“That sounds fine, sir.”
“Good,” he sez, startin’ to scribble on the sheets. “We have a whole supply crew in the infirmary right now—got a bad batch of chili or something. Anyway, I’ll just put you and your squad in there as replacements, and when they get out, they can take the sanitation engineer slots.”
It occurs to me that these other guys are gonna be less than thrilled with their new assignment, but that, of course, is not my problem. Still, it will be a good idea if for a while we keep a lookout for anyone tryin’ to sneak up on us from the downwind side.
“Thank you sir,” I sez, and mean it.
“Just report to Supply Depot Number Thirteen and you’ll be all set.”
“Yes sir … ummm … is it far? I mean, I got my crew outside and we got all our gear with us …”
“Just flag down one of the wagons going your way and hitch a ride,” he sez. “One of the nicer things about working at Headquarters … with the supply depots right here is that there are lots of wagons around. You’ll rarely have to walk anywhere.”
“Yes sir. Thank you again, sir.”
“Oh … Sergeant Guido?”
“Sir?” I sez, turning’ back to him.
He is pushin’ a stack of papers across his desk toward me that must weigh more than twenty pounds.
“Since you’ll be riding, you might as well take this with you instead of waiting for it to be delivered by courier.”
“I … I don’t understand, sir,” I sez, eyein’ this mountain of dead weight suspiciously like it was a distant relative arrivin’ unannounced. “Do you want I should store this for you over at the depot?”