Chapter 230: The Dogs are Running (1-30 June 1944)
Introduction
Following the defeat of Italy and the DDR’s sly takeover of southern France under an old Hitler-era plan, Turkey has just invaded Vichy France. As May 1944 ended, the Turks were rolling over minimal resistance in the south of the Vichy-occupied south of France.
The Spanish Army clearly recognises a threat when it sees one and had already arrayed screening forces along the French border.
In Lebanon, the battle for Beirut had begun earlier that day and progressed well by the end of the day. The venerable battle-cruiser
Yavuz and a couple of older escorts remained to continue providing shore bombardment. The rest of the fleet, including the newer DD flotillas, split off and escorted the transports back to Izmir.
Photo taken by USMC LO MAJ Kenny 'Wraith' Loggins, attached to the 1st US Marine Division.
---xxx---
1 Jun 44
There were currently just two transport ships left in the Turkish merchant marine, with 30 (ie 3 x convoys) being constructed. Anticipating a heavier demand on maritime supply transport in coming weeks and months, three more convoys (30 ships) were ordered built at midnight (total 6 IC, 100days).
With supply production significantly lowered, a large amount of IC was available for new projects – though only a surplus manpower of 7,000 men. Therefore, 42 IC (at 0.36 IC/province) was sunk into a massive infrastructure upgrade of key routes all the way form northern Italy, through the Balkans and Ankara to the Syrian border and to eastern Persia.
Additionally, a survey of the most advanced NAV bombers offered by the three major Turkish allies showed the German design was the best available: Turkey’s first NAV wing was commissioned to be built by license in Turkish factories.
The latest Turkish vanity project – though unlikely to be used during GW2.
After this purchase, the manpower reserve stood at 7,000, with only 230 reinforcements needed and 31,600 men being recruited each month.
Nice was taken at 6am after a short ‘HQ skirmish’ (no casualties), with 3 Cav Div rushing on to Cannes next. An hour later, 2 Armd Div joined them and was ordered to Toulon via an inland route, in case 3 Cav ran into any delays along the coast.
Los Angeles – 11am
It is the day after LT Ed Exley’s visit to Pierce Patchett. What Exley does not yet fully appreciate is that the now violently murdered former detectives Buzz Meeks and Dick Stensland (Bud’s old partner) worked together under Dudley Smith's command a decade earlier. And together they had dropped an investigation on Patchett, who had been accused of photographing businessmen with his prostitutes in a blackmail scam.
Exley pulls up to Lynn Bracken’s place, determined to find out more.
“Miss Bracken, I'm Lieutenant Exley.”
“I know who you are. You're the policeman Bud told me about.”
“Really? What did White say?”
“He said you were smart. He also said you were competing with your dead father. How did he put it? Trying to measure up to a ghost.”
Exley lets the barb pass. “Let's concentrate on my smarts. Pierce Patchett made you, didn't he? He taught you how to dress and talk and think. And I am very impressed with the results. But I need some answers and if I don't get them, I'm going to take you and Patchett down.”
“He can take care of himself and I'm not afraid of you. And you forgot one thing, Lieutenant. Pierce also taught me how to
satisfy my clients. Can I get you a drink?”
Exley can't help but smile. Lynn smiles back. He watches her as she steps over to fix the drinks.
“I'm curious about you,” she says.
“Why?”
She hands him his drink. “Because Bud hates you more than he loves me.” Exley stews.
Lynn watches him over the rim of her glass: “It galls you that I know so much about you. You don't have information to compete.”
“Don't underestimate me, Miss Bracken.”
“The way you've underestimated Bud White?”
Exley had had enough. He takes a menacing step forward. Lynn's smile becomes a laugh. Lost to himself, Exley leans in and kisses her. Lynn pulls back, then kisses back. In a beat, they're rolling to the floor, shedding clothes.
After a time - or a few times
[an oldie but a goody 
] - Exley turns the conversation to Bud White.
“I want to know why you see him. Is it a Patchett payoff?”
“I see Bud because I want to. I see Bud because he can't hide the warmth he has inside him.”
“I'll take your word for it.”
