He had a quick mental image of her naked, and as quickly forced it from his mind... consciously replacing it with an image of Johnny Moore wincing with pain as he pulled his torn-up leg from the Studebaker.

What happened to Johnny is as much Ellen's fault as it was the fault of the Japanese. This is a world-class bitch.

"Mrs. Feller to see General Pickering," Ellen said.

"Just a moment, please," George said, "I'll see if the General is free."

"He expects me, Lieutenant," Ellen said, not at all pleasantly.

"One moment, please," Hart said, and closed the door in her face.

He turned to look at Pickering, smiling. Pickering nodded, held up his hand for ten seconds or so, and then dropped it. Hart turned back to the door and opened it again.

"Would you come in, please?" Hart said, and turned to Pickering. "General, Mrs. Feller."

"Hello, Ellen, how are you?" Pickering said, and added, "That will be all, Hart, thank you."

"Aye, aye, Sir," Hart said, and marched across the living room to the kitchen, closing the door after him.

"He's new," Ellen said. She crossed the room to him and shook his hand.

That was better than being kissed.

"Yes. Moore has been promoted, and Hart is my new aide."

"I heard only yesterday that you had come back," Ellen said. "I was in Melbourne."

"Yes, I know," Pickering said. "With Colonel Jasper, of Willoughby's staff."

"Oh, you've spoken to him?"

"Not yet," Pickering said.

I'll be damned if there isn't something really erotic about her in the uniform.

"Well, I'm sure you know that the OSS is setting up here. Jasper met with them in Melbourne. I thought I should know what's going on."

"If you're fond of Colonel Jasper, Ellen, you might tell him that General MacArthur is opposed to the OSS setting up here."

"What is that supposed to mean, Fleming?" Ellen asked. "If I'm fond of him?"

"Well, you've been sleeping with him. That generally presumes a certain fondness."

Ellen could not quite conceal her surprise at that.

"Fleming, you weren't here," she said after a moment. "So far as I knew, you were never coming back. Charley Jasper doesn't mean anything to me."

She didn't deny it; I rather thought she would. I wish she had. And she assumes I'm jealous. I suppose maybe I am. That's a perfectly natural male reaction.

"Ellen, your sleeping around is posing problems we have to deal with."

"I'm not going to beg for your forgiveness, Fleming, if that's what you're talking about. If you were here, what happened with Jasper never would have happened."

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't gone to Guadalcanal? You know damned well what would have happened. The only reason it only happened once was that I did go to Guadalcanal.

"Problems with MAGIC," Pickering said. "As of this moment, the only MAGIC material to which you will have access will be that provided to you by Pluto or Moore for the purpose of briefing General MacArthur."

"You didn't give me my MAGIC clearance, Fleming, and I don't think you have the authority to take it away. I can't believe you're letting your personal feelings cloud your professional judgment."

"I have the authority, Ellen."

"Well," she said, for the first time losing control, "we'll see what General Willoughby has to say about that."

And then control came back. She smiled at him and wet her lips with her tongue.

"Fleming, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back outside. While I'm gone, you will send your aide someplace; and when I come back, we'll start this all over again. We both have said things we really don't mean."

"Ellen..."

"I wept when you left for Guadalcanal," she said. "I had finally found a man I really admired, and we... we had only that one time together."

"That shouldn't have happened," he said.

"It did. Fleming, are you afraid I want more from you than you're in a position to give? I'm satisfied with the crumbs.... I know you would never leave your wife.... She would never find out about us, I swear on my life."

Was there an implied threat in there?

"That's enough, Ellen. Now shut up and listen to me."

She found his eyes. With an effort, he forced himself to meet hers.

"You have two options, Ellen. You will become the briefer for MacArthur and Willoughby. You will not have access to any MAGIC material except that which Pluto gives you; you are no longer authorized access to the dungeon in any way."

"Or?"

"You will be on the next plane to the States, under sedation. On your arrival in the United States, you will be taken to a federal mental hospital, and you will spend the war there."

"You have to be kidding!"

"General Willoughby will be made privy to the rather extensive report the Army's Counterintelligence Corps has compiled on you. He will understand why this was necessary."

"What CIC report?" she snapped.

Pickering went to his briefcase, unlocked it, and took from it a thick stack of paper. This was held together with metal clips and covered by a sheet of folder paper imprinted with diagonal stripes and the words TOP SECRET, top and bottom.

"This one," he said, handing it to her. "They are remarkably thorough, you'll see."

She snatched the report from his hand and glanced through it... but long enough to take in what it contained.

"You'd let this garbage out? After what we've meant to each other?"

"The only reason I'm not doing it is that it would ruin the careers of Colonel Jasper and the others. They don't deserve that."

"Your name is in this filthy file! Have you considered that?"

"You still don't understand, do you?" Pickering said. "We're not talking about you, or me, we're talking about the security of MAGIC. You have proved that you can't be trusted with that...."

"Don't be absurd. That's absolutely untrue."

"Oh? By a conscious act, you did nothing when they were going to send Moore to Guadalcanal. You knew he wasn't supposed to go. No one with access to MAGIC is supposed to be placed in any threat of capture by the enemy."