War is insane, Whittaker reasoned. Therefore, I should not be surprised that I have been sentfor to be given medals I can’t keep, and a meaningless promotion.
“I believe, Captain, you are acquainted with the Commander in Chief?” MacArthur asked.
“Yes, sir,” Whittaker said.
“Sufficiently close to the President that he considered it his obligation to use military communications to direct me to inform you of your uncle’s unfortunate demise,” MacArthur said.
He’s pissed about that, Jim Whittaker thought. But certainly, he can’t blame me for it.
“I have received other communications from our Commander in Chief, Captain Whittaker, via the Chief of Staff, General Marshall. I have been ordered to leave Corregidor, the Philippine Islands, to assume command of United States forces in Australia. My wife, Colonel Sutherland, Colonel Huff, and others have put it to me that I cannot, as I would prefer to do, resign my commission and go into the ranks; that I have to obey that order.
4@
“At sunset tonight, we are leaving Corregidor aboard PT boats. You are going with us, Captain. On our arrival in Australia, you will be sent home, carrying a letter from me to our Commander in Chief, which you are ordered to deliver to him personally. As I recall, Mr. Roosevelt is a gracious man, and it is my hope, considering his affection for your late uncle, that he will give you a few minutes of his time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had you to dinner. If that should take place, I feel sure that you will be able to make him really aware of our situation here. Perhaps you will even be able to make the Commander in Chief aware of how difficult it has been for me to obey his order to desert my command.”
Our of the comer of his eye, Jim Whittaker could see Lieutenant Colonel Huff and read on his face that Huff had not known about this until just now.
“Perhaps you will be good enough, Captain, to assist in loading the boats,” MacArthur said.
“Sir,” Whittaker said, “I would prefer to go back to Bataan.”
“So would 1, Captain,” MacArthur said. “You are dismissed.”
The Clolf Course Palace of the Pasha of Marrakech Marrakech, Morocco March 12, 1942
Thami el Glaoui’s eighth hole was a long, dogleg par five. A stroke-at least-could be saved by cutting across the dogleg, but that risked entanglement in a tall stand of trees beyond which was a cleverly placed pond. The pasha of Marrakech always played his eighth hole conservatively. The pasha of Ksar es Souk, on the other hand, when he was playing with Thami, always tried a shot across the trees. More often than not, this aggressiveness worked for him. But the pasha of Marrakech’s more conservative play usually was victorious over the full eighteen holes. His final score would be five or six over par. On his good days, however, Sidi el Ferruch played under par. Today he was having a good day. He birdied the eighth while Thami doubled-bogied. Having chosen a five iron when he should have used a seven, he overshot the green.
For a moment, this made him especially grumpy, because he knew he had only himself to blame. But his spirits improved after he made the ninth green-a nice little par three-in one. Since the pasha of Ksar es Souk also made it on, they walked to the green together.
“Have the Americans revealed yet the name of the French officer?” Thami el Glaoui asked about halfway down the fairway.
“No,” said Sidi el Ferruch, “and in fact if I were them I would not reveal it until I had to.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“But I have tracked down the identity of the other man they plan to take away on their submarine.”
“Good.”
“His name is Grunier, and he is a mining engineer. I also found something else interesting about him: He is no American agent.”
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“So I naturally asked myself why they want him-and badly enough to spirit him away by submarine.”
“And you founds”
“Little, I’m sorry to say,” el Ferruch said. “He has only recently come to Morocco. Before that he was in Katanga for a number of years. Since in Katanga there are no minerals the Americans need they can’t obtain elsewhere, I’m puzzled about why the Americans want him. They have thousands of mining engineers, so it’s not for his profession. He must therefore know about something either here or in Katanga that they want.”