“Yes, sir,” Bitter said. “I will try not to disappoint you, sir.”
“That’s the spirit!” Canidy said. “When you go to see the admiral, I want him to look at your freshly shaven chin and sharply creased trousers and say to himself, Now, this young officer is clearly one of our own. “‘ “What admiral?” he asked.
“On our part, we are so concerned about what the admiral thinks of you that we are going to let you use the Packard,” Canidy said.
“What admiral?” Bitter repeated.
“The Deputy Commander for Air, Naval Element, SHAEF,” Canidy said, “called Colonel Stevens first thing this morning. He told the colonel he deeply regretted not having been on hand to properly welcome you to the European Theater of Operations. Translated, that means he wants to remind you of your naval heritage, and why you have been sent here.” “If I have to say this, Dick,” Bitter said, “I consider that I work for you. Period, n Canidy nodded.
“He asked Colonel Stevens if there was any way you could possibly find time in your busy schedule to give him a few minutes of your time.
When Stevens told him he thought that might be difficult, the admiral sweetened his offer. He announced that he is an old friend of General Lorimer and would be happy to introduce the two of you.”
“You’re losing me, Dick,” Bitter said.
“Bear with me, Commander,” Canidy said. “Now, as a trade-school graduate himself, Colonel Stevens is well aware of the hoary military adage, Beware of admirals bearing gifts. So he did not tell the admiral that we had already discussed you with General Lorimer and had in fact planned to send you over there this morning for a little chat.
He decided that it might well be in our interest to see what the admiral has in mind. So he thanked the admiral profusely for his interest and suggested that you meet him there at noon.”
“Where’s there’? and for the third time, who is General Lorimer?”
” There’ is London. Brigadier General Kenneth Lorimer, of the Eighth Air Force Headquarters at High Wycombe, is what the Eighth Air Force chooses to call the cognizant officer’ for the Project Aphrodite,” Canidy said.
“Okay,” Bitter said.
“The admiral’s concern for your welfare apparently goes beyond introducing you to the old boy network,” Canidy said. “He volunteered to provide you with a car and driver. Now, that really made Colonel Stevens suspicious, as cars and drivers are about as scarce as fifteen-year-old English virgins.”
“Thank you very much, Dick,” the Duchess Stanfield said.
“No offense, Your Gracefulness,” Canidy said, abut please don’t interrupt your commanding officer when he is speaking.”
“I don’t understand,” Bitter said.
“Dick suspects, Commander,” the duchess said, “that the car will come with a driver.”
“And we don’t need a sailor spy around here,” Jimmy Whittaker said.
“We have our hands full as it is with French and German spies.
And English ones.”
“The pair of you can go to hell!” the duchess said.
“Present company excepted, of course,” Whittaker said.
“I have the feeling, I can’t imagine how, that my leg is being pulled, ” Bitter said.
“No, it’s not,” Canidy said. “We spend so much time spying on each other that it’s a bloody miracle we have any time left to spy on the Germans.”
“It’s unfortunately true, Commander,” the duchess said.
“In order to forestall you finding yourself in debt to the admiral, or the Navy generally, Her Gracefulness suggested, and I agreed, that the thing to do is send you to London, and then High Wycombe and Fersfield, in my personal Packard. With the faithful Agnes at the wheel, of course, to lend a final touch of class.”
“Youripersonal Packard’?”
“You don’t want to hear about that,” the duchess said.
“Yes, I do.”
“It is a matter of some delicacy,” Canidy said. “But what the hell, Your Gracefulness, we either trust him or we don’t.” The duchess shrugged.
“Lieutenant Jamison was prowling the premises, Commander, and came across a door in the stables, hidden behind hay bales. Curious chap that he is, he moved the hay bales and opened the door, and lo and behold, there was a Packard automobile up on blocks and otherwise preserved for the duration and six months. Somehow, Her Gracefulness had simply for gotten about it when His Majesty’s Government came around requisitioning motorcars.” The duchess, Bitter saw, was embarrassed.