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“Okay, we’ll do it your way,” the chief of station said. “What’s next?”

“We have four teams for Greece sitting at Whitbey House about to go crazy,” Canidy said. “What the hell are we waiting for?”

“We’re waiting to make sure we don’t parachute them into the arms of the Germans,” Bruce said impatiently. “The same answer applies to the Yugoslav teams, to forestall your next question.”

“Actually, I was going to ask about Fulmar,” Canidy said innocently.

“He arrives from Casablanca early this afternoon,” the chief of station said. “Fine wants to keep him in London until we get the messages ready, and then I think he should be sent to Richodan. Do you agree, Canidy?”

“No,” Canidy said flatly.

“Eldon Baker feels there is too much of an emotional relationship between you and Fulmar, and Fulmar and Jim Whittaker. And Fulmar and Stanley. ”

“Eldon Baker is an asshole,” Canidy said.

“Jesus Christ, Dick!” Stanley Fine protested.

Colonel Stevens decided that Canidy knew full well that “asshole” was the sort of word certain to offend the chief of station. He wondered if Canidy had used it on purpose, decided he had, and then wondered why.

“Presumably,” Bruce said icily,“there is a professional, as opposed to personal, reason behind that little outburst?”

“If you send Fulmar to Richodan,” Canidy said, “you get Eldon Baker to talk him into what I think you have in mind. I won’t. I will not run von Shitfitz if Baker keeps putting his two cents in.”

“Sometimes, Canidy,” the chief of station flared, “the thought runs through my head that maybe you should be at Richodan.”

“Sometimes I wish I was there,” Canidy said, matter-of-factly. "I didn’t ask for the jobs you’ve given me, and the more I do them the less I like them. I’ll do them, but not if I’m to be second-guessed by Baker.”

“Both of you stop it,” Stevens said firmly.

They both looked at him in surprise.

“Or we don’t get any cookies and milk, right?” Canidy asked after a moment.

The chief of station looked between them, and then he laughed.

But David Bruce did not seem truly amused.

“Well, let’s get on to other things,” Bruce said, as if the exchange simply had not taken place,“if Dick has to be at Grosvenor Square by eleven-fifteen.”

Stevens wondered why the chief of station had backed away from the confrontation. And then he understood: A sequence of events would follow if the chief of station relieved Canidy, which would automatically mean sending him to Richodan:

Donovan would demand an explanation. He would get the chief of station’s version, and then Canidy’s, and then he would ask for Stevens’s.

Stevens would back Canidy, and the chief of station knew it. It would not be disloyalty on his part to do so, but rather loyalty to the OSS mission, which transcended the traditional loyalty to one’s immediate superior.

The truth was that Canidy had become what no one was supposed to be, damned near irreplaceable.

There would be resentment bordering on mutiny on the part of Whittaker and Dolan if Canidy were relieved and sent to Richodan.

There was no telling what damage to the morale of the agents-in-training there would be if Canidy was relieved. They had faith in the OSS and what they were being asked to do largely because of Canidy. He had been “operational, ” and they believed he asked them to do nothing he didn’t think was necessary and nothing he wouldn’t do himself. And they believed he was their advocate.

That was true, of course. And the other truth was that Canidy had just played his hole card, and it was an ace.

There was no question in Stevens’s mind or, apparently, in the chief of station’s, that it was going to be necessary to send Eric Fulmar into Germany. If Canidy was relieved, it was entirely possible that Fulmar’s reaction would be to refuse to go to Germany. They couldn’t order him in; he really had to be a volunteer. And he could not be replaced with another German-speaking agent.

Stevens wondered if Canidy had thought this all through. It was certainly entirely possible that he had. Or whether the outburst had been as spontaneous as it had appeared.

Whichever it was, Canidy had offered David Bruce just two options: The chief of station could laugh at the whole thing. Or else he could pay the price of demanding polite, unquestioning obedience to his authority. He had elected to laugh, and in doing so, earned himself Stevens’s respect.