“Colonel Dunn. Get a COD Avenger ready for immediate takeoff. I will fly.”
He hung up.
He turned to McCoy.
“There’s an enlisted crew chief,” he said. “He rides in the aft position in the cockpit. I can’t order him out of there, but I can suggest if he lets you ride upstairs, he probably won’t have to clean puke out of the cargo hold.”
[FOUR]
USAF AIRFIELD K-1 PUSAN, KOREA 2155 4 AUGUST 1950
The runway lights went off even before Lieutenant Colonel Dunn turned the Avenger onto a taxiway. There really wasn’t much chance of a North Korean attack on K-1, but on the other hand, the possibility existed, and runway lights would be as useful to an attacking aircraft as they would be to one landing.
A Jeep, painted in a checkerboard pattern, and with a FOLLOW ME sign and a large checkerboard flag mounted on its rear, came out and led the Avenger to Base Operations. Dunn parked the airplane and shut it down, and he and McCoy climbed down from the cockpit.
The crew chief, a slim, nineteen-year-old, blond crew-cutted aviation motor machinist’s mate, came through the small door in the fuselage.
“Thanks for letting me ride on top,” McCoy said.
“Anytime, Captain,” the Navy crew chief said.
“Thank you, sir, for the ride,” McCoy said.
“I’ll go see the Marine liaison officer with you,” Dunn said.
“But you’re a captain, and I’m a lieutenant colonel,” Dunn said. “It has been my experience that Marine captains pay more attention to lieutenant colonels than they do to other captains. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes, sir. I suppose that’s true. Thank you, sir.”
“This won’t take long,” Dunn said to the crew chief. “Why don’t you see if anything important fell off, or is about to.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” the crew chief said, smiling.
As Dunn and McCoy walked to the Base Operations building, a Marine with a Thompson submachine gun stepped out of the shadows and walked up to them and saluted.
“Good evening, sirs,” he said. “Captain McCoy, sir?”
McCoy returned the salute.
“I’m McCoy.”
“Technical Sergeant Jennings, sir. Mr. Zimmerman sent me to meet you.”
“Where is he?”
“In a warehouse on the pier, sir. With the others.”
“You’ve got wheels?” McCoy asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” McCoy said.
There was someone else waiting for McCoy. When they entered the tiny room assigned to the Marine liaison officer, there was a plump army transportation corps major sitting backwards in a folding metal chair talking across a small wooden desk to the Marine liaison officer, whose folding chair was tilted back against the wall.
Both got up when McCoy and Dunn entered the room.
“Captain McCoy?” the Army major said.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m Captain Overton, sir,” the Marine officer said to Dunn.
Dunn nodded at him and looked curiously at the Army major.
“My name is Dunston, McCoy,” the major said, and first handed McCoy a sheet of radio teletypewriter paper, and then before McCoy could unfold it to read it, extended a small, folding leather wallet, holding it so he could read it. It was the credentials of a CIA agent.
McCoy nodded, then said, “You better show that to Colonel Dunn.”
Somewhat reluctantly, the major did so, while McCoy read the sheet of paper.
URGENT
SECRET
4 AUGUST 1950
FROM STATION CHIEF, TOKYO
MESSAGE TOKYO 4AUG50 05
TO STATION CHIEF, PUSAN
CAPTAIN K. R. MCCOY, USMCR, AND MASTER GUNNER E. ZIMMERMAN, USMC, OF THE PERSONAL STAFF OF THE CIA ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR ASIA ARE IN KOREA IN CONNECTION WITH A CLASSIFIED MISSION.
BY AUTHORITY OF BRIG GEN FLEMING PICKERING, USMCR, CIA ASST DIR ASIA, SHOULD EITHER OF THESE OFFICERS CONTACT YOU FOR ANY ASSISTANCE IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR MISSION, YOU WILL FURNISH THEM WITH WHATEVER THEY ASK FOR FROM ASSETS UNDER YOUR CONTROL.
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE WHAT THEY REQUEST, STATION CHIEF TOKYO WILL BE ADVISED BY URGENT RADIOTELETYPE, CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET, OF WHAT YOU ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE, WHY, AND WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING TO ACQUIRE THE UNAVAILABLE REQUESTED SUPPORT.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE WILL BE MADE TO STACHIEF TOKYO BY RADIO TRANSMISSION OF THE WORD SHOPKEEPER REPEAT SHOPKEEPER.
LOWELL C. HAYNES
STACHIEF TOKYO
SECRET
McCoy handed the radio teletype to Dunn, then noticed that the major didn’t seem to like this.
“Colonel Dunn is cleared for this operation,” McCoy said.
“I don’t even know what this operation is all about,” the major said.
“Major, it looks to me that if you had the need to know, that would have been spelled out in that,” McCoy said, nodding at the teletype message.