[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
manuals containing details of U.S. Navy tanker refueling techniques and capabilities. THREE I Deal, New jersey June LIS, 1942 Dick Canidy, dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase, after a full day in coveralls in Hangar 17, stepped off the New jersey Central train at As bury Park. The Rolls Royce was waiting for him. After making another killing on Wall Street, home comes Richard Canidy, well-known internationalfinancier, to he met by thefaithfulfamily retainer in the Rolls. When the Rolls delivered Canidy in his stockbroker's uniform to Summer Place, the admiral, Barbara Whittaker, and the admiral's chief of staff were drinking wine at an umbrella-shaded cast-iron table on the lawn. The lawn was green and lovely and it stretched down to the beach. Without being asked, the admiral's middle-aged orderly brought Canidy some of Chesly Whittaker's older-than-Canidy Scotch. With a breeze coming off the ocean, it was so pleasant at the table that Barbara Whittaker ordered that their dinner be served there. And they lingered over coffee and brandy until it was dark and fireflies came out. The admiral finally announced he was going to take a stroll along the beach, and Canidy was flattered when the old man asked if perhaps he would care to join him. They caught up with one of the Navy sentries, who was patrolling the beach with a Springfield rifle on his shoulder and an allegedly ferocious German shepherd on a leash. Page 72 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html The shepherd obligingly chased pieces of driftwood for the admiral, proudly delivering them with his tail wagging. Finally, the sentry resumed his rounds, and Canidy, without thinking, idly asked a question he immediately regretted. He asked the admiral about his family. "My wife lives as I do, on charity," the admiral said calmly. "When I was court-martial ed-" "Court-martial ed?" "In absentia, almost immediately after I left Morocco," the admiral said matter-of-factly, "I was convicted of treason. The court stripped me of my rank and decorations. That of course stopped my pay, and my property was forfeit." "Jesus Christ!" Canidy exploded. The admiral shrugged. "My son was dismissed from the Navy shortly after my court-martial. As my son, he was obviously not trustworthy. He has been arrested by the Germans. I don't know where he is." "I'm sorry." " I have old friends in New York," the admiral said, "Madame Martin and her husband, who have been kind enough to provide a little pocket money for me, enough that I can share a little with my staff." "You don't get money from the Free French?" I have a letter from Brigadier de Gaulle," the admiral said, his tone making it quite clear what he thought of de Gaulle, "in which he states that he, representing the Free French, does not of course regard my court martial as valid, and that so far as the Free French are concerned, I am in honorable retirement. He went on to express his profound regret that because of other, more pressing claims upon the limited funds made available to him, he will unhappily be forced to delay the payment of my pension until after the war. "That sonofabitch!" Canidy said. "You are referring, mon Major," the admiral said dryly, "to the head of my government. But under the circumstances, I do not believe I will offer you the choice of a duel or an apology." They walked along the beach in silence for a couple of minutes, nodded to the sailor when he came walking back down the beach with the German shepherd, then turned and headed back to Summer Place. When they got back to the house, Barbara Whittaker was waiting for them. Captain Doug lass had called, she said. Canidy was to fly the Beech 110 11 W.R.R. GRIFIFIN to Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington first thing in the morning Someone would meet him at the airport. FOUR I MOM Phis, Tennessee Sune 26,1942 Two signs forbidding personal long-distance telephone calls were tacked to the employee bulletin board of the Memphis Advocate. One was a poster published by the Office of the Coordinator of Information. It showed an Air Corps officer sitting at a desk with a telephone to his ear. He was wearing a look of pained frustration in response to a balloon coming from the telephone: "Sorry, Captain, all the lines are busy." In black letters was the legend "Telephones are tools of war! If you have to call, make it quick! The second was smaller and more succinct. It was hand-lettered: A RECORD OF LONG-DISTANCE CALLS is NOW BEING KEPT. CHARGING PERSONAL LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE CALLS TO THE ADVOCATE IS GROUNDS FOR DISM188AL. Page 73 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Ann Chambers ignored both. For one thing, she doubted that one two-minute telephone call from Memphis, Tennessee, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was really going to lose more battles than were already being lost. For another, the Memphis Advocate was one of nine newspaper properties owned by Chambers Publishing Corporation. The president of Chambers Publishing was Brandon Chambers, and Brandon Chambers was Ann's father. She had begun thinking about making the telephone call to Iowa in the elevator in the Peabody Hotel the day her cousin Ed Bitter had told THE SECRET WARRIORS 0 III her that Dick Canidy had been sent home in disgrace from China for "re fusing to engage the enemy." Ed obviously believed what he told her to be true. And it certainly would explain why her pen-pal letters to Canidy had gone unanswered. It was possible that he was a coward, though she didn't feel that was likely. In fact, the truth was that even if Dick did run away from the japs she didn't care. The truth was that she loved him more than she'd ever believed she could love any man. And what she wanted more than anything in the world right now was to get his head on her shoulder. Or her breast. "This is Reverend Canidy," the voice on the telephone said curiously. "Reverend Canidy, this is Ann Chambers," she said. "I'm Ed Bitter's cousin, and, more to the point, a friend of Dick's." "Oh, how nice!" he said, puzzled. "The reason I'm calling is that I'm going-I live in Memphis-East, and I seem to have lost Dick's address." "He's horn ig e from China," the Reverend Canidy said, as I guess you know? "Yes,' Ann said. "And he's found work with the National Institutes of Health, as a pi lot." The National Institutes of Health? "I'd heard," Ann lied. "Could you give me his address in Washington? And his phone number? I'd really like to say hello when I'm there." "Just a moment," he said. "I've got it somewhere." Later, when she called the number Canidy's father gave her, a woman answered and denied any knowledge of anyone named Canidy. When Ann called the National Institutes of Health, they had never beard of him either. When she called the Washington information operator, she said she had no listing for the address Reverend Canidy had given her on Q Street, NW Ann walked into the teletype room and sat down before the Chambers News Service teletypewriter. She typed rapidly, a service message to the Chambers News Service Washington Bureau. She asked for ALL INFO, FACT AND SPEC the Washington bureau could develop SOONEST on what was going on at the address [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |