Jock said to Lett, “I reckon the ole general ain’t half bad for an Army man. And he was a doggie, too.” Lett didn’t reply so Jock added, scratching his head, “Guess I should stop calling him Dugout Doug, at least until my new posting.”

The door flung back open. Air Force Major Lansdale marched back in, but the men only nodded at him, still busy as they were retelling the story of the great visit. It was already gaining embellishments. MacArthur had beers with them, see. MacArthur played craps with the whole crew. Before long, this Quonset hut would become a bordello.

“Attention!” Lansdale roared. “Snap to when I tell you.” The men came to, all in a line. The scowl was back. “Do you know who I am?” he said, and it wasn’t a question. “I’m Intelligence. So listen, and listen good: You never saw the general here. You yourselves were never here. Understand? This is top secret. You peep a word of this and you’re right back where you came from.”

The men stared back.

“I don’t hear you. Do you understand?”

“Understood, sir!”

Lansdale turned on his heels and marched back out, slamming the door behind him.

Lett watched from a window of the Quonset hut. The Japanese men who had arrived in the Dodge trudged out of the building toward their sedan. They looked no happier than when they arrived, unlike most men after a long day of meetings. No slapping of backs, no laughing. Heads down. The sedan sped off. Then the silhouette of one General MacArthur exited through a back door surrounded by staff officers. The helicopter blades turned and whooshed, and soon the general’s flying machine was rising into the sky, a glowing light, the dragonfly turning into a firefly as it rose higher, farther, leaving only the detached fronds of palms and even more dust.

The sun had lowered beneath the ridges, dimming all. Lett could barely see the spot where the carabao had vanished. He hoped it was watching from somewhere safe inside the surrounding jungle. What better way to avoid that giant insect?

This is top secret, he recalled. Another top secret mission had once changed him forever, from a hopeful orphan into a paranoid killer. But now he felt something like hope again because this mission was accomplished.

“Where’s Lett?” Lett heard. He turned around. Lansdale strode back in with that slight stoop he had, left arm hanging lower than the right, left hand with a slight twist to it. Lett turned and Lansdale found him, Lansdale smiling now.

“You’ll come with me,” he said.

15.