The Soldier Spies (Men at War 3)

“Just who do you think you’re talking to?” David Bruce snapped.

Donovan raised his hand to shut him off.

“Fulmar is being sent in, Dick,” Donovan said, “because Dyer is so important to us that Ed Stevens and I agreed it was worth the risk. Believe me, if I didn’t think the pipeline would work, I would not send Dyer or Fulmar through it.”

Canidy looked at Donovan and after a moment said, almost formally, “Thank you.”

“We think it will take Fulmar’s presence, his physical presence, to convince Dyer that it will be safe to leave,” Stevens said. “I don’t intend this as a criticism, but I thought I had made that point to you earlier.”

Canidy nodded. “That was before this Yugoslav pipeline came up,” Canidy said. “Yugoslavia worries me.”

"Why?” Bruce asked.

“As I understand it,” Canidy said, “there are two major guerrilla operations in Yugoslavia. One is run by an ex-Royal Yugoslav Army colonel named Dragoljub Mihajlovic, and the other by a Communist who calls himself Josef Tito. Presumably, we intend to use the colonel for the pipeline, for obvious reasons. But he and Tito are fighting each other. Tito’s backed by the Russians, of course. So what happens if the Dyers and Fulmar get grabbed by Tito? Or is that what we’re really doing here? Seeing if that’s what’s going to happen? Another goddamned Machiavellian test?”

“I am so interested in learning how you know so much about what’s going on in Yugoslavia, Canidy,” Donovan said, “that I am going to pretend I didn’t hear the rest of what you said.”

“I’ve been given ‘disinformation’ before around here,” Canidy said. “Or not told things I should have been told.”

“Now, see here, Canidy—” David Bruce spluttered.

“That has been unfortunately necessary in the past,” Donovan said simply. “But I didn’t do it, and that’s not happening now.”

“No, sir,” Canidy said. “Not by you. My mouth ran away with me, and I’m sorry. I apologize.”

“I should hope so,” Bruce said.

Donovan shut him off as he had before, by holding his hand up.

"My question, Canidy,” he said, "was the source of your expertise about Yugoslavia.”

“I’ve talked to the people we’re dropping in,” Canidy said. “They naturally presumed that as the CO of Whitbey House, I had a need to know.”

“And you pumped them!” Bruce accused.

“Very enterprising of you,” Donovan said. “I should have guessed as much.”

Canidy was really not sure whether it was a sarcastic reprimand or just what the words said.

Donovan looked at Stevens, then at Canidy.

"Obviously, Dick,” Donovan said,"we are going to use Mihajlovic’s forces to protect the Hungary-Yugoslav pipeline. For the moment at least, I’m confident that he can bring our people out safely. But aside from that, I’m afraid you’re going to have to consider the question answered in all the detail you’re going to get.”

“Fulmar is going to ask me what will happen when he brings the Dyers to Budapest,” Canidy said. "’Trust me’ is not going to be a satisfactory answer to that question.”

“Tell him,” Donovan said after a moment,“that they will be taken across the border into Croatia, pass into the hands of Mihajlovic’s partisans, who will carry them through Bosnia-Herzegovina to the coast, where they will be carried by ship to the island of Vis. Once they get there, they will be picked up by aircraft.”

“Whose aircraft?”

“The British have a fairly substantial force, more than a hundred men, on Vis,” Donovan said. “Two of our people are with them. They have furnished us with the airfield dimensions. Have a look at them, then tell Stevens if you think your B-25 has the necessary range and can use the airfield on Vis. If it doesn’t, we have been offered space on a British submarine.”

Canidy’s face registered surprise.

“We also have people with Mihajlovic and Tito,” Donovan said. “It wasn’t considered necessary that you know, Dick.”

“I need one more piece of information,” Canidy said. “Now that Fulmar has committed to memory a map of Leeuwarden, Holland, he’s going to Budapest. Where in Budapest?”

Donovan chuckled.