said. “He said to tell you he’ll try to get back tonight, if not first thing in the morning.”
“I’ll deal with it,” McCoy said. “When you talk to the corporal’s officer, say something nice about the corporal.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
A stocky, neat, but not natty Army lieutenant colonel was sitting at the dining room table with a tall, thin, natty Army first lieutenant. Both were drinking coffee.
“Can I help you, Colonel?”
“I’m looking for Major William Dunston,” the colonel said.
“He’s not here right now,” McCoy said.
“Where is he?”
“May I ask who you are, Colonel?”
“And you are?”
“My name is McCoy, sir.”
“My name is Vandenburg,” the colonel said, then took a sheet of paper folded twice from the breast pocket of his fatigues and laid it on the table. “Those are my orders.”
McCoy went to the table, picked up the orders, and unfolded them.
TOP SECRET
Supreme Headquarters
Commander-in-Chief
United Nations Command
Tokyo, Japan
2 October 1950
SUBJECT: Letter Orders
TO: LtCol D.J. Vandenburg, Inf Supreme Headquarters CINCUNC
1. You will proceed at the earliest possible date to Korea, and such other places as you may deem necessary to carry out a mission of great importance, taking with you such personnel as you may deem necessary. Travel priority AAAAA-1 is assigned.
2. In order to facilitate the execution of your mission, authority is granted for you to requisition whatever support you may require from any source, and all UNC commands are directed to provide such support.
3. Any questions regarding your mission are to be directed to the undersigned.
FOR THE SUPREME COMMANDER:
Charles Willoughby
CHARLES WILLOUGHBY
Major General
Assistant Chief of Staff, J-2
TOP SECRET
McCoy refolded the orders and handed them back to Lieutenant Colonel Vandenburg.
“Thank you, sir.”
“With regard to paragraph two of those orders,” Vandenburg said, “what I require of you is your helicopters. And these premises, which I will use as my headquarters.”
McCoy didn’t reply.
“Where are those helicopters, Major?”
“With respect, sir, I don’t think you have the need to know that.”
“You can read, Major, can’t you?”
“Yes, sir. I can read.”
“You did notice those orders were issued in the name of the Supreme Commander, General MacArthur, and signed by the Supreme Commander’s intelligence officer, Major General Willoughby?”
“With respect, sir, we are not a subordinate unit of the United Nations Command. And I’m sure, sir, if you would ask General Willoughby, he would confirm that.”
Lieutenant Colonel Vandenburg tried to stare McCoy down, and failed.
“Harry,” he said. “Take a walk.”
The slim, natty lieutenant, surprise on his face, got to his feet and walked out of the room.
When the door had closed, Vandenburg smiled at McCoy and said: “You’re not what I expected, Killer. I sort of expected a gorilla in a Marine Corps uniform.”
McCoy didn’t reply.
“You’re not going to deny that you’re the legendary Killer McCoy, are you, Major?”
“I’ve been called that, sir,” McCoy said. “I don’t like it.”
“Relax, Killer,” Vandenburg said. “I’m one of the good guys. We even have a mutual friend.”
McCoy said nothing.
“You’re not curious, Killer, who that might be?”
“Yes, sir, I’m curious.”
“Back in War Two, when Charley Willoughby and his boss finally got off the dime and sent an officer in a submarine onto Mindanao to establish contact with Wendell Fertig, what General Fertig told that officer—me—was that Killer McCoy and some other Marines had beat me there by two weeks.”
Vandenburg let that sink in, then smiled.
“That shook you up a little, didn’t it, Killer?” he asked.
McCoy didn’t reply.
“Come on, fess up,” Vandenburg said.
“I heard an Army officer went in later,” McCoy said. “I wasn’t there long.”
“Let me tell you why I’m here, Killer,” Vandenburg said. “You know what happened to General Dean of the 24th Division?”
“He was captured, early on, in Taejon.”
“Well, the Army—the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army—wants him back. I work for him, despite what those orders say, not Willoughby. My primary mission here is to spring Dean from durance vile. The first thing I have to do is find out where he is, and then I want to mount a mission to spring him. To find out where he is, I have to put agents into North Korea. And to spring him, I need some method of grabbing him by surprise. It occurred to me on the way over here that using those Sikorskys is the best way to do both. When I got to where they were supposed to be, in a hangar at K-14, the base commander— very reluctantly—told me that the CIA had them and had flown them out. He didn’t know where to. So I came here to see Major Dunston. You with me so far?”
“Yes, sir.”
“There’s