“I see Bud because he makes me feel like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-alike who does this for money. I see him because he doesn't know how to disguise who he is. There's more if you want to hear it.”
“I see Bud because he makes me feel like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-alike.”
Exley shakes his head. He's heard enough.
“Does all that make it harder for you to hate him or easier?”
“I don't hate White. I really don't. It's just, in my business, it's the wild ones you have to watch out for.”
“You're tougher than Bud thinks you are.”
This makes Ed smile. “You're the first person to ever call me tough.”
“Like recognises like. I'm pretty tough, myself.”
“You, me and White, huh?”
“Actually, Bud's only tough on the outside.”
Unknown to Ed and Lynn, a photographer had been lurking outside the bedroom window. A weaselly little man called Sid Hudgeons, a ‘reporter’ for a Hollywood scandal sheet called ‘L.A. Confidential’ … his signature line is ‘Hush-hush’.
---xxx---
1 Mot Div were the next into Nice at 4pm on 1 June: they were sent north-east via strategic redeployment to Thiers, on the approach to Vichy itself, which was still held by Petain’s ‘puppet regime without a puppet-master’.
Soon after, work came that the battle for Beirut – the most significant of the Turkish-Vichy War – had ended in a conclusive Comintern victory. Üngen’s 1st Navy headed back to Izmir, its services no longer required in Lebanon.
Then an hour later, 3 Mot Div made it to Nice and was also ordered up to confront the forces defending Vichy, via strategic redeployment through the German-controlled countryside to Issoire.
---xxx---
2 Jun 44
As the US-Turkish Marine Corps was left to tidy up Lebanon and Syria, the Turkish Navy picked up more follow-on forces from Izmir and headed west – for a ‘S.M.E.L.T.’ landing at Tunis. The best of the naval officers awaiting appointment was given the command, though no naval opposition was expected from the Vichy French.
From 9am, all remaining Turkish forces on the French-Italian border were progressively moved by strategic redeployment to the Spanish border. This would not only assemble an invasion force, but the sooner they were there, the quicker the Turkish logisticians would develop new supply lines and depots. Supply, rather than troop numbers, would be the determining factor for the timing of any attack on the chorizo-munching Spanish Fascists.
3 Cav Div took Cannes at midday and rushed forward towards Toulon via Cogolin. At 2pm, 1st Navy was back in Izmir and then following the 2nd Navy to the Gulf of Tunis. With no transports to slow them down, they would be quicker that the invasion fleet.
OTL Event: Stockholm, Sweden. Representatives of the Soviet Union and Romania secretly met in Stockholm to discuss conditions for Romania's withdrawal from the war. [Comment: a completely different story in this ATL, where Romania has been a pillar of support for the Soviets, and vice versa.]
---xxx---
3 Jun 44
The swift 3 Cav Div won another bloodless HQ skirmish at Toulon at 3pm and kept moving up to occupy it.
That night, the Riyad Militia Division finished pacifying Umm Lajj (on the Red Sea coast) after the previous month’s nationalist uprising and headed to a new post at Al Madinah, just two provinces away.
---xxx---
Los Angeles
Concerned that Exley may be on to something, at LAPD Headquarters CAPT Dudley Smith has dropped into Detective Wendell ‘Bud’ White’s office for a ‘little chat’. Bud looks over as Dudley sits down across from him.
“You're perplexing to me these days, Wendell. You're not your old, cruel self any more. I need proof that the extracurricular work I had planned for you remains within your grasp.”
“What work?”
“I've long been involved in containing hard crime in such a way that myself and a few colleagues might someday enjoy a profit dispensation. That day will soon be here and you'll share handsomely. Grand means will be in our hands, Wendell.”
Smith pauses briefly then continues: “Imagine crime limited to the criminal element who perpetrate it. Imagine the means to keep the common filth repressed and sedated. But don't stop there. Extrapolate. Imagine the police in control. It's big, lad.”
“You lost me, Dudley. I don't know what you're talking about.”
“You have your extracurricular secrets, I have mine. We'll hold a clarification session soon. For now, I’ll need your fearsome old habits at the Victory Motel in a few days’ time. We're going to brace a man who may have some useful leads. Can I count on you?”
“Sure, boss. Sure you can.”
