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

"How do you spell it?" Captain Buchanan asked, sitting down at the rat-tan "desk."

As Everly spelled the name, Buchanan wrote each letter as a large block letter, then asked Everly what his home was, and wrote those letters down in large letters. Above the letters, he carefully wrote numerals above each letter.

1234567890123456789012345

LUDMILLAZHIVKOVZANESVILLE

"OK, now we have the code. Somebody read out those numbers to me. Slowly."

General Fertig read out the numbers one at a time, moving to stand behind Buchanan as he did so.

When Buchanan was finished, he had this:

S E N D Z

20 19 18 03 09

K Z A U T

13 09 08 02 09

S Z N A M

20 09 18 17 04

E S Z Z Z

19 20 09 09 09

"What the hell does that mean?" Fertig asked, bewildered and annoyed.

"General, the 'Z' is a wild card. You'll notice they used 'Z's as sentence breaks in the original message?"

Fertig was ahead of him. "Send... Krauts... Name," he translated.

"I believe that's 'names,' Sir, plural," Buchanan said.

"Who's the Kraut, Everly?" Fertig asked.

"Zimmerman," Everly said. "What the hell was his first name?"

"Not again, Everly, please!" Weston said.

"August," Everly said, and then triumphantly: "No. Ernest. Ernest Zim-merman."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Send them that," Fertig ordered.

It took just over a minute for Buchanan to encode the name and to hand it to Sergeant LaMadrid, with the order, "Just send the numbers, send them twice."

"Yes, Sir," LaMadrid said, and tapped out the reply on his radiotelegraph key:

MFS TO GYB

19 09 18 25 20

09 09 05 04 04

19 09 04 17 18

HPT

19 09 18 25 20

09 09 05 04 04

19 09 04 17 18

MFS SB

There was an immediate reply from Australia:

GYB TO MFS

ACK YR NO 1

SB

Sergeant LaMadrid read it aloud-translated it-as it came in: "Acknowl-edge receipt your message Number One. Stand by."

"What's that message number business?" Fertig asked. "They've never

done that before."

"I think until about thirty seconds ago, Sir," Weston said, "Australia thought LaMadrid spelled his name T-O-J-0."

"Here comes another one," LaMadrid said, and this time, as he typed, he called the numbers out loud. Buchanan had already begun the decoding before the numbers were repeated.

He handed it to General Fertig.

M E L L S

04 09 01 06 20

E E Z 0 U

25 19 09 14 02

S 0 0 N K

20 14 14 18 13

I L L E Z

11 06 07 19 09

"What the hell do you suppose 'mells eezou soonk illez' means?" Fertig asked softly.

"Sir," Buchanan said, his voice tight, "I believe it means 'we'll see you soon, signature Killer.' "

He looked over at Lieutenant Everly.

"What do you make of it, Everly?"

"Yes, Sir. I think that's what it means. Zimmerman and the Killer. I'd say it means they're coming in."

"It doesn't say that," General Fertig said.

"What else could it mean, Sir?" Everly asked, and then excitedly added, "Quentin Alexander McPherson. Fucking Quentin fucking Alexander fucking McPherson!"

"What?" General Fertig asked.

"I believe Lieutenant Everly's memory has returned, Sir," Captain Weston said.

[THREE]

Office of the Kempeitai Commander for Mindanao

Cagayan de Oro, Misamis-Oriental Province

Mindanao, Commonwealth of the Philippines

1050 Hours 28 November 1942

"Sir, these messages between Fertig and Australia were intercepted within the past hour," Lieutenant Hideyori Niigata said, and laid a manila folder on Cap-tain Matsuo Saikaku's desk.

When Saikaku finished examining them and looked up at Hideyori, Hide-yori added, "They have been forwarded to Signals Intelligence in Manila, Sir."

"And how soon may we expect to have a decryption from them?"

"Sir, there is no way of telling."

"You have advised them, of course, of Kempeitai's interest in this? That this matter is to have a high priority?"

