The Assassination Option Part 53

Cronley put his hand on Moriarty's arm when they were halfway between the building and the jeeps.

"Hold it a minute, Bonehead," he said.

"Can I infer now you know me?" Moriarty said.

"How could I ever forget you?"

"Are you going to tell me what the h.e.l.l's going on?"

"If you have a bottle of decent whisky in your BOQ, I'll tell you what I can. And if you don't have a bottle of decent whisky, why don't we stop at the Cla.s.s VI store on our way to your BOQ?"

Moriarty, after an awkward pause, said, "I don't have a BOQ, Jim."

"So where do you sleep?"

"Ginger and I are in Dependent Quarters."

After another awkward pause, Cronley replied, "That's right. You married Ginger, didn't you?"

"You were there, Jimmy. All dressed up in your brand-new second lieutenant's uniform, holding a saber over us as we came out of the chapel."

And if I wasn't the world's champion dumb f.u.c.k, that's what I should have done, married the Squirt the day after I graduated.

The Squirt was one of Ginger's bridesmaids, but I didn't pay any attention to her. I wanted to-and did-jump the bones of another bridesmaid, a blond from Hobbs whose name I can't even remember now. Probably couldn't remember the next day.

And look where I am now!

"I don't think my seeing Ginger-or Ginger seeing me-right now is a good idea, Bonehead."

"She knows I went to the airport to meet some big shot," Moriarty said. "She'll ask me how that went. And I don't lie to Ginger."

"Can she keep her mouth shut?"

"f.u.c.k you!"

"Bonehead, what we're doing here is cla.s.sified Top SecretPresidential," Cronley said.

Moriarty looked at him for a long five seconds.

"So what do I tell my wife, Captain Cronley, sir?"

"Jim, I suggest you go see Mrs. Moriarty and play that by ear," Dunwiddie said.

"You work for him, Captain? I thought it was the other way around," Moriarty said to Dunwiddie.

"I work for him, Lieutenant."

"Why don't we all go make our manners to Mrs. Moriarty?" Cronley asked.

[FOUR].

Officer Dependent Quarters 0-112 11th Constabulary Regiment U.S. Air Force Base, Fritzlar, Hesse American Zone of Occupation, Germany 1725 18 January 1946 Mrs. Virginia "Ginger" Adams Moriarty was red-headed, freckled, twenty-two years old, and conspicuously pregnant.

"Well, I'll be!" she greeted Cronley. "Look what the cat dragged in! I guess you're with the big shot Bruce met. Hey! What's with the captain's bars?"

A moment later, having seen the look on Cronley's face, she said, "Why don't we all pretend I didn't say what I just said. Let me start all over." She then did so: "Jim, what a pleasant surprise."

"Hey, Ginger."

"I think you know how devastated Bruce and I were when we heard about Marjie."

"Thank you. Ginger, this is Chauncey Dunwiddie, who is both my executive officer and my best friend."

"My friends, for reasons I can't imagine, Mrs. Moriarty, call me 'Tiny.' I hope you will."

"Welcome to our humble abode, Captain Tiny."

"Thank you. Mrs. Moriarty, I'd like to show-"

"If you want me to call you 'Captain Tiny,' you're going to have to call me 'Ginger.'"

"Deal. Ginger, I'd like to show you something."

"Will that hold until I give you something to cut the dust of the trail?"

"I'm afraid not," Tiny said, and extended his DCI credentials to her.

She studied them carefully.

"Wow!" she said. "Have you got one of these, Jim?"

"He does," Dunwiddie said, and put out his hand for the credentials.

"Tiny," Cronley said, and when Dunwiddie looked at him, he pointed to Moriarty.

Dunwiddie handed the credentials to Moriarty.

"Jesus!" Bonehead said, after he had examined them.

"Don't blaspheme," Ginger said.

"Sorry," he said.

"Well, Marjie always said Jimmy was going to be somebody special," Ginger said, and then added, "I guess I can't ask what's going on."

"You want to tell them, Jim, or should I?" Tiny asked.

Cronley pointed at Dunwiddie, mostly because his mind was flooded with images of the Squirt and he didn't trust himself to speak.

"Ginger, Bonehead, what I'm about to tell you is cla.s.sified Top SecretPresidential. And even if we succeed in doing what we're here to try doing, you are to tell no one at any time anything about it. Understood?"

Both nodded.

"In the next couple of days, we're going to try to pick up a woman, a Russian woman, and her two sons in Thuringia and bring them back across the border."

"Can I ask why?" Moriarty asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't think you have the need to know that. But I will tell you that it's important. Not just a mercy mission."

"Got it," Bonehead said.

"I understand," Ginger said.

"The only reason I've told you this much is so you won't go around asking questions. Any questions you would ask would attract attention to us. And we don't want to attract any attention at all. Understand?"

"Got it," Bonehead said again.

"I understand," Ginger said. "The rumors are already starting."

"What rumors are those?" Cronley asked.

"That you're the advance party for a secret-or at least not yet announced-visit by General White."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"This afternoon-fifteen minutes ago. In the checkout line at the commissary."

Cronley made a Give me more gesture with his hands.

"Well, one of the girls-one of the officers' wives-said that she had heard from a friend of hers in Sonthofen . . . you know what I mean?"

"I was there earlier today," Cronley said.

"Constabulary Headquarters," Ginger went on. "Anyway, the girl in line said she had heard from a friend of hers, whose husband is also a Constab officer, that they were preparing General White's train . . . You know he has a private train?"

"Colonel Fishburn said he saw them on the general's private train," Bonehead furnished.

"You do get around, don't you, Jimmy? Marjie would be so proud of you!"

"Ginger, do me a favor. Stop talking about the . . . Marjie. It's painful."

"Sorry," she said, and then considered what she had said, and went on, "Jimmy, I didn't think. I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, Ginger. Now what was the rumor in the commissary checkout line?"

"Well, she said her friend told her her husband had told her that they were getting General White's train ready for a secret-no, she said, 'unannounced'-for an unannounced visit to the Constab units up here. You know, Hersfeld, Wetzlar, Fulda, Ka.s.sel, and of course here. And then another lady said, 'He's coming here first. They already flew in the advance party. Just now. Special radios and everything.'"

"Jesus Christ!" Cronley said, shaking his head.

"Jimmy, you're as bad as Bruce. Please don't blaspheme. It's a sin."

"The OLIN is incredible if not always infallible, Jim," Tiny said. "I know. I grew up in it."

"The what?"

"The Officers' Ladies Intelligence Network."

"Well, is he, Jimmy? Is General White coming here?" Ginger asked.

"I have no idea, but having people think we're part of his advance party is even better than having them think we're a soldier show, which is what I told that Air Force officer."

"And even better than having them think we're from the 711th Mobile Kitchen Renovation Company," Tiny said, chuckling. "Ginger, did I hear you say something about something to cut the dust of the trail?"

"Why don't we go in the living room?" Ginger suggested.

There were a number of framed photographs on a side table in the living room, including one of the Adams-Moriarty wedding party.

"Tiny," Cronley said softly, and when Dunwiddie looked at him, pointed at it.

When Dunwiddie took a closer look, Cronley said, "Second from the left. The late Mrs. James D. Cronley."

"Nice-looking," Tiny said.

"Yeah," Cronley said.

"You never showed me a picture of her."

"I never had one."

Ginger, as she handed them drinks, saw they were looking at the picture.

"Are you married, Captain Tiny?"

"No, ma'am."

"What is it they say, 'Lieutenants should not marry, captains may, and majors must'?"

"My mother told me that," Tiny said. "As a matter of fact, keeps telling me that."

"You're from an Army family?"