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

(8) COMMENTS:

INASMUCH AS SUBJECT HAS BEEN ABROAD FOR SO LONG AND UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES DESCRIBED HEREIN, IT IS BELIEVED LIKELY THAT RE WILL CONTINUE To REFUSE OVERTURES FROM OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF THE US, GOVERNMENT. TWO (CANIDY, RICHARD; WHITTAKER, JAMES M.C.) OF THE THREE INDIVIDUALS WHO MIGHT BE ABLE TO APPEAL TO HIM ON PERSONAL GROUNDS ARE OBVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE. FM IS NOT CONNECTED WITH THE GOVERNMENT, SHOULD IT BE DECIDED ADVANTAGEOUS TO ESTABLISH A WORKING RELAT’OVSHIP WITH SUBJECT, His FN`CB FUNDS MAY PROVE USEFUL, THEY ARE MOST LIKELY SUBJECT’s PROCEEDS FROM HIS ACTIVITIES IN MOVING CASH AND NEGOTLABLES, IN CONCERN WITH HIS FRIEND SIDI EL FERRUCH (A MOROCCAN NOBLEMAN), FROM OC_ CUPIED FRANCE, AND ARE HIS ONLY ASSETS. INASMUCH AS THE DEATH PENALTYHAS BEEN PRESCRIBED FOR MUGAL TRANSFERS OF MONIES AND VALUABLES, AND INASMUCH AS SUBJECT was SO ENGAGED WITH Sim EL FERRUCH, IT CAN THEREFORE BE LOGICALLY PRESUMED THAT SUBJECT ENJOYS TRUST AND CONFIDENCE OF EL FERRUCH, Am A ING DEGREE OF INFLUENCE WITH B C R E “If I thought I could get an answer,” Canidy said, “I’d ask, why all the interest in Eric Fulmar?”

Douglass didn’t reply directly. “Fulmar is so important that a radio over General Marshall’s signature was sent to the Philippines (rdering Lieutenant Whittaker home at the first opportunity. There bas been no reply.”

“Meaning what? That he’s dead?” Canidy asked. “That he can’t be located, or that Douglas MacArthur is once again expressing his contempt for George Marshall-or for the President,” Douglass said. “The point is that you’re the only person we have we feel can deal with Fulmar.”

“Deal with him how?”

Again, Douglass avoided a direct response. “Baker tells me that in China he put it to you that we’re asking you to volunteer for a mission of great importance to the war effort and that the mission involves a considerable risk. If you don’t mind, I’d like to put the same question to you now, Canidy.”

“Baker wouldn’t tell me what this mission is all about,” Canidy said. “Will you?”

“The question you were asked,” Douglass said, “is whether or not you are willing to go into it under the conditions outlined.”

“What are my options?” Canidy said. “What if I say no?”

“Yes or no, Canidy.”

He’s acting like a character in a bad spy movie, Canidy thought. In every dangerousmission thriller I have ever seen, there was a scene where the commanding officer gave the hero one last chance to change his mind: “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” The hero always wanted to go through with it. That doesn’t mean I will have to go through with it. I know how to say, “I quit”

“OKI” Canidy said.

“All right,” Captain Douglass said. “Thank you. But you menti(ned options a moment ago. I think I should tell you that if you had declined the offer, you would have been sent to some very secure Psychiatric institution for examination. That examination : would take a very long time. In the Civil War, Lincoln suspended the rules of habeas corpus. President Roosevelt isn’t going to do that. The attorney general has told him that under existing law, persons suspected of being non compos mentis don’t fall under the rule of habeas corpus. They are being examined, not incarcerated.”

Canidy and Douglass locked eyes for a long moment.

“Canidy,” Douglass said, “if I could tell you what’s behind all this, that threat would not have been necessary. But I can’t tell you, and it was.”

He’s dead serious, Canidy thought. Maybe truth really is stranger thanfiction, “Yes, sir,” he said.

“There is a Frenchman now in Morocco,” Douglass began, whom we absolutely have to bring to the United States. It is critically important that when we bring him out, the Germans will not connect his disappearance with us. Otherwise they would doubtless realize why we want him. What we desperately hope they will believe is that he escaped by his own means to join General de Gaulle in London.”

“And you want Fulmar to smuggle him out,” Canidy said. “Arid think I can talk him into it.”

“Not exactly,” Douglass said. “Not him alone. For reasons we can ‘t get into, we want Sidi Hassan el Ferruch involved as well.” 4″Why?”

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