by Roger Jewett
The doctor came to Troost. “Admiral, I’m sorry to have to tell you the CO and the quartermaster are dead,” he said. “The skipper —” The man shook his head. Hasse’s chest had been torn open.
Troost nodded and returned to his own bridge. Though he actually liked Hasse, he couldn’t deny his deep feeling of jealousy. There were times when Troost found himself wondering if Kate would ever love him as much as she had Hasse. And then he’d tell himself it’s none of your business — the only thing that really matters is that she needs and wants you with the same intensity that you need and want her. More than once she’d told him, “You are a separate part of my life, something I want and don’t have to share with anyone else.” That was true. She didn’t even share him with Gloria. Just as he was separate and apart for her, she was the same for him. She was a gift that only she could bestow…
Troost clenched his teeth and tore himself away from his personal thoughts. Now he had to get his ships the hell out of the area.
CHAPTER 27
“All stop,” Warren said.
“All stop,” answered the order telegraph watch.
Warren peered through the bridge window into the darkness made even blacker by a heavy fog. “I can’t see a fucking thing,” he complained and went out to the starboard open wing of the bridge. “One third back.”
The signalman repeated the command.
“All stop,” Warren called from the flying bridge. The AKO-96 had been ordered to this particular cove on Mindanao, not far from Cagayan, by ABDAFLOAT to evacuate several high-ranking U.S. officers and Filipino officials and take them to Australia.
“All stop,” the signalman repeated.
“Ahoy there, A kay oh 96,” a man called from somewhere off the starboard bow. “Ahoy, A kay oh 96.”
Warren cupped his hands in front of his mouth. “A kay oh 96,” he answered. “Who are you?”
“I am Major Luis, Philippine Army. I have a message for you. Permission to come aboard?” the man asked.
“Permission granted,” Warren called through his cupped hands. “Come alongside my starboard side.” He could hear what sounded like the splash of a paddle.
“Skipper,” the OOD called out, “a small boat is approaching on our starboard side. I can barely make him out.”
“Will drop the hook and take him aboard,” Warren said; then turning to the boatswain mate of the watch, he said, “Put a ladder over the starboard and take the major on board.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” the man responded.
Warren checked the Fathometer. There was 30 feet of water under the keel. He turned to the OOD. “Is the anchor ready?”
“Anchor detail manned and ready,” the OOD answered.
“Stand by to let go anchor,” Warren said.
“Anchor ready for letting go,” the OOD reported.
“Let go anchor!”
Warren could hear the splash of the anchor and the rapid rattle of the anchor chain as it ran out.
“Post armed lookouts forward and aft,” Warren said.
“Aye, aye, skipper,” the OOD replied.
Warren stepped onto the bridge wing. “Is that man aboard yet?” he called down.
“Aboard,” a voice below answered.
Warren nodded with satisfaction and stepped back inside the bridge. Then filling and lighting his pipe, he waited for the boatswain mate to bring the visitor to the bridge.
The door opened and a voice said, “I am Major Rudy Luis.”
Even on the blacked-out bridge, Warren could see that Major Luis was a short, wiry man with a rifle slung over his right shoulder.
“Captain,” Luis said, extending his hand.
“Lieutenant Troost,” Warren answered, shaking the man’s hand.
“I’m glad to see that you didn’t have too much difficulty finding this place,” Luis said. He spoke with a definite island accent.
“The fog is the problem,” Warren answered.
Luis nodded and made a clicking sound with his tongue; then he said, “You’re safe here as long as you wish to stay. This area is held by my men. Your ship is under my protection.”
“Thank you,” Warren answered. “But as soon as our passengers arrive, I intend to leave.”
Again, Luis made a clicking sound with his tongue, but this time he did not nod. “I am to tell you those plans have been changed,” he said. “General Mac-Arthur and the President of the Philippines were flown out earlier today.”
Warren puffed hard on his pipe. He had no idea who his passengers were to have been. His ship was not really prepared to transport and protect such important men. He was glad the plans were changed, but now he wondered what was going to happen to him and his crew. The longer he stayed in the islands, the less chance his ship had of surviving. Sooner or later the Japanese would get him. “Where the hell does that leave us?” he growled, angry that ABDAFLOAT hadn’t messaged directly to him and given him specific instructions.
Luis shrugged. “You and your crew are welcome to stay here,” he said. “But if you do, we will have to strip your ship and use what we can of her for our own purposes.”
The OOD suddenly started to cough, and several of the other men on the bridge cleared their throats.
“We’ll sail as soon as the fog lifts,” Warren said.
“Back to the Rock?” Luis asked, using Corregidor’s nickname.
“No,” Warren said. “The Japs are thick as fleas there.”
“Where then?”
He took the pipe out of his mouth and uttering a deep sigh, he muttered, “I wish the hell I knew… Maybe, by the time we get to sea, somebody will tell me.”
Despite the darkness, Warren could sense that every man on the bridge was looking at him.
Warren puffed on his pipe. Given the disastrous situation in the Philippines, remaining at sea until he received further orders would be the most logical action possible to preclude his ship and crew from either being destroyed or being captured by the Japanese.
