and only twenty minutes remained in the watch. The atmosphere was
relaxed, full of joking and good-natured banter.
They laughed as Tombstone wrinkled his nose. “Come off it, Batman, you
don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! You’ve never even been
there!”
“Hey! Trust me, man! Trust me! I used to go out with this blonde
back Stateside, y’know? An airline stewardess for TWA! Tits like you
would not believe! And she told me that the Airport Hotel was where
the stews hang out whenever they’re in town.”
“Bull!” Nightmare said, grinning. “You’re saying your girlfriend told
you where to pick up Western girls when you were here?”
“Hey, she didn’t know I was going to be in Bangkok when she told me! We
were in bed at the time, as I recall … and she was kind of under my
spell, know what I mean?”
Tombstone shook his head. “Maybe you’ll run into her when you’re
there.”
“Not likely. She quit and married a lawyer from Duluth. Great tits,
though. The Batman flies first class, all the way!”
“Delirious again, poor boy,” Price said sadly. He picked up an empty
soft drink can by Batman’s elbow and shook it lightly. “Too much sugar.
Makes ’em hallucinate.”
“Must be,” Tombstone agreed.
“Shit,” Batman said agreeably. “You two clods are just jealous! There
you’ll be, off on the frontier with gomers and alligators for playmates
…”
“Right on,” Nightmare said. “Ol’ Batman and me are gonna be making the
rounds in Patpong while you two are slapping mosquitos out in the
jungle!
Don’t worry, though. We’ll remember you to the girls …”
“You want to kill them or shall I?” Price asked Tombstone.
“Aw, let them live. They both had deprived childhoods.”
“Deprived of nookie,” Batman agreed. “We’re making up for lost time.”
Tombstone snorted. “Perhaps I should remind you that you guys are still
going to be working. That’s Working …” He dragged the word out
cruelly.
“You know … flying? With an airplane? Working with the Thais?”
“That’s it, man!” Nightmare said. “Working with ’em by day and playing
with ’em by night! Some of those That babes-”
“Uh uh,” Batman said, shaking his head. “Not me. None of this here
local gook poon for yours truly! That’s why I’m for the Airport
Hotel!”
“So what’s wrong with local girls?” Price asked. “You prejudiced or
something?”
“Nah. I just want a gal in my league, is all. You know how stews just
love fighter jocks …”
“You’d be a natural with your medal, Stoney,” Nightmare said. “You go
into the bar, see? You sidle up alongside a lonely-looking lovely, and
you quietly let slip that you are a genuine American Naval hero, winner
of the Navy Cross …”
“… and all of a sudden you’ve got twenty gorgeous girls,” Batman
finished for him. “All rubbing up against you in their low-cut gowns,
just begging you to take them back to their room!”
“Sounds crowded.”
“That, my friend, is the true and deep tragedy of the American hero.
Alone … unloved … unappreciated, he nevertheless must bear the
slings and arrows of misfortune-”
“That’s ‘outrageous fortune.””
“Y’know, Stoney, now that I think about it, maybe you should let me
borrow that fancy ribbon of yours. I could put it to real good use!”
“Yeah!” Nightmare snickered. “It’s gonna be wasted up in that jungle!”
Tombstone laughed, but the reminder about the medal brought a small stab
of guilt. He still felt uncomfortable with the whole hero idea and
wished the others would drop the subject.
“Well, Stoney,” Batman said slowly. “I’ll tell you. I will be thinking
of you while you’re up at that remote, jungle outpost. I truly will.
And the first stew I get in the sack, I’ll slip in the old salami and
say, ‘Stoney, this screw’s for you!””
“Your generosity is overwhelming.” He looked away from the group,
toward a large, mounted photograph on one paneled bulkhead. Taken from
another aircraft, it showed ten aircraft from VF-95 flying in formation
toward the camera, with the bow-on Jefferson astern and below.
The squadron.
Despite the banter, Tombstone had been looking forward to his assignment
at U Feng ever since CAG had told him about it that afternoon. He was