“Thank you,” Canidy said. He looked at Fine. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Shoot,” Fine said.
“The wireless operator for Nola.”
“What about him?”
“There’s a guy at Dellys, one of the ones Corvo brought with him from the States. I saw him working a SSTR-1 set—the suitcase radio?”
Fine nodded.
“Corvo won’t want to lose him,” Canidy went on. “And while I don’t blame him, I do need him more than Corvo does right now.”
“No one here in the villa’s commo room would do?”
“Any of them Sicilian?” Canidy said.
Fine considered that a moment, then shook his head.
“I don’t think so,” Fine said. “We can go upstairs and ask. You do know that the practice message traffic from the Sandbox is with our radio operators here.”
“I didn’t,” Canidy said, “but that doesn’t surprise me. If Sandbox called Club des Pins, they’d probably only get static in reply. Literally.”
L’Herminier’s expression showed he did not follow that.
“We have agents training with the SOE there,” Canidy explained, “and our British cousins aren’t exactly being the model of cooperation with this fledgling organization we call OSS.”
L’Herminier nodded his understanding.
“If it winds up being Corvo’s man,” Fine said, “do you have a name?”
“Shit,” Canidy said, then thought a moment, then chuckled. “Jones,” he added.
Fine started to write that down on the pad before him.
“No, no,” Canidy said, chuckling again. “That’s his training cover name—I think all of them are using it. I didn’t get his real one.”
He thought another moment, then said, “Just tell Corvo he looks Italian American, about age thirty, and probably comes from a sales background, very likely was the manager of some large territory.”
Fine was writing it all down, nodding. “Okay. I’ll get on the horn to Corvo.”
“And have Darmstadter go fetch him from the Sandbox?”
Fine nodded as he noted that.
“Done.”
“Am I missing anything?” Canidy said. “No doubt I’ve forgotten the most important element.”
“It’s not the most important one,” Fine said. “But what about Professor Rossi?”
“Rossi! Good question,” Canidy said. “Can you think of any reason to keep him here?”
Fine shook his head. “No, but you were the one who wanted him on ice. I can think of plenty of reasons why he should be headed for the States. One big one in particular
.”
Canidy nodded at the reference to the Manhattan Project.