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

"No, Sir."

"Make sure your operators are especially alert on 27 November, Hideyori, for Fertig's reply."

"Yes, Sir. I will."

"And call me, no matter the hour, if there are any developments at all."

"Yes, Sir, I will."

Captain Saikaku got back in his Lincoln and drove to the house behind the wall.

The sergeant and his young Filipino friend were sitting side by side eating a pineapple on their bed-a mattress laid against the wall. They both looked at him with fear in their eyes as they jumped to their feet. As they had been taught to do, they bowed to him from the waist.

"I am having some slight difficulty with American vernacular," Captain Saikaku announced. "Perhaps you will be good enough to assist me."

"Yes, Sir. Of course."

"What does the phrase 'baker fourth' mean?"

In the fear in the sergeant's eyes, Saikaku read his answer before he gave it.

"I don't think I know, Sir."

"What about 'First Dog'?"

The sergeant's eyes again showed fear and incomprehension.

"I don't know, Sir."

"That is unfortunate," Saikaku said. "I thought you were beginning to understand the benefits of cooperation with me."

"Captain, maybe if you showed me that," the sergeant said.

Saikaku carefully creased off the upper portion of the page and then care-fully tore it off.

Now there was a sign of relief in the sergeant's eyes.

"I think I know what this means," he said. "They sometimes call the first sergeant of a company First Dog."

"The first sergeant? The senior noncommissioned officer?"

"Yes, Sir. Sometimes that's what they are called."

"Is it disrespectful?"

"Yes, Sir, it is. And baker fourth probably means Baker Company, B Company of the Fourth Something."

"Fourth something?"

"Some kind of a battalion, Sir. Like the 4th Signal Battalion, or the 4th

Quartermaster Battalion."

"Were there such units here?"

The fear returned to the sergeant's eyes.

"I don't remember, Sir."

"You don't remember, or you don't want to tell me?"

"If I knew I would tell you, Sir."

"Can you help me with the second part of the message? Were you familiar with any missionary rescue mission?"

"No, Sir. I saw that, Sir, and thought about it. I was in Personnel, Sir. I wouldn't know about things like that. That would be considered an operation, Sir, and Personnel never gets involved."

"I know people, Sergeant, who enjoy playing with your friend. Some-times, when you have been cooperative, I am motivated to discourage them."

"I'm being as cooperative as I can, Sir, I really am."

He looks, Captain Saikaku thought, as if he is about to weep. He is an utterly despicable parody of a man.

"I don't know how I feel about you right now," Saikaku said. "Whether you are being cooperative or not. I will have to think about it."

He turned and walked out of the bedroom. He thought he would order the Filipino deviate to be beaten, but decided against it. The fear of a beating, he decided, would probably be more useful than another beating.

He returned to his office and told his sergeant to search through the index of captured American documents and prepare a list of every American or Fili-pino Army unit designated by the Arabic numeral 4.

[FIVE]

T O P S E C R E T

HQ USMC WASHINGTON

SUPREME COMMANDER SWPOA

EYES ONLY BRIG GEN F.W. PICKERING, USMCR

0708 25 NOVEMBER 1942

VIA SPECIAL CHANNEL

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND TRANSMITTAL

(1) PERCY LEWIS EVERLY FOURTH MARINES WORKED FOR ME SUBSEQUENT DEPARTURE FROM CHINA OF

SESSIONS MCCOY AND ZIMMERMAN.

(2) EVERLY'S HOMETOWN ZANESVTILLE WEST VIRGINIA. SERGEANT JOHN V. CASEY DISPATCHED

ZANESVILLE IMMEDIATELY ON RECEIPT YOUR MESSAGE TO DEVELOP FURTHER BIOGRAPHIC DETAILS.

(3) BELIEVE EVERLY WILL REMEMBER MAIDEN NAME OF MY WIFE, LUDMILLA ZHIVKOV.

(4) TRYING TO RECALL FROM MEMORY NAME EVERLY'S CHINESE WIFE.

(5) REGRET SPARSENESS OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE. MORE WILL FOLLOW AS DEVELOPED.

BANNING, MAJ USMC

T O P S E C R E T

[SIX]

Naval Air Transport Passenger Terminal

Brisbane, Australia

0715 Hours 26 November 1942

Captain Robert B. Macklin, USMC, was rather pleased that things had turned out as they did, even if it meant his arrival in Brisbane was delayed an additional twenty-four hours.

At Hickam Field, Major Brownlee succeeded in finding space for himself aboard a B-17, one of a flight of seven bound for Australia via Midway Island. But that was only possible because one of the plane's crewmen was taken unexpectedly ill, and the decision was made to continue without him.

There was no space for Macklin, which meant that after he saw Major Brownlee off, he returned to Pearl Harbor and a very nice steak dinner at the Pearl Harbor Officers' Club and a comfortable bed in the BOQ.

When he reported the next morning to the Pearl Harbor Naval Air Trans-port Passenger Terminal, Lieutenant (j.g.) L. B. Cavanaugh, the Officer in Charge Passenger Seat Assignment, told him there would be an additional delay. The plane on which he was scheduled to fly to Brisbane, Cavanaugh explained, had encountered some really bad weather on the way into Pearl Har-bor from Midway. It had been temporarily removed from service so that the amount of damage, if any, it had suffered could be ascertained and if necessary repaired.

The entire passenger roster was therefore set back twenty-four hours, Cavanaugh said. That meant a day on the beach, and another dinner at the Offi-cers' Club-a luau, complete to whole roasted pig-and another night in a comfortable BOQ bed. The only thing wrong with the evening was that the Navy nurse he met at the bar almost laughed at him when he suggested they go to his BOQ-after letting him charm her and feed her drinks for hours, teasing him, rubbing her body against him while they danced.

The next morning, the damage, if any, was apparently repaired, and the Coronado took off on schedule. The seat wasn't all that comfortable, but it was certainly more comfortable than anything the B-l7 Flying Fortress had offered Major Brownlee, and the flight was as pleasant as could be. After hearing what had happened two days before to the in-bound Coronado, he had worried about the weather; but there was none. The Pacific was really pacific, with hardly a cloud in the sky on both legs-Hawaii-Midway, and Midway-Brisbane.

After the whaleboats transported them from the seaplane to the quai, and he climbed the stone stairs set in the face of the quai, he was met by a Marine staff sergeant.

He looked like a child, and Macklin wondered what fool of a commanding officer had agreed to his promotion.

"Captain Macklin?" the boy-faced sergeant asked.

"Yes, lam."

"Staff Sergeant Koffler, Sir. If you'll point out your gear to me, I'll get it."

"The two bags with my name on them on the steps. Make sure they don't get away from you."

"No sweat, Sir. The Major's over there, Sir," Koffler said, and pointed.

"What did you say, Sergeant?"

"I said the Major's over there, Sir. In the Studebaker."

"I meant before that. Did you really say 'no sweat' to me?"

"Yes, Sir, I guess I did."

"The correct response to an order, Sergeant, is 'Aye, aye, Sir.' "

"Aye, aye, Sir," Koffler said.

He looked amused.

"Did I say something amusing, Sergeant?"

"No, Sir."

"Then wipe that smile off your face."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

As he approached the Studebaker, a very large Oriental-the largest Macklin could ever remember seeing-in the uniform of an Army Signal Corps major, stepped out of the front passenger seat.

Macklin saluted. The Major made a vague gesture toward his head that only generously could be interpreted as a salute.