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

"That would be so, wouldn't it? If I am formally relieved of command, then I no longer can be held responsible, can I?"

"I wouldn't think so," Lewis said. "Listen, Macklin, I don't know what's going on between you and Sessions and the others, and I don't think I want to know. All I know for sure is that until further orders, I'm taking my orders from General Pickering. My orders from him are to do what Sessions tells me, and Sessions is waiting downstairs for us."

"There is no reason for you to become involved in this, Lewis. It's an OSS matter. The OSS will deal with it."

"Sessions is waiting for us," Lewis said.

I have no choice but to go along with this until the OSS acts.

"I would be grateful, Chambers, if you were to keep the conversation we have just had between us."

"Certainly. Are you about ready to go? Would you like me to wait down-stairs?"

"I'll be right with you," Macklin said. "Just give me a minute."

This man is a coward, Chambers D. Lewis thought. What is it they say? "It takes one to know one.

[FOUR]

Office of the Director

Office of Strategic Services

National Institutes of Health Building

Washington, D.C.

0830 Hours 3 December 1942

L. Stanford Morrissette was a fifty-five-year-old Yale-trained attorney who had left his San Francisco law firm and his three-hundred-thousand-dollar an-nual income to serve for an annual stipend of one dollar as OSS Deputy Direc-tor, Special Projects. Though he had a good deal of respect for Colonel William J. Donovan, the Director of the OSS, he was not awed by him.

Moreover, in his view Donovan was in error vis-a-vis what he privately thought of as "the Pickering/Fertig mess." Morrissette happened to know Fleming Pickering rather well-his firm had done a good deal of business with Pacific and Far East Shipping-and thought that Donovan had made a monumental error in refusing Pickering's services almost a year before. He also believed that if Fleming Pickering was unable to convince General Douglas MacArthur of the value of the OSS to his SWPOA operation, no one could.

And he believed that Donovan's clever little plan to circumvent MacAr-thur by sending OSS agents to participate in Pickering's Fertig mission-with-out asking Pickering-was very liable to blow up in his face. And to cause trouble somewhere down the pike.

One did not cross someone like Fleming Pickering. Donovan should be smart enough to recognize this, Morrissette believed, and didn't.

Morrissette walked past Donovan's secretary to his open door. In his judg-ment, Donovan's secretary, like doctors' and dentists' receptionists, had as-sumed to herself entirely too much of her employer's prestige. Morrissette did not like to be a supplicant before her desk for permission to seek The Great Man's attention.

"When you have a moment, Bill," Morrissette said. "There's something I think you should see."

Donovan's eyes showed annoyance when he looked up from his desk, but a moment later, his face broke into a charming Irish smile.

"Unlike some people around here, you rarely waste my time, Mo. Come in. What have you got?"

Morrissette walked to Donovan's desk and laid a long sheet of teletype-writer paper on it.

"This just was decrypted," he said.

"Let me see," Donovan said.

T O P S E C R E T

URGENT URGENT

BRISBANE NUMBER 107

0900GREENWICH2DEC42

FROM CHIEF OSS STATION

BRISBANE AUSTRALIA

TO DIRECTOR OSS

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OP HEALTH BLDG

WASHINGTON DC

SUBJECT OPERATION WINDMILL

YOUR MESSAGE NUMBER 403 0845 GREENWICH 31N0V42 RE LOSS BROWNLEE RECEIVED 0715GREENWICH 2DEC42 XXX THIS STATION NOT REPEAT NOT PREVIOUSLY ADVISED OF INCIDENT BY OSS LIAISON

OFFICER SWPOA XXX OSS LIAISON OFFICER SWPOA ADVISES YOUR 403 RECEIVED BY SWPOA 1908GREENWICH 31N0V42 XXX DELAY IN DELIVERY TO OSS BRISBANE ATTRIBUTED TO QUOTE LARGE VOLUME OF CLASSIFIED TRAFFIC REQUIRING DECRYPTION ENDQU0TE XXX SITUATION POINTS OUT ABSOLUTE NECESSITY THIS STATION BE AUTHORIZED ACCESS TO SPECIAL CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS

FACILITIES FOR URGENT TRAFFIC XXX

UNDERSIGNED HAD BEEN INFORMED OF BROWNLEE LOSS 1615 LOCALTIME 29N0V42 AS FOLLOWS:

A 1440 LOCAL TIME 29N0V42 MACKLIN TELEPHONED EMERGENCY CONTACT NUMBER AND REQUESTED IMMEDIATE CONFERENCE WITH STATION CHIEF XXX DUTY OFFICER SUGGESTED RENDEZVOUS POINT XXX MACKLIN REFUSED TO LEAVE HIS SWPOA BOQ STATING HIS LIFE WAS IN DANGER XXX DUTY OFFICER UNABLE TO CONTACT UNDERSIGNED DISPATCHED AGENT TO MACKLINS BOQ XXX

