The captain called after him.
“Jamison, in my capacity as the senior medical officer present, I absolutely forbid this officer to participate in a parachute jump.”
“Your position has been noted. Doctor,” Jamison called, over his shoulder.
Janos got off the X-ray table and gingerly lowered his bare, sick, white foot to the floor.
“Any pain?” the captain asked.
“No,” Janos said.
“Fuck him,” the captain said, “You use the crutches, Janos. You start using that leg carefully. I’ll deal with Jamison.”
Janos hoisted himself back onto the X-ray table and removed his other shoe and sock.
“With the shoe off,” Janos said, “I think I can manage.”
He lowered himself to the floor again, and then, awkwardly and carefully, walked very slowly out of the X-ray room.
[TWO]
First Lieutenant Ferenc Janos marched into the office of the commanding officer, came to attention, and saluted. He was wearing a wool OD (olive drab) Ike jacket and trousers. Parachutist’s wings were on the jacket, and his trousers were bloused over glistening Corcoran jump boots. His woolen “overseas” cap was tucked in an epaulet of his jacket.
“Sir, Lieutenant Janos reporting as directed. Sir.”
It. Colonel Edmund T. Stevens returned the salute.
“Stand at ease, Lieutenant,” he said.
Janos was surprised to see the good-looking blond WAC lieutenant in the room. He wondered why. The story about her (which had quickly circulated through Whithey House) was that she would work for Jamison, taking care of the women.
“How’s your ankle, Janos? Straight answer, please,” Stevens said.
“With the boot on, sir,” Janos said, “no problem.”
“How far do you think you could walk on it?” Stevens asked.
“As far as I have to,”Janos said.
“An overestimate of capability is dangerous, Janos,” Colonel Stevens said.
“A mission of the very highest priority has come up,” Stevens said.
“You
have already expressed your willingness to participate in a mission involving great personal risk in enemy-occupied territory. You were also made aware that if you were captured, you would be treated not as a prisoner of war but as a spy. I ask you here and now if you still wish to volunteer for such a mission?”
“From this point, Lieutenant,” Stevens said, “this conversation is classified Top Secret. Divulging what I am about to tell you to anyone, or discussing it with anyone not now present in this room, will constitute a general court-martial offense. Do you fully understand that?”
“The mission is to free certain people from confinement in the hands of civil authorities in Hungary. I am now going to pose a question to you that I want you to think over very carefully before replying,” Stevens went on.
“If the mission goes sour, or if the mission cannot be accomplished within a set time frame, you will be required to eliminate, by which I mean kill, or cause to have killed, the people presently imprisoned. Now, are you willing to accept the mission, knowing that may be necessary?”
Janos hesitated, but not for long.
“Yes, Sir,” he said. He became aware that the good-looking blond WAC was looking at him. More than looking at him, he realized–evaluating him and doing that very coldly.
“You believe you would be able to… and this is the only phrase that fits the situation… kill in cold blood the people presently imprisoned. And possibly a substantial number of others who can only be accurately described as ‘innocent bystanders’?”
“You’re not going to tell me what this is all about?”
“Just please answer my question,” Stevens said.
“With your assurance that it’s a military necessity, Sir,” Janos said.
Stevens nodded.
“Charity? “he asked.
“Even, Freddy,” Charity Hoche asked, “if the people who had to be eliminated were known to you? Even if you had met them here?”
“Holy Mother of God,” Janos blurted, and then found control again.
“With the same caveat as before, that Colonel Stevens assures me this is militarily necessary.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Yes?” Stevens called impatiently.
“Colonel Douglass is on the phone for Lieutenant Hoche, Sir,” a male voice said.
“I guess I better take it,” Charity said after a moment’s thought.
“He probably just got his orders and wonders what they’re all about.”