Part 30 (1/2)

”Actually, there are two methods,” he said. ”We usually heat the tins in boiling water. But sometimes, if the meat is your Spam, we take it from the tins and fry it for a treat.”

”Could you rig up some sort of a spit over a fire?” Canidy asked.

”I'm sure you have a reason for asking,” Captain Hughson said.

”There's four hundred pounds of Four-in-One beef on the plane,” Canidy said. ”I thought perhaps SOE might like to entertain its visitors with the roast beef of Merry Old England.” Four-in-One was boned beef packed for the U.S. Army Quartermasters Corps, prepared so that it could be roasted whole, cut into steaks, chunked for stew, or ground.

For the first time, Captain Hughson smiled.

”Well, we'll give it a b.l.o.o.d.y good try, Major,” he said.

”There's also some vegetables, but G.o.d only knows if they survived the cold,” Canidy said. ”You stick around, Ferniany,” he ordered, ”while I do the paperwork.”

”Yes, Sir,” Ferniany said.

It took Canidy longer than he thought it would to get what details he needed from Ferniany, then to write his report, then to edit it down to as short a version as possible for encryption, and then for the encryption itself.

He carried with him simple transposition codes on water -soluble tissue paper, one for each day, each five-letter code block representing a word or a phrase he and the OSS cryptographic officer had thought might be useful. But they had not considered the possibility that Fulmar and Professor Dyer would be locked up in a Hungarian munic.i.p.al prison as petty criminals, so coming up with paraphrases for that situation from the available words and phrases was difficult. He had to laboriously build a second code from the code he had available, and by the time he had finally transferred the message Dolan would carry to Cairo for transmission, and had burned his notes and that day's code, a lot of time had pa.s.sed. It was dark when they walked out of the cave.

They stood in the dark for a minute, until their eyes adjusted to the darkness, and then they followed their noses farther up the hill to the cave from which came the smell of roasting beef.

2.

OSS STATION WHITBEY HOUSE KENT, ENGLAND 1905 HOURS 16 FEBRUARY 1943.

Captain the d.u.c.h.ess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Stanfield, WRAC, liaison officer of His Majesty's Imperial General Staff to OSS Station Whitbey House, liked First Lieutenant Charity Hoche, WAC, newly appointed a.s.sistant adjutant, from the moment she had first seen her getting out of the Ford staff car in front of Whitbey House.

Why she liked her, she could not explain. There were some women the d.u.c.h.ess liked at first sight, and some she didn't. But by and large, her snap-judgment first impressions were proven correct. Maybe in this case it was because Charity Hoche, although she looked up and somewhat shyly smiled at the d.u.c.h.ess and Lieutenant Bob Jamison as they started down the wide shallow stairs toward her, she did not ask for help, hauled her luggage from the backseat, and, staggering under the weight, started to carry it up the stairs herself. And then with a look of chagrin on her face-and an ”Ooops!”-Charity Hoche put down the right suitcase and saluted.

The d.u.c.h.ess returned the salute.

”Welcome to Whitbey House,” the d.u.c.h.ess said. ”And thank you for the salute, but we do rather little of that around here.”

”I'm Bob Jamison,” Jamison said. ”Let me give you a hand with your bags.”

”What a marvelous house,” Charity said, reaching to take the d.u.c.h.ess's extended hand.

”Small and unpretentious,” Jamison said dryly, ”but comfy. Sometime, when you have a free week or ten days, I'll show you around.”

The d.u.c.h.ess liked Charity's smile and peal of laughter.

”My name is Elizabeth Stanfield,” the d.u.c.h.ess said.

”Charity Hoche,” Charity said. ”How do you do?”

”Have you eaten?” the d.u.c.h.ess asked.

”Colonel Stevens took me by the Savoy Grill,” Charity said, ”for a final lecture on the conduct expected of me as an officer and a gentlewoman.”

