Retreat, Hell! Part 48

"General," Hart said, "would it be too much to ask Mrs. Pickering to call my wife and tell her we got Pick back? She's been holding her breath. Actually, she's been praying."

"Of course not," Pickering said, reaching out his hand for the telephone.

"Good night, sir," Hart said, and walked out of the room.

"Patricia?" Pickering said to the telephone.

"Flem?"

She sounds sleepy.

Jesus Christ, I have no idea what time it is in the States. Did I wake her up?

"How many other calls do you get from men at this time of day?"

"Quite a few, actually," she said. "And two minutes ago I got a telegram from the Secretary of the Navy . . ." She paused, and he had a mental image of her picking it up and reading from it. ". . . who is 'pleased to inform you that your son Major Malcolm Pickering has been returned to U.S. control' and that 'further information will be furnished when available.' "

"I guess the system kicked in," he said.

"Have you seen him? Where are you?"

"In the Imperial. We got back here a couple of hours ago."

"Thank you for calling me immediately," she said sarcastically.

"I was with Ernie," he said, trying to explain and apologize. "Trying to get her to see a doctor."

"What's wrong with her?" she asked, concern replacing her anger.

"I don't think anything is. But when Keller told her about Pick, she fainted."

"What did the doctor say?"

"She wouldn't see a doctor," he said.

"Tell her that her mother and I are on the way," Patricia said.

"Here?"

"No, to Acapulco."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, sweetheart."

"My son has just been rescued after more than two months and my pregnant G.o.ddaughter has just pa.s.sed out, and it's not a good idea that her mother and I come over there? What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?"

"As soon as he's up to it, they're going to fly him to the States. You're going to be asked to which hospital he should be sent."

"How do you know that?"

"Harry Truman told me."

"Spare me your sarcasm, Flem."

"Just before he took off from Wake Island, the President told me that he has ordered that Pick be sent to the States as soon as his physical condition permits."

" 'As soon as his physical condition permits'? What do you know that I don't? When Ernie called, she said he was in great shape."

"He's in the sick bay on the Badoeng Strait. Badoeng Strait. Patricia, he spent seventy-seven days running around Korea avoiding capture; they haven't found anything wrong with him, according to McCoy, but they . . . they want to make sure nothing is wrong with him." Patricia, he spent seventy-seven days running around Korea avoiding capture; they haven't found anything wrong with him, according to McCoy, but they . . . they want to make sure nothing is wrong with him."

"So something is wrong with him."

"I expect a full report on his condition in the morning. As soon as I get it, I'll call."

"Elaine and I will be traveling by tomorrow morning," Patricia declared. "She's on her way here from New Jersey."

Elaine Sage was Ernie's mother.

"Ernie doesn't want her mother over here, she told me."

"She's pregnant-she doesn't know what she wants."

"Obviously, I can't stop either of you, but if you come over here, it will be one G.o.dd.a.m.ned big mistake. What's probably going to happen is that when you get here, you'll learn that you pa.s.sed Pick flying in the other direction in the middle of the Pacific," Pickering said.

There was a long pause.

"So what are you telling me you think we should do, Flem?" she asked finally.

"Go to San Francisco. To the apartment. By the time you get there, I'll have more information. I'll call and give it to you."

"Elaine's determined to go over there."

"Talk her out of it, sweetheart."

"You'll call me at the apartment the minute you hear anything?"

"Of course I will."

"You sound tired, Flem."

"I am tired."

"Get some rest."

"I will," he said, then added: "Patricia, would you please call George Hart's wife in Saint Louis and tell her."

"I will, but-"

"George said she's been praying for him. Call her, please, Pat."

"I said I would."

"I don't know what the h.e.l.l you're mad at me for."

"I'm not mad at you, Flem."

"That's not what it sounds like."

"I love you, Flem. I often wonder why."

"I love you, too, and I know why."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Patricia said, and hung up.

[FIVE].

THE DAI ICHI BUILDING TOKYO, j.a.pAN 0805 16 OCTOBER 1950.

A chrome-helmeted MP stepped into the street and held up his hand somewhat imperiously to stop Pickering's Buick.

"El Supremo's coming," Master Sergeant Paul Keller, who was in the front seat beside the driver, said. "Everybody look busy."

Pickering and Hart, in the backseat, laughed. The sergeant driver-no one knew his name; they changed frequently, and were, not in their hearing, universally referred to as "the CIC guy"-looked at Hart, visibly surprised that a sergeant would dare mock the Supreme Commander, and even more so that a brigadier general and his aide-de-camp would laugh with him.

And it was indeed the Supreme Commander, United Nations Command & U.S. Forces, Far East, arriving at his headquarters.

Preceded by a jeep loaded with chrome-helmeted MPs, his black Cadillac limousine rolled regally past Pickering's Buick, and other cars behind it, and up before the steps leading to the door of the Dai Ichi Building.

A crowd of people, mostly j.a.panese but including some Americans and others in uniform, waited on the sidewalk behind a line of MPs.

