Kolhammer grimaced inwardly. He had served with a lot of Russians. He was used to their gallows humor. “Gentlemen, I won’t bullshit you. We have a problem,” he said. “I doubt we’re going home anytime soon. Maybe never. That leaves you men up fecal creek. We have twenty-one German, eighteen Italian, and fifteen Russian personnel serving on attachment throughout the task force. And, of course, we have the Siranui. You’re the senior surviving officers of your national contingents. If we are indeed trapped here, your homelands are dictatorships, and in the case of Germany, Italy, and Japan, they’re enemy states.”

Ivanov let out a short, humorless laugh. “I suspect that for me and my comrades, Admiral, the Soviet Union is an enemy state.”

“That’s why you’re here as well, Major.”

“And us?” bristled Müller. “Are we to provide you with some sort of loyalty pledge?”

The Italian, Prodi, threw up his hands. “Alora! You have no reason to be concerned with my feelings, Admiral. Have you visited Rome and seen the fascist architecture? It’s an abomination! Profoundly antihuman and a total misreading of imperial design. That pig Mussolini deserved to hang by his heels!”

Two seconds of confused and utter silence greeted the Italian’s outburst.

“Right, then,” Kolhammer said when he recovered. “Thank you, Commander Prodi. To answer your question, Captain Müller, no, I’m not looking for loyalty pledges. But there are people here who will. And even if they get them, they’ll still want to lock you up.”

“I expect Stalin shall try to put an icepick in my brain,” said Ivanov without much emotion. “But we shall see how that works for him, da?”

“Stalin isn’t my concern,” said Kolhammer. “J. Edgar Hoover might be.”

The blank looks he received told him they hadn’t boned up on their American history before accepting their postings.

“Look, I harbor no doubts about your dependability, but you can expect a lot of shit from the locals. Not so much you and your guys, Ivanov. But then, like you say, you’ll have your own problems. We can sort this out properly when we have more time, but I want you to personally get around to your people and tell them to keep their heads down. Especially when we get to Pearl Harbor, or Brisbane, or the West Coast.”

“We don’t know where we’re going yet?” asked Ivanov.

“We don’t know much about anything,” Kolhammer conceded. “Commander Judge has pulled together a list of the personnel you’ll need to contact. Forget about your other duties until you’ve done this.”

Sub-Lieutenant Miyazaki coughed, and spoke in a halting voice. “And what am I to do, Admiral? How do we hide a Nemesis cruiser?”

Kolhammer propped himself against his desk. The Europeans seemed almost as interested in his answer as the Japanese officer. He worked a kink out of his neck and sighed.