W E B Griffin – Men at War 1 – The Last Heroes

“Theft only, Eric,” el Ferruch said. “And that discreetly. No sabotage. No suggestion that what you are stealing is being used for its intended purpose. Let them think that the wire is being stolen to be melted down for the copper.”

Fulmar nodded.

441f, however, it should be necessary at some later time to sabo-tage the electric al or telephone system s, I would be very interested to know the best way to do that.”

“I’ll make the drawings,” Fulmar said. “No problem at all. And I can tap into their telephone lines, if you’d like. Or their telegraph and teletypewriter lines. You’d need a teletype machine if I tapped those lines, or a telegraph printer. But we can listen to their telephone calls very easily.”

“They couldn’t tell?”

“I was educated at Marburg,” Fulmar said. “Remember? Right about now I was scheduled to be Herr Doktor von Fulmar, Elektr0ingenieur.”

Sidi el Fen -uch rode with Fulmar on several middle-of-the-night xire and transformer raids, and proved to his own satisfaction that Fulmar could do what he promised.

As a reward, he satisfied Fulmar’s curiosity about his wives, whoryr Fulmar had never seen. He took them to the wives’ wing of the palace, and from behind a screened window he let Fulmar have a quick look at them without their veils. They were sitting together, sewing.

“And they’re both pregnant?”Fulmar asked. El Ferruch nodded.

“And that’s how they’re going to spend the rest of their lives, that’s it? That’s all they get out of it?”

“That @s all they expect from it,” el Ferruch said.

“Just when I think I’m beginning to understand things,” Fulmar said, I realize I don’t understand anything.”

“The Koran says that is the beginning of wisdom.”

Washington, D.C. December 31, 1941

It took Canidy and Baker nine days to travel from Kunming, China, to Washington, D.C. And they had hardly been out of each other’s sight from the moment they had left Kunming. Even so, Canidy knew no more about what he was expected to do when they walked through Union Station in Washington than he had when he left Kunming. Baker knew how to keep his mouth shut. Nor did he give any hint that their final destination was Jimmy Whittaker’s house on Q Street until their cab pulled up to the door in the brick wall.

“Under happier circumstances…” Canidy said.

He wondered what had happened to Jimmy. He’d heard that the ,6,ir Corps in the Philippines had been wiped out in the first few days after Pearl Harbor, and they’d handed the pilots rifles and told them they were now in the infantry.

The poor bastard.

Canidy recalled their last meeting together in Washington, when they had gotten drunk and Jimmy had told him that he was in love with Cynthia Chenowith–even though she was screwing his uncle.

When he climbed out of the cab after Baker, he saw that there were two policeman types sitting in a black Chevrolet parked at the curb. A third policeman in plainclothes walked up to them.

Baker took a leather folder from his jacket, opened it, and showed it to the cop. He examined Baker’s face with a pencil flashlight.

“We didn’t know when you were coming,” the cop said.

“We just got here,” Baker said.

The cop held the gate open for them to pass through.

Canidy wondered idly what had become of Cynthia now that Chesty Whittaker was dead and the house obviously under the control of Colonel Donovan. Obviously, she would no longer be living in the garage apartment.

A silver-haired black man Canidy did not recognize opened the door, greeted Baker by name, then led the way to the library.

“If you’ll just wait here, gentlemen, someone will be with you in a minute.”

The furnishings were unchanged, so Canidy decided it would be worth chancing that whiskey would still be kept where it formerly had been. He opened the antique credenza. And when Baker saw what he was doing, his eyes went up, but he said nothing. There was whiskey and several bottles of soda inside.

“Scotch and soda?” Canidy asked, Baker nodded. Canidy made the drinks, then sat down in one of the leatherupholstered chairs by the fireplace.

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