“What’s the ‘house on Q Street’?” Greg Hammersmith asked.
“It’s a mansion near Rock Creek Park,” she said. “We use it as both a safe house and sort of a hotel for transients.”
“You’ve been there before, I gather.”
“I used to run it,” she said.
“And am I permitted to ask where you’re going?” he asked.
“I’m going there too,” she said.
“And am I permitted to ask why?”
“No,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“Then, in the short time remaining to us, Miss Chenowith—” he began.
“Don’t, Greg,” she said. “Please don’t—”
“What I was going to say, you have apparently figured out all by yourself,” he said.
She looked at him and met his eyes, then averted her eyes and avoided looking at him on the rest of the way to Washington.
When she walked into the kitchen, she asked the cook if Chief Ellis was around.
“In the dining room with Captain Whittaker,” the cook replied.
“Come on, Greg,” Cynthia said, aware that her temper was up and not caring.
Captain Whittaker and Chief Ellis were eating either a late breakfast or an early lunch. They were having eggs with their steaks, she saw, so it had to be breakfast.
“I think you know Miss Chenowith, Chief,” Whittaker said when he saw her. “Otherwise known as ‘Super-woman. ’And I don’t know the name of the gentleman with her, but he is the one who almost came to her aid when I publicly humiliated her.”
“Damn you!” Cynthia flared.
“My name is Hammersmith,” Greg said coldly.
" ’My name is Hammersmith, Sir,’ ” Whittaker said. “We try very hard to observe the military amenities around here, don’t we, Chief?”
“Yes, Sir,” Ellis said. “That we do, Sir.”
“Sit down, Cynthia,” Whittaker said. “Take a load off. Have a bite to eat. We have several hours to kill.”
Glowering at him, she walked to the head of the table and stabbed the call button on the floor with her toe.
“For a moment, there, I thought she was going to slug me with her purse,” Whittaker said. “Didn’t it look that way to you?”
“You sonofabitch,” Cynthia said.
“Nice to see you, too, Miss Chenowith,” Whittaker said.
The cook appeared.
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“I’d like some breakfast,” Cynthia said. “Greg, are you hungry?”
“I missed breakfast,” he said.
“Bring us, please, the same thing they had,” Cynthia said.
“Damn you, play your games with me, but leave Greg alone.”
"’Greg’?” Whittaker parroted mockingly. “Wonder-woman to the rescue of ‘Greg’?”
“You really are a bastard, Jimmy,” she said.
“You miss the point, Cynthia,” Whittaker said. “The one thing I demand of my subordinates when I’m off saving the world for democracy is what they call instant, cheerful obedience.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Cynthia flared.
“I’m about to go into the Philippines,” Whittaker said. “If the lieutenant here is half the radio wizard Douglass tells me he is, and if I’m convinced he’ll take orders, he’s going with me.”
“That’s operational information,” Cynthia flared. “That’s Top Secret. I’m going to tell Colonel Donovan you’ve been running off at the mouth again, and Ellis, damn you, too, you’re my witness.”
“Oh, you’ve got the Need-to-Know, Cynthia,” Whittaker said. “You’re the control.”
She looked at him and saw in his eyes that he was telling the truth.
“I’m not thrilled about you being my control, frankly,” Whittaker said. “But it was the only way I could think of to get you out of that school.”
“Why did you do that?” Cynthia snapped. “What gave you the right?”
“I already told you,” he said. “I love you, and all’s fair in love and war. This seems to be both, so anything goes.”
“Damn you, Jimmy!” she said, furious that she felt like crying.
“That may pose certain problems between us, Captain,” Hammersmith said.
“How is that?” Whittaker asked.
“I’m in love with her, too,” Greg Hammersmith said.
“Oh, Greg!” Cynthia said.
“From this point, then, Lieutenant, you are advised not to turn your back on me,” Whittaker said.
“Fair enough,” Hammersmith said.
“You look vaguely familiar to me, Lieutenant,” Whittaker said. “Do we know each other?”
“No, Sir,” Hammersmith said.
“He’s the actor, Captain,” Chief Ellis said. “Greg Hammer? ”
“Oh, yeah,” Whittaker said. “I’ll be damned. How’d a movie star get in the OSS?”
“I’m a friend of Stan Fine’s,” Hammersmith said. “When the Army announced that I would be stationed as an instructor at Fort Monmouth for the indefinite future, I asked him to get me out of it.”
“I’m really sorry you told me that,” Whittaker said. “I always find it difficult to cut the throats of friends of friends of mine.”