SOMEDAY SOON (54 page)

‘Oh, that’s very nice, Lyle.’

‘You don’t sound very enthused, my darling.’
Lyle’s cheerful tone became more subdued. ‘Faith... is everything
all right? You sound..... different.’

She drew a deep breath and tried to sound
more natural. ‘Yes, yes, everything is fine.’

Lyle laughed. ‘Good. That’s more like it. For
a minute I thought you might have met someone on the ship. I
understand there were over ten thousand men aboard.’

‘Lyle...’

‘Yes?’

‘Gus Welenski was aboard the
Chesapeake Bay
.’

There was a slight pause before Lyle
answered. ‘Oh. How was he?’

‘He looked very well. But he said you had him
transferred from HQ to New Guinea. He said it was because of the
travel warrants he gave me when I went to Melbourne.’

‘
That’s not true, Faith.’ Lyle said
quickly. ‘There were a number of things. Oh, my God, he didn’t
upset you, did he?

When Faith didn’t answer right away, Lyle
said. ‘Welenski never liked me you know. You know how it is in the
service, my darling. It’s mandatory for enlisted men to despise
officers. With Welenski, hate was always more like an obsession.
Look, I’ll tell you the whole story when I see you.’

‘Faith drew a deep breath. ‘Gus said that on
the day he left HQ, an Australian Immigration official came to see
you about Dan Rivers.’

‘
I seem to remember that.’ There was
another short pause, then Lyle said, ‘Yes, if I recall correctly
the Air Corps referred him to me. Under the circumstances that was
fairly standard procedure. Look, as I said we can talk all about
this when you get to New York. Now, I’ve already talked to Plimpton
earlier today. You’re booked on a flight arriving New York at
six-thirty tomorrow night. That gives me time to clear my desk at
the Pentagon, then drive up from Washington to meet you. If you
need me for anything I’ll be in my office until midday.’

Faith wanted to pursue the matter of Lyle’s
meeting with the immigration official. But he had already lied
about transferring Gus out of HQ, so she knew it was pointless
trying to talk about it on the telephone. Instead she said
resignedly: ‘All right, Lyle, I’ll see you tomorrow then.’

Faith hung up the phone and sat down on the
bed. Her mind was racing. Just days away from getting married, she
knew she shouldn’t have any qualms at all about what she was doing.
She had hoped that after speaking to Lyle, the nagging doubts which
had plagued her mind since Hawaii would be dispelled, but instead
they’d become serious problems which her heart demanded she
address.

She felt like running away from it all—going
home. She checked her watch, just after four o’clock. She moved to
pick up the phone to contact the Australian representative at the
British Consulate but decided against it. Even if a passage home
could somehow be arranged, she knew running away wouldn’t solve
anything. She got up and walked to the window and stared down again
at the busy streets. After a few minutes she knew exactly what she
must do if she were ever to have peace of mind. She went back to
the phone and picked it up.

‘It’s Miss Brodie, room ten-fifteen,’ Faith
said when the hotel operator answered, ‘would you put me through to
the hotel travel service.’

CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE

The arrangements Faith made with the hotel
travel service required her to rise early. By seven o’clock she had
eaten breakfast, packed, and was ready and waiting when the bellboy
tapped on her door. Fifteen minutes later she had checked out of
the St. Francis and left for the railway station in the Ferry
Building on the Embarcadero, in a hotel limousine.

The Union Pacific Express to Los Angeles
didn’t leave until eight o’clock but Faith was anxious to leave the
hotel well before Mr Plimpton came on duty at 8.30 a.m., because
she preferred not to tell him personally of her new travel
arrangements. Instead, she tipped her driver generously at the
station and gave him an envelope to hand to Plimpton when he came
on duty, by which time she would be well on her way to Los Angeles.
The envelope contained a brief note asking Plimpton to phone Lyle
in Washington and tell him of her decision to travel east by
train.

*

Lyle checked his wrist watch. It was 11.35
a.m. eastern time and he was just preparing to leave his office
when the telephone rang. For a moment he was in two minds about
answering it. The last thing he needed was something else to attend
to before leaving for New York. But he picked up the receiver
anyway.

