Dark Full of Enemies(10)

“Son of a bitch.”

McKay found himself grinning. “How you doing, Grove?”

It took a moment for Stallings to collect himself. When he had, he made a sweeping gesture.

“Swell.”

“Still your old self, I take it.”

Stallings grinned and drummed his fingers on the desk. “You drinking yet?”

“Nope.”

“See? Don’t nobody change.”

McKay produced a pack of cigarettes and his Ronson and offered them to Stallings. Stallings looked at them a long moment and nodded. McKay handed him a cigarette and lit it for him, then lit one for himself. Stallings said nothing for a moment, watched his own fingers beat a tattoo on the desk as he smoked. “Didn’t figure on seeing you show up.”

“Who were you expecting?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I been in trouble a lot.”

“Like I said—still the same old Grove.” McKay smiled and Stallings laughed.

“You marry that girl? What was her name—”

“Sally.”

“Yeah. You marry her?”

McKay shook his head.

“Shame. Well, don’t everything turn out the way we want. I made sergeant in Sicily, you know.”

“I heard.” Stallings gave him a curious look. McKay said, “Your mama writes me every once in a while. Lets me know how you’re doing.”

Stallings nodded. “Well, you know how that turned out then.”

“Yeah.”

Stallings’s mother had not given McKay details—and McKay doubted she had any of the pertinent ones—but there had been an incident in Sicily involving absence without leave and backtalk to the company first sergeant and executive officer upon Stallings’s return. McKay could guess the rest himself. The backtalk had probably ended with at least one haymaker. And vino and an Italian brothel were almost certainly involved.

“Chickenshit officers,” Stallings said, and then, “No offense.” McKay laughed, and Stallings held up his sleeve, nodded at the single chevron there. “I just did get bumped back up. CO needs me on his radios. Ain’t nothing Lieutenant Roberts can do about that.”

“He the one that busted you?”

Stallings nodded. “Anyway, I figured if I was getting called into the CP at this time of night to meet some hotshot coming down from London—well… Why are you here, Joe? I mean—Captain, sir. Am I in some kind of trouble?”

“No. Not unless you choose to be.”

“How’s that? And what the hell’s a Marine doing here, anyway? Last I heard, y’all were out zipping Nips on Guadalcanal.”

“That was a while ago.”

“Yeah, well, what happened?”

McKay thought a moment. “I got wounded. Spent a while in the hospital. While I was there I got a visit from Keener.”

Stallings scoffed. “No kidding.” Keener and Stallings had known each other at Clemson, but been on less than friendly terms. Keener had gotten Stallings expelled.

“Nope,” McKay said. “He’d joined a new outfit and was looking for men who spoke German and weren’t afraid of a fight. He figured after what I’d been up to on that island, I was just the ticket. So here I am.”

Stallings regarded him a moment. He seemed unsure of what he was supposed to gather from their talk. “So, what have you been doing?”

“That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. This outfit’s called the Office of Strategic Services. OSS.”

“Yeah, I heard something about it.”

“I got an assignment that needs an expert radio man. I thought of you, but I need an answer tonight. Now.”

“You don’t say.”

“Resistance people somewhere lost their radio, and we need to deliver a new one along with instructions on how to use it.”

“Are they fucking stupid?”

“It’s a long way away,” McKay said. “And we’re sending them the best equipment we got.”

“Don’t sound too hard,” Stallings said.

“There’s more to it—that’s not even the main objective—but I can’t tell you anything else unless you agree to come. And I’m not kidding about needing an answer now—we’re leaving in about six hours.”

“I see. Well, looks like everybody needs me on their radios.”

“You’re good.”

“Don’t I know it. I joined the army to shoot Krauts, not keep doing the shit I was at Clemson. Vacuum tubes and wavelengths. Don’t take nobody too long to discover my abilities, though, huh?”

“Your mama calls it a talent.”

Stallings smiled but did not argue. “What else is there to this?”

“I’ve told you all I can for now. It’s either yes or no—your choice. We need you, but I’m not gonna drag you away from your unit. But if you want to do this I’ve got to warn you—it’s dangerous.”

“I figured.”

“You need to know. I’ve already known a lot of men who got killed doing this. If we get caught, the Germans will shoot us. If they don’t shoot us on the spot it’ll just be so they can take us somewhere and torture us for intel.”