Nimitz rose and paced the small office. “Our ships are sunk, our carriers are too few, and I’m being told our subs aren’t sinking anything because the torpedoes aren’t working correctly. Is anything going right for us?”

“Magic is. At least we have some idea what the Japs are up to. Just a shame we can’t do anything about it right now. If the Japs ever find out about Magic, we’ll really be in a dilemma. We’ll be deaf and blind along with crippled.”

“Well,” Nimitz said, “that’s what we need to talk about. I just got word that Magic may be compromised.”

Spruance paled. “How?”

“The last of our codebreakers on Hawaii departed a few days before the landing on Molokai. They were on the cruiser St. Louis. We believe the St. Louis was torpedoed and sunk off the big island, Hawaii.”

“Survivors?”

“We don’t know. For once I find myself praying there aren’t any.”

Alexa ran outside in the night to help Jake with the packages that were stacked in the motorcycle’s sidecar. “What have you brought?” she asked with a laugh. “Christmas was a while ago.”

It was after midnight, and Jake had awakened her with his knocking on the door. She wore a thin cotton nightgown and had a short robe over it. Neither reached her knees, and she was barefoot.

Melissa Wilson had heard the motorcycle through her open window, and she too came out. If she was surprised to see Jake at two in the morning, she didn’t show it. All over Hawaii, people had become nocturnal, as they found it safer to travel slowly at night than to attempt movement during the day, when the Jap planes were out.

Alexa gaped as she handed several packages to Melissa. “What are you wearing?”

“One of my Jerry’s shirts and a smile,” Melissa said happily. “Don’t worry, Lexy I won’t scare Jake away.”

Jake pretended he didn’t hear the conversation and tried not to stare at Melissa as the three of them moved quickly into Alexa’s house. There they pulled the shades and lit some candles. Electricity had been out for a while, as had the telephone lines. There was an air of eager expectation as they opened the bundles. The two women immediately knew what they contained-food.

“Won’t this get you in trouble?” Alexa asked as she looked over the array of treasures. There was bread, powdered milk, cans of all kinds, and packages labeled as something called C rations.

“No,” he answered, and she saw anger flare in his eyes. “The dumb fuckers were throwing it away. Oops”-he flushed-”I’m sorry.”

The women laughed. “We’re both familiar with basic military terminology,” Missy answered. “I believe that word was little Jerry Junior’s first.”

Jake laughed, the anger gone. “The bread was decreed stale. It’s a little hard, but add water and it’ll soften up. You do have water, don’t you?”

“A well,” Alexa said.

“Good. The canned stuff is dented and therefore not worthy for our boys to eat, and the C rations might have been shipped improperly. It’s insane. We may be starving in a few weeks, but some fools still think we’re at peace and there’ll be an inspection in class A uniforms on Saturday morning. There’s a war on, and half the army still hasn’t figured it out yet.”

“What are C rations?” Alexa asked. She’d heard the term but had no idea what they were.

“They came out a couple of years ago,” Jake said. “Each package contains an unidentifiable meat, lemonade, hard candy, cigarettes, crackers or bread, and toilet paper.”

Alexa grinned impishly. “Then the assholes who threw them out should have kept them.”

“Absolutely.” Jake laughed again. He felt so totally at ease with Alexa and her friend. “I know you don’t smoke, but hang on to the cigarettes. They might be valuable soon. Hell, they already are.”

That sobered them. “The Japs are on their way, aren’t they?” Alexa asked.

Jake shook his head. “I didn’t tell you that. But think about something: The Japs haven’t hit the civilian water supply, only the military. That tells me they’re planning to invade and don’t want so much destroyed that they can’t sustain themselves after they take over. If all they wanted to do was destroy this place, they’d be flattening everything. No, they’re being very selective.”

“Do you remember Jamie Priest?” Melissa asked.,”He was on the Pennsylvania.”

“It’s sad, and it’s gonna get sadder,” Jake said. News of the sinking had just been officially released, and it had cast a further pall on the island. He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get back before somebody notices the trash has been stolen.”

Melissa got up as well. “I think the baby’s crying.” The top buttons of her shirt had come undone while she was handling the packages, and Jake tried not to gape at her ripe, full breasts as she whirled and departed.

“I’ll escort you to your chariot, Sir Knight,” Alexa said. She took his arm, and they walked outside. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing for us. Melissa’s worried sick about little Jerry not getting enough food. She had been nursing, but that’s literally drying up and he’s eating more and more solid food. I’ve lost a couple of pounds, but nothing I’ll miss.”

“I’m glad I can help,” Jake said. He thought that Alexa and Melissa had lost more than a couple of pounds each but didn’t comment. They were no doubt saving some of their food for Melissa’s baby.

Jake was conscious of the feel of her hand on his arm and the occasional brush of her body against him as they walked. This is not happening, he thought.

“Did you really steal trash?” she asked.

Jake chuckled. “It’s a skill I picked up as a child when we were really hungry. Amazing what people will throw out, and even more amazing what others will eat if they have to.”

Alexa shuddered. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Jake disengaged himself with reluctance and climbed on the motorcycle. “If it does, it does. Do what you have to to stay safe. Surviving is all that matters, not the price.”

“Will you come back again? I’d like to see you, and you don’t have to bring presents.”

“I’ll try,” he said as he kicked the motor into life. He would do more than try.

Alexa nodded. “I remember seeing a cowboy movie with John Wayne or somebody like him in it. The heroine told the departing hero to be careful as he went into battle, and we all laughed. It seemed such a silly statement at the time, but I don’t think so any longer.”

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Be careful, Jake.”

Colonel Joseph Lawton Collins glared at the two men across the table from him. General Short was unaffected by it, but Colonel Walter C. Phillips appeared upset. It struck Collins as mildly amusing that both men would be named Walter C. He hoped they didn’t have the same middle name. Or the same father.

As a lieutenant general, Short could afford to disregard Collins’s opinions, but news of Collins’s pending promotion to brigadier made people like Phillips uncomfortable. Phillips was widely considered to be only barely competent and would likely rise no further. Therefore, the last thing he wanted to do was anger someone who was going to pass him very quickly, and who someday might be his boss.

Worse for Phillips, he had hitched his star to Short’s, and the general’s star was fading rapidly. It was easy to feel sorry for both officers. They were honest men who were products of a career in a peacetime army, and were not faring well in the shock of combat. Short, for instance, had a lifelong reputation as a highly moral man and a hard worker. Now he would be remembered, if at all, for not being prepared on December 7.

Phillips’s presence at the meeting in Short’s office was somewhat of a surprise. He was rarely included in anything important, and it occurred to Collins that General Short wanted a witness.