As Kennedy read the message, Donovan added, "Let Chief Ellis see it when you're finished."
""Hungarian criminals'?" Kennedy asked.
"Is that some kind of a code?"
"Not as far as I know," Donovan said.
"I wonder what happened to Dolan," Ellis said.
"You were friends, Ellis?" Donovan asked.
"Not really friends," Ellis said.
"Yeah, well, maybe. A couple of old sailors. I liked him."
The door opened again.
"Yes, Sir?" Capt. Helene Dancy asked.
"First, Helene, I'm sorry I jumped on you," Donovan said.
"That's perfectly all right, Sir," she said.
She's still mad.
"I think you had better message Wilkins, over my signature, and tell him to give Canidy whatever he wants when he gets there. You don't know what "Hungarian criminals' means, do you?"
"No, Sir. I presumably do not have the Need-to-Know."
"Neither do I, apparently, Helene," Donovan said. He smiled at her, and finally she cracked and smiled back.
"In that case, Sir," she said.
"I think we have to presume that Major Canidy, for reasons he will certainly explain to us, is going to have six Hungarian criminals with him."
Donovan chuckled.
"Will that be all, Colonel?"
"Lieutenant Kennedy has Commander Dolan's personal effects," Donovan said.
"Will you see if you can come up with a next of kin name and address?"
"I've already inquired. Nothing yet. I'll keep trying. Anything else?"
"You might tell Ann Chambers that Canidy is on his way home. If you think she'd be interested."
[FOUR]
Chief Ellis was tired, unshaven, and mussed. It had been almost forty hours before the ATE C-54 from London had touched down at Anacostia. But he had ignored Colonel Donovan's orders to "go home and get some sleep, there's nothing that won't wait until tomorrow."
There was always something that wouldn't wait.
"You look like shit, Ellis," Staley greeted him.
"I feel like shit," Ellis said.
"How come you aren't all dressed up in new chief's blues?"