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"Some expert, who doesn't want his name mentioned, told the Star it's fifty-fifty whether we can stay on Guadalcanal."
"You think he's wrong?"
"It's pretty bad over there, Ed," Ba
"Is that what you're going to tell Secretary Knox?"
"I'm going to tell him what Vandegrift thinks."
"Which is?"
"That unless he gets reinforced, and unless they can somehow keep the Japs from reinforcing, we're going to get pushed back into the sea."
"Jesus."
Captain Sessions unlocked the door, removed the key, and then handed it to Ba
"I realize that this isn't what you're accustomed to, but I understand roughing it once in a while is good for the soul."
"I just hope there's hot water," Ba
"Hello, Ba
Rickabee was standing in a corridor that led to a large sitting room furnished with what looked like museum-quality antiques. Rickabee waved him toward it. Ba
"Gentlemen," Rickabee a
Ba
"I'm Frank Knox, Major. How do you do?"
"Mr. Secretary."
"Do you know Captain Haughton, my assistant?" Knox asked.
No. But I've seen the name enough. "By Direction of the Secretary of the Navy. David Haughton, Captain, USN, Administrative Assistant. "
"No, Sir."
"How are you, Major?" Haughton said. "I'm glad to finally meet you."
"My name is Fowler, Major," another superbly tailored older man said. "Welcome home."
"Senator," Ba
"Right now, not very well, and from what Fleming Pickering said on the phone, what you have to tell us isn't going to make us feel any better."
"Major, you look like you could use a drink," Frank Knox said. "What'll you have?"
"No, thank you, Sir."
"Don't argue with me, I'm the Secretary of the Navy."
"Then scotch, Sir, a weak one."
"Make him a stiff scotch, Rickabee," Knox ordered, "while your captain loads the projector."
"Yes, Sir, Mr. Secretary," Colonel Rickabee said, smiling.
"Sir, I had hoped to have a little time to organize my thoughts," Ba
"Fleming Pickering told me I should tell you to deliver the same briefing you gave him in Hawaii," Senator Fowler said. "And I thought the best place to do that would be here, rather than in Mr. Knox's office or mine."
Ba
"You're worried about classified material?" Captain Haughton asked. "Specifically, about MAGIC?"
"Yes, Sir."
Haughton looked significantly at Secretary Knox, very obviously putting the question to him.
"Senator Fowler does not have a MAGIC clearance," Knox said. "That's so the President and I can look any senator in the eye and tell him that no senator has a MAGIC clearance. But I can't think of a secret this country has I wouldn't trust Senator Fowler with. Do you take my meaning, Major?"
"Yes, Sir."
Rickabee handed Ba
Ba
"We brought these with us when we left Guadalcanal. The photographer handed them to Major Dillon literally at the last minute, as we were preparing to take off."
"My God!" Frank Knox said after examining the first two photographs. "This is Henderson Field?"
"Yes, Sir."
"It looks like no-man's-land in France in 1917."
"General Vandegrift believes the fire came from fourteen-inch Naval ca
"I saw the After-Action Report," Knox said. It was not a reprimand.
Ba
"Anytime you're ready, Sir," Sessions reported.
"OK, Major," Frank Knox said. "Let's have it."
"Just one or two questions, Major, if I may," Frank Knox said after Ba
"Yes, Sir."
"You're pretty sure of these Japanese unit designations, I gather? And the identities of the Jap commanders?"
"Yes, Sir."
"They conform to what we've been getting from the MAGIC people in Hawaii. But there is a difference between your analyses of Japanese intercepts and theirs. Subtle sometimes, but significant, I think. Why is that?"
"Sir, I don't think two analysts ever completely agree...."
"Just who are your analysts?"
"Primarily two, Sir. Both junior officers, but rather unusual junior officers. One of them is a Korean-American from Hawaii. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT, and was first involved as a cryptographer-a code-breaker, not an analyst. He placed... a different interpretation... on certain intercepts than did Hawaii; and more often than not, time proved him correct. So he was made an analyst. The second spent most of his life in Japan. His parents are missionaries. He speaks the language as well as he speaks English, and studied at the University of Tokyo. You understand, Sir, the importance of understanding the Japanese culture, the Japanese mind-set..."
"Yes, yes," Knox said impatiently. "So your position is that the Hawaiian analysts are wrong more often than not, and your two are right more often than not?"