‘Hunter.’

‘There’s a Mr Plimpton on the line from San
Francisco, Sir. He says it’s very urgent.’

‘All right, put him through.’

‘Colonel Hunter?’

‘Yes George. Is everything okay?

‘Well I’m not sure. It seems Miss Brodie has
decided not to fly to New York.’

‘What?’

‘One of our limo drivers handed me a note
from her a short time ago. She asked me to tell you that she is
travelling to New York by train. She says she will call your office
along the way and leave word when she’ll be arriving.’

For a moment Lyle was too stunned to say
anything. ‘But... but that’s ridiculous,‘ he gasped. ‘She won’t be
here for two or three days. All the arrangements I’ve made at this
end will be ruined. The wedding itself is only a week away. Surely
there must be some mistake.’

‘But I have her note in my hand...’

‘Oh, God.’ Hunter breathed in sharply,
sucking in air through his teeth. ‘She didn’t mention anything
about this to me yesterday. Did she say anything to you?’

‘I haven’t spoken to her. As you know she
arrived fairly late yesterday. I thought I’d introduce myself this
morning.’

‘What else does the note say?’

‘Well nothing, I’m afraid. But the limo
driver said he took her to the station in the Ferry Building. He
said she told him she was catching the eight o’clock Union Pacific
Express to Los Angeles.’

‘Los Angeles. That means she’ll have to
transfer to the Santa Fe Railroad there to travel east.’

‘That’s odd,’ Plimpton said. You would have
thought she would have taken Union Pacific’s northern route—it’s
quicker.’

Lyle’s face hardened as an unwanted thought
flashed through his mind. The Santa Fe line ran across the
south-west from Southern California, through Arizona and New Mexico
before swinging north-east through Kansas. ‘George,’ he snapped, ‘I
have to know exactly what’s happening. Miss Brodie is a total
stranger in this country. It’s unlikely she would have left the
hotel to make travel arrangements. Could you check any telephones
calls she made and also check the hotel travel service.’

‘Hold on. I’ll just check the travel service
on another line.’

Hunter strummed his fingers on his desk while
he waited for Plimpton get back to him. He didn’t have to wait
long.

‘Yes, your right. Our in-house travel
service made her arrangements. Union Pacific to Los Angeles, then
transferring to the
Chief
,
Santa Fe’s deluxe extra-fare service to Chicago. But they only
ticketed her as far as Gallup, New Mexico. She told them she’d make
her own arrangements onward from there.’

‘
I see.’ Lyle’s face paled as
Plimpton’s words confirmed his fears. After a moment he said, ‘Oh,
just one more thing, George. Would you check and see if she made
any long distance calls to New Mexico.’

‘Hold on.’ When Plimpton came back on the
line he said, ‘No, Colonel. She made no long distance calls at
all.’

Lyle sighed despairingly. ‘All right George,
thanks anyway. If there’s any new developments please phone me
right away. If I’m not here leave a message with my aide,
Lieutenant Doyle.’

Lyle angrily slammed the phone down in it’s
cradle and began pacing the floor. After a few minutes he opened
his office and called in his aide.

‘Lieutenant, I want you to locate the
whereabouts of a USAAF captain discharged about eight months ago
after service in the south-west Pacific. His name is Dan Rivers and
he’s probably living in or around Gallup, New Mexico. He’s a Navajo
Indian and was commissioned under a special Army training scheme,
so he shouldn’t be hard to track down. When you’ve got the
information, call me at home. And while your at it see if you can
get me a ride to the Gallup area with the Air Force.’

Later, Hunter was standing at the window of
his apartment looking out over the Potomac River when his telephone
rang. He crossed the room and grabbed it before the second ring.
Lieutenant Doyle was on the line.

‘Colonel, I tracked down this guy Rivers. It
wasn’t hard. It seems he’s something of a celebrity in New Mexico.
He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Apparently the
recommendation came from the Cactus Air Force commander on
Guadalcanal and endorsed by General MacArthur himself. Rivers runs
a construction outfit now. It’s called Mesa Construction. It’s
employs only Navajo Indians and it’s got a Defense Department
contract at Los Alamos.’

