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

"He's in the sick bay on the Badoeng Strait. Patricia, he spent seventy-seven days running around Korea avoiding capture; they haven't found anything wrong with him, according to McCoy, but they . . . they want to make sure nothing is wrong with him."

"So something is wrong with him."

"I expect a full report on his condition in the morning. As soon as I get it, I'll call."

"Elaine and I will be traveling by tomorrow morning," Patricia declared. "She's on her way here from New Jersey."

Elaine Sage was Ernie's mother.

"Ernie doesn't want her mother over here, she told me."

"She's pregnant—she doesn't know what she wants."

"Obviously, I can't stop either of you, but if you come over here, it will be one goddamned big mistake. What's probably going to happen is that when you get here, you'll learn that you passed Pick flying in the other direction in the middle of the Pacific," Pickering said.

There was a long pause.

"So what are you telling me you think we should do, Flem?" she asked finally.

"Go to San Francisco. To the apartment. By the time you get there, I'll have more information. I'll call and give it to you."

"Elaine's determined to go over there."

"Talk her out of it, sweetheart."

"You'll call me at the apartment the minute you hear anything?"

"Of course I will."

"You sound tired, Flem."

"I am tired."

"Get some rest."

"I will," he said, then added: "Patricia, would you please call George Hart's wife in Saint Louis and tell her."

"I will, but—"

"George said she's been praying for him. Call her, please, Pat."

"I said I would."

"I don't know what the hell you're mad at me for."

"I'm not mad at you, Flem."

"That's not what it sounds like."

"I love you, Flem. I often wonder why."

"I love you, too, and I know why."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Patricia said, and hung up.

[FIVE]

The Dai Ichi Building

Tokyo, Japan

O8O5 16 October 19SO

A chrome-helmeted MP stepped into the street and held up his hand somewhat imperiously to stop Pickering's Buick.

"El Supremo's coming," Master Sergeant Paul Keller, who was in the front seat beside the driver, said. "Everybody look busy."

Pickering and Hart, in the backseat, laughed. The sergeant driver—no one knew his name; they changed frequently, and were, not in their hearing, uni­versally referred to as "the CIC guy"—looked at Hart, visibly surprised that a sergeant would dare mock the Supreme Commander, and even more so that a brigadier general and his aide-de-camp would laugh with him.

And it was indeed the Supreme Commander, United Nations Command & U.S. Forces, Far East, arriving at his headquarters.

Preceded by a jeep loaded with chrome-helmeted MPs, his black Cadillac limousine rolled regally past Pickering's Buick, and other cars behind it, and up before the steps leading to the door of the Dai Ichi Building.

A crowd of people, mostly Japanese but including some Americans and others in uniform, waited on the sidewalk behind a line of MPs.

Two more chrome-helmeted MPs stood on the sidewalk at the spot where the rear door of the limousine would open. As it approached them, they raised their hands in salute and held it. The instant the Cadillac stopped, one of them opened the door while the other held his salute.

MacArthur came out of the limousine and, looking straight ahead, walked quickly up the stairs to the building. He acknowledged the salutes given him three times.

Colonel Sidney Huff, MacArthur's senior aide-de-camp, got out of the lim­ousine and followed MacArthur into the building.

The limousine drove off. The crowd—the show over—began to disperse. The MP who had stopped them now motioned just as regally for them to start moving.

When the car stopped before the building, Pickering was out of the back­seat before either the CIC guy or Keller could get out of his seat to open it for him.

Trailed by Hart and Keller, Pickering walked across the lobby to the bank of elevators.

"If there's anything of interest, bring it upstairs," Pickering said to Keller.

"Yes, sir."

Keller got on one elevator, which would carry him to the Communica­tions/Cryptographic Center in the basement, and Pickering and Hart got on another, which carried them to the lobby outside the door of the Office of the Supreme Commander.

Hart walked quickly to the door, pushed it inward, and held it open for Pickering.