”Well, I think, under the circ.u.mstances, you're doing quite well,” the d.u.c.h.ess said as they entered the foyer.

Jamison had been informed, and he had informed the d.u.c.h.ess, of the decision to put Charity into an officer's uniform.

The d.u.c.h.ess found Charity's eyes on hers and saw in them both grat.i.tude and appraisal. This was a highly intelligent woman, the d.u.c.h.ess decided. She wondered what her real role at Whitbey House was to be. There was a reason for the decision to put her into an officer's uniform, and it had nothing to do with the one offered: ”that it would make things a little easier when she's dealing with the female personnel.”

Charity laughed again, a pleasant peal of laughter, when she saw the signpost erected at the foot of the main staircase. It was ten feet tall and festooned with lettered arrows, and it gave the direction and miles to Was.h.i.+ngton, Berlin, Tokyo, Moscow, as well as to the mess, the club, and the officers' and billeting areas within the huge mansion.

”Don't laugh,” Jamison said. ”You'll need it. We have three bloodhounds who do nothing but search for people who get lost on the premises.”

Jamison set Charity's suitcases down in the corridor outside his office and motioned Charity inside.

”Before we go through the paperwork,” Jamison said, ”let me make it official. On behalf of our beloved commanding officer, Major Richard Canidy, who is regrettably not available at the moment, let me welcome you to Whitbey House.”

”Thank you very much.” Charity smiled.

The d.u.c.h.ess saw on Charity's face that Charity had known that Canidy would not be here. And then she had the sure feeling that Charity knew why Canidy wasn't here, and very probably where he was and what he was doing.

There were doc.u.ments for Charity to sign, and Jamison handed her an ident.i.ty card overprinted with diagonal red stripes and sealed in plastic.

”The red stripes are what we call 'anyplace, anytime' stripes,” Jamison explained, ”meaning you go anywhere on the station whenever you wish. You'll probably be asked for the card a lot, until the security people get to know you, and you will will be asked for it whenever you leave the inner and outer perimeters.” be asked for it whenever you leave the inner and outer perimeters.”

Charity nodded her understanding, glanced at the card, and tucked it in the breast pocket of her uniform tunic.

”That, except for the question of your billet, is it,” Jamison said. ”You have two choices. You can have a private room in the female officers' wing on the second floor, or you can move in with Captain Stanfield in the servants' quarters on the third floor.”

”I'm in what used to be the apartment provided for . . .” she hesitated just perceptibly, and then went on, ”the d.u.c.h.ess's personal maid. There are two bedrooms and a sitter, and a private bath with a bathtub. There are only showers in the female officers' quarters.”

”That's very kind of you,” Charity said, ”and I think I'd prefer that. But it raises a question.”

”What's that?” the d.u.c.h.ess asked.

”You're my very first d.u.c.h.ess,” Charity said. ”I knew a baroness one time, at school. But I don't know what to call you.”

”Elizabeth, or Liz, will do just fine,” the d.u.c.h.ess said.

Stevens had told her, the d.u.c.h.ess decided. Or David Bruce. Or possibly she had known even before she had arrived in England that the Imperial General Staff Liaison officer to OSS Whitbey House Station had before the war occupied the house as the d.u.c.h.ess Stanfield.

”I'm perfectly prepared,” Charity said with a smile, ”to curtsy . . . for that matter to prostrate myself . . . if it means access to a hot bath. What I had in London was a trickle of rusty tepid water. More like a bad leak than a shower.”

The d.u.c.h.ess laughed.

”Well, come on, then, we'll get you a hot bath. And you won't have to prostrate yourself, either.”

The d.u.c.h.ess was surprised, almost astounded, to see what Charity Hoche's heavy suitcases contained. There was one spare uniform and several spare s.h.i.+rts, but the rest of the s.p.a.ce was filled with cosmetics, soap, perfume, underwear, and silk stockings.

Charity saw the surprise on the d.u.c.h.ess's face.