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

«Yes, sir,» McCoy said, and reached in his pocket and came out with an oblong piece of cardboard. It was printed in Chinese and had a photograph stapled to it.

«Major K. R. MeeKoy,» he said, handing it to Pickering. «Of the 2035th Liaison Group, Nineteenth Corps.»

«That looks legitimate,» Pickering said, handing it to Platt.

Platt looked at it, then handed it to Banning.

«That's what it says,» Banning said. «It identifies him as Major MeeKoy of the 2035th Liaison Group, whatever the hell that's supposed to be.»

«Zimmerman got them from the same printer that does them for the Chinese Army,» McCoy said. «And with the Nansen passports we got in Maryland, it works like a charm.»

«You hope,» Banning said.

«We've been stopped,» McCoy said simply, «several times.»

«You don't speak Russian,» Colonel Platt challenged. «What do you do about that?»

«I speak Cantonese, Wu, and Mandarin,» McCoy said. «That seems to be enough.»

«Why did you rent a house?» Banning asked.

«Because the houses here come with outside walls, making the building lot into a little compound, an interior court? You know what I mean. I needed someplace behind a wall to hide our ambulance. We also have a weapons carrier and a couple of water trailers.»

«Where did you get the ambulance? And why?» Banning pursued.

«Where? From a Chinese merchant who had one to sell. I don't know where he got it.»

«He probably stole it from the Nationalist Army,» Captain Sampson said, a trifle indignantly.

«Probably,» McCoy agreed with a smile.

«What are you going to do with it? Drive it to and across the Gobi?» Banning asked, not unkindly, but sarcastically.

«Yes, sir,» McCoy said. «That seems the best way to go, sir.»

«You're serious?» Banning asked, surprised.

«Yes, sir.»

«You're aware, Captain,» Colonel Platt said, «that there is a good deal of bandit activity between here and the Gobi Desert, and all over the desert itself?»

«Yes, sir, I am.»

«The bandits don't concern you?»

«1 think there's a way to handle that, sir,» McCoy said.

«I'd like to hear it,» Platt said.

«So would I,» Pickering said, his eyes on Captain Sampson. «But what I think we should do right now, before that, is ask Captain Sampson to deliver that Opplan briefing again. I'd like to know what McCoy and Zimmerman think of it.»

It took Sampson forty-five minutes this time to lay out again the Chungking station's Opplan. During this time, McCoy didn't ask questions or otherwise interrupt the briefing. Pickering had no idea what he was thinking.

«I'm learning to be a general,» Pickering said when Sampson was finished. «What generals do, when asking for opinions, is ask the junior man first. That keeps their answers from being colored by what someone senior to them has said first. So, Gunny Zimmerman—or should I say Major Zimmerman?—what do you think?»

Everyone but Zimmerman chuckled, and it was a long moment before he finally spoke. «With respect, sir, McCoy's idea makes more sense.»

Is that his considered opinion, or did he say that because he knows McCoy and doesn't know these people?

«You want to expand on that, please, Gunny?» Pickering said.

«Sir?»

«General Pickering wants to know what you don't like about Captain Sampson's Opplan, Ernie,» McCoy said.

«Too many people,» Zimmerman said immediately.

«Perhaps you don't fully understand the threat the bandits pose, Sergeant,» Captain Sampson said.

Pickering happened to look at McCoy, and saw ice come briefly to his eyes.

«Both Captain McCoy and Gunny Zimmerman, Sampson, have had experience with Chinese bandits,» Banning said.

Zimmerman glanced at Banning with gratitude in his eyes.

«You don't think the bandits pose much of a threat, is that it, Zimmerman?» Pickering asked.

«Sir, they only attack when it ain't going to cost them much,» Zimmerman said.

«With that in mind, Gunny,» Banning said, «let me go off at a tangent. What do you think are the chances that the people we think are in the Gobi have had a run-in with bandits?»

«I think we have to take that as a given, Colonel,» Lieutenant Colonel Platt said. «I personally would be very surprised if we'll be able to find them.»

«Meaning, you think they've been killed?» Banning asked.

«I think that's a reasonable assumption.»

«Zimmerman?» Pickering asked.

«Sir, they only attack when it ain't going to cost them much,» Zimmerman repeated doggedly. He turned to McCoy for support. «You know Sweatley, Killer, and he's not dumb enough to go into the Gobi—«

«Who is Sweatley?» Captain Sampson interrupted.

«One of the men whose names we have,» McCoy said. «He was a buck sergeant with the Marine guard detachment at the legation in Peking. I think Gunny Zimmerman is saying that we can

reasonably assume

that the people in the desert are armed.»

«Yeah,» Zimmerman said.

«They may even have machine guns,» McCoy went on. «I know there were four air-cooled Browning .30s in the armory there.»

«How do you know that?» Captain Sampson asked.

McCoy glared at him icily.

«Tell him. Captain McCoy.» Banning said.

«Before I went to work for Colonel Banning. I had the machine-gun section in Baker Company, Fourth Marines in Shanghai,» McCoy said. «I used to maintain the Peking legation guard's weapons.»

«I see,» Sampson said.

«What did the sergeant call you, Captain? 'Killer'?» Colonel Platt asked.

«Gunny Zimmerman is one of two people who can call Captain McCoy ' Killer' without running a great risk of severe bodily harm,» Pickering said.

«Oh, really? And who is the other one?» Platt asked.

«I am, Colonel,» Pickering said, and turned to Zimmerman. «To get to the bottom of this, what you're saying. Gunny—and presumably McCoy agrees with you—is that you believe these people in the desert are well enough armed to keep the bandits from thinking they would be an easy target?»

«Yes, sir,» Zimmerman said.

«In other words, you would bet they're out there somewhere?»

«Sir, with respect, I'd say it's fifty-fifty,» Zimmerman said.

«I hope the sergeant is right, of course,» Platt said. «But if I may speak freely?»

«Of course,» Pickering said.

«I don't think we can mount this operation on a fifty-fifty chance that these people are still out there, and an even slimmer chance that we can find them if they are.»

«Colonel,» McCoy said, «Marines don't abandon their own because there's a good chance they might be dead.»

«That's a very noble sentiment. Captain, but I would suggest this is a question of priorities.» He looked at Pickering, obviously seeking support.

«How do you see the priorities here, Colonel?» Pickering asked.

«It seems to me that getting this weather station up and operating is the obvious priority.»

«May I speak freely, sir?» McCoy asked.

«That's what this is all about,» Pickering said.

«The priority is to have a weather station operating over a long period of time, not just get it up and running,» McCoy said.

«Of course,» Platt said. «That's understood.»

«This place is crawling with Japanese spies, or maybe more accurately, Chinese selling information to the Japs,» McCoy said. «There's no way you could send a convoy carrying two companies of Nationalist infantry into the desert without the Japs learning about it. They would wonder what was going on.»

«They have radio intercept capabilities, as I'm sure you know, Captain,» Colonel Platt said, his tone making it clear that he felt McCoy did not know. «Once the weather station begins to transmit data, they'll know something is going on.»