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

«I have been giving some thought to our problem with your Captain McCoy,» Sun said, tapping a Chesterfield on the case.

Pickering nodded and waited for him to go on.

«The most difficult situation will be if he has been discovered,» Sun said. «That's also the most likely. I don't really think he can successfully masquerade as a White Russian officer. And, because of its location, the counterintelligence services in the Thirty-second Military District are very thorough.»

«If they have been discovered, what will that mean?»

«That there is no chance they will be allowed to accompany a supply convoy into the desert. Or, in the remote chance that they were, someone would be sent along to report on their activities, and I doubt very much if they would be permitted to leave the convoy.»

«Yeah,» Pickering agreed.

«I could have arranged all this, had I known about it in time,» Sun said. «What we are doing now is reacting, not taking action, and we don't know to what we are reacting.»

«I understand,» Pickering said.

«It is entirely possible that they will have been subjected to a rather intensive interrogation,» Sun said.

I

don't even want to think what's behind that euphemism

.

«In that case, it seems to me inevitable that they would disclose their purpose.

That would make it even more difficult for them to go into the desert—even after their story is verified by me.» He caught Pickering's eye. «Still, I don't think the commanding general would conduct an

authorized

execution without making his superiors aware of the situation. He would want them to know his counterintelligence was working. We'll have to wait until we arrive to see what the situation is.»

«Yeah,» Pickering grunted. «Would they tell you of an incident like this?»

«I think so. They would regard it as a worthy accomplishment,» Sun said. «But let's look at the other side. Defying the odds, your men have somehow managed to reach Yümen and have

not

been arrested. I suggest in that case that I immediately inform General Chow that they are in his area, dressed in the uniform of Chinese officers—«

«We have another expression,» Pickering interrupted. «Never look a gift horse in the mouth.»

«I know that one,» General Sun. «But how does it apply here? I'm the gift horse? And you disagree with me?»

«If you tell General—Chow, you said?»

«Major General Chow Song-chek,» Sun furnished.

«If you tell General Chow, he will very likely be annoyed that he wasn't previously advised that a pair of American agents are working in his area of responsibility. And even if he's sympathetic, I think we would lose any chance of keeping this operation quiet.»

«And if we don't tell General Chow, and fifteen minutes after we arrive he learns that two spurious White Russians have been arrested in the uniforms of Chinese officers?»

«Then you tell him you didn't know. I didn't tell you.»

Sun thought that over for a long moment. «On the odd chance that your men are in Yümen, and have managed to avoid General Chow's counterintelligence, have you given any thought about how you are going to find them?»

«A good deal of thought, and come up with no better answer than I'll just have to look for them.»

«There is one possibility,» Sun said. «And that is this. I will tell General Chow that you have been sent by General Stillwell to have a look at his operation. He will brief you. It's too late to do that today. He would schedule a briefing for tomorrow morning. If we can find your men between the time we land and the time of the briefing—which seems a very long shot indeed…«

«If we can't find them when we see General Chow in the morning, you can tell him I just told you about my men.»

«He will consider that he has been deceived by you. There would be repercussions.»

«I think it's worth the chance,» Pickering said.

General Sun thought that over a moment. «Are you familiar, General Pickering, with the phrase 'no good deed goes unpunished'?»

«Yes, I am.»

«If we can't find your men by eight o'clock tomorrow morning, I will tell General Chow that I sent your men, in Chinese Army uniform, into his area of responsibility.»

«That's putting your neck on the chopping block.»

«It isn't exactly what I had in mind when I agreed to use my good offices with General Chow, but I think it is what's called for.»

Because of head winds, the flight from Lanchou to Yümen took them just over another four hours. When they landed at sunset, a light snow was just beginning to fall. The commanding General of the 32nd Military District, a tall, stern-looking man in his fifties, was there to meet them. He had with him several senior officers and four vehicles—an ancient Packard touring car, a 1941 Packard Clipper, a 1941 Ford, and a Dodge weapons carrier for the luggage.

As General Sun's orderlies loaded the luggage into the weapons carrier, Sun introduced Pickering as an officer on Stillwell's staff whom Stillwell wanted familiar with the operation of the 32nd Military District.

«If we had only known you were coming, General Pickering,» General Chow said in excellent English, «we would have been honored to prepare a more detailed briefing than I can offer you on such short notice.»

«I didn't want you to go to any special effort, General,» Pickering said. «General Sun has been telling me what a busy man you are.»

«I will arrange with my staff to have a briefing prepared for you in the morning. Would ten o'clock be convenient for you?»

«It has been a long flight, General,» Pickering said. «But whatever is convenient for you.»

«I understand completely,» General Chow said. «Perhaps you will take lunch with me tomorrow, with the briefing to follow?»

«That would be splendid,» Pickering said. «Thank you very much.»

«And now we will take you to your quarters,» General Chow said. «Where we will have a drink and then dinner.»

«You are very kind, sir.»

General Chow gestured toward the ancient Packard touring car. Its canvas roof was already covered with snow, and there were no side curtains. But General Chow obviously regarded it as the most prestigious of his vehicles, and was honoring Pickering and Sun by inviting them to ride in it.

Pickering looked at his watch. It was five minutes to six. Presuming everybody was wrong—including Generals Stillwell and Sun—and McCoy had somehow managed to make it here, that gave him eighteen hours to find him. That seemed like a very long shot, indeed.

Ten minutes after leaving the airport, they drove past a building with an adjacent parking lot. It was full of military vehicles. One of them was a Dodge ambulance with the normal red crosses not entirely painted over, and another was a Dodge three-quarter-ton weapons carrier. Both had five-hundred-gallon water trailers attached to them. Three Chinese soldiers armed with rifles were guarding them— and keeping themselves warm by standing beside a fire blazing in a cutoff fifty-five-gallon drum.

Pickering nudged General Sun with his elbow, but by the time Sun looked at him curiously, they had passed the opening to the parking area.

And Sun wouldn't know what I was showing him anyway.

And there are probably fifty weapons carriers towing water trailers in Yümen.

«Excuse me,» Pickering said.

«Certainly,» General Sun said.

Their quarters turned out to be a large and comfortable house. Inside General Chow led them into a room off the foyer that had been turned into a bar. There he began to offer a series of champagne toasts to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, President Roosevelt, General Stillwell, and—Pickering thought with growing impatience—every general officer, Chinese and American, in China.