Lucilla--NaNoWriMo2014

Chapter Ten

After Mark and Lucilla gave their fuller report to higher headquarters, they discussed their mission.

Colonel Henry did not know Lucilla's real identity as he stood before them with a large map of Southern Italy.

"Day after day we are taking aerial photos of Italy, and we pretty much have a good idea of what the Germans and Italians have and where they are located."

"Then why are we going on the mission?" Mark said.

"You and Lucilla are going in order to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. There is always something important that we do not know about.  That's why you are going.  We need two peope to pose as husband and wife.  We have fake passports.  While both of you will pose as Italian citizens, Lucilla be a naturalized citizen, who was born in Greece.  While she speaks good Italian, she will never convince them she was born there."

"What wil be our place of entry?"  Mark said.

"Colonel Henry pointed to the very toe of Italy.  "We will put you ashore at this point here.  From there you will proceed up the coast, you have travel permits good for a year, Italian Lire, and papers exempting you, Mark, from military service for another year.  You will have medical discharge papers to show authorities."

"What about our clothing and equipment?"

"Everything we have purchased for your use--clothing, bicycles, back packs, panniers for your bicycles, manicure sets, shoes--was made in Italy.  We wil provide you an inventory and give you a day or two to ask for something.  If it is a reasonable need, you will have it."

"What about our contacts on the ground?"

"I have a list of agents that you will commit to memory.  They are reliable and taking quite a risk to help you."

"Alternate means of communication?"

"You can buy postcards along the way and hope the Italian postal service is operating effiiciently for a change.  I also have an address of a safe house in Rome.  They have means to smuggle information to higher command."

"What questions do you have?"

"Once we take Rome and clear the Jerries off of Capri, I need permission to escort Lucilla back there."

"I see no problem if it is within our capability to make that happen."

"Well," Mark said, looking around at Lucilla and back to Colonel Henry, "that's about it then."  He sat back.  "Oh, yes, you code name for your mission is as follows."

"Hail Mary!"

"Look, the USO Show is playing tomorrow at the field hosptial.  Commedian Bob Hope has flown in through a bevy of Messerschmidts to get here.  You have three days before jump off time.  Go see him and just have some fun for a change."

The next day Mark and Lucilla dressed in military fatigues and sat on the ground among thousands of soldiers and sailors in front of a stage decorated in red, white, and blue.  There was a small band playing popular tunes of the day while everyone waited for Bob Hope.

Finally he came out to thunderous applause.

Hi, everyone.  This is Bob-your-Desert-Siren-Hope.

You know, when I decided to fly down here to Algiers, General Eisenhower told me to take a plane this time.

I was lucky this time, when I  flew down to New Guinea, the weather was so rough that the automatic pilot bailed out.  I asked if we had parachutes, and a passenger said everyone who had them bailed out an hour ago.

But this time I was even luckier to have Rhet Butler, you know Clark Gable, was the pilot.

Boy, did we get a reception of fireworks!  All for us.  And those loud cherry bombs! Then some told me the Germans were firing at us.

I told Clark Gable that the Jerries didn't like his acting.

He said they didn't like my jokes.

Boy, isn't security tight? They searched Frances Langfore two hours.  Then she got off our plane.

Back home, you remember back home, guys? It's so cold in Washington that the policitians have their hands in their own pockets.

There are so many Christmas shoppers that I put my hand out of the car and it came back gift wrapped.

If President Roosevelt gets elected again, he will have an intermission in his inaugural speech, it is so long nowadays.

You know, I meet so many people here.

General Eisenhower and I played golf.  When I put, his medals rattle, and he hit a birdie, an eagle, and an ardvark the other day.

The say Ike will run for President some day.  What a way to get out of the army!

Boy, the army gave me so many shots before I came here. You know, when the army gives you something for free, it sitll hurts. Doesn't it?

Enough of me, here is Frances Langford.

Frances Langford, a singer and movie actress, was so popular with American soldiers that just having her and Bod Hope told them that America cared very much for them even in the midst of a brutal war that they had to fight.

Frances sang  "I'll Be Seeing You"  to rousing applause.

Surprise guests were the Andrews Sisters singing "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

The next day, Mark and Lucilla spent the day on the beach. Lucilla thought her swim suit out to be more revealing for Mark.  She never missed a chance to invite him to sleep with her again.

"What was so special about Bob Hope and the entertainers yesterday, Mark?"

"Lucy, I suppose in your time was was something that happened somewhere else.  Caesar marched his Legions to Gaul and kept people informed by writing his Commentaries.  What he did at Alesia to Vercingetorix mattered little to people in Rome."

"But here soldiers loved them so much."

"All of America--some one hundred and thirty million people--are involved in our war effort to rid the world of Hitler and El Duce."

Mark leaned over while Lucilla kissed him.  "Still won't sleep with me again?"

"We have to work together.  What happens to our mission if you feel like a scorned woman?"

"I never thought of that."

Two nights later, they shared another candlelight dinner.  There were men playing violins while Mark and Lucilla dined on Canaloni, wine, and coffee.  They danced together to a band playing "Stardust."

They sat and held hands.  Lucilla was convinced that Mark was in love with her after all.  Somehow she knew she wanted him.  That one night when she caught him off guard and made love with him had been far lovelier than any casual love making she had had at a Roman orgy.

Something held Mark back.  She only accepted his insistence on putting the mission before their own lives to some extent.  She decided not to press Mark further about sleeping with her.

Maybe she ought to take her chances back on Capri.  Perhaps the year or two that she may be gone from her own time might just be enough for things to change in her Rome.  Maybe Commodus will have been assassinated.  Maybe Lucilla could then come back and form some kind of friendship with a new emperor.

Rome was the Eternal City.  Cetainly Mark has spoken of a New Rome these days.  Maybe she should just settle down in this world, maybe with Mark.

For the moment, Lucilla had promised to see this mission to the very end.