Canidy could be subtle at times, and this was probably one of those times. When he walked into Whitby House, the officer of the guard told him that Lieutenant Jamison had gone to the movie they were showing.
The movie started at 2000 hours, so there was no point in walking down there just to see the end of it. If Jamison had gone to the movies, the duchess had probably gone with him. With Canidy gone, he could have at least tried to have a shot at the THE SECRET WARRIORS 11 BOB duchess, even though he knew Canidy was dead serious when he told him the duchess was off-limits. As Whittaker made his way up the wide staircase to his apartment-the one that was once the duchess's-he was forced to conclude that the world was often cruel to kind, gentle, and all around worthy people like himself. When he got to the apartment, he felt he was entitled, by way of solace, to a drink or two of the Scotch Canidy had had the foresight to steal from the cabinet in the library of the house on Q Street. If he didn't drink it now, he thought, it would be all gone. And technically, it was his anyway. He went into the ducal chambers, found the Scotch, poured a glassful, and carried the glass back into the apartment. There he carefully poured two inches of it into a second glass, added water, and sat down in a high-backed chair. He was sipping it when there was a loud and almost vulgar gurgling sound. He looked around the suite in surprise and for the first time saw there was a crack of light under the door to the bathroom. The duchess is shamelessly taking advantage of the American hot water, he thought.
Naughty. And she is not at the movies with Jamison.. Elizabeth, Duchess Stan field, came into the room several minutes later, She was wearing a thick terry-cloth robe, and her hair was wrapped in a towel.
"I'd hoped to be done before you returned," she said. "No apologies required," he said.
"My bathtub is your bathtub, as they say in ol' Meh-hi-co." She smiled at him.
"That was a quick trip," she said. "Our leader elected to stay in London," Whittaker said. "And you didn't?" she teased. "Oh, he was on business," Whittaker said, "And I guess he-" can at? " "There's a mission on. I think he wanted to stick close to London to get word on it. A couple of pals of ours are involved."
"I see," she said.
"Waiting is difficult, isn't it?"
"Can I offer you a little belt of this?" he asked.
"Guaranteed to cure what ails you and to take the hair off your chest."
Now, that was a god damned dumb thing to say. "What is it?" she asked.
"Genuine Scotch whiskey," he said "Yes, I think I would," she said.
"I feel a bit down, myself." or given me. Watch She basf the mouth from here on in.
"Me, too," he said.
"They say that misery loves company." He made her a drink. She surprised him by saying she -would take it neat. "This is very nice," she said.
"Reimported from the United States by our leader," he said. "Will he be angry when he finds it gone?"
"Probably," Whittaker said.
"Why do you ask? Has he been jumping on you again?"
"Oh no," she said, and then laughed. "What's so funny?"
"Two people speaking the same language differently again," she said.
"The vernacular is different. I would not use that slang, if you don't mind the suggestion, in mixed English company."
"Jumping is screwing in English English?" he asked. "Why did I bring this subject up?" Why indeed?
"In Australia it's 'rooting," Whittaker offered. "Did you have a nice ride to and from London?" she asked, diverting the conversation to what she obviously hoped was a sexless subject. "Lovely," he said.
"Why are you down? Is there anything I can do?"
"You've done it," she said, raising the whiskey glass. "That's not an answer," he said. "I took advantage of everyone's absence to wander through the house," she said.
"I'm afraid it was a mistake. It made me miss my husband." Well, there goes the ball game. "Where's he stationed?"
"My husband is down," she said.
"He was flying a Wellington. It went down over Hanover. There were some parachutes, but there's been no word."
"Jesus," Whittaker said.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know about that." Her eyes met his for a moment, then she looked away. "Could you possibly spare some more of that?" she asked. She could not let things stand like that, she decided. It would be unfair. "Of course," he said, and poured Scotch in her glass.
"When that's gone, I'll go steal some more."
"Why are you down?" she asked. "The standard reason, I suppose: unrequited love."
"That's strange," she said.
"I thought you would be one of these people who believe that not to worry, if you lose one woman, another will be along shortly, like a tram."
"After a while, Your Grace, one becomes rather bored with trams," he said, in a credible, mock British accent. She laughed. "Then this is a serious relationship that's gone awry?" she said. "It hasn't gone awry, because I have never been able to get this particular tram on the tracks."
"Have you told her?"
"She knows."
"Oh."
"Were you ever infatuated, as a girl, with a boy? I mean when you were ten, or twelve? And the boy was a couple of years older? 410f course," she said.
"This girl thinks she is too young for you?"
"The reverse. I was the ten-year-old hopelessly in love with a thirteen year-old girl."
"And she thought-still thinks-she's too old for you?"
"That's part of it, I think," he said.