"Yes, Sir, of course. Sir, may I ask how familiar the Captain is with simple substitution encryption?"

"I am always willing, Hideyori, to add to my knowledge."

"The difficulty in decoding simple substitution encryption, Sir, arises be-cause the sender and the receiver have access to information the interceptor does not."

"Explain that, please."

"The Captain will notice that the sender is telling the receiver to use the first and second names of Banning's wife and the hometown of Percy. The receiver will write that information in a line, and then write numbers, from zero one through how many letters there are in the names..."

Hideyori saw the confusion on Saikaku's face.

"Sir, perhaps it might be a good idea if I demonstrated?"

"Please do," Saikaku said.

The demonstration took about five minutes. When it was finished, Captain Saikaku was aware of the difficulty the Signals Intelligence people would have decoding the message.

"What this means is that we stand virtually no chance of decoding this message?"

"Oh, no, Sir. The Signals Intelligence people are quite clever, and have developed several techniques that will permit them eventually to decode these messages. But, unfortunately, that's likely going to take some time."

"How much time?" Saikaku asked coldly. "Two days? A week? A month?"

"If I had to guess, Sir, I would say five days to a week."

"Splendid!" Saikaku said sarcastically.

"Sir, I had some thoughts...."

"What kind of thoughts?"

"Sir, I am sure that someone like yourself, an officer of the Kempeitai, almost certainly has already-"

"The one thing you learn in the Kempeitai, Hideyori, is never to give in to the temptation not to turn over the last rock. For it is often under that last rock that you find what you're looking for. Please go on."

"Sir, I have noticed that there seems to be a question of the legitimacy of this General Fertig, and of his U.S. Forces in the Philippines."

"He's a bandit, Hideyori. By definition, bandits are illegitimate."

"Sir, I was speaking of his legitimacy in the eyes of the Americans in Australia."

"Go on."

"I am sure the Captain noticed the next-to-last message."

"What about it?"

"It says, Sir-GYB, the Australian station says-'ACK YR NO 1.' That means 'We acknowledge receipt of your message Number 1.' And then it or-ders them 'SB'-Stand By. That never happened before. It seems to me, Sir, that it could mean acceptance in Australia that Fertig is who he says he is. In other words, it could be official recognition."

"And, of course, it could mean nothing at all," Saikaku said. "But that was very clever of you, Hideyori. In the future, please give me all of your thoughts."

"It will be my pleasure, Sir."

[FOUR]

T O P S E C R E T

FROM: CINCPAC HAWAII

1615 28N0V42

EYES ONLY-BRIG GEN FLEMING PICKERING USMC

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND TRANSMITTAL

FOLLOWING PERSONAL FROM CINCPAC TO BRIG GEN PICKERING USMC

DEAR FLEMING:

(1) DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU INFORMATION FROM COMMANDING GENERAL HAWAII DEPARTMENT USARMY AIRCORPS INDICATES MAJOR JAMES C. BROWNLEE III USMC DEPARTED HICKAM FIELD AS SUPERCARGO ABOARD USARMY AIRCORPS Bl7 TAIL NUMBER 48-455502 DESTINATION MIDWAY. AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED MECHANICAL DIFFICULTIES APPARENTLY RESULT OF SEVERE WEATHER APPROXIMATELY 250 NAUTICAL MILES NORTHEAST OF MIDWAY. PERSONNEL ABOARD OTHER B17 AIRCRAFT IN FLIGHT OF SEVEN REPORT 42-455502 CRASHED AND BROKE UP ATTEMPTING DITCHING OPERATION IN HEAVY SEAS APPROXIMATELY 0725 HOURS LOCAL TIME 22 NOVEMBER 1942.

NO SURVIVORS WERE SEEN AT TIME OF DITCHING, AND NAVY AND USARMY AIRCORPS AIRCRAFT WHICH FLEW TO CRASH SITE WHEN WEATHER CLEARED 23 NOVEMBER FOUND NEITHER SURVIVORS NOR CRASH DEBRIS.