At that moment a messenger from the radio shack entered the bridge and said, “Captain, here’s a priority message for your eyes only.”
Warren took the paper and read it hurriedly. A smile crossed his face. “We’re ordered to return to Pearl!” he exclaimed.
The men on the bridge cheered.
“Mr. Luis,” Warren said, “will you join me and my executive officer in the wardroom for a cup of coffee? It’s all I can offer you.”
CHAPTER 28
Troost and Gloria were in a room in the Sands, a hotel in the downtown section of Honolulu. Lillian was already out looking over the shops.
“I told you I’d come out here,” Gloria said, smiling. “It took a bit of doing but —”
“I would have sent for you when the time was right,” he said, knowing he was lying, that he’d have done nothing.
Gloria laughed. “Well, look at it this way: it’s one problem you don’t have to deal with.”
Troost was sitting in a chair and Gloria was on the bed opposite him. “I came as soon as I got your message,” he said. She wore a white dress and looked older than he remembered. “Aren’t you going to ask how I got here?”
“No doubt you were flown.”
She smiled. “But it was a perfectly awful experience; then when I finally did reach here, I was told you would not be available for several days.”
He nodded. “I was —”
“At sea?”
“Yes… You should be reading about it in the newspaper in a few days.”
“Have you heard anything more about Warren?” she asked.
Troost shook his head. “The situation in the Philippines is confused and very grave.”
Gloria sighed. “Well,” she said, “the most important thing now is to get us a decent place to live in. This place is really terrible and —”
Troost stood up. “You and Lillian are going to have to find the apartment —”
“I want a small house,” Gloria said. “I have never liv
ed in an apartment and I don’t intend to start now. I know, if you wanted to, you could get us a house.” She left the bed and approached him. “It would be for you as much as for us. You would have a place to return to after your missions at sea.” She put her arms around him. “Andy, it would be so easy for you to do it.”
He took hold of her arms and lowered them. “You and Lillian will have to find it,” he said quietly.
Gloria walked to the window and turned to face him. “Is there another woman?” she asked quietly.
Troost didn’t answer. In his 25 years of marriage, he’d had three love affairs. The last had ended some five years before.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked, when he failed to respond.
“I can’t answer that now,” he said, moving away from her. “I just returned. I have to —” He thought about Kate. By now she would have received official notification of Peter’s death. “I have things that I must take care of. I’ll try to come by later this evening. I want to see Lillian.”
“That would be nice, considering you’re her father.”
Without comment, Troost picked up his hat.
“I must say,” Gloria added bitterly, “there’s nothing like a war combined with some adulterous sex to put a bounce in an old man’s steps.”
Troost flushed.
“Don’t be angry, Andy. It was really a compliment. The war seems to have rejuvenated you. Perhaps it will do the same for me.”
“If I can’t come by,” Troost said, going to the door and opening it, “I’ll phone.”
“Do that,” Gloria answered.
Troost nodded, stepped into the hallway, and closing the door behind him, felt relaxed to be out of the room.
Later in his office, after Troost finished writing his report of the action against Wotje, in which he took full responsibility for ordering the close inshore bombardment, he sat back in his chair and had time to reflect on his meeting with Gloria. The truth of the matter was that he wanted out of the marriage. But there were several factors that mitigated against a divorce. The first was that Gloria wouldn’t consent to it. Second, there was his career: her family had enough influence in very high places to affect it. And third, despite the way they related to each other, there were those many ties that two people build between them over years of marriage. He uttered a deep sigh and whispered to himself, “I love you, Kate…”
It was just 1800 when the phone rang. It was Commander Wallace phoning from Service Force CinPac Fleet to sav, “I thought you’d like to know that your son’s ship, the AKO-96, will be arriving the day after tomorrow. Her ETA is approximately 1500 hours. I’ll let you know as soon as she’s assigned docking space.”
“Thank you,” Troost said.
“Seems as if your son is something of a hero,” Wallace said. “I don’t know all of the details. But he has skippered the ship for months.”
“Thank you again,” Troost said.
“My pleasure, Admiral,” Wallace answered and hung up.
Troost put the phone down and for several moments did nothing. Warren was never far from his thoughts.
The phone rang again.
He picked it up and said, “Admiral Troost here.”
“I’d like to see you,” Kate told him.
“6:30, give or take a few minutes,” he said; then he asked, “Do you want to meet me —”
“There’s no need for that now,” she responded quietly.
Then he said, “Gloria and Lillian arrived while I was at sea.”
“Oh! Perhaps it would be inconvenient —”
“No, I want to see you… I have good news I want to share with you.”
“About Warren?”
“His ship will be in Pearl the day after tomorrow,” Troost said. “But there’s more. I’ll tell you when I see you.”
“I look forward to it,” she answered.
Troost listened for the click on the other end before he put the phone down.
CHAPTER 29
Glen sat at a bar in a dimly lit cocktail lounge nursing a beer and listening to the jukebox play “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good.”