---xxx---
4 Jun 44
The landing at Tunis began at 1am: no opposition was encountered and just one division was sent ashore.
Toulon fell to 3 Cav Div at midday, eliminating the last token Vichy resistance on the southern French coast.
At 11pm, 4 Mtn Div (5 x MTN Bde), all converted militia and garrison brigades, was formed in Split. MAJGEN Edelhun
[Skill 4, Battle Master] had been awaiting reappointment and was given the command. Mountain divisions would be important during the invasion of Spain. They were soon loaded on trains and on their way to the Spanish border.
OTL Event: Rome, Italy. The Italian capital of Rome fell to the Allies. There was little fighting in the city itself as American tanks rolled along the Appian Way. The Germans ignored Hitler's order to blow up the Tiber bridges before retreating and the city's historic sites were left intact. [Comment: the timeline for the fall of Rome was quite similar in the ATL, if from the opposite direction.]
---xxx---
5 Jun 44
Tunis was taken without a fight just over a day after the first boats had begun ferrying troops ashore. The fleet would then re-base to Palermo, to give them the range to strike their next target: Alger.
Vichy surrender progress was up to 47.3% with the fall of Tunis.
At 9am, the Adana Garrison Division (4 x converted INF) was in Tartus and attacking Tarabalus from the north, winning an HQ skirmish by midday.
Both the Turkish fleets had re-based to Palermo (where supply was ample) by 4pm and immediately set out for Alger.
OTL Event: Operation Overlord. The D-Day naval deceptions began. Allied ships and aircraft made deceptive movements in an attempt to deceive the Germans into believing that the Allied invasion force would land in the Calais region.
---xxx---
6 Jun 44
1 Mot Div got off the trucks in Thiers at 2am and quickly repelled an HQ skirmish. But at 4am, a lone wing of Vichy TAC began striking them as they reorganised after their redeployment. The nearest Turkish INT group Milan was just out of range.
But the longer-range M/R fighters with 1 BG in Genova were within range and were detached to deal with the impudent vichyssoise-guzzlers. As they responded, 1 AG (I-16s and LaGG-3s), 2 AG (3 x Yak-7s) and the 3 x TAC of 1 BG began staging west to Toulouse via Marseilles (via reserve-hop). The shorter range 1 TAG (Hawk III and 2 x IL-2) had to re-base direct, thus losing organisation.
As expected, the dogfight over Thiers was one-sided when it came, the P51-Ds and La-5s easily outmatching the unescorted Vichy bombers.
Little damage was done on the ground and it would prove to be the only dogfight of the short Turkish-Vichy War. These Vichy dogs ran like the rest of them.
At 2pm, 3 Mot Div arrived in Issoire, but like 1 Mot they had to wait almost three days to reorganise after their strategic redeployment before they could make any attack on the pocketed Vichy forces, who were now spreading south on their left flank.
OTL Event: Operation Overlord. D-Day: Operation Overlord commenced with the crossing of nearly 160,000 Allied troops over the English Channel to land on the beaches of Normandy, France.
---xxx---
7 Jun 44
A Japanese spy was apprehended at midnight, sent straight on the Express to keep Darth Kelebek (getting a bit bored by now with only former Fascists to hunt down in Italy these days) entertained with ‘a bit of sport’.
Another unopposed landing, this time at Alger, began at 5am. 47 SD – previously part of the Far East Task Force – kept up its reputation as a formation to explore exotic locations.
The manpower reserve had risen to 11,000 men by this time, with only 210 replacements needed.
By 11am, 4 and 5 AF had joined the TAC wings to re-form 1 BG in Toulouse (a 10 capacity air base). Supplies were still scarce in the hinterland of southern France and the two divisions sitting outside the remaining Vichy enclave were now unable to move as they awaited resupply.
8 Jun 44
Alger fell at 5am, bringing Vichy even closer to surrender. The fleet had to re-base there in order to reach their next target – Casablanca.
In the Middle East, the Turkish 1 Mar Div took Damascus (0 VP) late that morning and pushed on towards An Nabk, where they encountered retreating Vichy forces three hours later. By 10pm, the battle was nearing an end, but victory was not found until 4am the following morning. It was the second – and as it would prove last – set piece battle against the Vichy French in June.