‘You mean at the Government’s scientific
experimental facility?’

‘There’s nothing else at Los Alamos,
sir.’

‘What about transport?’

‘There’s air traffic going there regularly,
sir. Most of it lands at Santa Fe, thirty five miles to the
south-east. There’s a military delegation leaving early tomorrow
for a one day familiarization visit. It leaves at 0800 hours
tomorrow morning, returning at 2000 hours, Santa Fe time.’

‘Is one of our liaison officers going?’

‘Yes, sir. Captain Bartel.?’

‘Tell him, I’ll be taking his place on this
one.’

‘Okay, sir, but you’ll need top security
clearance for Los Alamos, sir.’

‘I have top level , Lieutenant’

‘The blanket top level is not good for Los
Alamos, sir. All personnel need a special clearance for each and
every visit.’

‘Then arrange for it, Lieutenant.’

‘It will take a little time, sir. You know
the Army, sir—channels and procedures.’

‘Take as much time as you like Lieutenant.
Just make sure I have it by flight time tomorrow.’

*

The
Chief,
the Santa
Fe Railroad’s high speed eastbound service left Los Angeles a
couple of hours after Faith arrived in the city from San Francisco.
She had never seen such opulence aboard a train before. As
it
raced across Southern
California’s Mohave Desert, she ate a four course dinner in the
comfort of the air-conditioned dining car. Then as the
Chief
thundered on through the night
over the Colorado River into the high country of north-western
Arizona, she slept soundly in a private roomette, complete with
wash stand and water closet.

She awoke when the train shuddered to a halt in
Flagstaff before dawn the next morning. When she took breakfast,
the train was crossing the Colorado Plateau in the north-eastern
Arizona and she was able to take in the raw beauty of the land
through one of the huge dining car windows. It was a hauntingly
beautiful landscape. High wide plains were interspersed with deep
gorges, flat topped tablelands, high cliffs and towering vertical
volcanic rocks. Faith knew this was the Indian country that Dan had
spoken of so fondly.

But from time to time the beauty of the land was
marred by the ugly face of poverty and depravation. Now and then
she saw clusters of litter-strewn, run-down hogans—round,
traditional tribal dwellings made of raw wood and packed earth. At
the primitive communities, Faith saw groups of women performing
menial tasks surrounded by naked children playing in the dirt.
Further afield she saw older children and old men tending flocks of
mangy-looking sheep and goats. Some of the shepherds seemed to be
just wandering across the mesa, others kept their lonely vigil
sitting on scattered rocks, old wrecked wagons or burnt out car
bodies. Occasionally, the wrinkled, weathered faces of very old
indigenous people dressed in soiled ragged clothing, stared
dolefully up at the gleaming aluminum carriages of the
Chief
as it roared by, reminding its
affluent white passengers of the legacy left by their forebears to
the once proud Navajo, Hobi, Pueblo and Apache Indian
nations.

The
Chief
pulled
into Gallup, New Mexico, twenty-five miles east of the Arizona
border exactly on schedule at 11.00 a.m. Faith stepped down from
the train and while she was waiting for a steward to bring her
luggage from the roomette, she read a sign on the platform. It said
the town was named after David Gallop who was district paymaster
for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad when the line went
through in the early 1880’s and that the population of Gallup was
now nearing eight thousand people. When her bags arrived, an old
Indian porter with long white hair flowing down under his red cap
hurried over and picked them up.

‘Where to, lady?’

‘I may only be in Gallup a short time before
travelling on,’ Faith said. ‘Will I be able to leave my luggage
here at the station?’

‘There are lockers inside the station, lady.’

Faith followed the old man into the main station
hall and looked around her. She thought the building seemed rather
grandiose for a town the size of Gallup. The porter saw her looking
around. When they reached the row of storage lockers he said:
‘Grand ain’t it lady. The railroad made Gallup its south-western
headquarters in 1881. I’ve been working here since ’91.’ He laid
Faith’s cases down. ‘It’s ten cents a day for the locker.’

Faith opened her purse, took out a coin and handed
it to him. The porter put the dime in the slot in the locker, slid
her luggage in, then slammed the door shut and handed her the
key.