“‘. . . but Colonel Mattingly is a lying sonofabitch. I never said anything like that. He told me not to worry about my commission, that he’d keep on you about it.’ But I didn’t. My thinking at the time was I knew Uncle Isaac thinks Mattingly is a fine officer. So he was going to be surprised and disappointed if Little Chauncey suddenly came—”
“What’s with this ‘Little Chauncey’ and ‘Uncle Isaac’?” Cronley interrupted.
“I guess I never got around to mentioning that General White is my godfather. In private, he calls me Chauncey and I call him Uncle Isaac. His I. D. initials stand for ‘Isaac Davis,’ his great-grandfather. Or maybe his great-great-grandfather. Anyway, since I’m sure that Texas Cow College you went to taught you at least a little history, I’m sure you know who Isaac Davis is.”
“Never heard of him.”
“Isaac Davis on Easter Sunday, April sixteenth, 1775, fired, at Concord Green, Massachusetts, that famous shot heard ’round the world. That’s who Isaac Davis is, you historically illiterate cowboy.”
“No shit? He was General White’s great-great-grandfather?”
“No shit. As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, Captain, sir, I thought that even if General White thought there had to be some reason for me to have suddenly come out of left field to call Mattingly a lying sonofabitch, he was leaving for the States the next day and he wouldn’t have time to even ask Mattingly what the hell was going on or do anything about my commission. So I kept my mouth shut.”
“You should have told him, Tiny.”
“I thought about that when you mentioned Mattingly being worried about this OSS pal of yours . . .”
“Cletus Frade,” Cronley furnished.
“. . . in Argentina.
“But that’s what they call water under the bridge, Captain, sir. To return to your questions: Do I agree with your assessment of how he wants to handle the problem of Orlovsky? Yeah, I do. I think what Mattingly wants to do is be looking the other way while Gehlen’s people are interrogating Orlovsky and then shooting him in the back of the head.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“No. For two reasons. One, it ain’t right. And two, if that happens and it comes out, the entire Judge Advocate Corps of the U.S. Army is going to come after me.”
He met Cronley’s eyes, and then recited, “‘Article 118. Any person subject to this chapter who, without justification or excuse, unlawfully kills a human being, is guilty of murder, and shall suffer such death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.’ That’s not all of it, but you get the general idea.”
“Actually, they’d come after me, Tiny. I’m in command here.”
“That announcement answers your third question: Do I think your captain’s bars have gone to your head? Yeah, I do. But in a good sense. You’re thinking like a captain. You really grew up, Jimmy, doing whatever the hell you did in Argentina.”
Cronley said what he was thinking: “I wish you were wearing these captain’s bars, Tiny.”
“Yeah. But I’m not. Which brings us to what do we do about Orlovsky? Bearing in mind that whatever we do is liable to bring the Judge Advocate General’s Corps down on us, either for simple disobedience to a lawful order, or plotting mutiny—and plotting a mutiny is right up there beside Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 1928. ‘Death or such other punishment as a court-martial may decide.’”
“Maybe we should just cave.”
“That’s not an option, Jim. What are you thinking?”
“I don’t think that disorientation idea of Bischoff’s is going to work. Orlovsky is either not going to give us the names, or he’ll give us names of Germans who he hasn’t turned.”
“Agre
ed. Got a better idea?”
“Let’s try something else.”
“Like what?”
“It’s going to sound pretty far off the wall,” Cronley said, and then told him of his idea.
“You’re right, that is off the wall. I wonder why Herr Bischoff, the Great Interrogator, didn’t think of that really nasty approach. Or, for that matter, Mattingly. I would never have suspected that you’re capable of being a bigger prick than either of them.”
“Life is full of little surprises, isn’t it? I take it you think it might work?”
“I don’t know. However, in the absence of any other idea, let’s give it a shot.”