“I agree. Plus, with him gone, that’ll be one fewer thing to worry about AFHQ sticking its nose in.”
He took a healthy swig from his coffee mug, then looked at L’Herminier.
“Tell me what it was that that Owen at AFHQ wanted from you, Jean.”
L’Herminier shrugged.
“I really don’t know,” he said. “When I finally got there—late, as I was pointedly told by his assistant, because something had happened with the driver he had sent for me—”
“I might know something about that,” Canidy said, grinning.
“About what this aide to Eisenhower wants?”
“Well, maybe that. But I know what happened with the driver.”
“They said his car was stolen,” L’Herminier said. “Right there at the naval dock, where we tied up.”
“Borrowed,” Canidy said.
Fine chuckled.
When L’Herminier looked at him, Fine explained, “Canidy swiped your car.”
“Borrowed,” Canidy repeated. “I gave it back. So, not stolen, not swiped. Borrowed. If that ensign had damn well done what I suggested—run the professor and me up here, then gone back to get you; there was plenty of time for all that—then none of this would have happened.”
L’Herminier nodded as he took it all in.
“Yes,” he said, “but then I would have been timely with my appointment with Lieutenant Colonel Owen.”
“Ha!” Canidy suddenly said. “Then it worked out perfectly after all!”
“Dick’s probably right,” Fine said. “Odds are that Owen needlessly would’ve caused you some grief. Or us some grief. It’s what he does best.”
L’Herminier shook his head, then said, “Owen’s secretary said that I was to come again this afternoon. ‘Fifteen hundred hours, sharp,’ she ordered in that snippy Brit way.”
“Damn shame,” Canidy said, smiling.
“What is a damn shame?” L’Herminier said.
“That you’re going to miss today’s meeting, too. Fuck Owen. We have a boat to sail.”
L’Herminier looked at him for a long moment.
“There is every chance,” Fine put in, his tone reasonable, “that if you were to duly report to Owen’s desk at the appointed hour, you would be so informed by this snippy Brit lass that Lieutenant Colonel Warren J. Owen was in meetings and unavailable for an indefinite period of time, and, further, that the colonel had said, as aide to General Eisenhower and concerning matters of interest to the Allied Forces commander, that your orders are to await his return. Have a seat, and please don’t disturb anyone.”
Canidy was nodding his agreement.
L’Herminier remained silent for some time. Then he said, “Why is this?”
Canidy smirked.
“That’s just the great kind of guy he is,” he said, his voice thick with sarcasm.
“Remarkable,” L’Herminier replied.
“Yeah, unfortunately,” Canidy said. “Check the dictionary under REMF—”
L’Herminier looked confused.