W E B Griffin - Men at War 1 - The Last Heroes

by The Last Heroes(Lit)

  There was a holdup of some sort in the Holland Tunneldamned Sunday drivers out for a spin. But Edward managed to bring the car up to the box holder's entrance to the Polo Grounds in good time. Chesty told the police to let Edward in after he'd parked the car.

  The trouble with charming Irishmen was that they were seldom alone. There were seven people in the box with Bill Donovan. If he was going to have a word with Donovan, it would have to be on the train.

  "A little Scotch, Chesty?" Donovan said.

  "Is there any brandy?" Chesty asked. He had indigestion, or Something. He had the makings of one of those damned headachesfrom the fumes in the tunnel, probably. Brandy usually proved more 1&ctive for him than aspirin.

  "We're getting a little effete in our old age, aren't we?" Donovan kidded. was gassed in the tunnel," Chesty said. "I feel a headache coming."

  "I always have some for the ladies," Donovan went on, looking in his bar box. ,oh, here it is. "For Female Vapors'right on the bottle."

  "Go to hell, Bill," Chesty said, taking the bottle.

  He drank a shotglassful neat, and then poured another to sip on.

  Donovan introduced him to the men he didn't know. A Chicago banker, some relative of Jack Kriendler and Charlie Bems, who ran the '21"Club on Fifty-second Street, a state senator from Oswego (another Republican who, like Bill himself, had been active in Tom Dewey's failed attempt to win the 1940 Domination), and a Boston surgeon. The last, Charley MacArthur, was a writer.

  "I want to talk to you seriously later," Donovan said. "There's something I want to ask you to do for me."

  "Name it," Chesty said. Tit for tat, he thought.

  "On the train," Bill Donovan said.

  He could hardly tell Whittaker here that the President wanted Whittaker Construction to gear up with all possible haste for a monumental, multibillion-dollar, highly complex engineering construction project that was concerned with refining a mineral element that had never been refined in quantities larger than a pin could pick up.

  The project was now official. As of yesterday, Saturday, December 6, the Office of Scientific Research and Development had been given several million dollars to get things started. And they were still working on building chain reaction at the University of Chicago.

  The only thing they were certain of was that if this were going to work, they would need large quantities of an isotope called U 235. Right now in all the worldincluding what the Germans were known to have-there was.000001 pound of uranium 235.

  At one minute after 2:00 Pm., there was an announcement over the public-address system. It was urgent that Colonel William Donovan call Operator 19 in Washington for an emergency message.

  "God, it must be nice to be that man's confidant Chesty said to Donovan as Donovan went looking for a telephone.

  ,I never voted for him Donovan said. "It's just that I have this awesome respect for Harvard men."

  The door to the box opened again two minutes later, and Donovan beckoned Chesty to come out of the box. He was not smiling, Chesty saw, and he didn't like the look in Donovan's eyes.

  ,That was John Roosevelt@" he said. "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor."

  ,Jesus Christ!" Chesty said.

  ,I,m wanted in Washington," Donovan said. "Will you have your chauffeur take me to the station?" ,Certainly," Chesty said.

  "Or to La Guardia," Donovan said. "John's trying to find me a seat on the threefifteen Eastern flight. He's going to call right back."

  Chesty Whittaker went back to the box and motioned to Edward. Donovan was called to the telephone as Chesty was telling Edward he was to take Mr. Donovan to Pennsylvania Station, and then come back for him.

  When Donovan returned, he said, "It'll be La Guardia."

  "They found a seat for you?" Chesty asked.

  Donovan's eyebrows went up.

  "Young Roosevelt just told me that by the time I get to La Guardia, there will be an Army Air Corps plane waiting for me."

  "Ooohooo , " Chesty breathed.

  "If you still want to go to Washington, Chesty"' Donovan said, come with me."

  "How would I get back?"

  "I presume that for the immediate future there will be no restrictions on travel Donovan said. -It will take them time to set something like that up."

  Chesty Whittaker made two quick decisions. He would go to Washington. For some : reason (and he didn't think it was just CYNthia, but he acknowledged that she was part of his decision) it was important that he go. And there was no car in Washington.

  "Edward," he said. "I'm going to Washington with Colonel Donovan. After you drop us at La Guardia, I want you to drive the Packard down there. Take it to the house on Q Street. If I'm not there, I'll leave word what you're to do next."

  "Is something wrong, Mr. Whittaker?"

  Chesty looked at Bill Donovan, who nodded before he replied.

  "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Edward. It looks as if we're at war."

  Rangoon, Burma 0930 8 December 1941

  When Dick Canidy went down to breakfast in the villa in Kemmendine, the houseboy first gave him a cup of coffee and then extended a tray on which sat a small packet of waxed paper tied with a string.

  "It came this morning, sair," he said.

  Canidy nodded, picked up a knife, and cut the string around the package. Inside was mail: a four-inch stack for Ed Bitter, and a halfinch stack for Canidy.

  "A couple of eggs, up," Canidy said. "Juice, toast. Is there any ham?"

  "No, sair, but small steak."

