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

«Kazakhstan?»

«I think so.»

«You're telling me Zimmerman was on a caravan smuggling things into India and the Soviet Union?»

«No, sir. Zimmerman was bankrolling the smugglers—actually his woman was. with Zimmerman's money. He—or Mae Su—bought the jade and the vases et cetera, in China, and then sent them out on caravans. The caravan guys got a percentage of what they sold it for.»

«How did he know he would ever see the caravan people again?» Banning asked incredulously.

«Sometimes… when

everybody's

making money, people are honest,» McCoy said. «And Zimmerman's not the sort of guy anyone wants to cross.» he added matter-of-factly.

«In other words, you believe this story?»

McCoy nodded.

«This wasn't big time stuff. Nothing more than a couple of hundred dollars at a time,» McCoy said. «But he and Mae Su have a pretty good-size farm in her village. I went up there a couple of times. They even have a little sausage factory. And they lived good in Shanghai—a lot better than he could live on a corporal's pay. He told me he was saving money for when he retired.»

«But you're sure he's been in contact with smugglers?»

McCoy nodded. «And then they would buy the stuff—mostly icons. You know what they are? Sort of folding pictures of saints painted on wood?»

«I know what they are,» Banning said.

«They would bring the icons smuggled out of Russia, bring them to Shanghai, and sell them to the antique dealers.»

«I don't suppose you were involved in this?» Banning said.

«I thought about it, but I didn't like the odds,» McCoy replied.

«This Chinese wife of his,» Banning asked, thinking out loud. «Where do you think she is?»

«Well, maybe… no, probably, she's playing it safe in the village,» McCoy said. «It's called Paotow-Zi, on the Yellow River twenty, thirty miles from the nearest city. Baotou.»

«Show me on the map,» Banning ordered, went to the table and flipped through a half-dozen large maps until he found what he was looking for, then pulled it from the others and laid it on top.

McCoy found what he was looking for quickly, and held his finger on it for Banning to see. Banning took a compass and made some quick measurements.

«It's a long way from there to the Gobi Desert,» he said.

McCoy didn't argue.

«You said Zimmerman's Chinese wife is 'probably' playing it safe in this village. Was there anything significant in that?»

McCoy looked uncomfortable.

«What, Ken?» Banning pursued.

«She may be in the middle of the Gobi Desert with some caravan,» he said.

«Doing what?»

«Trying to make it to India. Or, for that matter, into Russia.»

«Into Russia? Why the hell would she want to go into Russia? Or India?»

«That's what Zimmerman told her to do, get into India, go to the first American consulate she can find. Have the consul send word to Zimmerman's mother that she and the kids are in India. And then try to get them to the States.»

«That seems like a pretty forlorn hope,» Banning said. «The American Consul is not liable to pay a lot of attention to a Chinese woman with some half-breed children who says she's married to an American.»

«They're married. Some Catholic priest married them. There's a wedding certificate, and Zimmerman went to the consulate and made some sort of statement that the kids are his.»

«I don't think that will work, Ken. You have to admire him—both of them— for trying.»

«I don't think it will work, either. But strange things happen.»

«What did you say about Russia?» Banning asked. «You said something about them trying to get into Russia.»

McCoy looked even more uncomfortable.

«Let's have it, McCoy,» Banning said very softly.

«I asked Mae Su to try to take care of Milla if anything happened,» McCoy said, meeting Banning's eyes.

«You never said anything about that to me.»

«I didn't want you to get your hopes up. If I were Mae Su, I would be trying to cover my ass, and protecting the kids, and wouldn't want to have to worry about taking care of a white woman with a Nansen passport.»

«And since she's a typical Chinese, she said 'yes, of course, certainly' and then forgot about it?»

«She said she would think about it,» McCoy said. «Mae Su's all right.»

«You don't really think they're together?»

«I don't know. I've thought about it. On one hand, Mae Su wants to protect her kids, and will let nothing get in the way of that. On the other hand, when I asked her, you weren't married to Milla. I didn't know about that until you told me. But Zimmerman knew, and I'm sure he told Mae Su. A woman married to an American, an American officer, is not the same thing as a stateless woman. Mae Su may have decided that Milla might be useful. Any consulate would do more for a white woman married to an American officer than he would for a Chinese married to a corporal. Mae Su would know that. She's the brains in that family.»

«Jesus Christ!» Banning said.

«Did Milla have any money?»

«Not much.» Banning said. «All I could lay my hands on on short notice. Whatever she could get for my stuff, which probably was damned little. And she had some money of her own—damned little, I'm sure.»

McCoy didn't reply.

«Jesus Christ. Ken, why didn't you tell me any of this before?»

«I didn't think there was anything you could do if you knew,» McCoy said. «I didn't want to open the wound.»

«Because you don't think that they'll…«

«The odds aren't very good,» McCoy said.

«There's nothing wrong with betting on a long shot if it's the only bet open,» Banning said.

McCoy shrugged what could have been agreement.

«The one thing we'd agreed on in here after two days is that we need to talk to someone who knows more about the Gobi Desert than what he's read in the

National Geographic,''

Banning said.

McCoy chuckled.

«So where is Gunny Zimmerman?»

«On his way here,» McCoy said. «Which means he's either still in Brisbane, or in Pearl Harbor, or maybe San Diego. Zimmerman and Koffler—and Mrs. Koffler—are coming on the same orders. They're entitled to thirty-day leaves. There's some kind of a rest hotel somewhere…«

«The Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia,» Banning furnished.

«I guess the idea was they could hold each other's hands. But I don't think that will last after they get off the first plane. Zimmerman will 'get lost,' and the Kofflers will go on without him. And I don't think that Zimmerman is interested in going to a rest hotel someplace. So he's probably at Pearl, 'Diego… anywhere… and will check in at Management Analysis when his leave is up. Maybe even before.»

«We need him here, and now,» Banning said, «which means we're going to have to find him. I'll go see General Rickabee and see what he can do.»

McCoy nodded.

«I need a big favor from you, Ken,» Banning said.

«Yes, sir.»

«When you brief the team tomorrow morning, and you will, I want you to leave Milla and the possibility that she might be with Zimmerman's wife out.»

«Okay. But why?»

«Because if either the DDO or General Pickering hears that my wife is involved in this, they'll take me off this operation. It would be too much of an emotional involvement for me to function rationally. You understand?»

«If I can get to Zimmerman first,» McCoy said. «I'll tell him to leave Milla out.»

«I'll do my damnedest to arrange that,» Banning said.

«Ed, don't get your hopes up,» McCoy said.

That's the first time since I first laid eyes on him that he's ever called me by my first name

, Banning thought.

«I won't. I understand the odds.»