9-12 Jun 44
As the Turkish forces began to build up along the Pyrenees, 3 Mtn Div arrived in the mountains of Lavelanet at midday. MAJGEN Diskoerekto soon had his men reorganising themselves after the long redeployment from northern Italy.
47 SD had been re-embarked after their landing in Alger and they executed the final naval landing of the campaign on Casablanca at 11am on 10 June. 4 Mot Div had been left in Alger, to push forward to the border of Spanish Morocco.
OTL Event: Finland. On 10 June 1944, The Red Army began the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive with the objective of knocking Finland out of the war. [Comment: Managed it a little earlier here – not that Finland was in the war to start with!]
MAJGEN Marcinovich had his men safely ashore by midday on the 11th. He was accompanied by a mysterious Commissar - a GRU agent known only by his codename - SkitalecS3. At midnight, the emissaries of the elderly Marshal Petain offered their complete and unconditional surrender at Inönü’s field HQ in southern France.
The disgraced Marshal Petain - hero of GW1 turned villain in GW2 - was taken into custody. Though unlike Hitler and Mussolini, he did not suffer an immediate summary execution at the hands of his own countrymen.
Another short war had been successfully concluded, with fewer than a hundred Turkish battle casualties suffered. And the GRU's man was loose in Casablanca - what might his mission be?
In southern France, for some reason the Vichy enclave (technically French territory, but they were still apparently designated a Government in Exile) went to the British, rather than either Turkey, France or Germany.
Later that morning, the Marine Corps had begun the slow process of concentrating in Beirut, which had still not been occupied when the Vichy French capitulated. MAJ Loggins looked forward to exploring the Beirut night life.
OTL Event: Operation Overlord. On 12 June 1944, U.S. and British forces in Normandy linked up near Carentan, forming a solid 50-mile battlefront with 326,000 men and 54,000 vehicles.
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13-18 Jun 44
Both forces and supply depots were building along the Pyrenees by early on 13 June, but many formations were as yet unsupplied. It would be some time before any invasion of Spain could begin.
OTL Event: England. The Germans launched the first V-1 flying bombs at England on 13 June 1944. Of the ten fired on this day four reached England, killing six people and destroying a railroad bridge.
Early on the 14th, the fleet headed back from North Africa to Split to pick up more troops for a new invasion force – this time to be aimed at the south of Spain. Manpower had recovered further to a surplus of 18,000, with only 220 replacements needed and an increased monthly recruiting base of 32,800.
At midnight on 15 June, a new locally developed light tank gun design was introduced, which would be fitted to the three original and converted light tank brigades currently in active service. The light tank program was extended next to new engines.
For example, by 27 June, the comical CV-33s in 4 Mot Div were 14% updated.
Nothing much worth reporting occurred at the front on the 16th and 17th.
Another Japanese spy was captured on 18 June and sent to Kelebek with a short note: “Looks like meat's back on the menu, Lord K!”
Meanwhile, over in Los Angeles…
---xxx---
Los Angeles – the Victory Motel, 18 June
Sid Hudgeons is cuffed to the 'hot seat'. Dudley Smith sits across from him. One of Dudley's henchman, Officer Breuning, looms. Bud enters.
“This is Mr. Hudgeons, Wendell,” says Dudley.
“I'm happy to cooperate,” whines Sid. “You don't need to tie me down.”
“It's for your own safety,” replies Dudley with fake assurance. “Please comment on Pierce Patchett.”
Bud looks over at mention of the name.
“You think he had something to do with the Midnite Owl murders?” offers Sid, a little offhandedly.
Dudley sighs, looks to Bud: “Wendell. I want Mr Hudgeons’ full and docile cooperation on all topics.”
Hudgeons flinches as Bud steps up.
“Okay. Okay. Everyone knows Patchett's worth a boat-load of greenbacks. From aviation, freeway construction. But the man has hobbies, too. He bankrolls B movies under the table and runs movie star look-alike hookers. And try this on: he's rumoured to be a periodic heroin sniffer. All in all a powerful behind-the-scenes strange-o.”
“And?”
“And
what?”
