Canidy shook his head in disbelief as he bent over.

Vito whispered, "Andrea."

As Canidy quickly carried his coffee toward the door, passing the man in the suit, he graciously gestured for him to help himself to what items remained on the tray.

Vito led Canidy down a back stairwell to a room with a locked metal door. He knocked on it, said something that also sounded like an order but, surprising Canidy, did not attempt to automatically enter. After a moment, he understood why.

The sound of locks turning could be heard, and then the door opened. Andrea Buda stood in the opening, and hurriedly motioned for Canidy to enter.

As Vito wordlessly went back to the stairwell, Andrea closed the metal door behind them, then threw the locks.

"Hello," she said, smiled, and motioned for him to follow.

Andrea led Canidy past a row of olive drab cots, then around a wall formed by stacked boxes of condoms. He then saw John Craig struggling to stand from behind a small metal desk-the wireless was set up on it-then grab a pair of wooden crutches and lean on them. His right foot was neatly bandaged.

"Damn I'm glad to see you," Canidy said. "Now I'm going to kick your ass from here to Messina and back for making me think you got grabbed like Tubes."

John Craig made a face.

"Sorry, Dick. I did not do that on purpose."

Canidy gestured at the foot and crutches.

"You getting better, Gimpy? You're mobile."

"A little."

Canidy noticed that John Craig not only appeared freshly bathed, but his clothes were clean.

And getting taken care of, are you?

Better not let Tubes find out Andrea does this for all the American radio operators. . . .

"So just where the hell did you disappear to?" Canidy said.

"After you left, Andrea refused to stay in that wrecked house, especially with Mariano's body. She went and got one of her brothers, who I eventually figured out was Antonio. When Antonio saw Mariano, he went and brought back his brother and a pickup truck that reeked of fish. After a lot of emotional drama, and them swearing he would get a decent burial, they put Mariano, wrapped in more sheets, in the back of the truck. An hour later, they were back, and then we-well, they-loaded everything in the truck and brought us here."

I was back there in two hours. Must have just missed them.

"What is this?" Canidy said. "It looks like a makeshift infirmary."

John Craig nodded.

"Something like that. It's Andrea's office. I set up the station in here, then since I couldn't find you and it was dark and we had the truck, I got them to drive out to where you said you'd stashed the gear. It took a little time, but I eventually found one bundle, in a rock outcropping just as you'd described."

John Craig gestured to a corner of the room. Canidy saw one of the suitcases and a duffel and a wooden crate that held a hundred pounds of C-2 plastic explosive.

"So, we have something to work with," he said, as he reached back to the desk and picked up his transcription pad. "Which is good because these came in this morning."

As John Craig handed Canidy the messages, he said, "Apparently the delay in Corsica didn't happen. Neptune is en route."

Canidy read that message, thought for a moment, then flipped to the next.

After a moment, he said, "So now I'm ordered to get this Kappler to Algiers yesterday, and get him there alive."

John Craig nodded.

"Well," Canidy went on, "the timing for that should be about perfect. It'll take Neptune two, three days to get here, in which time good ol' Jupiter should be able to make contact with Kappler."

Canidy flipped to the next page, found it blank, then handed back the message pad.

"Any word from Mercury Station?" Canidy said.

"Not one. And I've had the Radio Direction Finder ready to go."

Standing near John Craig, Andrea leaned against the desk and pointed to the chair.

"Stay off foot," she said.

John Craig exchanged glances with Canidy and shrugged sheepishly. "She's been taking really good care of me."

"I can tell."

Canidy then walked over to their pile of gear that John Craig had brought, dug through it for a moment, then said, "Aha!"

He pulled out a bottle of the Haig & Haig Pinch Scotch Whisky and triumphantly held it above his head.

"I need to go talk to Palasota," he then said. "Try not to disappear again."

[TWO].

Canidy had found Jimmy Skinny alone in his office. He was sitting behind his desk when Canidy had knocked on the door and immediately entered.

Jimmy Skinny did not seem surprised that it wasn't Vito.

Maybe everyone does it.

"Sorry about the interruption earlier," Palasota said. "That Muller was getting in a pissing contest with Fiorini, the new captain of that submarine. The guy's a really wet-behind-the-ears lieutenant."

"Not a problem. I solved one of my problems in the meantime."

Canidy brought up the bottle of scotch, and Palasota's eyes grew.

"Where did you get that? Even with my connections, I can't beg, borrow, or steal good shit like that anywhere."

Canidy put it on the desk.

"It's yours-no begging, borrowing, or stealing. Friend to friend."

Palasota raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, what do you want? I'm already working on the other things we discussed."

Canidy pointed to the Thompson and Johnson machine guns.

"For starters, that's my Johnny gun."

Palasota glanced at it, then nodded at Canidy.

"I wondered where that came from."

Canidy went on: "I need to grab the SS guy, Kappler. And then I'm going to need a boat-something-to shuttle us out to our ride back to Algiers. All sometime in the next three days."

"You mean Muller?"

Why are these guinea bastards always correcting me, telling me what I think I think?

"No, goddammit!" Canidy blurted. "I mean Muller's boss in Messina. SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Oskar Kappler."

Palasota looked at Canidy.

"SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Oskar Kappler?" he parroted.

"Yeah. I need to get to Messina yesterday."

"You're shitting me. Right?"

"What are you talking about? How can I be any clearer?"

Skinny Jimmy Palasota then laughed out loud.

Canidy was about to blow his cork when he heard Palasota then say: "SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Oskar Kappler just walked out of the hotel."

"So you are the Messina Abwehr agent?" Dick Canidy said twenty minutes later to the man in the suit as they both stood in Palasota's office in practically the same spots as they had about an hour earlier.

Ernst Beck nodded and grinned.

"And you're Jupiter," Beck replied.

Canidy nodded and grinned.

"This is just fucking surreal," Canidy said.

"Now what?" SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Oskar Kappler then said, somewhat anxiously.

"Jupiter here gets you the hell out of Sicily," Ernst Beck answered.

"Whoa!" Canidy blurted. "Unless someone is planning on a long swim, we're going nowhere until the sub gets here. Which will be probably in three days. Meantime-"

"I saw the message," Beck interrupted, "and with all due respect, it is imperative that Oskar disappear now."

"As far as I'm concerned," Canidy shot back, "he can spend the next seventy-two hours polishing bedsheets with that hot hooker of his."

Canidy smiled knowingly at Kappler, who he immediately saw found no humor whatever in that.

What the hell?

"I admit to embarrassment and worse," Kappler then said. "I was a fool."

"I am not passing judgment," Canidy said. "Besides, we Americans have a quaint expression that covers that."

"Yes?"

"'A stiff prick hath no conscience.'"

Palasota chuckled. "I should put that on a sign and make it the motto of this place."

Canidy then announced: "As I was saying, now that I have completed this part of the mission, I am not leaving until I have done the same with the rest of my original mission."

"Which is?" Beck challenged.

Canidy looked from Beck to Kappler and declared, "You know about the Tabun. You were in charge of it."

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Where is it?"

"There is no nerve gas," Kappler said. "It was lost in a cargo ship that was sunk."

Now is not the time to share just who exactly blew up that ship.

And the one in the port . . .

"Not the Tabun that was with the howitzer rounds," Canidy said. "The replacement Tabun."