Raging Sea, Searing Sky

by Christopher Nicole

  ‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ Brenda told him. She had recovered her nerve, and her voice was quite steady.

  ‘Mrs Lloyd,’ Toto said, ‘it would be very foolish of you to take that attitude.’

  ‘I am an American citizen,’ Brenda said. ‘I think you should bear that in mind, Lieutenant. I think your superiors would like you to bear that in mind.’

  ‘Mrs Lloyd, there are things you should consider. There is no one on the floor above you. We have arranged for the tenant above you to be called away, and he has gone out. The floor beneath you is an empty office. Also, no one knows that we have come here. We can leave again, with you, or without you, and no one will be any the wiser. If we leave here, without you, and without the information we seek, you will never leave here again. I promise you that. And no one will even hear you scream.’

  ‘I do not know what you are talking about,’ Brenda said again. ‘I am leaving Japan tonight, and if you do not let me go you will be in serious trouble.’ But there was again a faint tremor in her voice. She knew she was lost.

  May found she had been holding her breath. The police did not know she was here; whoever had been watching the building had clearly not recognised her and thus had not connected her entry with Brenda Lloyd, must have assumed she had been going to visit one of the families in the upper apartments. That was a stroke of luck. She could just remain here until they went away, and then leave...

  The officer was saying something in Japanese, and a moment later there were the sounds of a scuffle in the next room, followed by a gasp and the sound of tearing cloth. May held her breath again, and listened to a thin moan of pain, and Brenda saying, ‘No, please...’ the moan became a wail.

  ‘Then tell us what we wish to know, Mrs Lloyd,’ the lieutenant said. There was no more rustling and heavy breathing, then he spoke again. ‘You may nod your head when you are ready to speak.’

  Obviously they had gagged her to stop her making too much noise while they did whatever they were going to do to her. May stepped out of her shoes and tiptoed across the room towards the bed. She had some idea of lying down and putting the pillows over her head. She had no wish to hear what was being done to Brenda. But when she sat on the bed she found herself gazing at the table, and the drawer.

  In the other room Brenda must have nodded, because now she screamed and burst into tears as well. ‘Shit,’ she moaned. ‘You are a shit.’ There came the sound of a slap, and another gasp.

  ‘If necessary I will kill you, Mrs Lloyd,’ Toto said. ‘But I will make you speak to me first.’

  May panted. She owed Brenda nothing. The woman was her rival for Lew. She was the one Lew truly loved, in fact, and had, for over twenty years...she shook her head as there came another gasp, and moan, and as if hypnotised, opened the drawer and looked at the little automatic pistol. Lew had taught her about guns, and she had occasionally joined him at the range, where she had proved a surprisingly good shot. But she had never shot at anyone. She did not know if she could. It would be taking an enormous risk, and for what? To save the life of the woman Lew loved.

  ‘Now we will try the other side, Mrs Lloyd,’ Toto was saying. ‘And when we are finished, we are going to cut them off. Are you sure you do not wish to speak to me?’

  May wrapped her fingers round the butt of the pistol, and tiptoed across the floor. She again had no clear idea of what she meant to do, what she could do. Perhaps she could frighten them. Perhaps...she threw the door open, taking a long breath as she did so. ‘Hands up,’ she said. She could think of nothing better.

  There were three men in the room, and their heads jerked back at the interruption. Brenda was sitting on the settee; her arms had been carried over the back, and were being held there by one of the men; another was kneeling and holding her ankles, pressing her feet to the floor. There was a gag round her mouth, as May had suspected, and her kimono had been torn open; the third man, presumably Lieutenant Toto, was sitting beside her and had been applying lighted cigarettes to her right nipple, which was burnt and blackened. He had, as he had said, just turned his attention to the other one. All of this May took in at a glance, and in the same glance saw one of the men drawing a pistol from his pocket. ‘No,’ she said, and the man fired.

