“Major McClung has. He’s got one. That’s the clearance we work under here.”
“So where does that leave us, sir?”
“I don’t know. You were saying?”
“The major said you can have us—one of us, several of us, or all of us—for as long as you need us.”
“To keep these nameless devices running, as well as install them?”
Lieutenant Stratford nodded.
“The system here,” Stratford said, “and at that other place we’re not supposed to say out loud. I thought you might want to make up your mind about what you’re going to need before we install these things.”
“Well, that’s very nice of Major McClung,” Cronley said. “Let me think about it.”
And he did so out loud: “So, if I said just one of you would be enough to set up the system here, and at the other place, the rest of you could wait in the truck and would not know what actually happened to those things we’re not supposed to talk about?”
“That’s the idea. I could probably offer a helpful suggestion if I knew what was going on here and at the other place we’re not supposed to say out loud. But you can’t tell me, right?”
“No, I can’t,” Cronley said. “Or . . . Two things. There is actually another place with a system. And I’m making up my mind just how much I can tell you.”
“I understand.”
“Decision made. I’ll keep everybody. If it turns out I don’t need everybody, I can . . .” He stopped. “If it turns out I don’t need everybody, I’ll still have to keep everybody.”
“Because everybody would know all about these things we can’t say out loud?” Lieutenant Stratford asked, smiling.
Cronley nodded.
“Your call,” the lieutenant said.
“How is the Whisperer going to feel if I keep all of you?”
“I got the impression it’s really your call, that you get whatever you think you need, including all of us.”
“All of you, then. They call that redundancy. It’s important that these things work over the next ten days.”
“Okay, let’s get them up and running. You show us where you want them.”
“I really wish I could tell you more,” Cronley said as they walked to the door of what was going to be his quarters.
Before he actually reached the door, he realized that he was going to have to do exactly that.
[ FOUR ]
When Cronley pushed open the door and walked into the building, he saw desks, tables, chairs, and filing cabinets fresh from a Quartermaster Depot. Corrugated paper was still wrapped around the legs of the metal furniture.
When he opened a door on the right side of the room, he found a stairway going up. He took the steps two at a time, and the lieutenant and the sergeants followed him.
They found themselves in a large room. There was more furniture, including a bed and bedside table, also obviously fresh from a QM warehouse. There were three doors leading out of the room. One door led to a bathroom, and the others onto closets, one of which was a small room.
Lieutenant Stratford and his sergeants looked at him expectantly.
Well, I might as well get this over with.
“Let me have your attention,” Cronley began. “Before we get started, a couple of questions and then a little speech. You know that Major McClung, who knows what’s going on here, has volunteered your services for indefinite TDY. I can’t tell you for how long that will be, but figure on ninety days. Anyone have a problem with that? And before you ask, no, you can’t bring your Schatzis down here from Frankfurt.”
That earned some chuckles.