Bud digs a fist into Hudgeons' gut. As Hudgeons gasps to get his breath back, Dudley continues his questioning.
“Reciprocity, Mr. Hudgeons, is the key to all relationships.”
“He runs call girls. Primo tail. Fixed up like movie stars.”
Bud looms and rests his hands on the back of Hudgeons' chair. He doesn't like where this is going.
“
And?” insists Dudley.
“In my car. Blackmail shit. The trunk under the carpet. Patchett got me to photograph a cop fucking this gorgeous hooker Lynn, looks just like Veronica …”
Wooden slats pop as Bud tears the bolted chair right out of the floor. Hudgeons and the chair land sideways.
“Wendell!”
But Bud can't hear him. He uprights the chair one-handed. As his fist cocks back, he's restrained by Breuning and Dudley. This is no act. They can barely hold Bud back.
“Get him away from me!” gasps Hudgeons, now in genuine fear.
Bud breaks free, but heads outside instead. He jams a tire iron into the seam of Sid’s car trunk and pops it with a ferocious yank. He tears at the carpeting and finds a manilla envelope. Bud rips it open and 8x10 glossies of Exley and Lynn spill out. Bud is soon in his Packard and tearing out of there. Dudley and Breuning watch from the door.
“I wouldn't trade places with Edmund Exley right now for all the tea in China,” says Dudley, smiling nastily.
Breuning laughs. So does Hudgeons.
“Dudley, I thought you were gonna let the dumb bastard kill me,” says Sid.
Dudley and Breuning stare at him. A bit grimly.
“You can uncuff me now, fellas,” says Sid. But neither moves to do so.
Sid is nervous now: “Fellas? We had a deal. You, me and Patchett, we're a team!”
Now he’s
really scared. “Come on, we're friends. We're …”
As Hudgeons protests, Dudley slaps a hand over his mouth as his henchman moves in: “Hush-hush...”
Sid Hudgeons – permanently “Hush-hushed”.
---xxx---
Lynn sits on her porch watching the rain come down. A screeching of tyres on the wet street heralds the appearance of Bud's Packard. She watches as he gets out and starts for the house.
Lynn stands and holds her arms out. Bud stops short on the steps, out of reach, the rain soaking him.
“Did you talk to Exley?”
“Come in out of the rain. In the morning we'll have both our stories for breakfast.
Lightning flashes. Bud shakes his head. “I want to know about Exley.”
“He's the opposite of you. He's more like me. Cold, calculating.”
“How'd you get to know so much about him?”
“Come in out of the rain, Bud,” Lynn replies sadly, as more lightning flashes.
“You gonna tell me what happened with you and Exley?”
“We talked.”
“So tell me about it.”
“In the morning,” says Lynn, unable to meet his eyes.
“No. Now.” He pauses a beat. “You slept with him.”
Too tired to lie any more, Lynn finally just nods. “I thought I was helping you. I thought …”
Bud backhands her, hard. Lynn faces straight into the next one as Bud hits her again. Then a third time, as the sins of the father are visited on the son. Bud stops short as the self-realisation slams home. He has become what he despises.
Lynn waits stoically. She doesn't start crying until Bud turns and runs back into the rain.
---xxx---
19-22 Jun 44
On 19 June, the economists in the War Ministry noted that reparations could be extracted from the Germans – and no convoys would be required to get the tribute. Within a couple of days, a little over 21 IC was being sent by rail to the UGNR.
But just as the German aid was coming in, US lend lease dropped off almost to zero. The reason was soon discovered: minor bureaucrats at the War Ministry had been redirecting convoys to providing supplies and extracting resources from the newly conquered Vichy territories – and in doing so had stripped all the convoys from the ‘Boston Run’.
Until the large amount of new convoys being built were delivered, their orders were overridden and by 22 June the lend-lease from the US was fully back on track. All such ‘donations’ amounted to around a third of Turkish industrial output at this stage.
The next research advance – improved supply production – came at midnight on the 22nd. The spare effort was directed to finishing the last element of the Turkish light tank upgrade program.
And three more convoys (30 ships) were commissioned. At 5pm, HQ 1st Corps, 1 Armd Div and 222 SD boarded the troop transports in Split and began their voyage to Oran.