  May was aware of a huge sensation, which did not immediately include pain, although a whole set of bells seemed to start jangling in her ears which prevented any other sound from reaching them. As if in a daze, as she sat down on the chair by the door, she saw the man with the gun falling over her, his jacket a splodge of blood and realised she must have squeezed her trigger in response to being shot. The second man and Toto were also drawing guns, but they too were falling about the place as she kept on firing in a series of reflexes. She felt another great sense of shock, and discovered that, like the men, she was on the floor, and that the echoes of sound were slowly receding, and that a pain was starting, in her chest.

  She seemed to lie there a very long time before Brenda knelt beside her. Brenda had taken the gag from her mouth and she was speaking, but May couldn’t hear what she was saying. ‘Get out,’ she replied, surprised to find her mouth full of liquid. ‘Don’t be a fool. Get out and get to your ship. No one will come here for several hours. You’ll be at sea.’

  Brenda spoke some more. Brenda’s face was very close, and she was crying. Probably because the policemen had tortured her, May supposed. She smiled at her. ‘And get that tit seen to,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry about me, Brenda. I have diplomatic immunity.’ Her smile widened. ‘I’m Lew’s wife, remember?’ The noise in her ears became so loud it was almost unbearable...and then it suddenly ceased.

  *

  After Ambassador Grew had left, Hashimoto Kurita was shown into the hospital room. A word to the nurse, and the two men were left alone.

  Hashimoto sat down. ‘I cannot tell you how sorry I am,’ he said.

  Lew merely looked at him. Even Mr Grew had not been sure what had happened, how May had managed to be in Brenda’s apartment at all. Lew had a pretty good idea, but that did not make him feel like forgiving anyone.

  ‘I would have you understand,’ Hashimoto went on, ‘that my people had nothing to do with what was happening. Toto was army, and he acted on his own, which is why he attempted to interrogate Mrs Lloyd in her apartment instead of taking her down to headquarters; he knew I would not have let him ill-treat her. But you see, Lew, it is all a result of playing the double game, and if I may say so, to employ two women, one of them your wife, was a reprehensible thing to do. As for the other woman, your mistress, well...she let you down at the end, by just running out and getting on a ship for America, leaving your wife dying, and all for what? The specifications of a battleship which is already on her sea trials? You can do nothing about Yamato now, Lewis. She is a fact of life, of Japanese naval superiority, which you, and all America, must accept. But May, poor, beautiful May, is dead. I am sorry for you, Lew.’

  Lew gazed at him. Hashimoto clearly supposed he knew everything that had taken place, had perhaps even arranged it. Well, he knew now. Brenda must have called, and got May...and been arrested before May had got there. They had been interrogating Brenda. Poor, beautiful, helpless Brenda. And May had marched in, got herself killed...and taken three Kempei-tai men with her. Oh, hurrah for May. And Brenda...Brenda had got away. And if Brenda had wanted to see him, so urgently, within hours of leaving Japan, it had to be because she had found out something of tremendous importance. Something of which Hashimoto Kurita was unaware. That information would be in America in a week.

  Hashimoto sighed, and stood up. ‘I understand that you are to be sent home, for your implication in the murder of our people. Would you like to shake my hand before you go?’

  ‘No,’ Lew said. ‘And I am sorry for you too, Hash, because one day I, or some other Americans, are going to destroy you, and every filthy thing you stand for. That is not a threat, Hash. It is a promise.’

  ‘Lewis.’ Admiral Slater shook hand
s. ‘All fit again?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Great. Sit down, sit down. Have you read Mrs Lloyd’s report?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Brenda had been quite explicit — and May’s death had become even more an act of total self-sacrifice. For which surely there had to be atonement.

  ‘Some woman.’

  ‘Are we going to act on it?’

  ‘Indeed we are. Instructions have already gone out to Pearl to expect a sneak Japanese attack some time around Christmas next year. Not that I think they can do it. We’ll spot them long before they can get within bomber range. This could be the shortest war in history, even if they do have Yamato. Lew...I guess nobody in this navy has to tell you how much we honour what May did. I guess we never thought of her as a possible heroine, but that just shows how wrong one can be.’

  ‘Yes,’ Lew agreed.

  ‘So I hope you understand why we haven’t been able to release the full facts about what happened. I don’t guess the Japs ever will, either. It would raise too many questions on either side.’

