Canidy was inside, by himself. Fine wondered where Ann Chambers was.
The Scorpion was there with the usual crowd of young officers hovering close to her. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Fulmar.
“What happened?” Canidy asked when they sat down beside him.
“The colonel had to call Bedell Smith to get him turned loose,” Fine said.
Canidy shook his head.
“They’re going to court-martial me. I put a guy’s eye out,” Fulmar said.
They’re not going to court-martial you. You could have put Bedell Smith’s eye out, and they wouldn’t court-martial you. Not now.
“You’re leaving town just in time, then, aren’t you?” Canidy said.
The Scorpion came over.
“And where have you two been all night?” she asked. She slipped into a chair facing Eric.
“As a matter of fact, they’ve been out carousing,” Canidy said.
“Whiskey, wild women, brawling. That sort of thing.”
“That sounds terribly naughty,” the Scorpion said.
“If I asked you a question,” Fulmar said to her, “could I get an honest answer?” She leaned forward across the table and ran her fingernails across the back of his hand.
“You can ask me anything you want, darling,” she said. “Whether you get an–”
“Have you got someplace we could go?” Eric interrupted.
“Or would you rather we stayed here and groped each other?”
“Don’t be a bastard, darling,” she said, stiffening. “I’ve never done anything to you.”
“The question, then, is do you want to? And if so, where?” Canidy said.
The Scorpion angrily flashed her eyes at Canidy and then moved them to Fulmar.
He stood up and walked to the door, then turned and looked back at the table.
“Opportunity knocks but once,” Canidy said.
“Fuck you, Canidy,” the Scorpion said. He laughed, and she glowered at him. Then she got up and went to Fulmar.
She put her hand on his arm and turned.
“Good night, everybody!” she cried.
It pleased her, Fine saw, to have the world know that she had sunk her stinger into the plumpest baby rabbit of them all.
“Do you think there will be anything left?” Canidy asked. “By that, I mean, when she has sucked him dry, will she also eat the empty shell?
”
“It was pretty bad with his mother, Dick,” Fine said.
I was afraid it would be,” Canidy said. “Going to see her was not a good idea.” iii’m not sure his going with the Scorpion is such a good idea, either,” Fine said.
“Well, you know what Benjamin Franklin said about older women,” Canidy said.” st hey don’t yell, they don’t swell, and they’re grateful as hell. n Fine laughed. “Franklin didn’t say that.”
“What is it you ambulance-chasers say? Or words to that effect’?” Fine chuckled again.
“I was going to run her off,” Canidy said. “But then I had a sudden insight. I think she’s just what he needs tonight. Now, what can I do for you?”
“What?”
“I hate to send any of my loyal legion into the mouth of death without getting them a farewell live-today-for-tomorrow-we-die piece of ass. How does yonder redhead strike your fancy?” Fine laughed. isem going to the U. S. Embassy in Bern, he said.
“First, Canidy said.
Fine smiled.
“Thank you, sir, but no thank you, sir. I am one of the few surviving members of that rara avis, faithful husband. “‘ Canidy chuckled. “Is that what love is, Stanley, not wanting to fuck anybody else?” Fine sensed that it was a serious question. iyou can look, but not touch,” he said. “They call it fidelity. ii Then I must have caught it,” Canidy said.
“Maybe you’re coming down with a cold, Fine said.
“Screw you,” Canidy said fondly.
FOUR] Ferdield Army llir Corpn Station Bedlordshire, England ZSB January 1943 It. Commander Edwin W. Bitter was torn between annoyance and pleasure when he saw the Packard limousine bouncing directly across the airfield-rather than taking the access road or even the taxiway–toward the ancient B-17. He could see Sergeant Agnes Draper behind the wheel.
That was fine.
But there were two others in the backseat, two officers with the golden United States eagle on their caps. One of them was almost certainly Canidy, and the other more than likely Stanley S. Fine.