B 1550 AGENT CONTACTED UNDERSIGNED AND STRONGLY RECOMMENDED PERSONAL VISIT TO MACKLIN AT BOQ XXX UNDERSIGNED MET WITH MACKLIN AT BOQ 1615 LOCALTIME XXX FOUND HIM IN HIGHLY EXCITABLE STATE XXX DURING MEETING MACKLIN:

1 Stated he had been informed of brownlee loss BY COLONEL JACK NMI STECKER USMC AT APPROXIMATELY 1130 LOCALTIME 29NOV42 XXX STECKER INFORMED HIM THAT BRIGGEN PICKERING INTENDED TO CONTINUE OPERATION REGARDLESS XXX

STATED THAT HE HAD REQUESTED TO SEE PICKERING AND THIS REQUEST WAS DENIED XXX

STATED THAT HE THEN INFORMED STECKER THAT HE DID NOT FEEL QUALIFIED TO LEAD

OPERATION BECAUSE OF LACK OF TRAINING AND ALSO BECAUSE HE HAS NOT FULLY RECOVERED FROM WOUNDS SUFFERED AT GAVUTU XXX

STATED THAT STECKER HAD THEN TOLD HIM THAT ALTHOUGH MACKLIN WOULD BE SENIOR OFFICER MISSION WOULD ACTUALLY BE UNDER COMMAND OF FIRST LIEUTENANT K R MCCOY

USMCR WHO HE SAID WAS QUOTE KNOWN AS KILLER MCCOY BECAUSE HE HAD BRUTALLY KNIFED TO DEATH FOUR ITALIAN MARINES IN INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT IN SHANGHAI IN 1941 ENDQUOTE XXX

STATED THAT HE HAS HAD TROUBLE IN PAST WITH BOTH STECKER AND MCCOY AND THAT BOTH WERE FORMER ENLISTED MEN CONSPIRING AGAINST HIM TO RUIN HIS NAME AND PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION XXX

STATED THAT STECKER HAD THREATENED TO HAVE MCCOY KILL HIM AS SOON AS MISSION LANDS AT DESTINATION XXX

INASMUCH AS COLONEL STECKER WAS UNKNOWN TO UNDERSIGNED DISCREET INQUIRIES WERE MADE OF COLONEL LEWIS R MITCHELL USMC SPECIAL LIAISON OFFICER BETWEEN CINCPAC AND SWPOA XXX MITCHELL ADVISES THAT ALTHOUGH HE DOES NOT KNOW NATURE OF PICKERING STECKER RELATIONSHIP HE KNOWS STECKER WHO WON MEDAL OF HONOR IN WWI IS HIGHLY REGARDED BY MAJ GEN A A VANDEGRIFT OF US FIRST MARINE DIVISION UNDER WHOM HE COMMANDED BATTALION IN GUADALCANAL INVASION XXX MITCHELL STATES THAT FROM PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE LIEUTENANT MCCOY IS HIGHLY REGARDED BY BRIGGEN PICKERING AND THAT STECKER TOLD HIM THAT MCCOY PARTICIPATED IN MARINE RAIDER OPERATION ON MAKIN ISLAND

IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING AND OF UNDERSIGNED PERSONAL BELIEF THAT SOMEHOW MACKLIN SLIPPED PAST PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION BOARD VIS-A-VIS STABILITY IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT MACKLIN NOT REPEAT NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE AS MEMBER OF OPERATION WINDMILL AND THAT HE BE RELEASED FROM OSS AS UNSUITABLE XXX

UNDERSIGNED RECOMMENDS IN STRONGEST POSSIBLE TERMS THAT SUITABLY TRAINED AND THOROUGHLY EVALUATED REPLACEMENT FOR MACKLIN BE SENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE XXX IF THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE THREE (3) AGENTS HERE ARE MARGINALLY QUALIFIED AND WOULD PROBABLY VOLUNTEER IF ASKED XXX

FOR YOUR GENERAL INFORMATION MITCHELL ALSO ADVISED THAT PICKERING CONFERRED WITH REAR ADMIRAL WAGAM OF NIMITZ STAFF 29N0V42 PRESUMABLY IN RE AVAILABILITY OF SUBMARINE XXX TIME IS THEREFORE PROBABLY OF ESSENCE TO FIND REPLACEMENT FOR MACKLIN XXX

WATERSON

STATIONCHIEF BRISBANE

T O P S E C R E T

Donovan finished reading and raised his eyes to Morrissette's.

"Well?" he asked.

"What do I do about this, Bill?"

"Aside from finding the idiot who sent this idiot Macklin to Brisbane, you mean? Or are you asking me what we should do to him before we fire him? How about nailing his balls to that large oak tree beside the first tee at the Congressional Country Club? With a rusty nail, of course."

"What do we do about Captain Macklin?"