And what do I do now?
His mouth went on automatic: “Augie, round these people up and take them to the Press Club. Leave the Horch. I’ll come out there as soon as I can.”
“Yes, sir,” Ziegler said.
Mr. Justice Jackson put out his hand to Dunwiddie. “My name is Jackson, Captain. Welcome to the Palace of Justice.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Jackson waved them into his office, and then into chairs. He then raised his voice. “Ken, would you get us some coffee, please?”
—
“You said you’ve been transferred to Detachment ‘A’?” Justice Jackson began his interrogation immediately after Brewster had served the coffee and been waved into a chair.
Dunwiddie looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“Sir, Colonel Wallace, chief, DCI-Europe, apparently felt that Mr. Cronley did not have enough personnel to carry out his mission here.”
“I used to be a lawyer, Captain,” Jackson said. “Now I’m a prosecutor. Most of the time I can tell when a response to a question, while it may be true, is not the whole truth.”
Cronley’s mouth went on automatic. “Tell him, Tiny. He’s one of the good guys.”
“Thank you, Jim,” Jackson said.
Ken Brewster flashed Cronley an icy glare.
Dunwiddie looked even more uncomfortable.
“Out with it, Tiny,” Cronley ordered.
Dunwiddie visibly organized his thoughts.
“DCI-Europe, at President Truman’s order, is about to be tripled, quadrupled, in size,” he began. “Most of the new hires, and most of the military personnel now transferred here, are ex-OSS recruited by El Jefe.”
“Who is?” Brewster asked.
Well, Jackson told his law clerk to stay.
I guess that means he can ask questions because Jackson wants him clued in on everything.
And that’s his call.
I can only hope Brewster doesn’t run at the mouth when he’s having a drink with his friends.
On the other hand, if he has a running mouth, I don’t think he’d be working for Jackson.
“They call Oscar Schultz, who is Admiral Souers’s Number Two, El Jefe—the Chief—because he was a chief petty officer,” Cronley explained.
“An ex–enlisted man is Number Two in the Directorate of Central Intelligence?” Brewster asked, incredulous.
“Yes, he is. And before that, he was the OSS deputy chief of station for the Southern Cone,” Cronley said.
“You were telling us, Captain, why you were transferred here,” Jackson said.
“Well, for one thing, sir,” Dunwiddie said, “I was deputy chief of DCI-Europe under Cronley. The first three officers El Jefe sent to DCI were two majors and a lieutenant colonel. I think Colonel Wallace wanted the lieutenant colonel to be his deputy. So he transferred me here.”
“Why do I still think that’s not the whole story?”