"Have you made up your mind about that, or are you open to my reasoning?"
"I'm always willing to listen," Bruce said with a smile, "even when you make it difficult. But this, you should be forewarned, is coloring my thinking."
He took a sheet of yellow foolscap from his desk drawer and handed it to Canidy.
ROUTIME FROM OSS WASH DC FOR OS$ LOMDOM PERSONAL BRUCE
PLEASE RELAY CAMIDY QUOTE COMGRATULATIOKfS FROM DOUBLE KILL
UNQUOTE STOP PRBSOMB HE-HAD REASONS FOR BEING WHERE HE WAS
STOP REGARDS STOP DOMOVAM
"Looks like he's giving me the benefit of the doubt," Canidy said.
"In my experience, the Colonel is not at all subtle. That message could just as easily have read, "Ground the sonofabitch.""
Stevens chuckled, earning himself a dirty look from Bruce.
"Grounding you might make sense, Richard," Stevens said.
"From this side of the desk, perceptions are a little different."
"The arguments I made are still valid," Canidy argued.
"And to refresh your memory they were (a) that the Air Corps is already bitching about our photo recon missions; and (b) that laying on a mission we would have had to fight over would have called unwanted attention to the Fulmar Werke."
"So are my counter arguments that you're pretty far up in the scheme of things for us to lose you if you get shot down," Bruce said.
"But that's over.
What you have to do now is convince me there are reasons why we should not just tell the Eighth A
ir Force what we need, and have them do it. Or even why it is necessary to bring Ex-Lax out by air at all. Why shouldn't they come out on a British submarine?"
"Arrogance," Canidy said.
"I beg your pardon? My arrogance, or yours?" Bruce asked.
"Mine." Canidy chuckled.
"I want to take a good look at the field on Vis myself," Canidy said.
"I arrogantly don't trust anybody else's enthusiastic opinion of how good it is. I don't want to lose Ex-Lax, or whoever we bring out later, at stop VII because of pilot error. I want to make that landing and takeoff by myself, so I can tell somebody else how to do it."
The look on Bruce's face, Canidy thought, was not one of acceptance, but he thought Stevens understood.
"I can also argue," Canidy continued, "that we don't want to involve the English in this operation any more than we have to. If we start demanding space on their submarines, they are going to want justification."
He stopped again and looked at Bruce. After a moment, Bruce made a "give me more" gesture with his hand.
"We have the B-25," Canidy said, "already rigged for this sort of passenger haul mission, with auxiliary fuel tanks and even seats. If we ask the Air Corps, they're going to have to modify one of their aircraft, and they will naturally ask questions."
"Unless we let them use our B-25," Bruce said.
"I was afraid you'd think of that," Canidy said.
"And I'm prepared. I think we would have trouble getting it back from them. If they get their hands on it, David, they're liable to remember it's on loan. Think 'lawn mower," as in borrowed from next-door neighbor."