The temptation to tell the colonel that story was great, but he resisted it, and he went even further in the interest of hands across the sea: he told both Fulmar and Martin, as sternly as he could, that they were to keep their eyes open and their mouths shut and absolutely no fucking around with their English hosts.
When he and Whittaker went outside to get in the Plymouth to be taken to Whitby House, the Plymouth was gone, the driver having apparently decided on his own that he had done his duty for that day. The British found this frightfully amusing, of course, but ultimately produced an automobile for them. It was a worn-out Anglia, an English automobile that obviously had not been designed to accommodate two large American males, their luggage, and a driver at the same time. But it was better than walking, Canidy told himself as the Anglia roared along-it sounded, Whittaker solemnly pronounced, “like an overworked lawn mower”-at what must have been all of thirty miles an hour, bouncing and lurching in the rain down what seemed like an endless country road.
There was an American GI in a steel helmet and a raincoat guarding access to Whitby House with a rifle hung muzzle down over his shoulder, but their pleasure at seeing him-“Thank God, a GI! Where there are GIS there is a mess hall,” Whittaker had cried.
“Dying for my country is one thing; starving painfully to death on English food is something else! was quickly replaced by annoyance.
The guard had been ordered to pass no one, and so far as he was concerned, that included two Army Air Corps officers. It was ten minutes before the officer of the guard responded to the sentry’s summons, and another five minutes before he received permission from the “colonel” to pass the Anglia through the gate.
Whitby House was enormous and, like everything else he’d seen so far in England, it looked run-down. But even run-down, Canidy reflected, it looked comfortable-sort of like the mock “Olde English” buildings he’d known in prep school as a boy. Except none of the those buildings had genuine suits of armor lining their corridors, as this one did, hung up on the walls, as if they’d been put up to dry. The officer from the London station, a nice-looking young lieutenant named Jamison, waited for them with a bulletin from Colonel Stevens. An English officer who was going to make himself helpful to the new tenants of Whitby House would shortly show up, and the duchess of Stan field herself was going to make an appearance. “Colonel Stevens said to tell you he has absolute faith in your ability to handle the duchess,” Lieutenant Jamison said.
“Captain Whittaker, Lieutenant,” Canidy said, “is herewith appointed officer in charge of dealing with duchesses.”
“And Colonel Innes is waiting to see you, Major,” Jamison said. “And I think I should warn you, Major, he’ more than a little pissed.” s “Why?”
“I told him he couldn’t move his officers into the house, Major,’ the man from the London station said.
“And he said he would have to hear that from you.”
“Why can’t he move his officers in?” Canidy asked.
“Christ, from what I’ve seen of this place, he could move his whole battalion in here.”
“The final decision’s yours, Major, but this is what they recommend.”
“They being-Mr. Zigler of the CIC?” Canidy asked. “Yes, Sir,” Jamison said.
“He left a map for you.” The map showed that the house was to be surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence. The guard battalion was to be placed between the inner and the outer barrier. There was a note on the map: “For self-evident reasons of security, it is not anticipated that the guard force will have any reason to enter the interior perimeter.”
“Did you show Colonel Innes this?” Canidy asked. “It’s classified Secret, Sir,” the lieutenant said.
“I didn’t think I should.”
“Where is he?”
“There’s a-I don’t know what to call it, Sir-a great big room, down the corridor.”
“Let’s go deal with him. They told you, I suppose, that you would be here a while?”
“For as long as you need me, Sir,” Lieutenant Jamison said. Canidy offered his hand. “You and I may grow old in this place, Lieutenant Jamison,” Canicly said.