“For what?” Donovan asked, confused. “Jimmy just called. He’s in San Francisco.” Donovan concealed his surprise. The best hope he had had for Chesly Whittaker’s nephew was that he would somehow survive both the debacle in the Philippine Islands and the certain confinement in a Japanese POW camp. “He’s in San Francisco?” he asked, still confused.
“All right, Bill,” Barbara Whittaker said.
“I understand. But thank you and God bless you.”
“He got out of the Philippines?” he asked. “Okay, I’ll tell you,” she said, gently sarcastic, humoring him. “So in case anyone asks you, you’ll know. He got out of the Philippines with Douglas MacArthur, and Douglas sent him from Australia with a letter to Franklin Roosevelt.
They’re flying him to Washington tonight with it.”
“I had nothing to do with this, Barbara,” Donovan said.
“But of course I’m delighted to hear it,” “God bless you, Bill,” Barbara said emotionally “You’re really a friend.”
“I hope I am,” he said. Then the phone went dead. She really thinks I went to Franklin Roosevelt and got him to give Jimmy special treatment.
And then he had another thought, a professional thought. Douglas MacArthur, whom Bill Donovan had known since they had both been young colonels with the AEF in France in 1917, was very likely up to something devious. God only knew what that letter contained. Whatever it said, it could not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Donovan realized that the wrong hands were not only those of Colonel McCormick of the Chicago Tribune but those of George Marshall as well. Marshall and MacArthur despised each other, What Roosevelt did with the letter was his business, but it had to reach him, not get “mistakenly’ released to the press, or “misplaced’ mi 41111 the Pentagon. Or “lost.” Donovan picked up the secure telephone and called the White House. The President was not available, he was told, but would be in half an hour. He left a message for the President: Jimmy Whittaker was in San Francisco, en route to Washington, bearing a personal letter to Franklin Roosevelt from Douglas MacArthur.
After he hung up, he realized that wasn’t enough. Interception of the letter was possible now that he had announced its existence. He picked up the secure phone again and called the COI duty officer in the National Institutes of Health building. He told him to find Captain Peter Doug lass and have him call immediately. Captain Doug lass, whom Donovan had recruited from the Office of Naval Intelligence, was on the phone in three minutes. Donovan told him what he had just learned. “I want you to find out how Whittaker is traveling to Washington,” Donovan said. “If he flew from Hawaii,” Doug lass said, “he went to NAS Alameda.
I’ll call there and get the details.”
“I want to ensure that he delivers that letter to the President,” Donovan said. ‘-Mich means I want you to have the airplane met when it lands in Washington. I would prefer that you’re not personally involved, but if need be, meet him yourself. Is there anybody available?”
“Canidy is in Washington,” Doug lass replied.
“He came back today from visiting his father in Cedar Rapids. He and Whittaker are close. I think I can lay my hands on him. And Chief Ellis is at the house on Q Street, of course.”
“Where’s Canidy, if He’s not at the house?” Donovan asked. “He called up and said he was staying with a friend,” Doug lass said dryly.
“He left her number with Ellis.”
“Aside from his cat ting around,” Donovan asked, chuckling, “is he giving us any trouble?” Canidy was a naval aviator who had been recruited by General Claire Chennault for his Flying Tigers in China.
Canidy had been the first ace of the American Volunteer Group. He had then been recruited again, this time by the COI to bring Grunier and the old admiral out of North Africa. After he and Eric Fulmar had been left floating in the Atlantic off Safi by the submarine they’d both expected to escape on, Canidy decided he no longer wished to offer his services to COI Shortly after his safe return to the States, Canidy had informed Captain Doug lass that now that he’d had the opportunity to play Jimmy Cagney as a spy, he’d decided that flying fighters off an airplane carrier didn’t seem nearly as dangerous or unpleasant as what he’d gone through in Morocco, and that he would be grateful if Captain Doug lass would arrange for his recommissioning in the Navy.