"She can't forget the bony-kneed little boy with braces on his teeth and suppurating acne." She chuckled. "You don't have acne now," she said.
You're a damned good-looking young man, as a matter of fact. "I was sitting here developing a theory that she's been burned by love."
"All women are burned by love at one time or another," she said.
"It passes with time."
"I think she was really in love with this guy," Whittaker said.
"Which makes sense, considering the guy. And the girl."
"You know him?"
"Very well," Whittaker said.
"He died."
"And she's mourning over him?"
"Some people have said that this guy and I are-were-very much alike.
Theory two thousand and two holds that she is rejecting me because I am so much like the other guy. That she was really hurt when he kicked the bucket and is afraid of getting involved again and getting hurt again."
"That's an interesting theory," she said.
"You want my advice?"
"Why not?"
"She'll probably come to her senses," she said.
"Sooner or later. Are you willing to wait?"
"Oh, yeah. I don't have any choice in the matter."
"Then wait," she said.
"It may not take as long as you think it will. "And, in the meantime, you don't happen to know when the next tram will be along, do you? To tide me over?" Whittaker saw her face change. You did it again, Motor mouth! Jesus, what's wrong with you? "I'm sorry," he said.
"I didn't mean that the way it sounded."
"No offense taken," she said.
"I knew what you meant."
"I'm about to have another of these," Whittaker said, raising his glass. "How about you?"
"I won't even say I shouldn't," she said, drained her glass, and handed it to him. He reached for the bottle of Scotch. "Have you ever wondered why there are two apartments?" she asked. "Why I lived here, and my husband in a separate apartment?" The question confused him, and when he turned to look at her, it showed on his face. "I suppose that goes back a long time," he said. "The purpose of marriage between the nobility is to ensure the line, to buttress alliances," she said.
"That sort of thing."
"I'm about to misinterpret this whole conversation," he said. "No," she said.
"You already have misinterpreted this conversation, with that sweet, hopeless look on your face when I told you Edward is listed as missing."
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"You said you missed him," Whittaker said. "As indeed I do," she said.
"He's a fine, amusing, decent human being, and I pray he's all right."
"But?"
"We were married because it was expected of us," she said. "One does what one is expected to do. And avoids what one is expected to avoid, which includes doing anything that would cause talk. In other words, I had to be Caesar's wife while I was assigned to the War Office." He looked at her in surprise. He saw in her eyes that he had not misunderstood her meaning. "This isn't the War Office," Whittaker said.
TELL SECRET WARRIORS 0 ass "And we are alone in the house," she said.
"I was thinking that perhaps we both have been waiting for the same tram."
"Jesus H. Christ!" Whittaker said. She licked her lips nervously.
"I shock you, don't I?" she asked. She stood up.
"Would you rather I leave?"
"No," he said, a tone of excitement in his voice.
"For Christ's sake, you can't leave now." She nodded her head.
Carrying her fresh drink, he went to her and handed it to her. She took a sip and then set the glass on the table beside her chair. "I probably shouldn't tell you this," she said.
"But I just realized I have been hoping that something like this would happen from the moment I saw you looking at my breasts."
"In the kitchen, you mean?" he asked. She nodded. She put her hand to his face. "You looked so hungry," she said.
"So love-starved. I know the feeling.))
She took her hand from his cheek, caught his hand with hers, and directed it to the cord of her robe. He tugged on it, and it came loose.
He lowered his head and took her nipple in his mouth. She held him there for a moment, then shrugged out of the robe and let it fall to the floor. She stepped away from him and, looking into his eyes, pulled the towel off her head and shook her hair. Then she turned and walked naked to the canopied bed, threw the cover off, and slipped under the sheets.
"If Canidy finds out about this," he said, "both our asses will be in a crack." 11
"Then," the Duchess of Stan field said, we shall have to be careful that he doesn't find out, shall't we?" He went to the three doors to the apartment and carefully locked them. Then he walked toward the bed, shrugging out of his clothes.
He was later glad that he had locked them, for at ten minutes after four, several minutes after the duchess had woken up feeling frisky and had awakened him in what he thought was a delightfully wicked way, Lieutenant Jamison attempted entry without knocking. "Whittaker!"
Jamison called impatiently.
"Open the damned door! Whittaker tried to open the door just wide enough to see what the sonofabitch wanted, but Jamison pushed his way inside, looked in genuine surprise at the duchess, and thereafter pretended she was invisible. "Colonel Stevens was just on the horn," he said.
"You're to come to the hangar at Croydon as soon as you can get there."
"He say why?"
"No," he said.
"But he said bring a change of clothes, and either come by jeep or bring somebody along to drive the Ford back here."
