By Order of the President (Presidential Agent 1)

“I do know where some things are,” he said. “So, what’s up?”

“Twelve years ago, a young—very young—chopper pilot left a German girl in the family way before going off to Vietnam . . .”

“Oh, hell!”

“. . . from which he did not return,” Naylor went on. “And the mother is now terminally ill and went to Colonel Lustrous—actually, to Netty—and asked for help in finding him.”

“I thought you said he didn’t come back from ’Nam?”

“He didn’t. What I’m doing now is making an initial reconnaissance for Colonel Lustrous to see what this guy’s family is like. I have an address and after breakfast I’m going to go start looking.”

“They have a thing now they call the telephone,” General Stevens said. “All Freddy had to do was call me. I would have had somebody do this for you.”

“General Towson ‘suggested’ to Colonel Lustrous that he send me over here,” Naylor said.

“Bob Towson said send you?” General Stevens asked. “I must be missing something here, Allan. Why the fuss and feathers? I’m ashamed to say that a lot of our soldiers, PFCs through general officers, left German girls in the family way behind them. Thousands of them.”

“Sir, I guess I left out that the father got the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.”

“Yes, I guess you did,” Stevens said. “That little fact does put a different color on things, doesn’t it?”

“And Colonel Lustrous and the boy’s grandfather—who wiped himself out on the autobahn several months ago— were good friends.”

“What’s Freddy concern? Personal and official?”

“I think, sir, he’s worried—I know I am—that the father’s family is going to be less than overjoyed to learn their son left an illegitimate child behind in Germany twelve years ago. If that’s the case—they reject the idea—Colonel Lustrous wants to cushion the boy and his mother from that as much as possible.”

“And Bob Towson is concerned about what would appear in the papers if the family and the mother get in a pissing match? ‘GERMAN WOMAN CLAIMS MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER FATHER OF HER BASTARD CHILD’?”

“Yes, sir, I’m sure that’s true.”

“Well, you can’t blame the mother wanting to make sure the child is fed and cared for,” Stevens said. “And, on the other hand, you can’t really blame the family for being suspicious of someone who claims to be the mother of a child fathered by the dead son.”

“Yes, sir, that’s true.”

Naylor turned to the stove and flipped the bacon.

There was a knock at the kitchen door and then the door opened and a young clean-cut-looking buck sergeant came through it.

“Good morning, sir,” he said.

“Pay attention to what the major is doing, Wally,” General Stevens said. “One day, in a dire emergency, I may have to press you into service again.”

“Yes, sir,” the sergeant said with a smile.

“Major Naylor, Sergeant Wally Wallace,” Stevens said.

“How are you, Sergeant?”

“How do you do, sir?”

“You had breakfast, Wally?” General Stevens asked.

“Yes, sir, I have. Thank you.”

“What you hear here stays here, Wally, okay?”

“Yes, sir. Of course.”