—
Cronley stepped inside the third railcar. Seated at a map-covered conference table were General White, Lieutenant Colonel Hotshot Billy Wilson, PFC Wagner, and a lieutenant colonel and a major, all of whom Cronley had sort of expected. Also seated at the table was Miss Janice Johansen of the Associated Press, which really surprised him.
“Come on in, Cronley,” General White said. “I’m glad Lieutenant Douglas caught you.”
“Good afternoon, sir,” Cronley said. “Miss Johansen.”
“How did the funeral go, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Cronley, this is Colonel McMullen, my G-2, and Major Lomax, his deputy,” White said.
The men shook hands.
“Sit down, and tell us how the funeral went, sweetheart,” General White said.
Colonel Wilson laughed. Colonel McMullen and Major Lomax chuckled. Lieutenant Douglas and PFC Wagner tried hard to do neither.
Sonofabitch!
His two G-2 officers and the aide aren’t cleared for any of this.
Do I ignore that and answer the question or say something and piss General White off?
And what the hell was him calling me “sweetheart” all about?
Just being funny, or is he letting me know he knows I’ve been screwing Janice and letting me know he disapproves?
“I hope you were paying attention, Greg,” White said. “And you, too, Wagner. Although I suspect you’re already aware of what you should do in a situation like the one I just put Captain Cronley in.”
“Sir?” Lieutenant Douglas asked, visibly confused.
“Cronley doesn’t know any of you are in the loop,” White replied, pointing at McMullen, Lomax, and Gregory. “So when I asked him—coupled with something I hoped would upset him—questions about the funeral, the answers to which would have been Top Secret–Presidential, he did the right thing. He kept his mouth shut and gave me a really dirty look. Get it?”
“Yes, sir,” Gregory said.
White added, “Even if he had said, politely, ‘General, that’s classified,’ he would have been letting you know that there was something secret about the funeral. You get that, Greg?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Cronley, Admiral Souers gave me permission to bring anyone into the loop I thought necessary. Will you take my word on that?”
“Yes, sir. Of course.”
“After Billy and I talked with Wagner yesterday, I decided that the contributions Dick McMullen and Fred Lomax could make toward solving the problem justified bringing them into the loop. I brought Greg into the loop as part of his education. Aides should do more than pass canapés. They should learn how things work at the higher echelons of the Army. Does my bringing Lieutenant Gregory into the loop pose a problem for you, Cronley?”
“No, sir.”
“He’s Norwich. Same class, ’45, as a mutual friend of ours. Speaking of whom?”
“Sir, Captain Dunwiddie is, or was at oh-nine-hundred, on the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, dealing with NKGB Senior Major of State Security Ivan Serov, trying to get Colonel Mattingly back from the Russians.”
“Wipe that expression of shock and disbelief off your face, Greg,” White said. “An officer needs to have a poker face.”
There were chuckles at Gregory’s visible discomfiture.
“If something other than what you expected had happened, I presume you would have heard by now?” White asked.
“Yes, sir.”