  "Please," Canidy said, and then, handing him Bitter's mail, added: "This is for Mr. Bitter. Go wake him up with it."

  "Yes, sair."

  Five of Canidy's nine pieces of mail were bills. There were three letters from his father, and one which surprised him. It bore the return address of Ann Chambers, at Bryn Mawr College.

  He tore it open and thought, aloud: "Christ, it took long enough to get here." p.0. Box 235 college station Bryn Mawr, Pa. Sept. 4, 1941

  Dear Lonely Boy, Far From Home & Loved Ones:

  I call you that because a Red Cross Volunteer-a lady dressed in so splendiferous a uniform I was truly disappointed to learn she was not a field marshaltold me that's what guys like you are. She also said that it was clearly my patriotic duty to become your pen pal.

  And she told us (we were in church at the time) that Far From Home &

  Loved Ones (I think she had in mind such remote places as Fort Dix, N.J., and San Diego, Cal., rather than wherever this finds YOU, if it ever finds you) there are Lonely Boys yearning for a demonstration of concern from Young Ladies At Home while they are off defending All That We Hold Dear.

  By a pleasant coincidence, she just happened to have a list of addresses of such Lonely, etc., Boys, which she would be happy to dispense, no more than two to a customer.

  While I am as interested as anyone in keeping the barbarians out of Bryn Mawr, I draw the line at writing letters to complete strangers. Hence, this.

  I got the address from my father, who sends his best regards and asks that you keep your eye on my idiot cousin.

  If you are where you said you were going, and write back, I can probably win the prize for writing the Lonely Boy Furthest From Home, etc.

  I will also get a gold star on my report card to show my mommy.

  I'm also more than a little curious to know if it's true the ships you will be flying, as Daddy heard (P40-Bs?), are the ones the English rejected as obsolete. If that's a military secret, of course, ignore the question.

  Take care of yourself, Canidy.

  Cordially, Ann Chambers Bitter came into the dining room as Canidy was rereading one of his father's letters.

  He fixed him with a penetrating stare and kept finally responded. it UP until Bitter "Why are you staring at me?"

  "That's what's known as keeping an eye on an idiot cou Canidy said, pleased with himself.

  He handed Bitter Ann Chambers's letter. He wondered hot father had been able
to come up with CAMCO's Rockefeller ter mail-drop address.

  Bitter handed the letter back.

  "She writes a funny letter," he said. "I got one too. I mean a morale builder. From Ann's friend."

  "Which friend?"

  "Sarah Child," Bitter said, handing it to him. J "The one with the nice ass," Canidy said. He read the letter.

  P.O. Box 135

  College Station Bryn Mawr, pa.

  Sept. 4,1941

  Dear Ed: suppose you'll be as surprised to hear from me as I am surprised to be writing. There was a Red Cross pro gram here to get the girls to write to men in the service. I just don't have the courage to write to a complete stranger, and Ann, as usual, came up with a solution that will keep the powers that be off our backs: She's writing Dick Canidy (she got the address from her father) and I'm writing you.

  I'm sure that you have absolutely no interest in what's happened since we were at Ann's place, but for lack of anything else to write about, I spent most of the summer in New York, except for two weeks, when we went to MacKinac Island, where there is an enormous old hotel and no automobiles.

  It was kind of nice, probably just the way it was in the 1890s.

  Charity came in and said that what we're doing is no fair. She was going to write one or the other of you, but we told her that would be unfair to you, that you had more important things to do with your time than solve W11at must seem like a silly problem for us.

  It was very nice meeting you and Dick Canidy in Alabama and I hope this finds both of you happy and in od health. If you do have a spare moment sometime, it 90 would be nice to get a postcard. Or do they have postcards in China?

  Sincerely, Sarah Child "Holy shit!" Bitter exclaimed excitedly. Canidy looked at him. Bitter was pointing to an enormous insect crawling across an ancient copy of the Times ofindia on the table beside Canidy. "Kill the fucking thing!" Bitter said.

  "My God, you're learning to swear and everything," Canidy chuckled. "You kill it. I'm willing to talk things over with it."

  "Fuck you," Ed Bitter said. He dumped the insect on the floor by turning the newspaper over and then stamped on the bug. Canidy handed Sarah Child's letter back to him. "Clever," he said. "Not as clever as Ann's, but clever."

  "Are you going to reply?" Bitter asked.

  "Sure," Canidy said. "Why not?"

  "She's a little young for you, isn't she? Not quite your style?"

  The reference was obviously to what had happened between Canidy and Sue-Ellen.

  "I hadn't planned to send her dirty pictures, Eddie5" Canidy replied. "Just help her get her gold star to show her mommy."

  Ex-Chief Radioman Edgar Lopp rushed into the dining room.

  "The Japs just bombed Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor."

  "Oh shit!" Canidy said.

  "Oh my God!" Bitter said.

  Lopp turned on the Hallicrafter's communications receiver they had "borrowed" from the CAMCO warehouse, and they listened for bulletins all over the dial.

