“I’m rated in it.”
“Not with twenty hours you’re not, not by Navy standards,” the commander had told him abruptly.
Between Prest wick, where they had refueled, and London, Colonel Stevens had politely asked the commander to come into the cabin. He told him then that in London the aircraft would be taken to a hangar, where the seats would be removed and auxiliary fuel tanks installed.
During this time quarters for him and his crew would be provided at Croydon, where they were to hold themselves in readiness for departure on twelve hours’ notice.
“I’m afraid I would require authority from a competent naval authority before I could permit any modifications to the aircraft,” the commander said.
Stevens handed the commander a Top Secret order on the stationery of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It directed the movement of the aircraft “to such places as Lieutenant Colonel Edmund T. Stevens might deem necessary in the execution of his mission,” and directed ” all United States military bases and facilities to render any and all support as Lieutenant Colonel Stevens might request.”
“I’m not entirely sure I understand this,” the commander said. “Let me make it simple for you,” Stevens snapped icily.
“So far as you’re concerned, Commander, until I relieve you, I’m the Chief of Naval Operations. “Aye, aye, Sir,” the commander said.
Canidy was amused and pleased at Colonel Stevens’s reaction to the commander’s density. And he was also sure that as soon as the commander had the chance, he would get in contact with the highest-ranking Naval officer he could find. With a little bit of luck, he might even get to an admiral to relate his tale of woe.
Eventually he would be told that so far as he was concerned, Stevens was in truth speaking with the authority of the Chief of Naval Operations, and his ass would be thoroughly chewed for talking about a mission he had been specifically ordered not to talk about. On the other hand, if the C-46 was needed to fly to Africa, the commander probably was just the guy they needed, someone with a lot of experience in flying great distances where there would be no navigational aids worth speaking about. He had probably, Canidy thought, been selected for just that reason. Doug lass had requested from the Navy-which really meant Eddie Bitter’s Vice Admiral Hawley-the best C-46 they had and the best crew to fly it. Hawley had provided a nearly new C-46 and the commander. But after a minute, when he thought about it, having the commander get his ass chewed-however delightful a prospect that was-was not worth the risk of the bastard compromising the mission by running off at the mouth. He decided he would have to mention this to Colonel Stevens. “Our minds run in similar paths,” Stevens said with a smile. “I was just thinking that I should talk with the commander and give him the ‘loose lips sink ships’ speech suitably revised for the circumstances.” When theydanded at Croydon, they sat on the taxiway for fifteen minutes before the tower directed them to a hangar some distance from the terminal building. There a small caravan of vehicles was waiting for them: an English limousine with its fenders outlined in white reflective paint; an Army three-quarter-ton truck; and four American Ford staff cars.
The moment the plane door opened, Canidy realized he was back in the war. There was a familiar, pervasive odor of burning and open sewage.
The smell of burning he remembered from Burma and China. It was the aftermath of bombing. The sewers had already been open in Burma and China. Here the smell came from sewers ruptured by bombs.
Two colonels wearing the SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) patch spoke briefly with Colonel Stevens, who then came back on the airplane and said that he was going to take Admiral de Verbey with them, and Canidy should come along to the Dorchester with the others when the plane had been unloaded. The limousine, preceded and trailed by two of the Ford staff cars, each occupied by three men wearing U.S. Army uniforms with civilian technician insignia,’ drove off into the rain.