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

«I had a couple of Chinese boys watching the airport, sir,» McCoy said. «And a couple more watching the OSS compound. When they reported that a tall American general got off an enormous airplane, and General Albright and Colonel Waterson met him and took him to the OSS house, I thought it would probably be you.»

«You've been spying on the OSS?» Pickering asked.

«I thought some 'discreet surveillance' wouldn't hurt anything, sir. I didn't get the reports about you until about an hour and a half ago. I came as soon as I could. When I got to the OSS house, I saw you driving out with Colonel Waterson, so I followed you to the airfield.»

«Sir, we're at the gate,» Hart said. «What do I do?»

«Go in, George,» Pickering ordered. «I want to properly introduce Captain McCoy to Colonel Platt and Captain Sampson.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

Hart stopped the car before the OSS compound gate. One of the Chinese guards came out of the guard shack and ambled slowly to the gate in the wall.

McCoy rolled down the window and barked something in Mandarin.

The guard spun around, came to quivering attention, and saluted.

McCoy said something else in Mandarin.

The guard saluted again and hastily opened the gate.

«What was that all about?» Pickering asked.

«Nothing important, sir.»

«I'll be the judge of that, thank you very much, Captain McCoy.»

«I told him to pass the ambulance, he's with us, sir,» McCoy said.

«He didn't pop to attention like that because you told him to pass the ambulance through,» Pickering said.

«I also told him that if he ever fails to salute you again, I will send his private parts back to his commanding officer on the point of a bayonet,» McCoy said. «In the Chinese army, they take threats like that seriously.»

The Chinese sentry saluted crisply when the Studebaker rolled through the gate, and again when the unmarked ambulance passed.

«Oh, I'm glad you're still here, Ed,» General Pickering said to Banning when he pushed open the door to Platt's office and found Banning, Platt, and Sampson standing before a map of northern China on one of the easels. «Look who found me.»

«I'll be goddamned,» Lieutenant Colonel Banning said.

«Good afternoon, sir,» McCoy said, smiling.

«Colonel Platt, I understand you and Captain Sampson have met Captain McCoy,» Pickering said. «But I don't think you've met Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman.»

Platt and Sampson were literally wide-eyed at the sight of the two American Marines wearing the uniforms of officers of the Nationalist Chinese Army. «Captain,» Colonel Platt said uneasily, «I hope you understand that when we met, I wasn't fully aware of the situation.»

«Yes, sir,» McCoy said.

«I was about to clear the air between you two, Colonel,» Pickering said, «to tell you that Captain McCoy was correct in his decision not to place himself under the authority of OSS Chungking, but just now I had an unpleasant thought.»

«Sir?» Platt asked.

«Captain McCoy tells me that when he showed you his ONI credentials that you already knew his name?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Where did you get his name?»

«General Dempsey telephoned me about Captain McCoy, sir.»

«And what exactly did he say?»

«He said there were two OSS agents, one of them Captain McCoy, whom he had ordered to report to me, and that he hoped that I would quickly order them to shave and get into uniform.»

«I thought that might be it,» Pickering said. «I have something to say about that. Until just this moment, I was actually very sympathetic about General Dempsey. Maybe, as an individual, I still am. But as an officer, I just lost my sympathy for him. Captain McCoy's orders were issued by the JCS and were classified Top Secret. General Dempsey did not have the authority—and damned sure should have known he did not—to pass on to you any Top Secret information that had come into his hands just because he knew you had a Top Secret clearance and thought you should know what was in Banning's and McCoy's orders.»

«Sir, with respect,» Platt said, «I'm the Chungking station chief. Are you saying… ?»

«I'm saying, Colonel, that you had no right to know anything about Banning's and McCoy's Top Secret orders until it was determined by competent authority that you had the Need To Know. Banning has the authority to show you his orders—or anyone else he deems has the Need To Know. That's spelled out in the orders. General Dempsey did not have that authority, but he assumed it. Presumably because he thought that as a major general he had that authority. It has nothing to do with rank, and everything with the Need To Know.»

«Yes, sir.»

«I think, Ed,» Pickering said, «that General Dempsey's relief came just in time. Before, in other words, he started talking about other things because he thought somebody should know, and that he had the authority to determine Need To Know.»

«Yes, sir,» Banning said. «That occurred to me, General.»

«I want you to have a talk with your people, Colonel Platt, to make sure they understand the importance of Need To Know.»

«Yes, sir.»

«I dislike delivering lectures,» Pickering said. «But it seemed to me that one was necessary.» He looked around the room at each man in turn. «The immediate application of what I just said, Captain Sampson, is that from this moment— despite what they know about it already—no further details concerning Operation Gobi will be provided to anyone in OSS Chungking unless I, Colonel Banning, or Captain McCoy determines they have the Need To Know. Do you understand that?»

«Sir, Colonel Platt told me that yesterday.»

«Okay, now let's talk about Operation Gobi,» Pickering said. «To begin…«

«Sir. may I suggest we begin by asking Captain McCoy why he is wearing the uniform of a Nationalist Chinese major?» Banning asked with a smile.

«Why not?» Pickering said. «It was your idea, as I recall. Ken, to pass yourselves off as caravan people. What's with those Nationalist uniforms? Not that you don't look very natty.»

«It didn't take me long to figure out that wasn't going to work, sir. But the real reason is that almost as soon as Colonel Banning ordered me and the gunny to make ourselves scarce, I realized that probably the worst way to do that was to wander around Chungking wearing beards and civilian clothing. We really attracted a lot of attention at first.»

«Why Chinese uniforms?» Pickering asked.

«Well, so far as I know, the Marines in this room are the only Marines in Chungking,» McCoy replied. «And when I came here to see Colonel Platt, it seemed to me my Marine uniform attracted as much attention in Kiangpeh—«

«Kiangpeh?» Pickering interrupted.

«It's a town down the river a little, sir. A suburb, I suppose.»

«And that's where you've been?» Banning asked.

«Yes, sir. I rented a house there.»

«Before or after you became a Chinese major?» Banning asked.

«After,» McCoy said. «When I came back here in my Marine uniform, that attracted as much attention as the beard and civvies. But I had noticed a dozen, maybe more, westerners in Nationalist uniforms. And found out they were White Russians. The only people who ask questions about Nationalist Army majors are lieutenant colonels or better.»

«Why a major, Ken?» Pickering asked. «Or is that a dumb question?»

«The Chinese have to make mercenaries they recruit at least majors, sir. They don't pay much in the Nationalist Army.»

«Where'd you get the uniforms?» Pickering asked.

«We went to a tailor.»

«And did you give some thought to what might happen to you, Captain,» Colonel Platt asked, «if you were stopped by the Chinese military police and asked for identification?»