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but it wasn’t John Hamilton.”
    “Gentlemen,” Croft said, chuckling at Hamilton’s discomfort, “allow me to introduce Sterling Hayden, otherwise known as Lieutenant John Hamilton. He is our liaison with your American OSS.”
    “I must have seen that movie too,” I said. “I was sure we’d met. Don’t recall it, though.”
    “For good reason,” Hayden answered. “It was only my second film, and might be my last. Silly way for a man to make a living. Come on, let’s all take a load off and talk this thing through.”
    “What does the OSS have to do with this operation?” Kaz asked as he took a seat at the table. I saw Croft and Hayden exchange glances, Croft giving a subtle nod.
    “Okay, we’ll play it straight with you guys, since you sound like a no-nonsense bunch,” Hayden said. “The orders that Big Mike here brought with him came via a slightly different route than he thought.”
    “I got those from Colonel Harding,” Big Mike said, his mouth set in a grim line. “I wouldn’t like to hear him called a liar.”
    “If he’s a friend of yours, I’d hate to call him one,” Hayden said. “And I won’t have to. Or General Eisenhower either. There’s just a missing link in the story. It wasn’t the president that Bishop Finchcalled when he heard of the murder. It was another old pal, this one from Columbia Law School.”
    “Let me guess,” I said. “William Donovan. Head of the Office of Strategic Services.” The OSS was the American equivalent of the Special Operations Executive. We were newer at the game, but eager to make up for lost time. “Your boss.”
    “Right on both counts,” Hayden said, slapping the table with glee. “Wild Bill—that’s Donovan’s nickname, one he doesn’t mind a bit—Wild Bill didn’t want OSS to be connected to this operation, for security reasons and out of the same concern for Vatican neutrality that Colonel Harding has. But Wild Bill wants to do his pal a favor and find out who killed Monsignor Corrigan, so the story was altered a bit in case anyone spoke out of school.”
    “As for your being detained,” Croft said, “that is standard procedure before a mission. Nothing sinister about it.”
    “So other than keeping watch on us, Lieutenant Hamilton, or Hayden, what’s your game?”
    “Hey, call me Sterling if you want, but don’t spread it around. I’d prefer to keep the movie business quiet. It’s all a load of horseshit anyway. And hell, I’m not here to watch you boys. I’m here to drive the boat.”
    “Boat?” Kaz said.
    “Sure, the boat. We’re taking a little trip up the Adriatic,” Hayden said, a wide grin spreading across his face.
    “Lieutenant Hamilton is an experienced seaman,” Croft said. “He makes regular runs to Yugoslavia to deliver arms and supplies to the partisans, and brings out downed Allied airmen.”
    “Billy and Kaz are going to Rome, not Yugoslavia,” Big Mike pointed out.
    “Yes,” Croft said. “And we will get them there, via the Adriatic. We can’t use the western coastline, since there is heavy activity around the Anzio beachhead. So Lieutenant Hamilton and his men will take you up the eastern coast, past the front lines and into Pescara.”
    “Why don’t we fly out in one of those Lysanders you have parked outside? Isn’t that what they’re used for?”
    “Quite,” Croft said. “But we’ve had some losses recently from Luftwaffe interceptions. We think there may be agents nearby watching our flights take off. We’re taking countermeasures, but we can’t wait for them to take effect. So I asked Hamilton here for a favor.”
    “I didn’t know the SOE and the OSS were so chummy,” I said.
    “We have to be,” Hamilton said. I decided it was too confusing to call him by two names, and if he wanted to go incognito, that was fine by me. I liked him for it. “We spend as much time fighting the brass as we do the Nazis.”
    “The OSS is dependent upon the Royal Navy for shipping,”