OUT OF RETIREMENT-

It was a cool January 3rd in San Diego. And Jake Cutter's wife Kay had insisted that he wear a scarf. He balked, but he knew there was no saying "no" to the woman and once he hit the 50 degree wind on the way out to his Buick Skylark, he agreed she was right. The tall, lean man in his early fifties pulled the scarf tight around his neck against the wind.

He reached the office some thirty minutes later. Madge, his secretary, had yet to arrive as well as some of the other office staff. They had just come off a long holiday for New Year's. As he sat at his desk, he pulled out the brand-new 1955 desk calendar and laid it on his desk. He had barely started going through some old memos and mail, when he heard the outer door open and a man call out. "Hello?"

Jake walked over and opened his door. Standing there was a tall, muscular man in his thirties, in a pinstripe suit, carrying a small valise. He had an angular face, with a slightly receding hairline of his tight, curly hair. Cutter immediately sized him up for ex-military, probably ex-Marine. And nobody to be trifled with. "Can I help you?" The man smiled, a kind of forced smile that Jake didn't like. "Mr. Cutter?" he stepped forward to shake hands, "Christopher Kearny, I'm from the Government, can we talk?" Jake shook his hand and let him into the office.

They sat and Kearny began pulling papers from the valise. "What can I do for you, Mr. Kearny?" Jake began apprehensively. The man pulled out his final papers and smiled that forced smile again. He read the top paper. "Jacob Cutter, fifty-one. Married to 'Kay' Cutter" Jake noticed a slight hesitation when Kearny mentioned Kay. "He knows", Jake thought to himself. Kearny kept reading. "Two sons. Louis, age seven; Flynn, age five. President of Trans-Oceanic Airlines. Former lieutenant colonel US Army Air Corps, Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts." He paused. "Various other 'activities' before the war."

Jake tried to act genial. "You working up my 'This Is Your Life'? Me and my wife love that show?" Kearny smirked. "We have a problem, Mr. Cutter. And we think you can help us." Jake interrupted. "I don't think I caught what 'branch' of the Government you were with, Mr. Kearny?" Kearny looked around the room casually. "Let's say, an agency that keeps a low profile, offshoot of the one you did some work for in '44 with Bill Donovan?" Jake nodded. "CIA." Kearny smiled that shark-like smile again.

"Mr. Kearny, I'm a businessman. Running a modest trans-Pacific airline. I've been out of the cloak-and-dagger business, what little I was in it, for a long time." Kearny wasn't put off. "Regardless, Mr. Cutter, we have need of somebody with your expertise. We have a little situation in the …Marivellas." Jake leaned forward. "What kind of 'situation'?"

Kearny started his spiel, obviously well-rehearsed. "First, everything I'm going to tell you is classified. You breathe a word of it and you'll be looking at hard time." Jake got angry. "I'm a loyal American, Mr. Kearny. I don't need to be…" Kearny cut him off. "I'm just letting you know what the deal is, Cutter…and where you stand." Jake bit his tongue and kept listening. Kearny continued.

"Four months ago, we dispatched a US Army team to an island in the Marivellas. They were setting up an H-bomb test. Two months later, we lost contact with the team. Eighteen guys. A Navy Panther recon flight sent in last month seemed to have some 'difficulty' locating the island. So did a destroyer sent in last week." Jake stared at Kearny for a moment, and then smiled. "Are you telling me, you not only lost a hydrogen bomb….you lost an island?" Kearny wasn't smiling. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you."

He continued. "Since the US took possession of the Marivellas after the re-occupation from the Japs, we've had a lot of weird stuff happen out there. Things, you, from your record, are no doubt familiar with." Jake remembered and knew that Sarah must have filed lots of reports back to the old Army Intelligence guys. "So we need an expert on the area to go in, find the island, find our bomb, and find out what happened to our men."

Jake shook his head again. "You got the wrong guy, Mr. Kearny. I haven't been in the Marivellas for nearly ten years. And certainly not since The Big Quake of '45. Half the islands were sunk and Boragora was so damaged, even the French colonials left it. Most of the landmarks I know are gone." Kearny was not buying it. "Still, you flew those islands for several years and are our best hope right now."

Jake stood up. "Forget it. Lots of younger men around, and I'm too busy to go running off to the South Pacific to help you guys find your lost firecrackers." Kearny remained seated. He shuffled through his papers, then pulled one out. "'Kay Tanner' Cutter," he began, "forty-four. Place of birth…'San Francisco'. But no birth record on file. No parents. In fact, nothing official until January 1946, when she married you in Honolulu." He sniffed and pulled out a different paper.

"Koji Tanaka. Born 1910, Tokyo. Daughter of an Irish sea captain and Princess Hoshi, cousin to Hirohito himself. Impressive." Jake sat back down. "Disappeared November 1945, while under arrest by the Occupation Government for seventeen major crimes. MacArthur himself was going to sit in on the hearings, I see." Kearny folded the papers back together. "No official photos of 'Princess Koji' exist, but there are several witnesses still alive in Japan who could identify her if she was deported."

Jake grimaced at Kearny. "No choice, huh?" Kearny smiled his smile. "Not if you want to keep that little 'I Love Lucy' half-Jap wife of yours out of prison." Jake felt his right fist clench, then he released it. He slumped. "Okay, fine. What's the name of this island where you so carelessly lost a bomb capable of wiping out an entire city?"

"Ile de Fumée," Kearny responded in deadpan. Jake laughed out loud. "Ile de Fumée? You pulling a con on me?" Kearny shook his head slowly. Jake continued, laughing, "That island doesn't exist. Hell, I was all over those islands and only the drunkest wharf rat ever believed it did exist." "It exists, Mr. Cutter," Kearny began, "I've got photos if you like. And we know the general location…about four hundred miles southeast of Tagataya." Jake was still chuckling. "Bull, Kearny. I flew out of Tagataya a dozen times, from there to the Ellice to the Santa Cruzes. There was no Ile de Fumée." Kearny pulled out his papers again. A map of the Marivellas, as well as parts of the Solomon Islands to the southwest and the Ellice Islands to the east. He laid it out on Jake's desk. A red circle was drawn on a spot south of the island of Tagataya. Nothing on the map, just a red circle.

"There's nothing there, " Jake stated. "Yeah, well…there was" Kearny stated. He sat back down. "So, what am I supposed to do if I find it?" Jake asked. "Land with our guy, survey the island, find the bomb, find the troops…or find out what happened to them?" "Your guy?" "Randall DeGroot, he'll be with you the whole time. He was a B-17 pilot, worked with the partisans, been training at Oak Ridge in nuclear materials." Kearny reached into his valise and pulled out a manila envelope. "Four thousand in cash, plane tickets for tomorrow…" "Tomorrow?" Jake blurted, "I can't just le…" Kearny ignored him and continued.

"From here to San Francisco to Hawaii." "I don't need plane tickets, " Jake said defeated, "I own an airline." Kearny shrugged and disdainfully looked around at the smallish office. . "Use 'em, it'll draw less attention. Once in Hawaii, you'll find your own way out to Wake, then down to Tagataya. The Navy keeps an outpost there, where you can re-supply. DeGroot will be briefed and have special radio frequencies for you to contact us. In an emergency, the USS Sandshark, a Tench-class, will be stationed off Tagataya Island. They can make pick up if you need it." He stood, gathering his stuff. "Any questions?" Jake shook his head. Kearny nodded. "Anything else?" he asked. Jake looked at him straight in the eye. "I don't like you Kearny." Kearny flashed his shark-like smile. "I don't care." And he walked out.