W.E.B. Griffin - Retreat, Hell!

"The Army found him—actually, he found an Army convoy that got lost trying to get to Wonsan—in the middle of the Taebaek Mountains. We must have flown right over him fifty times in the last ten days."

"Me, too," Dunn said. "That's rough territory. Hard to spot anything from the air."

Major Alex Donald walked around the tail assembly of the H-19A. Not being at all familiar with the customs of the Naval service, he did not ask per­mission to come aboard, but instead simply saluted the captain and Lieutenant Colonel Dunn.

"Well done, Major," the captain said.

"He needed some help, as soon as we could get it for him," Donald replied.

"I presume, Major," the captain said to McCoy, "that's why you felt the risks in bringing him here were justified?"

"Yes, sir. That and because I knew you have the communications facilities 1 need."

"Well, Colonel Dunn will see that you have what you need," the captain said. "And when you're finished, perhaps you would be good enough to come to the bridge and tell me what you can to satisfy my curiosity."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," McCoy said.

[FOUR]

Communications Center

USS Badoeng Strait (CVE 116)

37.9 Degrees North Latitude

129.S6 Degrees East Longitude

The Sea of Japan

1315 14 October 195O

The communications officer on duty answered the buzz to unlock the port him­self. When he saw Lieutenant Colonel Dunn and a man wearing what ap­peared to be black pajamas, he opened his mouth to say something, but Dunn cut him off.

"This officer has a message to dispatch," Dunn said.

"Yes, sir?"

"You want to let us in, please?" Dunn asked.

"Yes, sir," the commo officer said, and stepped out of the way.

"May I have the message, sir?" the commo officer said.

"I'll have to type it out," McCoy said.

"One of my men will be happy—"

"I'll type it myself, thank you," McCoy said. "Lieutenant, this is one of those messages that the fewer people see, the better. There will be no copies. Can you handle a Top Secret encryption yourself?"

The commo officer looked between McCoy and Dunn, then said, "That's unusual, but yes, sir."

"Can I have that typewriter a moment?" McCoy asked a white hat seated at a work table.

The commo officer nodded his approval and the white hat stood up.

McCoy sat down, rolled the carriage to eject a standard message form made up of an original and three carbons, then rolled a single sheet of paper into the machine.

He typed very rapidly, then took the message from the typewriter and handed it to Dunn, who read it.

"Two things, Ken," he said, somewhat hesitantly. "Considering the ad­dressees, isn't that 'dirty, unshaven, and very hungry' business a little informal?"

"If I just said, 'in pretty good shape' or something like that, everyone would wonder what I wasn't saying," McCoy said.

"And can you do that? Ask somebody 'not to disseminate' Top Secret in­formation, and then give it to them?"

"I guess we'll find out soon enough, won't we?" McCoy said, and smiled, took the sheet of paper from Dunn, and handed it to the commo officer.

"Will you encrypt this and send it Operational Immediate, please?"

The commo officer took it, read it, looked at McCoy, and then sat down at the cryptographic machine and began to enter McCoy's message.

TOP SECRET

OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE

1320 14OCT1950

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

FROM OFFICER IN CHARGE CIA SEOUL ABOARD USS BADOENG STRAIT

EYES ONLY MASTER SERGEANT PAUL T KELLER USA COMMUNICATIONS CENTER SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

UNITED NATIONS COMMAND TOKYO

ENCRYPT USING SPECIAL CODE AND TRANSMIT AS OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE THE FOLLOWING

MESSAGE BEGINS

EYES ONLY

DIRECTOR CIA WASHINGTON DC

DEPUTY DIRECTOR CIA FOR ASIA

CHIEF PRESIDENTIAL MISSION TO KOREA SEOUL

CIA STATION CHIEF SEOUL

COMMANDANT USMC WASHINGTON DC

MAJOR MALCOLM S. PICKERING USMCR RETURNED TO US CONTROL 1200 14OCT1950. TRANSPORTED USS

BADOENG STRAIT AS OF 1300 14OCT1950.

SUBJECT OFFICER IS DIRTY, UNSHAVEN, AND VERY HUNGRY, BUT IS UNWOUNDED, UNINJURED, AND IN

SOUND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION.

FOLLOWING CIVILIAN PERSONNEL SHOULD BE CONTACTED BY MOST EXPEDITIOUS MEANS, ASKED NOT TO

DISSEMINATE INFORMATION ABOVE TO OTHERS AND ON AGREEMENT BE NOTIFIED OF SUBJECT OFFICER'S

RETURN AND CONDITION.

MRS FLEMING PICKERINC C/O FOSTER HOTELS SAN FRANCISCO CAL

MRS K.R. MCCOY, TOKYO, JAPAN

MISS JEANETTE PRIESTLY C/O PRESS RELATIONS OFFICER, SUPREME HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS

COMMAND TOKYO

MCCOY MAJ USMCR

MESSAGE ENDS

K.R. MCCOY

MAJOR USMCR

[FIVE]

The captain, who was sitting in his chair facing aft, as if expecting them, waved Lieutenant Colonel Dunn and Major McCoy onto the bridge.

"Colonel Dunn get you everything you needed, Major?" the captain asked.

"Yes, sir, thank you," McCoy said.

"The ship's surgeon was just here," the captain said. "There's nothing life-threatening wrong with Major Pickering. But that's because he's here. The doc said he wouldn't like to hazard a guess how much longer he would have lasted if you hadn't found him when you did." He paused, and shook his head. "And what a way to die that would have been."

"Sir?"

"I suppose I'm violating the major's privacy, but I think you have a right to know, if I do. What was really threatening his life was dehydration. He has dysentery. That's unpleasant anytime, but it usually won't kill you, according to the doc, if you have enough liquids. Pickering heard somewhere that you get dysentery from bad water—and he'd had some bad water and had dysentery— so what he decided to do was not drink water he hadn't boiled. That might not cure the dysentery, but it might. Drinking more bad water would not cure it."

"My God!" Dunn said.

"Major Pickering told the doc," the captain went on, "that he'd run out of boiled water four, five days ago, and hadn't had a chance to boil any more. So he didn't drink anything. Meanwhile, the dysentery continued to drain what liquids were left in his body. They're dripping glucose into both arms now, and the doc says he should have the dysentery under control shortly. The doc also says he belongs on a hospital ship, not here."

"Sir, I knew you had the communications I needed," McCoy said.

"I won't ask you questions, McCoy, that I know you won't answer. But those pajamas of yours do make me curious."

"When I put them on this morning, sir, I had no intention of going aboard a man-of-war."

"Meaning you're not going to explain them, right?" the captain said, smiling.

"They're sort of a disguise, sir. I can't pass for an Asiatic in the daylight, but at night, in clothes like this, if they can't get a good look at me, I can."

"Until you open your mouth, you mean?"

"I speak Korean, sir."

"Who don't you want to spot you as an American? Can I ask that?"

"At first light this morning, sir, we inserted agents north of Wonsan," McCoy said.

"Using that black Sikorsky?"

"Yes, sir."

"You were on the ground, behind enemy lines, this morning?"

“Yes, sir.”

"How often do you do that sort of thing?"

"It's what we do, sir. We do it just about daily."

"You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din," the captain said.

"It's not what you think, sir. If you know what you're doing, it's not all that dangerous."

The captain snorted.

"I'm not being modest, sir. What scared me was just now."

"Excuse me?"

"When we came out to the Badoeng Strait, sir, and Major Donald told me had no idea how we were going to land on a carrier. That was high-pucker-factor time for me, sir."