Child, Lee – The Enemy

But he seemed like a bit of an asshole to me.’

Joe nodded and picked up his mug. Said nothing.

79

‘What?’ I said.

‘Bird’s not a small post,’ he said. ‘But it’s not real big, either,

right? What are you working on?’

‘Right now? Some two-star died and I can’t find his briefcase.’

‘Homicide?’

I shook my head. ‘Heart attack.’

‘When?’

‘Last night.’

‘After you got there?’

I said nothing.

‘You sure you didn’t screw up?’ Joe said.

‘I don’t think so,’ I said again.

‘So why did they pull you out? One day you’re supervising the

Noriega process, and the next day you’re in North Carolina with

nothing to do? And you’d still have nothing to do if the general

hadn’t died.’

‘I got orders,’ I said. ‘You know how it is. You have to assume

they know what they’re doing.’

‘Who signed the orders?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You should find out. Find out who wanted you at Bird badly

enough to pull you out of Panama and replace you with an

asshole. And you should find out why.’

The guy in the apron refilled our mugs. Shoved plastic menus

in front of us.

‘Eggs,’ Joe said. ‘Over well, bacon, toast.’

‘Pancakes,’ I said. ‘Egg on the top, bacon on the side, plenty

of syrup.’

The guy took the menus back and went away and Joe turned

around on his stool and sat back-to with his legs stretched way

out into the aisle.

‘What exactly did her doctor say?’ I asked him.

He shrugged. ‘Not very much. No details, no diagnosis. No

real information. European doctors aren’t very good with bad

news. They hedge around it all the time. Plus, there’s a privacy

issue, obviously.’

‘But we’re headed over there for a reason.’

He nodded. ‘He suggested we might want to come. And then

he hinted that sooner might be better than later.’

80

‘What is she saying?’

‘That it’s all a lot of fuss about nothing. But that we’re always

welcome to visit.’

W’c finished our breakfast and I paid for it. Then Joe gave

me my ticket, like a transaction. I was sure he earned more

than me, but probably not enough to make an airline ticket

proportional to a plate of eggs and bacon with toast on the side.

But I took the deal. We got off our stools and got our bearings

and headed for the check-in counter.

‘Take your coat off,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘I want the clerk to see your medal ribbons,’ he said. ‘Military

action going on overseas, we might get an upgrade.’

‘It’s Air France,’ I said. ‘France isn’t even a military member

of NATO.’

‘The check-in clerk will be American,’ he said. ‘Try it.’

I shrugged out of my coat. Folded it over my arm and walked

sideways so the left of my chest stuck out forward.

‘OK now?’ I said.

‘Perfect,’ he said, and smiled.

I smiled back. Left-to-right on the top row I wear the Silver

Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and the Legion of

Merit. Second row has the Soldier’s Medal, the Bronze

Star, and my Purple Heart. The bottom two rows are the junk

awards. I won all of the good stuff purely by accident and none of it means very much to me. Using it to get an upgrade out of

an airline clerk is about what it’s good for. But Joe liked the top

two rows. He served five years in Military Intelligence and

didn’t get past the junk.

We made it to the head of the line and he put his passport

and ticket on the counter along with a Treasury Department ID.

Then he stepped behind my shoulder. I put my own passport

and ticket down. He nudged me in the back. I turned a little

sideways and looked at the clerk.

‘Can you find us something with legroom?’ I asked him.

He was a small man, middle-aged, tired. He looked up at us.

Together we measured almost thirteen feet tall and weighed

about four hundred fifty pounds. He studied the Treasury ID

81

and looked at my uniform and pattered on his keyboard and

came up with a forced smile.

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 *