There were two outer offices, one manned by one of MacArthur's junior aides, a receptionist, and other clerical types. Pickering strode purposefully through the first outer office into the second, which was occupied by Colonel Sidney Huff and some clerical types.

Shortly after arriving in Tokyo, he had decided that stopping in the outer office and asking to see Colonel Huff was not the thing to do. It gave him a place in the pecking order. He was not only a brigadier general but the Deputy Director of the CIA. He did not need to ask a major if he could see a colonel on MacArthur's staff, even if that colonel was MacArthur's aide-de-camp and a founding member of the Bataan Gang.

"Good morning, Sid," Pickering said. "General MacArthur expects me. Would you tell him I'm here?"

"Good morning, sir," Huff said. "Before you see the Supreme Commander, may I have a minute of your time?"

"Sure, Sid. What can I do for you?"

"I thought you would be interested in this, General," Huff said. "And I don't think I have to tell you we were all delighted to hear that Major Pickering came through his ordeal.''

"Thank you, Sid," Pickering said, and reached out for the first of several documents Huff was obviously prepared to hand him.

SECRET

URGENT

FROM BADOENG STRAIT

0300 16 OCTOBER 1950

TO CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF ATTN MAJGEN MASON

INFO CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS

SUPREME COMMANDER UNC

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PACIFIC

COMMANDANT USMC

REFERENCE YOUR URGENT DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT SUBJ: PICKERING, MAJ MALCOLM USMCR

15OCT50

SUBJECT OFFICER SUFFERED NO WOUNDS OR INJURIES DURING THE CRASH LANDING OF HIS AIRCRAFT

OR IN THE PERIOD FOLLOWING UNTIL HIS RESCUE.

ON ARRIVAL BADOENG STRAIT SUBJECT OFFICER SUFFERED FROM EFFECTS OF MALNUTRITION AND DYSENTERY AND WAS INFESTED WITH INTESTINAL PARASITES. AS A RESULT OF THE FOREGOING, HE HAS LOST BOTH FAT AND MUSCLE TISSUE AND WEIGHS 58 (FIFTY-EIGHT) POUNDS LESS THAN HE DID AT THE TIME OF HIS LAST FLIGHT PHYSICAL EXAMINATION. IT IS NOT BELIEVED THAT HE WILL LOSE ANY TEETH, ALTHOUGH THE CONDITION OF HIS GUMS REFLECTS THE AFOREMENTIONED MALNUTRITION AND DYSENTERY.

4. SUBJECT OFFICER'S DYSENTERY HAS REACTED TO ANTI­BIOTIC TREATMENT, AND THE INTERNAL PARASITES HAVE REACTED TO ATABRINE AND OTHER TREATMENT. HE HAS BEEN PLACED ON A HIGH PROTEIN DIET.

THERE IS NO REASON SUBJECT OFFICER CANNOT BE AIR­LIFTED TO THE ZONE OF THE INTERIOR AT

ANY TIME. HE CAN BE TRANSPORTED FROM BADOENG STRAIT EITHER BY TBM-3G AVENGER AIRCRAFT OR BY UNDER-WAY TRANSFER TO A DESTROYER OR DESTROYER ESCORT.

IN THE OPINION OF THE UNDERSIGNED, PRESENT AND PROJECTED WEATHER CONDITIONS MAKE AT-SEA

TRANSFER THE LESS HAZARDOUS MEANS OF TRANSPORT. REQUEST DIRECTION.

BADOENG STRAIT PROCEEDING.

NORTON, CAPT USN

COMMANDING

Pickering read the message and handed it back to Huff. "Fifty-eight pounds," he said. "Jesus, he must look like a skeleton." Huff handed him another message.

SECRET

URGENT

FROM COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PACIFIC

0405 16 OCTOBER 1950

TO BADOENG STRAIT

INFO SUPREME COMMANDER UNC TOKYO

CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS WASHINGTON

COMMANDANT USMC WASHINGTON

COMMANDER USNAVY BASE SASEBO JAPAN