W.E.B. Griffin - The Corps VII - Behind the Lines

"Yes, Sir?"

"For one thing, it may solve the radio operator problem. Against my better judgment, I agreed to let Koffler go with McCoy." He looked at McCoy and saw in his eyes that he didn't like that at all. "He's a hell of a radio operator, Ken. And there is apparently some way one radio operator can recognize an-other radio operator. I think they say every operator has 'a hand' that's unlike anyone else's."

McCoy exhaled audibly and shrugged his acceptance of that. That was valuable. If the Japanese captured the new encryption device, and they at-tempted to send deceptive information-for example, ordering the submarine to appear at a location where it would find a Japanese destroyer waiting for it-the receiving operator would be immediately suspicious if the correctly en-crypted message was not in Koffler's hand.

"I have discussed this mission with General MacArthur, including the par-ticipation of the OSS," Pickering went on. He saw the surprise in Sessions's eyes. "That surprises you, Ed?"

"Yes, Sir," Sessions said.

"Because you believe that Colonel Donovan, and for that matter Secretary Knox, and for all we know, the President himself, would prefer that General MacArthur had no knowledge of OSS participation until the mission is over?"

"Yes, Sir. I saw the Special Channel Personal from Secretary Knox to you, Sir. With respect, Sir, they seemed to spell that out pretty clearly."

"I'm just a simple civilian in uniform, Captain Sessions, a former enlisted man. If it was bad judgment on my part to make the Supreme Commander, SWPOA, aware of a mission contemplated for execution within his area of responsibility, and if this comes to the attention of Secretary Knox-I don't give much of a damn whether Bill Donovan likes it or not-then the Secretary will have to take the action against me that he deems appropriate."

"Yes, Sir, " Sessions said.

"General MacArthur graciously offered any assistance he personally and Supreme Headquarters, SWPOA, can provide to help me in the execution of this mission. And I intend to ask him for a qualified high-speed radio operator. It seems entirely likely to me that among those who escaped from the Philip-pines, there should be such a person, probably a senior noncommissioned offi-cer who also speaks Spanish, and thus would be even more highly qualified than our own Staff Sergeant Koffler."

Pickering now saw approval in McCoy's eyes.

"I have also decided to remove Lieutenant McCoy from the roster of offi-cers who will participate in this mission. I have several reasons for so doing, which I am of course prepared to defend to Secretary Knox. For one thing, there is the consideration of space available on the submarine. The fewer per-sonnel, obviously, the more medical supplies the initial party can take with them. And finally, Lieutenant McCoy is not only the junior of the officers, but he has not been able to avail himself of the splendid training Bill Donovan provides for his agents."

"General," Ed Sessions said, smiling broadly, "at the risk of sounding like a toady, may I say that I wholeheartedly agree with the General's reason-ing?"

"Yes, you may," Pickering said, chuckling, and then turned to McCoy.

"You have any problems with this, Ken?"

"Three, Sir," McCoy said immediately, surprising Pickering.

"OK," Pickering said, making a let's have them gesture with his hand.

"From personal experience, and I think Captain Sessions will go along with me on this, Macklin is a hell of a load to put on this major's shoulders."

Sessions's smile vanished.

"Captain Macklin has to go, Ken," Pickering said. "That's out of my hands."

McCoy nodded, then said, "Zimmerman. It's a dirty trick to play on Zim-merman."

"Christ!" Sessions said. He had not thought of Zimmerman.

"First of all," Pickering said, "no one seems to know where Gunny Zim-merman is, except with the 2nd Raider Battalion somewhere behind the Jap lines on Guadalcanal. It's entirely possible that he won't arrive in Australia until after this mission has been mounted. And if he does show up, it is entirely possible that he will be suffering from malaria. I have been informed that seventy-odd percent of the First Marine Division has it. And if that's true, he will of course require hospitalization, and for a month or six weeks. By then the mission will have been mounted."

McCoy shrugged and nodded, and then went on. "Fertig. Sending Mack-lin seems to be a dirty trick to play on him."

"I've thought about that. That's out of my hands, too. Anyway, if Major Brownlee is as good as Sessions and Rickabee seem to think, he should be able to handle Captain Macklin. Anything else?"

"No, Sir," McCoy said.

"You're not getting out of hazardous service, Ken, if that's what you're thinking. As soon as we do-you do-everything possible to ensure that Major Brownlee has everything he needs, and this mission is under way, I'm going to send you back to the States to rejoin the Mongolia Operation."

"Aye, aye, Sir," McCoy said.

"OK," Pickering said. "Unless anyone has something else, that's it. You get some sleep, Ed, you obviously need it. And you, Ken, start doing what has to be done to help Major Brownlee."

[TWO]

Water Lily Cottage

Brisbane, Australia

1305 Hours 24 November 1942

"This thing is really primitive, isn't it?" Major Hon Song Do, Signal Corps, USA, said wonderingly, as he examined the Device, Cryptographic, M94 on the dining-room table.

Sitting around the table were Colonel Jack (NMI) Stecker, Major Hon, Captain Edward Sessions, First Lieutenant Kenneth R. McCoy, Second Lieu-tenant John Marston Moore, and Staff Sergeant Stephen M. Koffler. Everyone was equipped with a pad of notepaper, pencils, and a coffee cup and saucer. In the middle of the table were two silver coffeepots.

McCoy was puffing-blowing smoke rings-on a thin, black cigar. Hon thought it was a symbol-unconscious on McCoy's part-of where he stood in the estimation of General Pickering. Good cigars were in very short sup-ply in Australia. Pickering had obtained two dozen boxes of first-class, long, thin, black Philippine cigars from the master of a Pacific and Far East freighter that had called at Brisbane. They were being smoked by the Supreme Com-mander, SWPOA, General Pickering himself, and First Lieutenant K. R. McCoy.

"You really never saw one of them before, Sir?" Captain Edward Ses-sions, USMC, asked, surprised.

"Not even in a museum," Pluto replied. "And you can-what is it you jarheads say, McCoy, 'belay'?-belay that 'Sir' business."

"Watch that 'jarhead' business, Major!" Colonel Stecker said sternly, but with a smile.

"Screw you, Major Dogface, Sir," McCoy said.

Stecker laughed out loud.

"OK," Pluto said. "Just to set the priorities. The expert here is Koffler, since he has been on the receiving end of a homemade SOI before." (A Signal Operating Instruction specified which one of a large number of available codes was to be used at specific times and dates.)

"I don't know what you're talking about, Pluto," Stecker said. "What's a 'homemade SOI?"

"In any SOI," Pluto said, "it is presumed both parties to the encryption processes have access to the same symbols...."

"Symbols? What symbols?" McCoy asked, confused.

"When 'A' equals 'X,"A' is the symbol for 'X.' OK?"

"Got it."

"Colonel," Pluto said, "to resume the answer I was giving before being so rudely interrupted by Lieutenant McCoy: Before we sent McCoy and Hart into Buka, we had to presume (a) that the Japanese were intercepting the radio traffic between here and Buka; (b) that the SOI that Koffler was using was no longer secure; and it followed, that (c) the Japanese were decrypting our traffic. It followed from that that if we used the existing SOI to inform Buka when and where we were going to land McCoy and Hart on Buka, we would also be informing the Japanese. So we had to get Koffler a new SOI-which meant a homemade SOI."