team?"

Charity looked at Colonel Stevens.

"No," Stevens said flatly.

"What's the difference?" Helene Dancy asked.

"For the men, none," Stevens said. "But we will not send an officer on this who has been selected to go in to t.i.to."

"May I ask why, Sir?" Fine asked.

"No, I'm afraid I can't tell you, Stan," Stevens said.

Fine looked curious, but shrugged.

"It looks as though we're back to Janos," he said. "And to flying him in rather than jumping him in, because of his ankle. And since I can't fly the B-25, we're also back to Dougla.s.s. May I ask that you reconsider, Sir, my flying the B-25?"

"Out of the question," Bruce said.

"And we're not even sure of Janos," Stevens said. "Helene, get the medical officer at Whitbey House on the horn and get a report on Janos's ankle. Specifically, what shape he will be in when they take the cast off, and for how long."

"While she's doing that," Fine said, "what about transport of the team from here to Cairo? If they're going to Cairo?"

"What do you mean by that?" Stevens asked.

"I thought perhaps Malta," Fine said.

"Oh," Stevens said.

"We'll send them to Cairo," Bruce said. "They'll attract less attention there. And we'll send them on the ATC courier. There's a daily flight. If we send one man a day, starting right now, they should attract no attention at all. Wilkins is good at distracting attention."

"Mr. Bruce," Fine said, almost hesitantly. "I'm afraid that you will think I'm rephrasing a request that has already been denied-"

"What, Fine?" Bruce asked impatiently.

"Project Aphrodite has two new B-17s," Fine said.

"One of which you would like to fly to Cairo?" Bruce asked, icily sarcastic.

"May I explain my thinking, Sir?"

"No," Bruce said.

"I would like to hear it," Charity said.

Bruce glared at her and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, there was a knock at the door, and instead of saying what he'd intended, Bruce said, his voice angry and impatient: "We are not to be disturbed!"

"Operational Immediate Eyes Only for you, Sir," Capt. Harrison's voice came through the door.

"Oh, h.e.l.l," Bruce said, "now what?" He raised his voice. "Bring it in, Harrison!"

Harrison came into the room, extended a clipboard with a Receipt for Cla.s.sified Doc.u.ment on it, and, when Bruce had signed it, handed him a doc.u.ment with a TOP SECRET cover sheet on it.

"Thank you," Bruce said. "I didn't mean to snap at you, Paul."

"No problem, Sir," Harrison said. He made no move to leave.

"That'll be all, thank you," Bruce said.

"An action is required, Sir," Harrison said.

Bruce snorted, and lifted the cover sheet.

TOP SECRET.

OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE.

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OSS WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

FOR OSS LONDON EYES ONLY BRUCE STEVENS.

FOR OSS CAIRO EYES ONLY WILKINSRELAY FOLLOWING CANIDY MOST EXPEDITIOUS MEANS:QUOTE1. OSS LONDON AND CAIRO DIRECTED AS HIGHEST PRIORITY TO SUPPORT WITH ALL MEANS AVAILABLE ATTEMPT FREE EXLAX AND TINCAN ONE.2. RESCUE WILL BE ATTEMPTED AT EARLIEST POSSIBLE TIME AND IN ANY CASE NOT LATER THAN TEN REPEAT TEN DAYS FROM RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE.3. IN EVENT ATTEMPT IMPOSSIBLE OR ATTEMPT FAILS EXLAX AND TINCAN ONE WILL BE TERMINATED REPEAT WILL BE TERMINATED.4. NO DISCUSSION OF THIS ORDER WILL BE ENTERTAINED.

UNQUOTE.

END QUOTESTATION CHIEFS LONDON AND CAIRO WILL ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT AND COMPREHENSION OF CANIDY MESSAGE.STATION CHIEF CAIRO ADDITIONALLY WILL REPORT TIME AND PLACE OF DELIVERY OF MESSAGE TO CANIDY WITH INFO COPY TO LONDON.DONOVAN.

Bruce handed the message to Colonel Stevens, and then looked at Capt. Harrison.

"Would you please message Colonel Donovan that Colonel Stevens and myself acknowledge receipt and comprehension of this message?" he said, almost formally.

"Yes, Sir," Harrison said.

"My G.o.d!" Stevens said, when he had read the message. He extended it to Bruce. "May I see that, please?" Charity Hoche asked.

"Oh," Stevens said, as if he had just remembered she was present. "Sure."

When she had read it, she handed it to Fine. He frowned when he read it, but said nothing.

"You were saying, Stan," Charity said, "something about new B-17s?"

XI.

1.

OSS WHITBEY HOUSE STATION KENT, ENGLAND 1815 HOURS 17 FEBRUARY 1943.

First Lieutenant Robert Jamison found First Lieutenant Ferenc Janos where he thought he would be at this time of day, in the bar, at the piano, with a drink adding yet another scar to the varnished finish of the piano, and with two of the WRAC drivers listening to him play.

"Freddy, could I see you for a moment?" Jamison asked.

"Ladies," Freddy Janos said, "duty calls."

"Not here, Janos," Jamison said.

Janos's eyebrows rose in curiosity, but he didn't say anything. He hoisted himself from the piano stool with a grunt, reached for his drink, finished it, and then squatted on his one good leg to pick up his crutches from the floor.

He followed Jamison down the center corridor of the first floor of the left wing of the mansion to the dispensary, which had been set up in what had been the ballroom. There were sixteen beds, eight on each side of the high-ceilinged room. Eleven of them were occupied.

At the far end of the ballroom was a small, flat-roofed "building," roughly framed in with exposed two-by-fours and plywood. It held a simple, if surprisingly complete, operating room, an X-ray room, a pharmacy, two examining cubicles, a dentist's chair and equipment, and an office for the two physicians attached to Whitbey House station.

Both of them, and a nurse, were waiting for Jamison and Janos.

"What's going on?" Janos asked when he saw where Jamison had led him.

"First things first," Jamison said. "We want an X-ray of your ankle."

"I will repeat, Lieutenant Jamison," one of the doctors, a captain, said, "that I don't like this."

"Whether or not you approved didn't come up, Doctor," Jamison said, "when the Colonel said to do it."

The doctor gave him a cold look.

The nurse took Janos into the X-ray room, motioned for him to hop on the table, and then took his crutches and leaned them on the wall. She wordlessly arranged his leg on the table under the X-ray apparatus, then stepped behind a crudely built, raw-lumber six-foot wall.

"Don't move," she ordered, and there was a whirring sound from the X-ray apparatus. She made six X-rays before she was finished, then issued another order: "You'd better stay there until I get these out of the soup."

The two doctors and Jamison came into the room.

"What's going on?" Janos asked from the X-ray table.

"We want to see if we can take your cast off safely," Jamison said.

"Why?"

"If we can, I'll tell you," Jamison said.

Janos, who had been lying down, sat up on the table and let his legs hang over the side.

The nurse returned with still damp eleven-by-fourteen-inch X-ray photographs, put three (all it would handle) on a viewer, and turned it on.

The two doctors examined the X rays and then replaced them on the viewer with the other three.

The captain turned to Jamison.