Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 08 - In Dangers Path

Platt's Opplan was essentially based on the premise that the Americans could not be found. It was also obvious that neither of them thought much of the idea of sending the meteorological team into the Gobi on Navy reconnaissance aircraft. The phrasing they used was, of course, polite: «

In the event transport of the meteorological personnel and equipment by Naval aircraft proves not to be feasible

…«

»

In the event that it proves impossible to locate the American personnel believed to be somewhere in the Gobi Desert

…«

The tone of the Opplan made it clear that they regarded «in the event» to be as likely as the sun rising.

Practically, their Opplan called for two companies of Nationalist Chinese infantry, mounted on trucks, accompanied by a six-man team of OSS agents. These would take the meteorologists and their equipment through the desert on known caravan routes until they found the Americans who were supposed to be there.

In the event

Americans could not be found, the weather station would be in the desert ready to go to work. Meanwhile, the two companies of Chinese infantry would provide adequate security for the weather station against the possibility that the Japanese would learn they were there, and against the bands of bandits roving the area.

After the.briefing, Pickering made no comments, announcing—truthfully— that before he offered his own thoughts he wanted to think it over, and discuss it with both Banning and Captain McCoy, if and when he turned up. At one point, however, he openly disagreed with Platt, when Platt announced that «Chungking agents have more experience in this sort of thing than Captain McCoy does, and that certainly is not intended as a reflection on Captain McCoy.»

The implication was clear: he and Sampson didn't think McCoy was necessary, and further that he would get in the way of the local experts. Pickering decided he couldn't let that pass unchallenged. «I don't think there is anyone in the Marine Corps, or the OSS, better equipped for this sort of thing than Captain McCoy,» he said. «And no matter what we ultimately decide is the best way to go about doing what we have to do, McCoy will be involved.»

Am I doing the right thing

? he immediately wondered.

Platt has offered me a perfectly valid reason for not sending McCoy off

—

again

—

on a dangerous mission

.

And how much is my ego involved: Bill Donovan will be delighted to report to Leahy and the President that

, «once he got over there, Pickering decided that the OSS people on the scene were better able to carry out the mission than that young captain he had originally put in charge.»

Pickering spent the rest of the morning reading Platt's after-action reports of the various operations OSS Chungking station had carried out.

After making half a dozen trips to the filing cabinet, taking out one file at a time and then replacing it when he was finished, he finally—with Hart helping—took all the files from the cabinet and stacked them on the floor on the right side of his armchair, and then as he read them, stacked them, none too neatly, on the left.

The files showed that Platt, generously using OSS nonaccountable funds, had been running a wide range of generally successful operations intended to harass the Japanese and/or garner information about their troop dispositions. As he read through them, Pickering had a growing feeling that Platt really knew what he was doing here, and that he himself did not.

I'm a mariner, a business executive. What the hell am I doing in the intelligence business, trying to tell

—

from a position of monumental ignorance

—

people who know all about this sort of thing how they should do it

?

McCoy—the missing McCoy—was never out of his mind for long, and McCoy was the first thing that came to his lips when Brigadier General H. A. Albright, USA, and Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Banning, USMC, came into Platt's office.

«You find McCoy, Ed?»

«I have no idea where he might be, General,» Banning said.

«For the good news, General…« Albright said.

«Let's have some of that,» Pickering said.

«We talked to Dempsey and Newley. General Stillwell had them come to his office, and we talked in his conference room. Banning and I are agreed that they are telling the truth when they say that, with the exception of Dempsey's sergeant major, they told no one else about magic.»

«And the sergeant major?»

«He told us that it went no further,» Banning said. «I believe him.»

«Maybe because he felt that was what you wanted to hear?»

«I don't think so, sir. I believe him.»

«What do we do about him?» General Albright asked.

«That would seem to be up to you, Hugh,» Pickering said. «You're going to need a sergeant major.»

«I think I'll keep him,» Albright said. «He understands the importance of magic now, for sure. Banning really read the riot act to him.»

«Your decision, Hugh. But I think you had better apply that 'no duty in which there is any chance at all that he would be captured' restriction to the sergeant major.»

«He was a cryptographer at one time,» Albright said. «Since he already has his nose under the tent flap, how do you feel about getting him a magic clearance? Banning's going to need more people to handle the Special Channel than he has.»

«Up to you.»

«No, sir. It's up to you.»

«Ed?»

«I'd go along with him,» Banning said. «Rutterman likes him.»

«Okay, then. I wouldn't even mention his name to Waterson when we tell him he can tell MacArthur we think the genie didn't get out of the bottle.»

«You're going to have to let Washington know that, too,» Albright said.

«Draft a message for me to Admiral Leahy, copy to Donovan, Ed, please, right here and now. I don't know the jargon.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

«There's a typewriter over there,» Pickering said, pointing. «Do it now, so I can have a look at it before I take Waterson to the airport.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

«And there is more good news,» Albright said. «Stillwell seemed pleased with Lieutenant Moore. He apparently fancies himself an analyst of the Japanese mind himself. And he told me I can consider myself his signal officer, not just acting.»

«I like him,» Pickering said. «In his shoes, I think I would have been just as angry.»

There was another knock at the door. Banning opened it. Colonel Waterson was standing there.

«Sir, I'm going to have to leave for the airport right about now,» he said.

«I'll see you off,» Pickering said. «George, can you find the airport?»

«Yes, sir, I'm sure I can.»

«Then get us one of those Studebakers, without a driver. Then I can talk to Colonel Waterson on the way.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

General Pickering rode to the airfield with Colonel Waterson in the backseat of the Studebaker. After Waterson was safely aboard the B-17 and the aircraft had taken off, Pickering got in the front seat beside Hart for the trip back into town. Five hundred yards beyond the gate, as they drove down the dirt road paralleling the runway, Pickering became aware of a horn bleating imperiously behind them. He turned and looked out the rear window. «It's an ambulance with the red crosses painted over,» he said. «Let him by, George.»

«Goddamn Chinamen,» Hart said, and steered to the left of the road. He cursed again when the Studebaker leaned precariously with its right wheels in the ditch beside the road. The ambulance pulled parallel but did not move ahead. Hart got a brief glimpse of a Chinese officer in the passenger seat. He was gesturing for Hart to pull over.