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

«White Sulphur Springs,» she corrected him.

«Because, because of a few lousy gallons of gasoline, and four tires, I was separated from her whom I love beyond measure?»

«Will you

please

knock off that 'you love me' business?» Janice said, but Jim didn't think she really meant it. He thought he saw that in her eyes.

note 27

The 21 Club

West Fifty-second Street

New York City, New York

1745 18 February 1943

Ernest Sage was sitting at the extreme end of the bar, his back against the wall, sipping his second martini. He was a superbly tailored, slightly built, and very intense man, a month shy of his fiftieth birthday, and wore his black hair slicked straight back with generous applications of Smootheee, one of the 213 personal products of American Personal Pharmaceuticals, the company whose board he chaired. He was, as well, its chief executive officer.

When his only child, Ernestine, and her gentleman friend, Captain Kenneth R. McCoy, USMCR, entered the room, he fixed a not entirely genuine smile on his face and raised his right arm to attract their attention. His daughter smiled warmly and genuinely when she saw him. As always, this warmed him.

Captain McCoy's smile was as strained as Ernest Sage's.

«Hiya, Daddy,» Ernestine said, and kissed him.

«Hello, Princess,» he said, and hugged her.

Oh, Princess, why did you have to get yourself involved with this character?

«Hello, Ken,» he said, offering his hand. «It's good to see you. Welcome home.»

«Thank you, sir.»

«Charley, see what the Lieutenant will have,» Sage said to the bartender.

«It's

Captain

, Daddy,» Ernie said. «

One

silver bar, first lieutenant.

Two

silver bars, captain.»

Oh shit. I knew that. Every time I get around him, I make an ass of myself.

«Well, then, I guess congratulations are in order.»

«They certainly are,» Ernie said. «And notice the new fruit salad,» Ernie said, pointing at McCoy's ribbon-bedecked tunic. «That's the Silver Star, the third-highest decoration for valor.»

«Oh, Christ, Ernie,» McCoy said.

«He got it from General MacArthur personally,» Ernie went on, undaunted.

«Scotch,» McCoy, now very uncomfortable, said to the bartender. «Famous Grouse if you have it. A double.»

«Ernie, you're embarrassing Captain McCoy,» her father said.

«You can call him 'Ken,' Daddy. We're lovers.»

«Jesus, Ernie!» McCoy protested.

Ernest Sage pretended he had not heard his daughter. «You got to meet General MacArthur, did you, Ken?»

«And yesterday he briefed President Roosevelt,» Ernie said. «In the White House.»

«Did he really?» Sage asked, and then curiosity got the best of him. «I'm not sure what that means, 'briefed.' «

«It's sort of a report, sir.»

«A report on what?»

McCoy hesitated before answering. The operation had been classified Top Secret, but that was no longer the case. After McCoy's briefing, the President had ordered Navy Secretary Knox to put out a press release: «It will do great things for morale, Frank,» President Roosevelt had said, «for the public to learn that these brave men refused to surrender and are carrying on the fight against the Japanese in the Philippines.»

«There's a guerrilla force operating in the Philippines,» McCoy said.

«A gorilla force?» Sage asked, dubiously.

Ernie laughed at him. She started pounding her chest with balled fists.

«Hundreds of King Kong's cousins,» she said, «beating their chests. And looking for Japanese to rip apart.

Guerrillas

, Daddy. Probably from the French

guerre

, meaning 'war.' «

Ernest Sage saw that

Captain

McCoy was smiling, approvingly and fondly, at his only child. «I hadn't heard that,» Ernest Sage said.

«It was classified until yesterday,» McCoy said.

«And how did you come to know about these

guerrillas

, Ken?»

«He went into the Philippines and made contact with them,» Ernie said.

«That's enough, Ernie,» McCoy said flatly. «Put a lid on it.»

Ernie looked stricken. She did not like McCoy's disapproval.

«Am I asking questions I shouldn't be asking?» Ernest Sage said.

«Sir, I really don't know how much of this is still classified,» McCoy said.

The waiter delivered McCoy's double Famous Grouse and stood poised over it with a small silver water pitcher in one hand and a soda siphon bottle in the other.

McCoy held up his hand to signify he wanted neither, then picked up the glass and took a sip.

«What can I get you, Miss Sage?» the bartender asked.

«I'll just help myself to his. He had several… too many… on the train on the way up here.»

McCoy overrode this decision by signaling the bartender to give her her own drink. She did not press the issue.

«Daddy, to change the subject, what about Ken's car?»

At last, a safe subject.

«I called the man at the Cadillac place in Summit,» Sage said. «He's sending a mechanic out to the farm. You should have it tomorrow morning sometime.»

«I was hoping we could have it today,» Ernie said.

«Princess, it's too late for you two to drive anywhere today,» Sage said. «This way, we can go out to the farm, have a nice dinner—your mother is making a welcome-home dinner for Ken, turkey—get a good night's sleep…«

«Ken's only got fifteen days, Daddy!»

«It's all right,» McCoy said. «Thank you, Mr. Sage.»

Sage nodded his acceptance of the thanks and went on: «And, and, I have gasoline ration coupons—don't ask me where I got them—for a hundred gallons of gas.»

«You bought them on the black market,» Ernie said. «To replace the ration coupons—

Ken's

ration coupons—you 'borrowed' from me.» Ernest Sage raised his eyebrows.

«I wasn't going to renew the license plates, honey,» Ernie went on. «But Daddy talked me into it. He said we could use the gasoline ration coupons.»

Here I stand with a man who just got a medal from General MacArthur, and my daughter takes pains to let him know I'm supporting the war effort by using his gasoline ration.

«I've got coupons for two hundred gallons,» McCoy said. «Ed Sessions gave them to me when he gave me my leave orders.»

«We'll take his—actually, they're yours—anyhow,» Ernie said.

McCoy said nothing.

The guest room given to Captain Kenneth R. McCoy was on the ground floor of the left wing of the Sage house. The bedroom of the daughter of his hosts was on the second floor of the right wing. There was no way her parents could have separated them farther, Captain McCoy realized, unless they had put him in the stable.

On one hand, McCoy was well aware that if he himself had been in the shoes of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Sage, he would have put this guy who'd caught their daughter's attention in the stable, hoping that with a little bit of luck, one of the horses would go nuts and trample him to death.

On the other hand, the prospect of sleeping without Ernie was unpleasant. They were going to have only fifteen days. If that much. He would not have been at all surprised if something came up… «Sorry, get here as soon as you can.»

Shit, I didn't call in.

He picked up the telephone, gave the operator the number of the Office of Management Analysis duty officer, assured her the call was necessary, and waited for her to put it through.

Major Banning answered the phone by giving the number.

«McCoy, sir. I'm at Ernie's father's place.»

«I thought you might be. I have the number. Having fun?»