  Lew nodded.

  ‘But I guess you wouldn’t mind being one of those who stops them when they come, eh?’

  ‘I intend to be, sir.’

  ‘Good man. So I’ve a command for you. Vermont.’

  Lew’s head came up.

  ‘So she’s an old ship. Too many of our battle-wagons are old ships. But we are gonna need them all if the Japs are gonna start shooting. ‘And you know Vermont.’

  ‘It will be an honour, sir,’ Lew said.

  ‘And I can promise you that you’ll have a new one, just as soon as she’s completed.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’

  ‘Well...’ Slater stood up and shook hands again. ‘Back to Pearl, I guess. That’s where Vermont is lying. But you’ve another week’s furlough first.’

  *

  Lew went up to Long Island, to see Father. Father was now eighty, but remarkably fit. And he was someone who could be told the true story of what had happened in that Tokyo apartment. The official Japanese account was that there had been an accidental shooting, in which the wife of the American naval attaché had been killed, along with a man. No mention of three men, or of whom they had worked for, had been made at all, no comment on the fact that the apartment had belonged to a Mrs Lloyd, and no attempt to explain what Mrs McGann was doing there. As the American Embassy had in no way questioned or denied this account, it had thus been reported in American papers too, and undoubtedly some eyebrows had been raised by those who recalled that Mrs Lloyd had once had a well-publicised affair with Captain McGann. The undoubted innuendo, that the two women might have fought over their lover, was something that had to be accepted — at least for the time being.

  ‘Some gal,’ Joe McGann remarked. ‘Some gal. I...I never liked her, Lew. I guess you knew that.’

  Lew nodded. ‘I’m not sure I ever liked her either, Father. But...I sure did love her, from time to time.’

  ‘So what do you feel now?’

  ‘I don’t know. Just angry, still. Maybe it’ll wear off. And maybe it won’t.’

  ‘And Brenda?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Lew said. ‘That too.’

  *

  There was so much to be thought about. The children. They had all rallied round, as he had known they would, even if he had not been able to tell them the truth, and if, as they apparently knew more about their mother than he had ever suspected, they obviously assumed she had been meeting one of her lovers and had quarrelled with him. Clive and Joan had written, and told him how sorry they were that they could not be with him. Wally was with him, but to see Wally meant visiting Annapolis. Lew went there after Long Island, and the two men went for a walk together. ‘Your mother was a heroine, Walt,’ Lew told him. ‘I want you to know that. The whole thing has to stay secret for a while, but the facts will be released some time, maybe some time sooner than any of us think.’

  Wally gazed at him. ‘Is that the truth, Dad? Really and truly.’

  ‘That is the truth, Walt. Your mother died fighting for the United States just as much as any soldier, or any sailor, has ever done.’

  ‘Gee,’ Walt said. ‘Gee whiz. Good old Mom. When are we going to have a crack at the Japs, Dad?’

  ‘Soon,’ Lew told him. ‘Pretty soon.’

  *

  He drove into the town, and the little house. Brenda had stopped dying her hair, and it was quite grey. ‘What’s it like to be a pensioner?’ he asked.

  She made a moue. ‘I’m not used to it yet.’

  ‘But lonely, I guess.’

  They stared at each other.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Lonely.’

  ‘Brenda...’

  She shook her head. ‘Not right now, Lew.’

  ‘Sure. I’m in mourning, and I guess you have a lot to forget.’

  ‘Do you know?’

  ‘I read the report.’

  ‘Do you know...’ she sighed. ‘I wanted to stay. But she was dead, Lew. And carrying that information...’

  He squeezed her hand. ‘I know, Brenda. I know.’

  She gave another sigh. ‘It was my fault. I didn’t have to tell you about it. And I didn’t have to see May. I could, and I should, have just boarded that ship and disappeared. Like you told me to. I guess I was just so pleased with myself...oh, Lew, I think I killed her.’

  ‘If she hadn’t been there, Brenda, you would never have got to that ship. The Kempei-tai would have seen to that.’

  She hugged herself. ‘It’s all, so...’ she gazed at him. ‘Lew...after what was done to me, I...I don’t know I could ever make you happy.’

