Twenty minutes later Vice-Admiral Stone and Commander Drake knew as much of what had happened as Dawson and Farmer knew themselves. Silence settled over the room, and all four frowned deep in thought.
"There's a question I'd like to ask, sir," Freddy Farmer spoke up. "Something that's been bothering me. Probably unimportant, but ... well, I'd like to ask it, if you don't mind, sir?"
"Of course I don't," came the instant reply. "Go right ahead, Captain Farmer. What is the question?"
"The business during the flight across, sir," the English-born air ace said. "Do you...? I mean, do you think it was just accidental sabotage? That is, as far as Dawson and I are concerned? Or do you really think that that Jap followed us north and was instrumental in having those time fire bombs put in the mail sacks?"
The frown that already knitted the vice-admiral's brows deepened and he did not answer for a moment or two.
"We will probably never learn one way or the other, Captain Farmer," he finally said slowly. "But my personal feeling is that the Jap is, or was, the skunk in the woodpile. The longer this war goes on the more amazed I become at the fiendish, devilish ingenuity of the Japs, once they put their minds to it. In countless things they are unquestionably the stupidest people on the face of the earth. But for devilish tricks that have to do with torture, maiming, and ruthless slaughter, they are the world's best. They could give lessons to the Nazi Gestapo and Secret Service any time. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Nazi cunning in the matter of booby traps actually originated in Tokyo. So I'd say, yes, Captain Farmer. I'd say that mail sack business was definitely linked to that Jap spy."
"Thank you, sir, for your opinion," Freddy Farmer said with a smile. Then he added in a brittle voice, "I sincerely hope that I meet up with that blighter again. Under more favorable circumstances, of course."
"And I hope you do," the vice-admiral said with a grave nod. "But there is something you must keep in mind every minute of the time until your special mission is accomplished. It's that that spy is but one of many. Bluntly, you two are marked men. I don't mean to alarm you unnecessarily, but you both bumped into something that is of vital importance to the Japanese command in the western Pacific. You know that there is a dangerous Nazi spy, serving as a fighter pilot aboard one of our newest and most powerful carriers. We must accept the undoubted fact that the Jap at Dago, and that Nazi, now at sea, believe you two heard much of their conversation there in that shack. That the Nazi was not arrested when he went aboard his ship simply proved to them that you did not know his name. But remember this! The Jap in question obviously followed you to the Los Angeles base. Maybe he did put those time fire bombs in the mail sacks, hoping that you both would lose your lives en route to Hawaii. And maybe he didn't. But either way it doesn't make much difference. I mean, we have got to assume that the Jap knew you were heading for Hawaii, and why! In short, to identify this Nazi when his carrier arrives."
"But why does that make us marked men, now that we are here, and not back on the mainland, sir?" Freddy Farmer asked with a frown.
"I think I can answer that, Freddy," Dave Dawson spoke up with an apologetic glance at the senior naval officer. "Because of what Vice-Admiral Stone just told us. That our little Japrat is not the only Jap around. He may have spies of his own right here in the Hawaiians. And there's such a thing as short-wave radio, you know. To play it safe ... I mean, in case we did reach Hawaii, which we have, he might radio one of his pals to do what he wasn't able to do. And to do it before that Nazi carrier put in to Pearl. Isn't that what you had in mind, sir?"