Child, Lee – The Enemy

these cavalry types. The O Club in an hour?’

We carried our bags over to the Visiting Officers’ Quarters and

found our rooms. Mine looked pretty much the same as the one

Kramer had died in, except it was cleaner. It was a standard

American motel layout. Presumably some hotel chain had bid

for the government contract, way back when. Then they had

air-freighted all the fixtures and fittings, right down to the sinks

and the towel rails and the toilet bowls.

I shaved and took a shower and dressed in clean BDUs.

Knocked on Summer’s door fifty-five minutes into Swan’s hour.

She opened up. She looked clean and fresh. Behind her the

276

room looked the same as mine, except it already smelled like a

woman’s. There was some kind of nice eau de toilette in the air.

We found the O Club without any trouble. It occupied half of

one of the ground-floor wings of the main building. It was a

grand space, with high ceilings and intricate plaster mouldings.

There was a lounge, and a bar, and a dining room. We found

Swan in the bar. He was with a lieutenant colonel who was

wearing Class As with a combat infantryman’s badge on the

coat. It was an odd thing to see, on an Armored post. His name

plate said: Simon. He introduced himself to us. I got the feeling

he was going to join us for dinner. He told us he was a liaison

officer, working on behalf of the infantry. He told us there was

an Armored guy down in Heidelberg, doing the same job in

reverse.

‘Been here long?’ I asked him.

‘Two years,’ he said, which I was glad about. I needed some

background, and Swan didn’t have it any more than I knew

anything about Fort Bird. Then I realized it was no accident

that Simon was joining the party. Swan must have figured out

what I wanted and set about providing it without being asked.

Swan was that kind of a guy.

‘Pleased to meet you, colonel,’ I said, and then I nodded to

Swan, like I was saying thanks. We drank cold American beers

from tall frosted glasses and then we went through to the

dining room. Swan had made a reservation. The steward put us

at a table in the corner. I sat where I could watch the whole

room at once. I didn’t see anyone I knew. Vassell wasn’t around.

Nor was Coomer.

The menu was absolutely standard. We could have been in

any O Club in the world. O Clubs aren’t there to introduce you

to local cuisine. They’re there to make you feel at home, somewhere

deep inside the army’s own interpretation of America.

There was a choice of fish or steak. The fish was probably

European, but the steak would have been flown in across the

Atlantic. Some politician in one of the ranch states would have

leveraged a sweet deal with the Pentagon.

We small-talked for a spell. We bitched about pay and

benefits. Talked about people we knew. We mentioned Just

Cause in Panama. Lieutenant Colonel Simon told us he had

277

been to Berlin two days previously and had gotten himself a

chip of concrete from the Wall. Told us he planned to have it

encased in a plastic cube. Planned to hand it on down the

generations, like an heirloom.

‘Do you know Major Marshall?’ I asked him.

‘Fairly well,’ he said.

‘Who is he exactly?’ I asked.

‘Is this official?’

‘Not really,’ I said.

‘He’s a planner. A strategist, basically. Long-term kind of guy.

General Kramer seemed to like him. Always kept him close by,

made him his intelligence officer.’

‘Does he have an intelligence background?’

‘Not formally. But he’ll have done rotations, I’m sure.’

‘So is he a part of the inner team? I heard Kramer and Vassell

and Coomer mentioned all in the same breath, but not

Marshall.’

‘He’s on the team,’ Simon said. ‘That’s for sure. But you know

what flag officers are like. They need a guy, but they aren’t

about to admit it. So they abuse him a little. He fetches and

carries and drives them around, but when push comes to shove

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *