North Reich (29 page)

      
“Let’s just say he talks a good fight but it looks like he’s actually very cautious.
 
If the Germans do attack in any strength, we’ll have a hell of a time getting to them because of the way he’s got the army dug in.
 
Mine is just about the only unit with any mobility and that’s because we’ve got all those radar units to protect and that ain’t going too well either.”

      
“Why is that?”

      
“Because our orders are to keep patrolling the roads and stay out of the woods.
 
Even though I lost one of my civilian cops to possible Nazis doesn’t get those orders changed.
 
We don’t have enough men to search the woods, or that’s what I was told.
 
Bullshit if you ask me.”

      
Canfield went on to explain how a replacement deputy went missing and how his body was subsequently found when somebody noticed a flock of crows congregating a little ways off the road and got curious.

      
“Deputy Curran’s body was a mess.
 
He’d been shot twice and the birds and animals had been feeding on him for a while.
 
Back at the place he’d gone to check, one of my brighter cops brought a dog that sniffed out what might be blood that had been covered by dirt.
 
He sent a bag of the dirt to the local high school so that one of the science teachers could examine it and see if it actually was blood.
 
It was and it was even Curran’s blood type. Curran’s uniform and squad car are missing, too.
 
Curran was an old fart who’d retired and came back to serve.
 
I want to kill the bastards who killed him.”

“Christ,” said Tom.
 
“Even a blind man could see where either would be hugely useful to any saboteurs.”

      
“Now it’s my turn.
 
Just how good are the rumors that April second is the day?”

      
“As good as anything.
 
In Washington, there are more rumors than there are people, but April the second seems to be the consensus.
 
Endeavors like starting a war take a lot of time and planning and coordination, and that involves letting people in on the secret.
 
And that, of course means people talk.”

Canfield shook his head in disbelief.
 
“So they talk and we listen?
 
Great.
 
Any chance of us good guys launching a first strike to knock them on their fucking keesters?”

      
“The chances of that are zero.
 
If we hit first, then we’re the bad guys, just like the Japs were at Pearl Harbor.”

      
“Not even if it saves lives?
 
American lives?
 
Jesus wept, what a way to run a war.”

      
Tom shrugged.
 
“I’m just the messenger, not the message.
 
These things are always decided way above my pay grade.”

      
“Could it be because somebody wants to run for a fourth term?”

      
“Nothing would surprise me.
 
I know a nice young lady who likes me.
 
She used to be a schoolteacher before she became a WAC officer and, even though some Canadian Nazis tried to kill her, she thinks it would be terrible to strike first.
 
Oh yeah, she also feels that FDR would be making a big mistake to run again.”

      
Canfield had heard the story of the attack and was impressed.
 
He’d also read a report saying that Grant had been involved in the freeing of the Jews from the
Beaufort
.
 
Grant and his girlfriend, he thought, seemed to get around.
 
“She’s probably right on both counts.
 
She’s also probably too good for you.”

      
“I just hope she never finds out.”

      
Tom checked his watch and stood.
 
A C47 would be taking off from Buffalo for Washington in an hour.
 
Truscott would be on board and, if the general was on time, the plane would not wait for any lowly major who wasn’t there.
 
Tom had made one trip from Buffalo where he’d had to scramble and didn’t want a second.
 
He told Canfield to use the remainder of the coffee to repair the local roads.
 
It was time to go and he would be on the plane before Truscott showed up.
 

As he drove off, Tom could not help but wonder if everything was being done.
 
Why weren’t American soldiers being used to chase down what were probably Nazis instead of digging in against an attack that wasn’t going to come?
 
It didn’t make sense.
 
Was Fredendall going to sit back and be a punching bag when he could be out scouring the woods for the bad guys?

      
On a happier note, he had more than a week to grab some time with Alicia.

The rivalry between army intelligence and the OSS was intense, almost as intense as that between the army and the navy, and despite what the president had done to calm the troubled waters. General Marshall hated the necessity of speaking with OSS head Wild Bill Donovan, but he buried his pride.
 
Nothing less than American blood was at stake.

      
The two men met in a small room at the venerable Hay Adams Hotel where each had ostensibly gone for lunch with others.
 
As neutral sites went, it was a good one and nothing the media or other rumor mongers would notice.
 

      
At first, Donovan was shocked, then hurt, that his friend Roosevelt would cut him out of the loop regarding the change of the date for the German attack.
 
However, he calmed quickly.

      
“Obviously, you want something from me,” he said to Marshall.

      
“I want an excuse to alert my troops at the last minute in order to save lives while still keeping the secret of Ultra.
 
Is there anything your people have discovered that would help?
 
Have there been any significant troop movements, anything?
 
I cannot abide the thought of our troops being attacked without at least having a chance to get to their weapons.
 
I don’t want anything like Pearl Harbor.
 
Even an excuse that would give us a few minutes and not give away our secrets would save countless lives. And, by the way, I know I am speaking for Admiral King as well.”

      
Marshall laughed harshly and continued.
 
“I’ve even gone so far as to issue another War Warning, but that was several weeks ago.
 
Human nature being what it is I’m sure that many are beginning to think that any threat is fading and that life will go back to normal.
 
Of course, I did make sure every unit got it and hammered home the fact that it applied to everyone, no matter how far they might be from the Canadian border.
 
To the best of my ability, there will be none of that it can’t happen to me mentality.”

      
“I rather think that attitude disappeared after Pearl Harbor.
 
However, I’ll do what I can,” Donovan said softly.
 
He shared Marshall’s anguish at the thought of defenseless Americans being slaughtered.
 
“We have people monitoring airfields and army emplacements.
 
Right now, we see nothing; however, that could change in a heartbeat.
 
Do you agree that any initial attack will come from the air?”

      
“I do, although I also believe that follow-up attacks will come from ground forces and saboteurs.
 
German submarines will, of course, do their own evil work.”

      
“Good.
 
We will focus on watching the Luftwaffe.
 
Right now, major German army and tank units are still well away from the border, but emplacements to hold them have been built just inside Canada. Right now, they are empty, but they could be filled with soldiers and tanks in very short order.”

      
“Give me anything that would legitimize an alert.”

      
“You’ll have it as soon as I do.
 
We will agree on a code word.
 
Why don’t we use the word ‘Lexington’ in honor of the Revolutionary War battle?”

      
“Excellent.”

      
Donovan smiled.
 
“Now, would you like to know what we think the Russians are up to?”

Chapter Ten

Alicia hadn’t wanted to go to the ladies room with her friend Rosemary Poole any more than she’d wanted to have dinner with her and her date.
 
But they had run into each other while waiting for a table at the crowded restaurant and she had little choice.

Now, instead of a quiet and intimate dinner for two, she and Tom were stuck in an unwelcome foursome.
 
At least it got them a table earlier than other couples who were stuck waiting in line. Rosemary also was a WAC lieutenant who supervised clerks at Camp Washington, and her boyfriend was an overweight and self-important quartermaster captain named Stan.
 
“The army runs on its belly,” he’d said, “and we aim to keep that belly full.”
 
Tom rolled his eyes at that conceit while Alicia stifled a giggle.

      
Alicia wondered where it was written that women had to be accompanied to the john in the first place.
 
Two guys never went together.
 
They’d get arrested and probably beaten up if they did.
 

      
The two women sat alone in front of the mirrors and Rosemary added more lipstick than was necessary.
 
Alicia thought it would soon be smeared all over Rosemary’s and Stan’s faces if not other parts of their bodies.
 
It was a reminder that she should keep her own to a minimum unless they wanted to look like clowns by the end of the evening.
 

She and Tom had signaled each other that it was time to leave.
 
This evening they would have a modicum of privacy.
 
They would be dog-sitting at Colonel Downing’s place while they went to some retirement function for an over-the-hill major at Fort Meade.
 
The colonel and Missy wouldn’t be home until about midnight.
 
They could stay all night if they wished, although Missy insisted that they would have to be in separate rooms.
 
Alicia wondered how firm that rule was.

Rosemary sighed as she placed her lipstick in her purse.
 
“Is Tom as sex-crazed as Stan?”

      
The blunt question surprised and amused her.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Just how crazed is Stan?”

      
“We’ve got to do it every time we go out.
 
If we don’t screw, he wants me to interesting things with my mouth.
 
Ever do that?
 
No, I guess you quiet types never have.
 
As the old saying goes, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.
 
At least no one ever got pregnant from doing it.”

      
“I’ll think about it,” Alicia said.
 
At least she knew that the proper term was fellatio.

      
“Seriously, Alicia, don’t go prudish on me.
 
I know I’m not the best looking girl in the world.
 
I’m not anywhere near you in the looks department, so I can’t be choosy.
 
If Stan wants it, he’s going to get it.
 
Besides, we could all be dead in a very short time and that especially means all these great guys could be in a grave somewhere.
 
I do not want to become an old woman without having experienced life and love and, yeah, I complain about him, but I do love Stanley. And since I do love him, I don’t mind doing whatever he wants.”
 
She giggled, “Actually, I’ve kinda grown to like it.”

      
Alicia wondered if Aggie Fanelli had ever thought of that.
 
Probably not, she decided.
 
After all, Alicia hadn’t been certain what fellatio was until she went to college, and that was not the term her friends used.
 
She’d told her roommates that she would never ever do such a thing.
 
They’d asked what if she truly loved the guy, and she did admit to wondering.
 
She laughed to herself thinking how proud her parents would be of the truly liberal education she was getting both in college and as an officer in the army.

      
So far she and Tom hadn’t gone any farther than some high school type petting.
 
Although very pleasurable, it was frustrating for both of them.
 
Privacy was the problem.
 
They’d even gone to a place where a lot of young couples made out in cars, but they’d been chased off by unsympathetic city cops.
 
What really hurt was when one cop told them they were too old for that crap.
 
Enough, they would go to the Downings’ and dog sit.