Earlier he had gone to see the Arizona and, standing on the pier, he wept for his brother Hank and promised to avenge his death. That there were the bodies of over a thousand men still aboard her was almost too much for him to believe.
Glen had arrived in Pearl the previous morning aboard the destroyer Harium. He was assigned to her immediately after completing his time at the Officer Training School at the University of California in San Diego. He was the ship’s radar officer.
When the record stopped playing, Glen turned to the jukebox and saw a long-legged woman enter the room. She wore a floral-print skirt and a white blouse, open at the neck, and a white headband held her shoulder-length blonde hair in place.
Almost at the bar, she paused. There were three empty stools. One was next to Glen; the other two were at the other end of the bar.
She started toward one of the other stools then suddenly changed her direction and headed for the vacant stool next to Glen. He looked at her fingers: no engagement ring and no wedding ring.
“I’ll have a very dry martini,” the woman told the barkeep.
The barkeep, a young man with a pockmarked face and big yellow teeth, smiled at her. “Name’s Jimmy,” he said.
She didn’t answer.
“How about another brew, Jimmy?” Glen asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jimmy said. “Another brew… Hold your horses, Admiral.”
She looked at Glen.
“Put a uniform on some guys,” Jimmy said, “and right away they start ordering everybody around.”
Glen flushed.
“Listen,” Jimmy said, “I finish up here in 20 minutes and I know a great Chinese restaurant that —”
“Why don’t you just make the martini, Jimmy, instead of trying to make time with my friend,” Glen said.
The woman’s eyes opened wide.
“Your friend?” Jimmy challenged.
Glen nodded vigorously. “You saw her come to this stool as soon as she saw me. Now give her the martini and get me my brew.”
The barkeep looked questioningly at the woman.
She smiled and, putting her hand on Glen’s, she said, “I just love the way he takes charge of things, don’t you?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jimmy answered sourly. “Great, really great.” He poured the martini into a glass and drew another beer. “That’ll be a deuce,” he said, putting the glass mug on the bar.
Glen put two silver dollars down and a 25-cent piece for the tip.
Jimmy scooped up the coins and walked away.
“Glen Lascomb,” Glen said, lifting his beer.
“Lillian Troost,” the woman answered, touching her glass to his.
They smiled at each other; then they began to laugh.
Kate was naked in Troost’s arms. Light from a lamp on a night table touched the two of them but left the rest of the bedroom in semidarkness.
He ran his hand over her hair.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, touching the side of his face with the tips of her fingers.
“Your breasts,” he answered, moving his hand over one and then the other. “They’re lovely.”
“I love you, Andrew,” she whispered.
He kissed her on the lips and opened his mouth.
“If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t be here with you,” she said, after they separated. “Not before and not now.”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” Troost said.
“The navy didn’t come between Peter and me,” she continued. “It’s just that somewhere along the way, I realized that I needed something more than just being a navy wife.”
Troost lay back and Kate nestled in the crook of his arm. For a while neither one of them spoke; then she said, “Five years ago, just before the twins went off to college, Peter was stationed in Seattle. There was this dinner and dance at th
e OC. Peter became interested in the sister of one of the officers. I was both jealous and concerned about his obviousness and decided to go home alone.”
“Whatever it is,” Troost said, “if it’s causing you pain, you don’t have to tell —”
“I want to tell you,” she said forcefully.
He brushed her hair away from her face.
“One of the other officers followed me out to the parking lot,” Kate said. “I knew him to say hello to. He was a captain. Peter had just made commander. He asked me if I would like to have something to eat. Because of Peter’s actions I hadn’t touched my dinner and, at that particular moment, even a hamburger and coffee would have been wonderful. He suggested we go in his car and I leave mine for Peter…” She took a deep breath before she continued. “He took me to a diner. I ate and so did he. We spoke about the navy; he even asked me about my twins. By the time we left the diner, it was 1:30 in the morning. When he started to drive, he suggested we go to a motel. At first, I thought he was joking. But he wasn’t. He said he wanted to fuck me from the moment he saw me and then —” Kate shuddered and began to cry. “He pulled the car off to the side of the road, held me down, and raped me. I couldn’t breathe… I felt as if I was suffocating… I couldn’t even scream. I wanted to fight back, but I was afraid of what he would do if I did. I was too terrified to do anything…”
Troost caressed her bare shoulders. “I love you,” he whispered, hoping that his words would somehow assuage her pain and at the same time knowing that nothing he could say or do would.
“When I told Peter about it,” Kate explained, “he said that the best thing I could do would be to forget about it.”
“Forget about it?” Troost responded.
“He said that if I brought the man up on charges, the burden of proof would be on me — that I would have a difficult time explaining to any of the officers in a court-martial why I agreed to go with him. Then there was the matter of his career to consider. It was dropped and never mentioned between us again.”
Troost held her tightly to him. He couldn’t begin to imagine someone violating her body. He kissed her forehead and the lids of her eyes. That someone took by force what she so willingly, so beautifully, gave to him, made him want to absorb her pain and free her forever from it.