Part 5 (1/2)
”Master Gunner?” Captain Allen asked as he offered his hand. ”The Marine equivalent of our master sergeant?”
”Mr. Zimmerman is what the Army would call a chief warrant officer,” McCoy corrected him.
”Neither of you is wearing any insignia-” Major Masters began.
”I know,” McCoy interrupted, smiling.
Masters glowered at him.
”If you work for Colonel Lemuleson, you're just the man I want to see,” McCoy went on.
”Is that so?”
”I need two things, Major,” McCoy said. ”I need to get a message to Colonel Lemuleson, and-”
”Before we go any further, Major, Major,” Masters interrupted, ”I'd like to see some identification and your orders. Who the h.e.l.l are you?”
”If you work for Colonel Lemuleson, and he didn't tell you, then I guess he decided you don't have the need to know,” McCoy said.
He turned to Allen.
”Have you got a landline I can use to call 25th Division, Captain?” McCoy asked.
”It was working fifteen minutes ago, sir,” Allen said. He pointed toward his command post.
”I demand to see your identification, Major!” Masters said loudly.
His face was red. McCoy seemed amused rather than cowed.
”Colonel Lemuleson's holding all that for us, sorry. Why don't we see if we can get him on the horn?”
He started to walk toward the CP. Masters, red-faced, stood with his hands on his hips, watching McCoy walk away.
Allen started to follow him, saw Foster Four with a May I go too? May I go too? look on his face, and nodded permission. look on his face, and nodded permission.
Allen caught up with McCoy.
”Somehow, sir, I get the feeling Major Masters is annoyed with you,” he said.
McCoy chuckled.
”I . . . uh . . . didn't know what to think when I saw your jeep,” Captain Allen said. ”The first one, I mean. Or this thing . . .”
He stopped when he became aware that Major Masters was trotting after them.
”We've been doing a reconnaissance,” McCoy said. ”No big deal, but it's none of that guy's business.”
”I thought the Marines were operating in Seoul, north of it,” Allen said.
”They are,” McCoy said.
”Where'd you get the Russian jeep?”
Major Masters was now walking beside them. He announced: ”We'll see what Colonel Lemuleson has to say about all this.”
McCoy acted as if he hadn't heard him. He turned to Allen. ”We bagged some Inmun Gun. They were driving this thing. I figured, what the h.e.l.l, why not take it with us?”
Major Masters picked up on that.
”Can I take that to mean you have engaged the enemy?”
”It wasn't much of an 'engagement.' They were coming up the road, Mr. Zimmerman shot the tires out on the first vehicle, and we bagged them.”
”You have prisoners?” Masters demanded.
”Uh-huh,” McCoy said. ”That's the second thing I need from you, Major. Somebody to take four of the five off our hands. One of them is a lieutenant colonel. He's a keeper.”
”By which you mean?”
”That I'm going to take him to Seoul with me.”
”I'll want to interrogate him, of course.”
”You speak Korean?” McCoy asked.
”No, of course I don't speak Korean. There's Korean-speaking interrogators at Division. We'll take him-all of the prisoners-there.”
They were down at the doorway to the CP.
McCoy stopped and looked at Major Masters.
”Sorry, the colonel goes with me,” he said. ”And if I can get Colonel Lemuleson on the phone, I'm not going anywhere near your headquarters.”
”Let's clear the air here, Major,” Major Masters said. ”I'm the a.s.sistant G-2-”
”So you said,” McCoy interrupted.
Major Masters glowered at him, then picked up: ”-of the 25th Division. Interrogation of prisoners is my responsibility. You do understand that?”
”None of these people will tell any of your interrogators anything,” McCoy said. ”I think maybe, once he sees we're back in Seoul, the colonel may be more cooperative.”
”We won't know what any of the prisoners will say, will we, Major, until we sit them down before an interrogator who speaks Korean?”
”Mr. Zimmerman and I both speak Korean, Major, and we've already talked to these people. And to clear the air, these are our prisoners, not yours.”
”That brings us back to Question One, doesn't it?” Major Masters asked icily. ”Just who the h.e.l.l are you, Major? And what are you doing in the 25th Division's area?”
McCoy looked at him for a moment, then ducked through the narrow sandbagged opening into the CP without replying.
A slight, very young corporal was sitting on a folding metal chair by the radio and an EE-8 field telephone.