“You can lock it,” the admiral’s aide said, and, when Lennox had closed the safe and twirled the dial, handed him a second envelope.
Lennox opened it and looked at it incredulously.
MR. AND MRS. H. FREDERICK DENNISON
request THE honor OF THE presence OF
It. Gmvrwider fdurn K. lewwx” US/
at cocktails AND dinner 5:30/3.m, Fabfwuy, 15, 7943 411 ocean drive, waikiki
“What the hell is this?” Lennox blurted.
“Beautiful place,” the admiral’s aide said.
“Mr. Dennison owns most of the movie theaters in Hawaii. And some other things, like maybe half of downtown Honolulu.”
“Well, would you please express my regrets to Mr. Dennison?” Lennox said.
“I have other plans.”
“The Admiral thought you might,” the admiral’s aide said.
“That’s why he sent me to deliver the invitation. It is the Admiral’s desire, Commander, that you accept Mr. Dennison’s invitation.”
“I’m sailing at 0600,” Lennox said.
“The Admiral is aware of that, Commander,” the aide said.
“He’s going to be there?” Lennox asked.
“Oh, yes,” the admiral’s aide said.
“The Dennisons really know how to throw a party. Ever been to a luau, Commander? I mean a real one?”
“Oh, what the hell!” Lennox said.
“But why me?”
“The Dennisons like to do what they can for the fleet,” the admiral’s aide said.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got whites, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” Lennox said.
“Pity,” the admiral’s aide said.
“You about ready to go?”
VIII
lONE]
“Rolling Waves” Waihihi Beach, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii
It was a forty-nive-minute drive from Pearl Harbor to the Dennison estate on the beach at Waikiki. The party was well under way by the time Lennox got there. The red-brick curved driveway before the long, low house was packed with cars, more than half of them military and naval staff cars. Lennox saw that many of the service cars had what looked like a second license plate covered with a canvas sleeve. He knew what they concealed: the starred plates identiiying the passengers as admirals and generals.
Lennox realized that not only was he going to be out of place in his tropical worsted uniform but outranked by a platoon of brass hats and their entourages.
This was no place for a simple submarine sailor to be.
And when they were inside, and a houseboy had led them to a two bartender bar set up by a large swimming pool, he saw two movie stars. Floating around in the pool with sort of inner tubes under their arms and drinks in their hands were Lana Turner and one of those too-handsome, too-perfect actors.
It took him a minute to place the guy as Greg Hammer.
How does a large, splendid physical specimen like that avoid his draft board?
He realized there must be two hundred people in the Dennison mansion. One in five was female. For woman-scarce Hawaii, that was an unusual percentage of females. Some of them were wives, but many were unattached.
Why am I surprised” Where did I expect the pretty girls to be, in downtown Honolulu trying to pick up sailors?
He saw COMSUBFORPAC, which wasn’t surprising, and CINCPAC, which was. He wondered why the hell COMSUBFORPAC had wanted him at the party. Probably, he thought somewhat bitterly, to give the condemned man a last hearty meal.
COMSUBFORPAC saw him, nodded, and gave him a quick smile, but made it clear by quickly looking away that Lennox was not expected to pay his respects to him in person at that time.
And then the Admiral’s aide disappeared, and Lennox was left alone. He finished his first drink, had the bartender make him another, and then wandered around until he came to the buffet.
What he would do, he decided, was eat. They weren’t serving the steak he had been looking forward to, but it was beyond reasonable argument a hearty, luxurious meal. There were roast pigs, “steamboat” restaurant rounds of roast beef, fish, and chicken. He tried to remember where he had seen a more luxuriant display of food, but nothing came to him.
He carried his tray outside the building and sat on a low brick wall beyond which was the white sand beach and the ocean. The food turned out to taste as good as it appeared, and he ate everything he had heaped on his plate.