Retreat, Hell! Part 79

"I honest to G.o.d could use a drink," he said.

Almond pulled open a desk drawer and came out with a bottle of Old Forrester bourbon.

"Is this a good idea?" Almond asked. "You look feverish. Do you have a fever?"

He didn't wait for an answer, but instead came around the desk and put his fingers to McCoy's forehead.

"You have a fever," he announced. "Is this whiskey a good idea?"

"I'll be all right, sir," McCoy said.

Almond signaled Haig to hand over the gla.s.s Haig had in his hand. He poured whiskey into it and McCoy drank it down.

"Thank you," he said. He looked at Almond. "I had a bad early morning, sir."

"Did you?"

"We were exfiltrating stay-behinds," he said. "One of the teams was overrun. We brought the bodies back with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"They were . . . uh . . . pretty badly mutilated," McCoy said softly. "And we didn't think to take ponchos with us. So . . . uh . . . the reason I'm not in my pajamas is . . . uh . . . that they really needed to be washed."

"How many men?" Almond asked softly.

"Four, sir. It was their first time out-they were some of the Marines that you borrowed to guard the hangar at Kimpo, and who I asked to volunteer for this stay-behind exercise."

He held his hand to his head for a moment.

"And that sonofab.i.t.c.h says there are no Chinese? Who does he think is running the ridges, looking for my stay-behinds? The North Koreans? They left their dead behind, too, so that there could be no question who did the . . . G.o.dd.a.m.n f.u.c.king butchery."

"Take it easy, Major," Almond said.

"Sorry, sir," McCoy said.

"You want some more of this?" Almond said, touching the bottle of Old Forrester.

McCoy looked at the bottle and then at Almond, and then reached for the bottle.

"I should say, 'No, thank you, sir,' " he said. "But with one more drink in me, maybe I'll have the courage to offer a really off-the-wall suggestion."

"What?" Almond asked.

McCoy tossed down another drink and shook his head, as if to clear it.

"If you dismiss this out of hand, sir," he said, "I'll understand. "

"Dismiss what?"

"Why don't we march some prisoners into the G.o.dd.a.m.n Dai Ichi Building? Twenty, twenty-five ordinary Chinese Red Army soldiers, right into Willoughby's office."

"Christ," Haig said disparagingly.

"Could you get the Bataan Bataan back here?" McCoy pursued. back here?" McCoy pursued.

Almond looked at McCoy for a long moment.

"I suppose I could get an Air Force plane," McCoy said. "But that would take time, and if this is going to happen, it has to happen now. And if I used the Bataan, Bataan, it would mean you were involved, and proof that I hadn't borrowed the Chinese from Chiang Kai-shek." it would mean you were involved, and proof that I hadn't borrowed the Chinese from Chiang Kai-shek."

Almond didn't say anything at all.

"Sir, my orders state that I am to get any a.s.sistance I need from any military organization," McCoy said.

"Such as the X United States Corps?" Almond asked.

"Yes, sir. I don't have the orders with me. But you've seen them, sir."

"What I think you need, McCoy . . ." Haig began, and stopped when Almond raised his hand.

"You do have some imaginative ideas, don't you, Major McCoy?" Almond asked thoughtfully. "And you try to cover all the possibilities, don't you? I suppose that's very useful in your line of work."

"General, if I hadn't proposed that, I'd have regretted it, really regretted it, later," McCoy said. He turned to Haig. "And that wasn't the booze speaking, Al. I owed it to those Marines I brought back in pieces this morning."

"I understand," Haig said. "I wasn't-"

"Jerry," General Almond interrupted him. "Get your pad."

"Yes, sir."

Master Sergeant Youngman went quickly to his desk and returned with a stenographer's notebook. "Ready, sir," he said.

"Cla.s.sification, Top Secret, Priority, Operational Immediate. To Supreme Headquarters, UNC, Tokyo. Unless the Supreme Commander personally, repeat personally, rescinds this order, the Bataan Bataan will be immediately, repeat immediately, dispatched to Hamhung. I will be advised of departure time and ETA. The signature block, Jerry, is Edward M. Almond, Major General, USA, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, United Nations Command." will be immediately, repeat immediately, dispatched to Hamhung. I will be advised of departure time and ETA. The signature block, Jerry, is Edward M. Almond, Major General, USA, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, United Nations Command."

"Jesus," Master Sergeant Youngman said softly.

"Take it over to the comm center and get it out right now," Almond said.

"Yes, sir."

[FOUR].

HANEDA AIRFIELD TOKYO, j.a.pAN 2130 2 NOVEMBER 1950.

Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, USMCR, wishing he had thought to wear his raincoat, stood in the cold drizzle until he was sure the four-engine airplane landing was indeed the Bataan. Bataan. Then he got in the front seat of the Buick. Then he got in the front seat of the Buick.

He was not in a very good mood. For one thing, he wasn't sure that McCoy was even going to be on the airplane.

When he had-five hours before, in desperation-telephoned General Douglas MacArthur and asked for his a.s.sistance in finding McCoy, MacArthur had asked why.

"May I ask why you need him here so urgently? And frankly, I'm a bit surprised to hear that he has recovered sufficiently from his wounds to be in Korea at all."

"Mrs. McCoy called me from Tokyo General an hour ago, sir. She felt it best to be in a hospital-"

"She's having the baby?"

