“Piece of cake.” The Legionnaire beamed. “Like I said, anyone could do it.”
“Fine,” Phule said. “Then I’ll make an announcement and have any interested parties report to you for lessons tomorrow. “
“My pleasure, Captain.”
“Outside your room. “
Do-Wop blanched.
“My room?”
“That’s right. I want you to teach them how to handle a variety of locks-doors, suitcases, the works-and you can use the locks on your room and personal effects to do it.”
“But …”
“Of course, if there’s anything in your gear that might have ‘strayed’ in over the last few weeks, it might be advisable to have it ‘stray’ right back to its owners before you begin the lessons. Don’t you agree?”
Do-Wop opened and shut his mouth several times like a beached fish, but no words came out.
“Come on, partner.” Sushi laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “I think we’ve been outflanked on this round. Looks like we’d better do a little lost-and-found work this afternoon.”
Not all the pairings were turbulent, but some were notably unusual. Perhaps the strangest of all came about after one particular off-duty incident in the hotel cocktail lounge.
While the Legionnaires tended to dominate the watering hole, there was always a smattering of civilians in attendance. Some were drawn by the media coverage the company had been getting and came to covertly gawk at the troops, while others were surprised to find so many uniforms in what they thought was a civilized lounge and simply refused to yield ground. For the most part, however, the two groups tended to steadfastly ignore each other.