OTL Event: Eastern Front. The Soviets began Operation Bagration, a broad new summer offensive.
---xxx---
23-27 Jun 44
Little of note happened during 23-24 June, but at midnight on the 25th the first three licensed V2 batteries were finished and were deployed initially in Turin. With the Spanish air base in Mallorca identified as fielding four wings (of unknown type), one V2 was sent to Alger. Another went to Casablanca and the third to Toulouse.
A massive new ‘vanity’ project was begun when the first brigade of Turkish paratroopers began training under US guidance. To complement this, two
very expensive (but less manpower intensive) Li-2 transport aircraft wings (another new capability for Turkey) were licensed from the Soviets.
The fourth V2 battery was completed at 2am on the 26th and was soon transferred to Alger, from where the two V2s could strike either Mallorca or southern Spain.
The two latest militia brigade conversions finished in Leibnitz at midnight on 27 June, with the two MOT brigades being sent down to Split.
---xxx---
28-29 Jun 44
On the night of the 28th, the new British Foreign Office LO at HQ 1st Army - a suspiciously named 'Mr S. Smith' (no-one believed this was his real name - he may as well say he was the new Cultural Attaché) delivered advance warning of an announcement PM Churchill was about to make: the governments of the Benelux countries had been fully restored!
In return, Inönü let Mr Smith in on a small confidence: Turkey had begun construction of a new port in the province of Braunsberg, in occupied East Prussia - Turkey's own Polish Corridor! Smith pondered to himself:
what is the ultimate use that will be put to?
The next group of units to be sent from Split to North Africa were 1 Inf (IS-2 armed) and 19 Inf Divs, who would be dropped in Casablanca, to assist in an attack on Tangiers in the event of war with Spain. Nothing worth reporting happened on the 29th in Europe. But in California, the tension between Ed Exley and Bud White was coming to a head. Literally.
---xxx---
LAPD Headquarters - 29 June
In Exley's office, drawers are open. Files are everywhere. Exley's reached the end of the line. But as he looks through one last file, he finds a stack of old official photos - and stops short. There's a photo of four cadets and an academy instructor. Two of the cadets are identified as Turner Meeks and Dick Stensland. The instructor is Dudley Smith!
Exley looks up at the sound of footsteps and a furious Bud is suddenly there. He slams Exley, knocking him flat. Bud is there to kill him. He hauls Exley up and pummels him, then throws him over a table. Then up into a wall. Plaster cracks. The red mist is in Bud’s eyes as he starts to strangle Exley. It will be over in moments.
Until Exley's flailing hands find Bud's .38. Yanking it from his waistband, Exley smashes Bud in the forehead. Bud reels, but blind with rage, he moves back in only to have the barrel of the .38 placed right between his eyes.
“Why?” gasps Exley.
“Lynn.”
“She told you?”
Bud shakes his head. He's coiled, ready to make a move.
“Who told you? Did Dudley have anything to do with you finding out?”
Bud hesitates, the answer obvious.
“Listen to me,” begins Exley, seeing his question has struck home. He points out the academy photo on the floor.
“Look. Dudley and Meeks go way back. Stensland, too.”
Bud sees, but does he
really? As Bud reaches for the photo, Exley relaxes slightly. Bud slaps the gun away, drops Exley to the ground and begins slamming his head into the floor.
“Think, goddamn you. Think...” cries Exley, almost out.
But maybe Bud really hears him this time: the attack slows, then stops as Bud does think. Exley stays conscious.
“I knew Stensland and Meeks knew each other. Meeks was with Sue Lefferts on Christmas Eve,” Bud recalls
[Lefferts was killed at the Midnite Owl shooting, with Dick Stensland]. “The night I met Lynn, Lefferts' mother I.D.ed Stensland as Lefferts' boyfriend, but Stens pretended he didn't know either one of them.”
“Stensland and Meeks. What were they up to?” asks Exley.
“That hood Johnny Stompanato told me when Meeks disappeared, he was trying to move 18 pounds of heroin that went missing after a bust, where Mickey Cohen’s man Deuce Perkins was shot.”
