the suite. “First things first, where does your father-in-law—who does, by the way, think very highly of you—keep the booze?”
“In here,” McCoy said, leading him to a room off the sitting room that held a small, but fully stocked, bar.
Pickering rummaged through an array of bottles, finally triumphantly holding up a bottle of Famous Grouse.
“I have just been paid a left-handed compliment by a Navy doctor I don’t think is as old as you,” he said, as he found glasses. “ ‘For someone of your age, General, you’re in remarkably good condition.’ ”
McCoy chuckled, and took the glass of straight Scots whiskey Pickering handed him.
“Cheers,” Pickering said, and they touched glasses.
The door chime went off again.
“My uniform, probably,” Ken said, and walked to the door. Pickering followed him.
This time it was the floor waiter, holding a freshly cleaned uniform on a hanger. He extended the bill for McCoy to sign.
“Do you know who I am?” Pickering asked.
“Yes, sir, of course.”
“Are you aware there is a standing order in this inn that Captain McCoy’s money is no good?”
“Jesus . . .” McCoy said.
Pickering held up his hand to silence him.
“. . . issued by the dragon lady of the Foster chain, my wife, herself?”
“No, sir,” the floor waiter said, smiling.
“Trust me, and be good enough to inform the manager.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Pickering,” the floor waiter said, chuckling.
“And, truth being stranger than fiction, you may start referring to me as ’General,’ ” Pickering said.
“Yes, sir,” the floor waiter said.
“You might be interested to know, further, that for someone of my age, I have been adjudged to be in remarkably good shape.”
“I’m glad to hear that, General,” the floor waiter said, smiling. “It’s good to have you in the inn again, General.”
“Thank you,” Pickering said.
“I wish you hadn’t done that, General,” McCoy said when the floor waiter had left.
“One, you said you had no money, and, two, since, having just passed my recall to active duty physical, I am again a general, I will remind you that captains are not permitted to argue with generals.”
“Yes, sir,” McCoy said. “You’ve been recalled?”
“By the President himself,” Pickering said. “I did not volunteer. He just called the Commandant and told him to issue the orders. When I told the dragon lady, it caused her to shift into her highly-pissed-off mode. She thinks I volunteered, and then lied about it.”
“I never heard you call her that before,” McCoy said.
“The kindest thing she said—on the phone just now, before I came down the corridor to find a friendly face—was that I was a ‘selfish adolescent who thinks of nothing but his own personal gratification.’ ”
“Ouch,” McCoy said.
“What makes it worse is that I am about as welcome as syphilis at the CIA. Calling me to active duty was not Admiral Hillenkoetter’s idea.” He paused. “I went to him with your assessment, Ken.”
“The President told me he’d seen it; he didn’t say how he’d gotten it,” McCoy said.
“The President told you he’d seen it?”
“They flew me here—from Miramar—in an Air Force jet, a two-seater fighter. When we landed at Andrews, two guys from the Secret Service met me. They took me to a house—just down the street from here—and put me in a little office and told me to wait. The door opened, and President Truman walked in.”
“Blair House,” Pickering furnished. “They’re redoing the White House from the walls in. That’s where he lives, for the time being. What did he have to say?”
“Not much. He asked if I thought MacArthur had seen the assessment, and then—when I told him no, that Willoughby hadn’t given it to him—asked why I thought he’d done that. I told him it was only a guess, but I suspected Willoughby had just given him an assessment that said there wouldn’t be trouble in Korea. Then he told me that I had done the right thing in giving it to you; that you were concerned I’d be in trouble, and he said I wouldn’t. Then he said he wouldn’t be surprised if we saw each other again, and left. The whole thing didn’t last three minutes.”
“Sequence of events: I went, with Senator Fowler, to Hillenkoetter with a sanitized version of the assessment—your name wasn’t on it—as soon as I got back from Japan. He said he’d look into it. He asked for your name, and I wouldn’t give it to him. The next thing I heard was a telephone call from the President. He said that he knew of my ‘visit’ to Hillenkoetter, and