172 | John W. Warner IV Simpson poked him. You and your damned star forts. Where the hell do you meet all these elder hep cats anyway? Low-life Tiki bars and noodle shops that lie in the shadows of gold-domed temples. Regarding the Nips, I hear they have a good general to grab and stash all their gold spoils in Malaya. Or…is that just an Australian intelligence tall tale thats been exaggerated by our pal Red? How did you… ?Irritated, Simpson took a deep breath and paced. Urrggnnshh. General Tomoyuki Yamashita, yeah, thats the guy, smart and snake-mean. Conqueror of Singapore, occult Black Dragon member. Redway said the piles growing, an estimated one-half of the worlds reserve if not more, so you can do the economic math on that one, kiddo. Theyre finding a lot of it in Burma and Thailand along those ruler-straight ancient canals, the old Khmer Empire ruins and deep tunnels that you told Red about. Well, the Japs have been all over it since the twenties. Were doing our best trying to find the smaller caches island by island as we go along in the South Seas. Tough slog, the worst. Were.. .losing.. .a lot of our young boys, Bern, a lot. Its a meat grinder. My nephew, he.. .the Marines… Bernies heart skipped a few beats before it sank. I know…God I know. He composed himself over the course of a minute and waved the China photo. Is this one to go public? Not till the wars won. Simpson stretched. Keep reading. Inhale the file. Memorize every sentence, comma, number, detail, and photo. And for shits sake dont share any of this with our esteemed allies here. As I said, your eyes only. Even Churchill only knows part of it, I briefed him at seven this morning in here, alone, but only on a select few pages that the president laid out with his initials. Anyhow, this prized lump might help you with your proposed assignment; it was in your last report that you said its all connected somehow, the big picture. Oh, heres some mail and a Washington Post for you too. He unloaded several envelopes. Dont underestimate Winnie, Allan, he puts me to shame on some stuff. Ah yes, from my younger brothers Andrew and Nick, and one from my sister Binney. Thanks. He waved a clipped Los Angeles Examiner news article. Air Battle Rages over Los Angeles.. .nice headline. Bernie scanned the attached classified memo. Wait, wait, wait, the Navy shot 200,000 rounds or so at the one over LA with no effect? The Army a hundred