"Possibly, sir. They don't know if this is another false alarm or not, but . . . if she delivers, the child would be a month, maybe five weeks, premature, so they're hoping for the false alarm. I'm at the hospital now. I just spoke with her physician, and he said it would benefit her-perhaps keep her from delivering now-if her husband could be with her. And if something goes wrong . . . Sir, I thought it over carefully before asking. I think McCoy is ent.i.tled to a little extra consideration."

"I quite agree. A splendid young officer. I'll get an urgent off immediately to General Almond, asking him to locate him, and making sure he has a s.p.a.ce on the Bataan. Bataan."

"Sir? What about the Bataan Bataan?"

"General Almond ordered the Bataan Bataan to Korea. I don't know why, but I suspect he wishes to bring his disagreement with General Willoughby about the possibility of the Chinese entering the war to me personally. Anyway, the to Korea. I don't know why, but I suspect he wishes to bring his disagreement with General Willoughby about the possibility of the Chinese entering the war to me personally. Anyway, the Bataan Bataan is there, and it can bring Major McCoy when it returns here." is there, and it can bring Major McCoy when it returns here."

"Sir, has there . . . I realize this line is not secure, sir . . . been any change in General Willoughby's position on that matter?"

"No. And that's the source of the friction between Willoughby and Almond. Between you and me, Fleming, I sent Willoughby over there to placate Almond. Apparently, it wasn't enough, and he wants to plead his case in person. Almond has dug in his heels like a mule, frankly."

"Yes, sir. General, I very much appreciate your courtesy to me in what really is a personal matter."

"That's what friends are for, Fleming," MacArthur said, "if I may coin a phrase. I'll tell Jean about Mrs. McCoy, of course. I'm sure she will want to call on her."

A telephone call five minutes before to the hospital had reported there was no change in Mrs. McCoy's condition, and Pickering tried to console himself with that knowledge.

He was more than a little annoyed with McCoy for a number of reasons, based on what he had learned when he finally got through to Fishbase looking for him.

Zimmerman had told him he didn't know where he was exactly.

"When he brought the bodies back from the exfiltration this morning, General . . . Did you get that message, sir?"

"There were KIA?"

"Four, sir. The c.h.i.n.ks apparently did a real job on them. To send us a message, the Killer said."

"Define 'real job' for me, Zimmerman."

"Well, sir, it looks like they tortured them before they killed them, and then they cut up the bodies pretty badly. It wasn't pretty. The Killer was pretty upset."

"Did I understand you correctly, Zimmerman? McCoy made the run in the H-19 to extract the teams?"

"That's 'exfiltrate,' sir," Zimmerman had courteously corrected him. "Yes, sir. He was on one of the Big Black Birds, and I was on the other."

"I expressly ordered him not to go on infiltration missions, " Pickering had said. "And I thought you were aware of that."

"Sir," Zimmerman had said uncomfortably, "what the Killer said you said we couldn't do was stay behind ourselves. "

"I'll discuss that with him when I see him," Pickering had said. "But-and this is in the nature of an order, Ernie, so pay attention-if you see McCoy before I do, you are to relay to him my orders that neither of you are to make extraction runs anymore under any conditions. Is there anything about that you don't understand?"

"Yes, sir, there is."

"What's that?"

"I understand about the Killer, sir. He's really in s.h.i.tty shape. But I'm fine, sir. Why can't I go?"

"Ernie McCoy is in the hospital again-"

"Oh, s.h.i.t!"

"-and if I can locate him, he's coming to j.a.pan. That leaves you in charge, and I can't risk losing you. Okay? No further questions?"

"No, sir."

"I'll let you know what happens with Mrs. McCoy," Pickering said.

"That's the Bataan, Bataan," Pickering said to Captain George F. Hart, USMCR, who was in the backseat, and Master Sergeant Paul T. Keller, USA, who was behind the wheel.

"I saw it out the window, General," Hart said innocently.

"Meaning I didn't have to stand out there and get rained on?" Pickering snapped.

"Now that I think of it, General . . ."

Keller chuckled.

"I don't know why I put up with either one of you," Pickering said.

"Maybe because we're lovable, sir?" Hart asked.

"I'm going to really give McCoy h.e.l.l-if he's on that airplane-and I will be highly annoyed if either of you acts as if it's funny," Pickering said.

"General . . ." Hart said.

"What?"

"Nothing, sir."

"Out with it, G.o.dd.a.m.n it, George!"

"General, you've told me-Christ, I don't know how many times-never to give an order you know won't be obeyed."

"And I should have known McCoy was not going to obey that order? Is that what you're saying?"

"General, you asked me," Hart said.

"Here it comes," Keller said, pointing out the window, as the Bataan Bataan turned off the taxiway and approached the tarmac in front of the hangar. turned off the taxiway and approached the tarmac in front of the hangar.

"You two stay in the car," Pickering ordered. "If McCoy is on the Bataan, Bataan, I'm going to take him under the wing and bite off a large chunk of his a.s.s, and I don't want an audience." I'm going to take him under the wing and bite off a large chunk of his a.s.s, and I don't want an audience."

Ground crewmen rolled up movable steps to the rear door of the airplane. Pickering got out of the front seat and walked toward it.