you’re asking is whether he would be a traitor. The answer is not any more than you would. Is that what this is all about? You think I can get to von Heurten-Mitnitz? You’re dreaming. No way.”
“One more question,” Canidy said. “If we asked you to, would you stick your neck out?”
“You’re asking would I go back to Morocco?”
“I didn’t ask that. But would you?”
“Yeah,” Fulmar said. “I’m not too bright, Dick. I trust people I shouldn’t. But if you tell me that it’s important that I go back to Morocco, Okay, I’ll go. Just one condition.”
“You’re in no position to ask for conditions,” Canidy said.
“I want a commission,” Fulmar said. “A real one, like Jimmy’s and Douglass’s and Bitter’s, not a phony one like yours.”
“Douglass is a major, Bitter’s the Navy equivalent, and Jimmy is a captain. They’re not going to give you that.”
“They made Martin a second lieutenant just because he had a college degree, he told me. I went to college. Second lieutenant would be okay.”
“Why is that important?”
“Because if I get killed going back to Morocco, I want to be brought home in a casket with a flag on it and buried as a soldier, not left over there in a ditch because I was just a dumb sonofabitch who was used by people he thought were his friends.”
“I’m your friend, you dumb sonofabitch. I always have been.”
“Right, sure. Two choruses of ‘For Auld Lang Syne.’ But for the time being, try to think of some way to turn good ol’ Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz into a traitor, right?”
“Yeah, and don’t tell anybody I told you to. I’ve already told you a hell of a lot more than I should.”
“Because you’re a nice guy, right?”
“No,” Canidy said, “because we need you, and because I decided that was the way to get you to help.”
“That sounds honest enough,” Fulmar said.
“I’ll raise the question of a commission as soon as I can,” Canidy said. “No promises.”
“Good enough,” Fulmar said.
“My father knows you’re safe in this country,” Canidy said.
“How does he know?”
“I told him. He was worried about you.”
“That’s all you told him?”
“That’s enough to get me locked up for the duration if anybody hears about it, so keep it under your hat.”
“I had diarrhea of the mouth a while back,” Fulmar said. “Keep that under your hat.”
Canidy got out of bed. “I’m going to call the sentry,” he said. “And he will escort you back to the house.”
“If you do that, the sailor sitting outside my door to keep me in the house will have his ass in a crack.”
“What did you do, make a rope from your blankets and climb out the window?”
“I didn’t need a rope,” Fulmar said.
“You could get back without one?”
“Watch me,” Fulmar said.
“No,” Canidy said. “You’re too valuable to have your balls blown off by a nervous sentry.”
“I don’t want that kid to get in trouble because of me,” Fulmar said.
“I’m going to let him worry a little for the rest of the night about your getting away from him,” Canidy said. “But I’m not going to squeal on him.”
Then he did something which surprised Ann and brought tears to her eyes. He put his arms around Eric Fulmar and hugged him. “Besides, asshole, if the sentry blew you away, I would miss you. You’re the only thing close to a little brother I have.”
They went out of sight, and Canidy called for the sentry and asked him to “escort Mr. Fulmar back to the house.”
When Canidy walked into the bedroom end of the room, she was leaning on the wall beside the closet.
“Oh, Jesus H. Christ!” he groaned.
“Hi!”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.
“That’s my intention,” Ann heard herself say, “but I’m not sure I like the tone of voice.”
“How much did you hear?” he asked.
“I got here a couple of minutes before Eric did,” Ann said. “I hid in there. I heard everything.”
“Wonderful!” he said.
“I’m not going to tell anybody,” she said.
“I’ll have to tell Donovan,” he said. “You understand what that means? You’ll be hauled away for psychiatric examination. It will take years.”
“Not necessarily,” she said.
He turned away from her and headed for the whiskey on the sink. She took a couple of steps after him. Now he spun around and angrily demanded, “What do you mean, not necessarily?”
“Bill Donovan called me in this morning and asked how he could be sure I wouldn’t write anything I shouldn’t. I gave him an answer that satisfied him. And it covers