  At eleven o'clock, a messenger delivered a radio message from Tourigoo:

  AIRCRAFT OF THE AVG WILL NOT REPEAT NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY REPEAT ANY OPERATION WITHOUT THE SPECIFIC AUTHORIZATION OF THE UNDERSIGNED. CHENNAULT.

  Since Canidy and Bitter were the only AVG aviators in Ran goon, the message was obviously intended for them. Bitter wa powerfully disappointed. He took the Japanese attack as a personal affront, and wanted to rush out to Mingaladon Field, jump into a P40-B, roar into the sky, and take revenge on whatever treacherous Japanese aircraft happened to be conveniently there.

  Canidy, on the other hand, felt something closer to fear. The Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor foolishly. They had imagined, and now had proved, that they could get away with it. And if, as the radio reported, they had destroyed most of the Pacific Fleet, things were going to be very bad for the United States and its allies in the Pacific.

  As a practical matter, Canidy decided the smart thing to do was try to get in touch with Crookshanks at Toungoo. Incredibly, the telephone call went through immediately.

  "This is Canidy, Commander," he said. "For your information, there are two we can bring up there right now, if you think that 9S best."

  "Are they in revetments?" Crookshanks asked.

  "Yes, Sir," Canidy said. "I'd say they're safe from anything but a direct hit."

  "I think the thing to do is let them sit right there until things Settle down a little. You got the general's TWXT'

  "Yes, Sir. Just now."

  "Our priority, obviously, is to get the aircraft to China," Crookshanks said. "Unless you hear to the contrary, ferry them up here first thing in the morning."

  "Yes, sir," Canidy said.

  "My, aren't we courteous this morning?" Crookshanks said dryly, and hung up.

  T' Bitter asked after Canidy had hung up ,What did he say 4TOMOITOW morning, we take the two that are flyable up to Toungoo.

  64And what are we supposed to do today?" ,we've been invited to tiffin." Canidy said. "At Wing Commander Hepple's house. With a little bit of luck, that redheaded Scottish lassie will be there. Maybe she'll have a friend for you.51 "For God's sake, we're at war," Bitter said-.

  "Whatever, old chap, has that to do with fiffin?" Canidy replied in a British accent. "Stiff upper lip! Cheerio! Pip-pip and all that!" "you go ahead if you want to 5" Bitter said. "I'm going to stick by the radio." ,Suit yourself," Canidy said. "When the Japs start climbing over the rose garden wall, give me a yell, and I'll come help repel them."

  When Canidy came down from his room at half past three, Bitter was sitting in the front seat of the Studebaker. Canidy said nothing about his change of mind. It did seem a little incongruous that leet on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, he was going with the Pacific F out to get laid. gravelly Point Airport Washington, D.C. 4:45 Pm., December 7, 1941

  The Douglass C-47 airplane waiting for Colonel William Donovan at La Guardia Field was painted the dull olive green of the Army Air Corps. It also bore the Army Air Corps insignia, a red circle in a white star, and it was flown by men in Air Corps uniforms. But when Donovan and Chesley Haywood Whittaker got inside, the interior was civilian. There was even a brochure in a pouch on the back of the seat in front of Chesty Whittaker. In it was a picture of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker welcoming travelers aboard a flagship of Eastern Airlines' Great Silver Fleet.

  There was no stewardess, but ten minutes after they broke ground and the white beaches of the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey sped by under the left wing, a young officer with pilot's wings (11 his tunic came out of the cockpit with a thermos of coffee and two china mugs and told them they should be on the ground in about ninety minutes.

  "I see the airplane was just drafted," Donovan said as he took the coffee.

  "Yes, Sir." The young officer chuckled. "We just took it away from Eastern. Tomorrow... we're adding insult to injury by making them do the work... they were going to strip the interior. I don't know what will happen now."

  "I think we can safely presume that they'll go ahead and strip it," Donovan said. "The military cannot stand creature comforts."

  "If you gentlemen need anything, just come forward," the young pilot said. "I better go help steer." When he had gone, Chesty Whittaker asked the question on his mind:

  "Are they going to requisition all civilian airplanes?"

  "They're going to requisition what they need right away," Donovan replied, "and then replace them as soon as they can from production. Don Douglas's purchase order is going to make him rich: "Make as many airplanes as you can as quick as you can, on cost plus ten percent."'

  "It couldn't happen to a nicer fellow," Chesty Whittaker said.

  "Speaking of requisitioning, Chesty," Donovan said. "How attached are you to the house on Q Street?"

  "I don't think I'm going to like this," Chesty said.

  "I'm going to need a place like that," Donovan said.

  "I thought you had an apartment in the Hotel Washington," Whittaker said, "as well as the place
in Georgetown."

  : "I don't mean me, personally," Donovan said carefully. "The orgallizati(n I'm setting up is going to need a place where I can bring people together, put them up overnight--or for a couple of weeks, Maybe-a Place where they won't be seen or attract attention. A lace, bluntly, to hide people, where they can be protected. A place p with a wall around it; a place with a good kitchen and half a dozen bedrooms. A place just like Jimmy's house on Q Street, Chesty."