The Last Heroes (Men at War 1)

Crookshanks looked at him for a long moment.

‘‘Interesting, the way you put that,’’ he said. ‘‘ ‘We would need them,’ not ‘I would need them.’ ’’ He paused. ‘‘Perhaps you’re not entirely the wiseass you act like.’’ He nodded and scooped up the manuals. ‘‘Thank you, Canidy.’’

‘‘You’re welcome, Crookshanks,’’ Canidy replied.

Canidy showed up for the first training session in the dining salon. He did not show up for the calisthenics. Bitter went, did what was required of him, and thought that Canidy was a fool. He could have made up for the friction he had caused. The dash-ones and TMs would have gotten him out of that. All he would have had to do was show up and do calisthenics with the others, and all would have been forgiven. Now he was challenging the skipper all over again, and the skipper certainly couldn’t let that pass.

But nothing was said to Canidy, and when the others saw that, they stopped going too. By the time the ship sailed into Honolulu, only a half-dozen pilots, including Ed Bitter, and none of the ground crew, regularly met on the deck to keep their bodies in shape.

It was early morning when they sailed into Pearl Harbor. They docked at the Navy wharfs, rather than at Honolulu, even though the Jan Suvit was a foreign-flag merchantman. Before they docked, Crookshanks joined Bitter and Canidy on the fantail, where they were watching the Navy Yard tug push them against the pier.

‘‘I have no authority, Canidy,’’ Crookshanks said, ‘‘to order you to remain aboard while we’re here. But I would like you and the others to remain aboard.’’

‘‘Loose lips lose ships?’’ Canidy replied. ‘‘Or are you concerned that we’ll come back aboard with a dose of the clap?’’

‘‘Both,’’ Crookshanks said with a chuckle.

‘‘I don’t know about the sex maniac here, Crookshanks,’’ Canidy said, glancing at Bitter. ‘‘But I can last another two weeks without getting laid. So I’ll stay aboard. I think you’re right.’’

‘‘OK,’’ Crookshanks said. ‘‘I’m going ashore. I have to. While I’m there, I’ll dishonestly use my old ID card and wipe the commissary out of American steaks.’’

‘‘You had better not come back with the clap,’’ Canidy said.

They were in Pearl Harbor less than twenty-four hours, just time enough to take on fuel, and—from a line of Army trucks—case after heavy case. One of the cases cracked open when the boom operator missed the hold opening, and a stream of brown metal boxes spilled out of the crates and fell into the hold. Each was stamped in yellow: AMMUNITION, BROWNING MACHINE GUN CALIBER .50 IN BELTS FOUR BALL AND ONE TRACER 125.

They broiled the steaks over coal on the fantail the afternoon they left Pearl Harbor for Manila. Crookshanks had brought cases of Schlitz beer back aboard with him. He came to Canidy and handed him one.

‘‘Just so we don’t misunderstand each other, Canidy,’’ he said with a smile. ‘‘If you had gone ashore in Honolulu, you would not have been allowed back on board.’’

Canidy looked at him a moment, and then he smiled.

‘‘Now you tell me,’’ he said. ‘‘Now! Ten miles at sea!’’

FIVE

The White House Washington, D.C. July 11, 1941

‘‘Good morning, Mr. President, Colonel,’’ General George C. Marshall said as he walked into the Oval Office of the White House.

‘‘General,’’ the President said.

‘‘George,’’ the colonel said. The colonel was not being unduly familiar with the senior U.S. Army officer. ‘‘Colonel’’ Henry L. Stimson, as secretary of war, stood in the chain of command between Marshall and the Commander in Chief. But he had been a colonel in World War I, and liked to be reminded of the title.

‘‘I hope you haven’t been kept waiting. . . .’’ Marshall said.

‘‘Not at all,’’ the President said. ‘‘Henry just got here.’’ He paused. ‘‘Bill Donovan will be here in thirty minutes.’’

‘‘Oh?’’

‘‘I wanted to give the both of you a final look at this,’’ the President said, ‘‘before I give the original to him.’’

He handed each of them a neatly typed sheet of paper.

DESIGNATING A COORDINATOR OF INFORMATION

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

There is hereby established the position of Coordinator of Information, with authority to collect and analyze all information and data which may bear upon national security; to correlate such information and data, and to make such information and data available to the President and to such departments and officials of the Government as the President may determine; and to carry out, when requested by the President, such supplementary activities as may facilitate the securing of information important for national security not now available to the Government.