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“And I had to leave for my Annie.”
The boat…?
“You see, my wife is Jewish. I would not stay. We could not.”
Is he going to cry?
He is crying.
Nola cleared his throat. “Please excuse me. This all means so much to me. I’m not a U.S. citizen. But I want to fight those bastards. For my wife, for my uncles and cousins, for my country.”
Canidy didn’t say anything. When it was clear that the captain had finished, at least for the moment, he said, “You were talking about the Annie. How did you get your boat back?”
The captain was looking forward again, hands a little relaxed on the wheel.
“The Navy,” he said.
“The Navy got it back?”
Nola nodded. “Without my boat, I was out of work. Mr. Lanza asked me why I had stopped selling my catch at the fish market. I told him my story. He said he’d look into it. A week later, I got a call—‘Come get your boat.’ Mr. Lanza said he had the Navy get it back.”
He had Murray Gurfein get it back for you. But no need to split hairs.
Nola added, “Now, Mr. Lanza tells me that you need information for the war.” He looked in the reflection at Canidy. “I am at your service. My family of fishermen is at your service.”
What the hell am I going to do with fishermen?
Unless…they have a boat.
Canidy said, “Does your family have a boat?”
“Nothing like the Annie, of course.”
Great! Maybe it’s actually seaworthy.
“I understand. But a boat that could get men around the islands unnoticed?”
“Yes. Two.”
“Two boats?”
Nola nodded. “Two—what is the word?—fleets.”
[ TWO ]
Office of the President’s Physician
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
1815 6 March 1943
“That will be all for now, Charles,” the President of the United States of America said, wheeling himself through the side door into the nicely appointed office.
The valet—Charles Maples, a distinguished-looking older black man with gray hair, wearing a stiff white shirt and jacket, black slacks, and impeccably shined black leather shoes—had just put a large wooden tray holding a pitcher of ice, a selection of liquors in crystal decanters, three crystal glasses, a carafe of coffee, and three china mugs on the doctor’s spotless oak desk.