  ‘I sure as hell know I could never be happy with anyone else, Brenda. Even if I’m never able to lay a finger on you again.’

  She got up, went to the window, looked out at the garden. ‘Have you been posted?’ She did not turn her head.

  ‘Yes. Believe it or not, I’ve got Vermont.’

  ‘Oh, Lew.’ She turned. ‘I am so very happy for you.’

  ‘She’s in Pearl, with the rest of the Pacific Fleet. I’m told she needs some refitting. But she’ll be ready by Christmas.’

  ‘Will they come, Lew?’

  ‘I’d bet on it.’

  She came back to stand beside his chair. ‘I’d like to be there.’

  ‘Don’t you think you’ve had enough?’

  ‘In Pearl, I’d be able to see you.’

  ‘In Pearl, Brenda, you would live with me. Do you want to do that?’

  ‘Give me a month, Lew. Just to...’ her hand passed lightly over her breast, and she shivered. ‘Just to get well again.’

  *

  Lew McGann and Brenda Lloyd, née Grant, were married in Honolulu on 30 January 1941. Walt McGann was the only one of Lew’s children able to attend the wedding; he had been given special leave from Annapolis, but Joan and Clive both cabled their congratulations. Once again eyebrows were raised amongst many who were not in the know, but those who mattered were, and Admiral Slater came to give the bride away.

  The guests departed, and Lew and Brenda honeymooned, in their new house in Oahu. He had not known what to expect, and indeed she was as shy and uncertain as the young girl he had first fallen in love with. But her love for him was also unquenchable, and soon he discovered that he had at last found utter happiness.

  Which not even the slowly growing tension throughout the year could disturb; both wanted it to happen — there were too many scores to be settled. Vermont was ready for sea by the summer. To Lew’s great delight Commander Harry Pimm was his executive officer. They took her to sea for trials, passed her as one hundred per cent operational, and took her back to Pearl, where she sat on battleship row with Arizona and California and Tennessee and West Virginia and Maryland and Nevada and Oklahoma and Pennsylvania and the might of the United States Pacific Fleet, off Ford Island, waiting for the challenge, whenever it came. With the arrival of December everyone knew the showdown could only be a few weeks off. Lew was up just be
fore dawn, as usual, on 7 December, walking out on to the verandah to look at the morning sky. He was one of the first to see and hear the waves of Japanese bombers, and realised that after all they had been caught napping. The Japanese had not waited for Yamato to be ready. Nor had they been spotted several hundred miles from Hawaii as Admiral Slater had confidently predicted. And already there were pillars of smoke rising above the harbour.

  He snatched on his uniform while Brenda scrambled out of bed and also began to dress, leapt into his car and drove down to the Base. Pickets were already out blocking the roads, but they let him through, and he gazed at a scene of such utter destruction it reminded him of Tokyo in 1923. The huge oil storage tanks were blazing, vehicles had been thrown, and were still being thrown, every which way, as were ships alongside the clocks, while above his head planes wheeled and screamed through the air, the very few American aircraft able to get into the sky taking on what seemed to be the entire Japanese air force.

  But his only concern at that moment was Vermont. He commandeered a launch and half a dozen bemused sailors, and roared out into the harbour, watched in horror as the Arizona exploded in front of his eyes, scattering debris far and wide, and sending the launch to and fro as they tried to avoid burning embers. By now Oklahoma, struck by a torpedo, was slowly capsizing, and at least two of the others seemed to be sinking. Vermont had been anchored off, beyond Nevada, which was one of the sinking ships. Lew regained control, steered round the bows of the vessel, which was lowering its surviving boats to take off its men, while destroyers stood out from their pens to aid in the rescue, and gazed at his ship. The dream of his life, which he had been going to command against the Yamato, if he could, was a blazing wreck and slowly beginning to go over as water flooded into her compartments. Men were already abandoning her, many in the water. The launch nosed up to them and they began hauling them in. Amongst them was Pimm. ‘By God, Lew,’ he gasped. ‘By God...’ he looked at the sky. ‘The bastards!’