“Stensland and Buzz Meeks, knocking off Mickey Cohen lieutenants,” continues Exley. “When they killed Deuce Perkins, they got heroin as a bonus.”
“Then something goes wrong," adds Bud. "Meeks gets killed. Maybe Stens got greedy, killed Meeks and left him under his girlfriend's house. The night he died, Stens was all mysterious. Said he had something big going down.”
“The Midnite Owl! Stensland was going there to sell the heroin,” deduces Exley.
“Somebody got wind of it, killed them all,” finishes Bud.
“It wasn't those black guys. The report was a phony. And who says their purple Merc was spotted outside the Midnite Owl?”
“Dudley,” replies Bud, the penny has well and truly dropped by now.
“The first guys to the Merc when I got there were Bruening and Carlisle.”
“Dudley's guys.”
“They didn't
find the shotguns,” concludes Ed. “They
planted them.
“It all keeps coming back to Dudley.”
“It's
Dudley for the Midnite Owl,” finishes Ed.
They just stare at each other as it sinks in.
“Pierce Patchett figures in, too,” argues Ed. “Dudley must work for Patchett.”
“Let's just kill them.” Bud is nothing if not direct.
“What?”
“For Stensland, for anybody else who got in the way. I've been trying to be smart. A detective. But killing those two fuckers, that would be justice.”
“
Stay smart, Bud. We build a case. We play by the rules.”
“There
are no rules! Why the fuck are you doing this, anyway? The Midnite Owl made you. You want to tear all that down?”
“With a wrecking ball,” says Ed with conviction. “You want to help me swing it?”
Bud smiles. For a second he likes Exley.
“Let's go see Pierce Patchett,” suggests Ed. “Run a good-cop-bad-cop.”
“Which one are you and which one am I?”
---xxx---
30 Jun 44
By the end of June, the Turkish force build-up and command reorganisation on the Spanish border was almost complete. And the supply situation had improved considerably, though many divisions were still restocking their combat supplies and fuel.
In North Africa, a large invasion force had been assembled in Oran, where the fleet had been rebased. A US parachute division had arrived in Casablanca to accompany 47 SD. The further reinforcements from Split were still on their way.
The UK – which seemed to have unspecified transit rights through German-occupied France – had assembled forces in both their enclaves in southern France. And the Germans were forming a ring around them. This must be one of the key reasons the British had been keen to have their own policy LO nearby, with the Turkish President's field HQ.
The massive redeployment of Comintern forces to the Far East from Europe was still only partly progressed, with most divisions far to the west. But during June the Soviets had moved forward again and in a significant milestone had retaken Irkutsk.
In other Comintern news, the US had finally retaken Midway Island (again) – this time hopefully for good.
Again, there was no change in Australasia.
Nor was there any movement in South East Asia. The British had lost Dhaka again in eastern India, where the Japanese and Thais had recovered some ground during the month.
Turkish industry was at its highest output yet, though the two transport wings were absorbing almost 55 IC of that. Manpower reserves stood at 20,000 men, while an enormous return of supply to the network was about to arrive, so some new production projects would be started in early July.
Coming Up: The remaining mangy Fascist running dogs of Europe are being methodically rounded up by Turkey, as the Soviets (with Romanian help) turn their attention east to the still-massive Japanese occupation of the Far East and Siberia. With the collaborationist curs of Vichy France eliminated, when will Turkey be ready to confront Franco and rid the continent of the last den of Fascist mongrels?
More widely, with the main European war essentially over, can Britain and the Soviets work in concert with the US (fresh from their reconquest of Midway Island) to take down the last major Axis power - Japan? Will Turkey be talked into helping them on their quest of “Tokyo or bust, baby”? And what are Mr Smith and Agent SkitalecS3 up to in their respective locations? Simple liaison - or something more?
In Los Angeles, the drama escalates as Ed and Bud team up seriously, despite their differences. They have finally realised the true depth of Dudley Smith’s perfidy – and the deadly danger he presents. What will transpire between them and how does this relate – if it does at all – to the elusive Perse? Or the undercover alphabet soup of the FBI, OSS, MI6, NKVD, GRU or S.I.T.H who are all interested in her whereabouts?
