“”Every cooperation, “‘ Colonel D’Angelo said, “and for that matter, the drinks I would love to have with you. But that’s out of the question for tonight. We’re scheduled for tomorrow. Unless there’s anything really important?”
“That’s very kind of you, Colonel,” Bitter said, “but there’s nothing I can think of now. Tomorrow, Commander Dolan and Lieutenant Kennedy are going to show me around.
When you get back, however, I would like to ask a favor.”
“Name it,” D’Angelo said.
“I’d like to go along on a training mission,” Biter said. “I’ve got almost no experience with bombers. I’ve never even been inside a
B-17.”
“You know how to fire a. 50-caliber Browning, Commander?” Major Ester asked.
“Sure,” Biter said.
“Unless you’ve got your heart set on a training mission, Commander,” Ester said, “there’s one way to get a hell of a lot of experience in a hurry. Come along with us in the morning.”
“Wouldn’t I be in the way?”
“You’d replace one of the waist gunners,” Ester said.
Bitter was aware that everybody at the table was waiting for his response.
“I’d like that very much,” he said.
Actually, he didn’t want to go on a B-17 mission in the morning.
And this bothered him a lot. He could already feel his stomach tighten with the fear.
“I’ll get you a copy of the Dash-One,” Colonel D’Angelo said.
“You might want to glance through it later tonight.”
“Thank you,” Bitter said again and smiled at him, wondering if D’Angelo could see how frightened he was.
The manual, TM-B-I 7F-I Operating Manual B-l , FAIR craft, was produced before he left the officers’ mess.
On the way back to their area, Dolan said, “That was a shitty thing for that little shit to do to you. If I were you, I’d tell him to go fuck himself.”
“Meaning what?”
“You’ve paid your dues,” Dolan said. “You already know what it’s like to get shot at. You don’t have to get shot at while you’re taking a familiarization hop.”
“If I didn’t go, Dolan, you know what that little shit would start saying.”
“Fuck him! What do you care what he thinks?” “I’ll go,” Biter said. “Leave it at that.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Dolan said.
There was something in Dolan’s tone that annoyed Biter. And then he remembered what General Lorimer had told him about Colonel Stevens ordering Canidy grounded when he wanted to fly the photo recon mission.
“Dolan, you stay off the phone tonight,” Biter said.
“What?”
“You know what I mean,” Bitter said.
“Shit,” Dolan said.
“”Shit, sir, Commander.”
“Canidy’ll have my ass if you get yourself blown away,” Dolan said.
“And I’ll have your ass if I don’t make that flight tomorrow,” Bitter said.
When he got to the hut, he could see Sergeant Agnes Draper through window. Inside, he found her room and knocked on the door. She answered it with her hair down, wearing a heavy, old, and unauractive bathrobe, obviously chosen for warmth, not style.
“You’ll have to amuse yourself tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll be spending the day with the base commander. You fixed all right for everything?
Money, in particular?”
“Yes, thank you, I am.”
“Good night, then, Sergeant.” “Good night, Commander,” she said.
He went to his room, arranged the light as best he could over the bunk, and started to read the manual. Compared to what he had been used to in the Navy and the AVG, it was astonishingly simple, like a children’s book.
The manuals Biter had used presumed that the reader was a qualified pilot with a fairly advanced knowledge of aerodynamics, physics, meteorology, and mathematics. The Dash-One for the B-17 presumed the opposite.
This one was closer to the owner’s manuals in glove compartments of new cars than anything else. He quickly grew bored with it and turned the light off. But he couldn’t sleep. And he decided he couldn’t just lie in the dark and worry. That made things worse. So he turned the light on again and read the Dash-One until his eyes teared.
At three o’clock in the morning, he was awakened by a sergeant who told him he was Colonel D’Angelo’s driver and that he had been sent to take him to the briefing. The sergeant was carrying an armful of high-altitude clothing, bulky, crudely made sheepskin trousers, jacket, boots, and helmet.