Two more chrome-helmeted MPs stood on the sidewalk at the spot where the rear door of the limousine would open. As it approached them, they raised their hands in salute and held it. The instant the Cadillac stopped, one of them opened the door while the other held his salute.

MacArthur came out of the limousine and, looking straight ahead, walked quickly up the stairs to the building. He acknowledged the salutes given him three times.

Colonel Sidney Huff, MacArthur's senior aide-de-camp, got out of the limousine and followed MacArthur into the building.

The limousine drove off. The crowd-the show over- began to disperse. The MP who had stopped them now motioned just as regally for them to start moving.

When the car stopped before the building, Pickering was out of the backseat before either the CIC guy or Keller could get out of his seat to open it for him.

Trailed by Hart and Keller, Pickering walked across the lobby to the bank of elevators.

"If there's anything of interest, bring it upstairs," Pickering said to Keller.

"Yes, sir."

Keller got on one elevator, which would carry him to the Communications/Cryptographic Center in the bas.e.m.e.nt, and Pickering and Hart got on another, which carried them to the lobby outside the door of the Office of the Supreme Commander.

Hart walked quickly to the door, pushed it inward, and held it open for Pickering.

There were two outer offices, one manned by one of MacArthur's junior aides, a receptionist, and other clerical types. Pickering strode purposefully through the first outer office into the second, which was occupied by Colonel Sidney Huff and some clerical types.

Shortly after arriving in Tokyo, he had decided that stopping in the outer office and asking to see Colonel Huff was not the thing to do. It gave him a place in the pecking order. He was not only a brigadier general but the Deputy Director of the CIA. He did not need to ask a major if he could see a colonel on MacArthur's staff, even if that colonel was MacArthur's aide-de-camp and a founding member of the Bataan Gang.

"Good morning, Sid," Pickering said. "General MacArthur expects me. Would you tell him I'm here?"

"Good morning, sir," Huff said. "Before you see the Supreme Commander, may I have a minute of your time?"

"Sure, Sid. What can I do for you?"

"I thought you would be interested in this, General," Huff said. "And I don't think I have to tell you we were all delighted to hear that Major Pickering came through his ordeal."

"Thank you, Sid," Pickering said, and reached out for the first of several doc.u.ments Huff was obviously prepared to hand him.

SECRET.

URGENT.

FROM BADOENG STRAIT.

0300 16 OCTOBER 1950TO CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF ATTN MAJGEN MASON.

INFO CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.

SUPREME COMMANDER UNC.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PACIFIC.

COMMANDANT USMC1. REFERENCE YOUR URGENT DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT SUBJ: PICKERING, MAJ MALCOLM USMCR 15OCT502. SUBJECT OFFICER SUFFERED NO WOUNDS OR INJURIES DURING THE CRASH LANDING OF HIS AIRCRAFT OR IN THE PERIOD FOLLOWING UNTIL HIS RESCUE.3. ON ARRIVAL BADOENG STRAIT SUBJECT OFFICER SUFFERED FROM EFFECTS OF MALNUTRITION AND DYSENTERY AND WAS INFESTED WITH INTESTINAL PARASITES. AS A RESULT OF THE FOREGOING, HE HAS LOST BOTH FAT AND MUSCLE TISSUE AND WEIGHS 58 (FIFTY-EIGHT) POUNDS LESS THAN HE DID AT THE TIME OF HIS LAST FLIGHT PHYSICAL EXAMINATION. IT IS NOT BELIEVED THAT HE WILL LOSE ANY TEETH, ALTHOUGH THE CONDITION OF HIS GUMS REFLECTS THE AFOREMENTIONED MALNUTRITION AND DYSENTERY.4. SUBJECT OFFICER'S DYSENTERY HAS REACTED TO ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT, AND THE INTERNAL PARASITES HAVE REACTED TO ATABRINE AND OTHER TREATMENT. HE HAS BEEN PLACED ON A HIGH PROTEIN DIET.5. THERE IS NO REASON SUBJECT OFFICER CANNOT BE AIR-LIFTED TO THE ZONE OF THE INTERIOR AT ANY TIME. HE CAN BE TRANSPORTED FROM BADOENG STRAIT EITHER BY TBM-3G AVENGER AIRCRAFT OR BY UNDER-WAY TRANSFER TO A DESTROYER OR DESTROYER ESCORT.6. IN THE OPINION OF THE UNDERSIGNED, PRESENT AND PROJECTED WEATHER CONDITIONS MAKE AT-SEA TRANSFER THE LESS HAZARDOUS MEANS OF TRANSPORT. REQUEST DIRECTION.7. BADOENG STRAIT PROCEEDING.

NORTON, CAPT USN.

COMMANDING.

Pickering read the message and handed it back to Huff.

"Fifty-eight pounds," he said. "Jesus, he must look like a skeleton."

Huff handed him another message.

SECRET.

URGENT.

FROM COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PACIFIC.