Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 09 - Under Fire

Zimmerman nodded.

"Everything that wasn't up the hill got washed away," he said. "Including most of the ammo for the Jap weapons."

"What about food?"

"We moved the rations up the hill, including the rice the Koreans had. And a couple of their boats are left. They were starting to try to get them back in the water when we saw you. Major Kim says he thinks they can catch enough fish to feed them and us."

"Anybody get hurt?"

Zimmerman shook his head, "no."

"I was thinking that maybe if we hit one of their is-lands-Taemuui-do is closest-maybe they'd have some diesel fuel," Zimmerman said.

If they had diesel fuel in the first place, what makes you think they'd still have it? Taemuui-do and Yonghung-do got hit by the storm as hard as Tokchok-kundo did. And if we hit Taemuui-do now, and didn't hit Yonghung-do immedi-ately afterward, when we finally did hit it, they'd be expect-ing an attack, and certainly would have reported that right after the storm somebody took Taemuui-do. They'd be curi-ous as hell about that.

Dumb idea, Ernie.

"Do you think that diesel's going to run after being un-der water for hours?"

"We'll have to take it apart and make sure there's no wa-ter in the cylinders. And then who knows?"

"Let's hold off on getting diesel for a diesel engine we're not sure can be fixed," McCoy said.

Zimmerman nodded.

"There are engines in the lifeboats," McCoy said. "Can we use those to power the SCR-300?"

"Wrong voltage, I'll bet," Zimmerman said. "But maybe we can rig something."

"Okay. First things first," McCoy ordered. "Put people to work helping Taylor unload the lifeboats, and then drag them on shore and get them covered. Then get the Korean fisherman's boats in the water. Send Major Kim with one of them. Maybe he will see what the storm did to Taemuui-do and Yonghung-do."

"And then what?"

"Ernie, I don't have the faintest fucking idea," McCoy said. "Right now, it looks like we're stranded on this beau-tiful tropical island."

[FOUR]

THE DEWEY SUITE

THE IMPERIAL HOTEL

TOKYO, JAPAN

1315 20 AUGUST 1950

Major General Ralph Howe, NGUS, was sitting in one of the green leather armchairs in the sitting room when the door opened and Brigadier General Fleming Pickering walked in, trailed by Captain George F. Hart.

"I let myself in, Flem," Howe said. "I hope that's all right?"

"Don't be silly," Pickering said. "When did you get back?' He waved at Master Sergeant Rogers. "Hello, Charley."

"After hanging around K-l most of last night waiting for a break in the storm, we finally got off, and landed at Haneda a little after eight," Howe said, and added, "where Colonel Sidney Huff was waiting for me, to tell me El Supremo would be pleased if I would join him at my earli-est opportunity."

Pickering's lower lip came out momentarily.

"What was that all about?"

"I'm not sure I know," Howe said, "and I have been thinking about it ever since I was dismissed from the throne room. About the only thing I am sure about is that Willoughby is onto your Flying Fish Channel operation."

"I suppose that was inevitable. Is that what he called you in for, to ask you what you knew about that?"

"I don't know, Flem. Let me tell you what happened, and you tell me."

"Will it wait until I have my twelve-hundred snort?" Pickering asked. He walked to the sideboard and picked up a bottle of Famous Grouse. "Would you like one?"

"Why not?" Howe said. "God knows I deserve one." Then he asked," `Twelve-hundred snort'?"

"I found that unless I went on a schedule, I was prone to keep nipping all day," Pickering said. "I think with a little effort, I could easily become an alcoholic."

"I don't believe that for a minute," Howe said. "You've had a lot on your mind, Flem."

"I have one at twelve," Pickering said, ignoring him, "another at five, a brandy after dinner, and sometimes a nightcap. That way, I can go to sleep reasonably sure of what my name is and where I am. Tell me about your ses-sion with El Supremo."

"Well," Howe said, and chuckled. "It began, if you can believe this, with a fried-egg sandwich, just like Mommy used to make for him when he was at West Point, and Han-nibal's elephants..."

"I don't know either," Pickering said when Howe had fin-ished. "It's entirely possible he wanted to hear what you might have to say about Korea. But more likely-now that I've had a minute to think about it-it was his back-channel response to the JCS message he showed you. I think it's sig-nificant that he showed it to you. He knows you report to the President, which means you'd report what he said, and what he said was that unless he is expressly forbidden to do so, he's going to ignore what Collins and the JCS think, and send two divisions ashore at Inchon on 15 September. He got his message to the President without sending the Presi-dent a message through channels."

Howe grunted.

"That's what Charley thinks, too," he said, and added: "You've heard me observe that the true test of another man's intelligence is the degree to which he agrees with you? I seem to be surrounded by geniuses."

Pickering and Rogers chuckled.

"You don't think-maybe in addition to the above-that he wanted to send you an ever-so-subtle warning that he was on to your Flying Fish Channel operation? He said he was concerned about its possible `impact' on Inchon. Maybe it's time for you to tell him about it?"

"I don't think the Flying Fish operation is going to have, any impact on the Inchon invasion at all," Pickering said.

"I don't like what I think I'm hearing," Howe said.

"We have not heard from Zimmerman for four days,"

Pickering said. "Since his 0730 call on the sixteenth. You know how that works?"

Howe shook his head, "no."

"We transmit a code phrase at a predetermined time. Zimmerman's radioman, who is monitoring the frequency, responds with a two-word code phrase, repeated twice. The idea is to reduce the chance of the North Koreans hearing a radio transmission at all, and if they should get lucky and hear it, not to give them time to locate the transmitter by triangulation."

Howe nodded his understanding.

"There has been no response from Tokchok-kundo since 0730 on the sixteenth," Pickering went on. "This morning, we got the code word message `Egg Laid 0430' from HMS Charity. At the time we coined the code word, we thought it was rather clever for the meaning: `McCoy, Taylor and all hands have been successfully put over the side at half past four.' It should have taken them no more than an hour to make Tokchok-kundo. On their arrival, Zimmerman was to transmit a code phrase meaning they had arrived. There has been no such transmission."

"The storm could have knocked out their radio," Howe suggested.

"That's a possibility. The other possibility that has to be considered is that the North Koreans discovered our people on Tokchok-kundo,- took the island, and McCoy and Taylor sailed into the North Koreans' lap."

"You don't know that, Fleming," Howe said.

"We set up another message, an emergency message, a phrase meaning change your frequency to another and be prepared to communicate. George and I just came from the commo center, where we watched Sergeant Keller send that code phrase every ten minutes for an hour and a half. There was no response."

"Which proves, I suggest, only that Zimmerman's radio is out again. There was trouble with it before, wasn't there?"

"You always look for a silver lining in situations like this," Pickering said. "What I'm hoping now is that if the North Koreans went to Tokchok-kundo and discovered our people there, they will think that it was nothing more than an intelligence-gathering outpost, and won't make a con-nection with the invasion of Inchon."

The first thing Howe thought was that Pickering was be-ing unduly pessimistic, but then he remembered that this wasn't the first covert operation Pickering had run, and that his pessimism was based on experience.