"The University?"
"Yes, Sir. And elementary and middle schools, too. Sir, who am I talking to?"
"My name is Hon, Sergeant. Your commanding officer is here and wants to talk to you."
He handed the phone to Banning, who didn't expect it.
"Sergeant, I'm sorry there was no one at NATS to meet you," Banning began, in English, and then switched to Japanese. "I'll be down to fetch you in the morning. Get yourself some dinner and a good night's sleep."
"Yes, Sir."
"Welcome to Australia, Sergeant," Banning said. "Good night." He hung the phone up, and turned to Pluto. "I didn't want to talk to him."
"I wanted you to be able to tell the Captain how well that kid speaks Japanese," Hon said, unabashed.
"Does he? Speak it well, I mean?" Pickering asked.
"He didn't learn that pronunciation in Japanese 202 at Princeton," Hon said. "He's been in Japan on and off all his life. He went to school there. Japanese schools, I mean. Including the University. I'd really like to have him, Captain."
"He went to Pennsylvania, too, he told me," Pickering said, "so he probably didn't graduate from University in Tokyo. So what? But I'm more than a little uneasy about giving him access to the MAGIC intercepts, even if he doesn't know what they are."
"I could have a fatherly little chat with him, Captain," Banning said. "And tell him that if it ever comes to my attention that he has discussed in any way what Hon gives him to do, or what he's learned, or thinks he's learned, with anyone but Pluto, you, or myself, I will see that he spends the next twenty years in solitary confinement at the Portsmouth Naval Prison."
"On the way to the hotel, he wouldn't even discuss Special Detachment 14 with me," Pickering said. "I don't think he would have a loose mouth. OK, Pluto. You can have him. But you have that talk with him, Ed, anyway. And don't say Portsmouth. Tell him we'll have him shot."
Banning looked quickly at Pickering and saw that he was serious.
"Aye, aye, Sir," Banning said.
Then Pickering changed the subject. "Let's see what you have, Ed, that's so interesting."
"Aye, aye, Sir," Banning repeated.
He pulled a leather briefcase from under the couch and took a large manila envelope from it.
"Would you like me to keep my eyes to myself, Captain?" Pluto Hon asked.
"Oh, no, Pluto," Pickering said. "You only thought I asked you here just for dinner."
Banning chuckled, and spread a dozen ten-inch-square aerial photos out on a library table.
Three of the photos showed a dense cloud of smoke from a grass fire rising from a field, and then, in photographs apparently taken a day or two later, the same field. There were tracks from a truck or some other vehicle crisscrossing the now blackened grassy area.
"What am I looking at?" Pickering asked.
"That's a field on an island called Guadalcanal," Banning said. "It's one of the larger islands in the Solomons chain.... Here, I have a map, too."
He took a map from his briefcase, spread it on the table, and pointed out the position of Guadalcanal in relation to New Britain and New Ireland islands, and to the islands nearer to it, New Georgia, Santa Isabel, Malaita, Tulagi, and San Cristobal.
"That field is near Lunga Point, on the north shore of Guadalcanal," Banning said, "between the Matanikau and Tenaru Rivers."
"I heard the Air Corps had taken some aerials of that area," Pickering said. "Is that what these are?"
"No, Sir. These came from the Australians. Feldt passed them to me."
"And does Feldt also think the Japanese are about to build a fighter strip there?"
"Feldt thinks-he's familiar with Guadalcanal-that when the Japanese build a field there, it will be able to handle any aircraft in the Jap inventory."
"Jesus," Pickering said softly. "If they get a fighter field going there, they can cover that whole area. And we don't have anything to stop them, and won't until we get that field on Espiritu Santo built... and God only knows how long that will take. Can I have these?"
"Yes, Sir, of course. We have Coastwatchers on Guadalcanal, but not in that area. We've radioed them to see what they can find out. But it will take them a couple of days to move over there."
" 'We'?" Pickering quoted.
"I should have said, 'Commander Feldt,' " Banning said.
"Hell, no. 'We' is fine. 'Them' and 'us' is just what I didn't want to hear. I was asking, are any of the Coastwatchers American?"
"No, Sir. The only Marines we have actually in place are Lieutenant Howard and Sergeant Koffler, and they're on Buka, to the Northwest."
"I thought you told me you were going to try to... what's the word? 'insert'?... some more of our people."
"So far, no luck," Banning said. "Which translated means that Feldt has shot down every proposal I've made."
"It's his show," Pickering said.
"Yes, Sir. I have been operating under that premise."
"If the Japanese manage to get this airfield up and running, we're in trouble," Pickering repeated, and then asked Banning, "Did Feldt have anything to say about how long that will take?"
"I asked him the same question. 'I'm not a sodding engineer,' he said. 'But they can probably start to land fighters there in maybe six weeks. It depends on what they are using, whether real engineers, with bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment, or whether they will just try to level the field with ordinary soldiers and picks and shovels. If they move in engineers and their equipment, they can build a real airfield in two months or so.' "
"Off the top of your head, Ed, how long will it take to get these pictures to Washington?"
"You're going to send those to Washington, Sir?" Banning asked, surprised.
"I really meant the pictures our Army Air Corps took," Pickering said.
"If they sent them by officer courier, maybe four, five days," Banning said. "Are they that important? To get them to Washington, I mean, rather than a message saying we think the Japs are about to build an airfield on Guadalcanal? A message could be in Washington in a matter of hours."
"A picture, to coin a phrase," Pickering said, "is worth a thousand words. If I were Admiral King and wanted to sell President Roosevelt on something, I'd think I'd want to have the pictures."
"Sir, I don't quite follow you," Banning admitted.
"The Army and the Navy are at war again," Pickering said, bitterly. "Does the name Ghormley mean anything to you?"