"Go take the tarpaulin off," the duchess of Stan field said. "I can drive the Ford." Then she got out of bed and trotted regally, stark naked, across the room to retrieve her bathrobe from where she had dropped it on the floor. X X11
ONE I Croydon Airfield London, England 0915 Hours August 19, 1942
They had a bit of trouble, as it turned out, gaining entrance to the field itself. The red-hatted soldiers of His Majesty's Military Police, who guarded it, had been ordered to be on the lookout for a stolen American Ford staff car meeting the description of the one they were driving. The MP officer of the guard, however, backed down before the icy indignation of Captain the Duchess Stan field, V@RAC, who was driving the car. Her Grace was incensed that anyone could imagine for a moment that she could possibly be found in the company of a car thief.
And they were passed on to the field. The C-46 was out of the hangar, and a snub-nosed English fuel truck was parked beside it. Its hose led to the auxiliary fuel tanks inside the fuselage. Canidy was standing in the aircraft door watching the proceedings. When he saw the Ford drive up, he came down the ladder. "What's going on?" Whittaker asked. "I hate to say this, but the duchess doesn't have the need to know," Canidy said.
"The War Office and the OSS agreed that any actions taken with regard to Admiral de Verbey would be a joint decision," the duchess said.
"So file an official complaint," Canidy said, and took Whittaker by the arm and led him inside the hangar. "The captain," he said to the guards loud enough for the duchess to hear him, "is not authorized to enter the hangar." Inside, Whittaker saw Colonel Stevens standing expectantly beside a telephone. Next to him, a cigarette dangling from his lips, was the London chief of station. "Are they down?" Whittaker asked. That could be the only explanation for their summons in the middle of the night to Croydon. Something had happened to Fine's airplane, and the backup was needed. "They're overdue at Bissau," Canidy said, "They will run out of fuel in about fifteen minutes."
"So the backup flight is on?"
"Well, that's being decided," Canidy said dryly, nodding toward Colonel Stevens and the chief of station, "at the highest levels. Things are just fucked up, Jimmy."
"Well, then, tell me what's going on," Whittaker said reasonably.
"I'll start from the beginning," Canidy said, "At seventeen hundred hours yesterday, purely as a precautionary measure, Colonel Stevens called over here and asked to speak to Commander Whatsisname. He wanted to put him on a six-as opposed to a twelve-hour alert. The flight engineer told him that Commander Whatsisnarne was with Captain Somebody at the moment.
So Stevens, being a nice guy, said that's all right, when he comes back, tell him he's now on a six-hour alert, and ask him to call me for details. That's fuckup number one."
"How?" Whittaker asked. "Bear with me," Canidy said.
"Then he went over to meet me at the Dorchester, where he told me that Scotland Yard is on the case of the stolen Ford, and that they expect to have the criminal behind bars in the immediate future."
"Are you serious "Dead serious," Canidy said. "Christ, and Elizabeth's going to drive it back to Whitby House."
"I'm fascinated to hear you refer to her as Elizabeth," Canidy said.
"But I thought you wanted to hear about this."
"Go on."
"We had a drink, and then he took me upstairs to a just-swept room, THE SECRET WARRIORS a 29a where I was, as they say, brought into the big picture. That was fucki number two."
"I don't understand that."
"I am now possessed, the London station chief feels, of such hot s( crets that my capture cannot be risked, and therefore I can't go on the, backup flight."
"So I'm to go," Whittaker said. "I'm not finished," Canidy said.
"After I was admitted to all the secret crap, and Stevens went back to the OSS, the duty officer told him that Commander Whatsisname-" "Logan," Whittaker impatiently furnished the name of the NATC aircraft pilot. "-Logan had yet to report in, So Stevens called back out here, and the flight engineer said he had heard from him. They were in Liverpool, and Liverpool is socked in. The captain Commander Logan had gone to see was in Liverpool. That was the first time Stevens had heard that," "What time is Logan due here?"
"The train will get them here sometime around noon, I understand," Canidy said.
"The weather has been updated-would you like a report? I've been running over to the weather office every fifteen minutes or so since about one this morning when the chief of station arrived out here.
Liverpool is thick ground fog, visibility about two and a half feet, and expected to worsen. Oh yeah, and I seem to have left out that at midnight Colonel Stevens woke me up and told me it might be a good idea if I came out here."
"What about another crew?" Whittaker said. "There ought to be lot of people who can fly C-46s around here."
&nbs
p; "Not as many as everybody thought," Canidy said.
"And none we can find with a Top Secret security clearance, which the station chief has thrown into the equation. The Air Force is working on that. If they find somebody, then we have the problem of getting them here."
"You and I could fly it,' Whittaker said. "You said the engineer is here."
W E B Griffin - Men at War 2 - Secret Warriors Page 33
