"Sir, I'm looking for the 402nd Composite Wing."
"You've found it, Lieutenant," the Navy flyer with the DFC said. He offered his hand.
"I'm Commander Bitter."
"How do you do, Sir," Darmstadter said.
"You must be Darmstadter," the lieutenant commander said.
"Yes, Sir," Darmstadter said. He handed over a Certified True Copy of the teletype message from Eighth Air Force.
The door opened and a tall Air Corps officer, a major, the one Darmstadter had seen climb out of the B-25, entered the Quonset hut. For the first time, Darmstadter got a good look at his leather A-2 jacket. There was a Chinese flag and what was apparently some kind of a message in Chinese characters painted on the back.
"What the hell are you doing flying in that shit?" one of the other Navy flyers said. He was the oldest of the three, a ruddy-faced middle-aged man.
"Oh, ye of little faith!" the Air Corps major said, then turned to Darmstadter.
"You must be Darmstadter."
"Yes, Sir," Darmstadter said.
"I could tell because you looked confused," the major said.
"And like the kind of guy who would dump a C-45." He paused a moment.
"You're in good company, Lieutenant. Commander Bitter also dumped one, didn't you, Commander?"
The middle-aged Navy flyer laughed.
"Goddamn, I'd forgotten about that," he said.
"He did, didn't he?"
"Presumably," Commander Bitter said, his voice revealing that he was a little annoyed at the reference to a dumped C-45, "you're going to explain what this is all about?"
"I'm going to borrow Dolan for a couple of days," the major said, and then, as if he had just remembered his manners, offered his hand to Darmstadter.
"I'm Dick Canidy, Darmstadter. Welcome aboard."
"Sir," Darmstadter said, "I'm a little confused."
"So am I," Commander Bitter said.
"Where are you and Dolan going?"
"An island called Vis in the Adriatic Sea," Canidy said, then turned to Darmstadter.
"You checked out in the B-25, Darmstadter?"
"No, Sir," Darmstadter said.
"I've never even been in one."
"Fine," the major said.
"I was afraid you might have picked up some bootleg time."
Darmstadter was now wholly confused.