looking for ways to attack her.
And now it felt as though they were attacking him.
CHAPTER 7
0900 hours, 16 January
CAG’s office, U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson
“You’re at attention, Mister!”
Batman gave up any thought of keeping this discussion on a friendly,
personal level and held himself ramrod stiff, keeping his eyes focused
on a point on the bulkhead behind CAG Marusko’s left shoulder. “Yes,
sir!”
Marusko examined the Shore Patrol report in his hand and shook his head
slowly, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he saw written there. “One
ornamental hedge. Two rows of flowers. Tire marks across the
landscaped lawn. A rock garden, complete with a decorative Buddhist
shrine. A goddamned palm tree.” CAG looked up, peering over the top of
his reading glasses.
“Just how the hell did you manage to park the car in the hotel tennis
court?
It was fenced in!”
“Well, it was. Sort of. Sir.”
“Rental car.”
“Yes, sir. You see, the brakes were kind of bad, and-”
“How much did you have to drink?”
“Gee, I’m not real sure, CAG. We’d stopped at the Oriental first. Then
we went to the That Intercontinental. The girls were showing me around,
you see.”
“Driving under the influence. Property damage. This is serious,
Mister.
Damned serious!”
“Yes, sir.”
“Next there’s this … this complaint from the same hotel. An
unidentified man wearing boxer shorts, and two … ah … partly dressed
young ladies, ran through the lobby, startling a number of the hotel’s
guests. That wouldn’t be you and your ‘friends’ again, would it?”
“Uh, probably not, CAG. I mean, I don’t remember too much after the-”
“The man in boxer shorts was screaming, ‘Viper Squadron, launch when
ready!” at the top of his lungs. Ring any bells?”
“No, sir.”
“And then the finale. This same man and his female companions removed
the rest of their clothes and went swimming in the hotel pool.”
“I really wouldn’t know anything about that, sir.”
“It seems one of the restaurant lounges in this hotel has a large
picture window, which looks out into the pool. Underwater. Very
atmospheric, I understand.
“I’m sure it is, sir.”
“The man proceeded to grapple with one of the women in the water,
apparently in an attempt to copulate with her. In front of
approximately fifty of the hotel’s guests who happened to be in the
lounge at the time.”
“I’m sure if he’d known they were watching, he wouldn’t have done it,
sir.”
“Responding to a call by the hotel, the Shore Patrol finally found you
behind the pool house, apparently hiding from the establishment’s
security people, stark naked and sopping wet.” CAG looked up again. “It
doesn’t say what became of your skinny-dipping companions.”
“Oh, that was their hotel. I imagine they made it back to their room.”
“You sorry son of a bitch! In one night you have managed to disgrace
your uniform, your squadron-”
“Well, actually, I wasn’t wearing the uniform at the time-”
“Damn it, Wayne, don’t you play games with me!” He slapped the report
down on his desk. “I could have your ass out of here with this! Do
you understand me? I could have your wings handed to me on a platter!”
Batman swallowed. This was worse than he possibly could have imagined.
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, you have a choice, mister. We can handle this right here, just
you and me. Or we can go to the Captain with it. What’s it going to
be?”
“I’ll be glad to … to work it out with you, sir.”
“Good.” Marusko nodded. “Good! The skipper wouldn’t want to be
bothered with shit like this. Now for the good news. Somehow you
managed to luck out on one part of this sorry story, Wayne. The hotel
has agreed not to press charges so long as you pay them—” He consulted
the report again.
“Right. Two thousand, nine hundred fifty dollars for damage to their
landscaping. Apparently they haven’t been able to connect you with the
swimming pool incident, because that wasn’t mentioned in their claim. Or
maybe they’ve decided to start featuring X-rated sex shows for their
clientele.”
“Three … three thousand dollars, sir?”
CAG picked up another paper. “Add to that an estimated eight hundred