Читать книгу Eagle Squad - James C Glass - Страница 6

CHAPTER ONE

Jack Nelson lined up on the split-receiver, a black kid with wide, frightened eyes, and watched the big Bemidji quarterback. Look right, throw left, look left, throw over the middle. That was the pattern, at least over the last four possessions, and now the guy was backed up against his goal line. The crowd screamed as the ball was snapped. Nelson gave the black kid a hard shiver, knocked him to one knee and drifted back four steps. He broke to his left, saw the receiver coming across the middle with one step on a linebacker. The ball was there, and then Jack Nelson had it, cutting against the grain and crossing the goal line before even the surprised quarterback had a chance to react. The home crowd sat in stunned silence while six busloads of students from Simenson University screamed their lungs out from the far end of the field. Jack trotted back to the sidelines to accept the congratulations of his team mates. Ten minutes later the Cougars from the new school near the Canadian border had won the first game in their second season together as a team, extending their winning streak to seven.

The droning bus ride north was quiet, each young man nursing private aches and bruises. Occasional whiffs of pine scent floated past dozing faces while outside a full moon was rising over the dark silhouettes of fir trees in the north woods. Arnie Kant dozed next to Jack. At six feet-eight and two hundred and seventy nine pounds the good-natured defensive end was called Boulder by his teammates. He found this amusing, but football he took most seriously. That day he had sacked the quarterback twice, and made seven unassisted tackles. The price was pain, which he now nursed quietly. He had closed his eyes, toughing it out like a wounded Tiger when Jack turned to whisper to him.

“Arnie, you awake?”

“Yeah.”

“You were great tonight, man. All over the field. Graham was running for his life most of the time.”

“He’s a good quarterback, Jack.”

“Sure he is, when he has time to throw. Not tonight.”

Arnie chuckled. “And when he did throw, it kept going to you.”

“Ya, sure,” said Jack. Both men laughed, and then Arnie was serious again.

“Coach Patterson said the Vikes and Packers had scouts there tonight.”

“Oh, ho, that’s why you were so up.”

“Hey, I play to win. You know I’ve got to play pro ball. Either that, or be a bum.”

“Come off it, Arnie.”

“Those scouts were watching you, too, but if they offered you a job you wouldn’t take it, right?”

“Of course not; I want to finish school.”

“I mean after graduation.”

“Well, I’ll get my commission, and then I’ve got my active duty to serve. After that I guess I’ll be an engineer for someone or maybe stay in the service.”

“See, all planned out. For me it’s play pro ball or teach little kids and collect food stamps.”

“Bullshit. I’ve seen you work with kids, and they love you. You’re weird, Arnie.”

The big man looked at the seat ahead of him and grinned. “You’re right. I could be happy living on food stamps if I had enough of them. Karen wouldn’t be a problem; I’d keep her happy even if we were poor.”

“In your dreams. I don’t know how she could handle both of us, Arnie. You know, one of these days I’m going to learn when to take you seriously.”

“I really was great tonight, wasn’t I?”

“Shut up, Arnie.” Jack turned his head towards the window and feigned sleep. Arnie smiled at the man’s muscular back for a moment, unable to remember having a closer friend or roommate than Jack Nelson. He closed his eyes and quickly drifted off into a light sleep filled with crowd noises, the impact of hurtling bodies, and pain.

* * * * *

The bus station was a study in chaos. Four busloads of students had already arrived, a pep band was playing loudly in the lobby while the mob of young people, having emptied all the candy machines, milled around looking for something else to eat. Two more buses pulled in and two more students carried off one where an elegantly stocked bar had been carefully hidden. Cans of beer were being passed around overhead and bathroom doors off the lobby were open more than closed as people relieved themselves after the long trip.

Karen Butler leaned against a ticket counter, watching the happy throng with a mixture of amusement and disdain. A bit juvenile, she thought, but somehow she shared their excitement. Her undergraduate days were past. Graduate school required focus and discipline, two traits she shared with Jack, but it was his warmth and affection that brought her to a bus station in the wee hours of the morning. She adjusted the band on her blond ponytail, and was conscious of the stares by several young men nearby when she did it. But then a tiny pompom girl wriggled up to her, smiling in a way calculated to melt even the hardest soul, and force a smile in return. Karen did not smile.

“I saw you waiting,” she gushed. “Do you want a beer or a coke, or something? Oh, he is such a hunk! You should have seen him tonight; it’s like he can read minds, you know.”

Please spare me from this, thought Karen.

“It must be great having a guy like that. I mean, Jack is so good at everything.”

Karen arched an eyebrow. “Everything?” she asked suspiciously, pleased with herself when the girl blushed.

“Oh, well, I don’t mean his private life. I mean.…”

Thank you for sharing, now please go away, Karen wanted to say, but the team bus had just pulled in and the crowd was spilling outside to greet it. “They’re here,” she said, and pointed.

“Oh, yes!” yelped the girl, and then she juggled towards the bus, shaking her pompoms overhead while Karen leaned back with relief against the ticket counter.

There was a delay while coaches made announcements on the bus, and then the door opened and weary players came down the steps, smiling shyly at all the happy faces and wincing at the loud, brassy music of the band. She saw Arnie first, then Jack right behind him, elbowing their way through the crowd to where they knew she would be. Arnie came up to her with arms outstretched.

“Karen, baby, I couldn’t hold back. I had to tell Jack about our secret relationship.” He smothered her in a bear hug that made her grunt, then released her as Jack stopped and put down his duffle.

“How do you feel about that, Jack?” she asked.

“I think group sex is perverted,” he said, and pulled her to him as her arms went around his neck. Over his shoulder, she could see the tiny pompom girl watching them. Unable to resist the sudden impulse, she took his face in her hands and gave him a long open-mouthed kiss. Eat your heart out, she thought.

“Hey, cut that out! You’re making me horny,” said Arnie.

“You’re always horny, Arnie,” said Jack, and looked closely at Karen. “How’s my girl?” he whispered.

“She’s fine, now, thank you. I hear you guys were superstars tonight.”

“How’d you hear that? The game wasn’t even on radio.”

“Oh yes it was,” said Karen. “Kent Conrad went down there and did a play by play on his phone. He brought it back in his Camaro and had it all on the net at eleven.”

“There’s a crazy man for you,” said Arnie. “He must have averaged ninety coming back.”

“At least people are interested,” said Jack. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ve got studying to do in the morning.” He picked up his duffle and looked at Karen.

“I’m in the lot across the street,” she said.

The three of them left the station, crossed a quiet street to a parking lot crammed with compact cars and motorcycles. They stopped at a red Honda Civic, waited while Karen fumbled with a ring of keys.

“I just bet I get to sit in the back again,” grumbled Arnie.

“It’s either that or banging your knees on the dash,” said Jack. “These cars are built for normal humans, Arnie.”

Karen got the door open and Arnie squeezed in the back along with a duffle. Two more pieces of luggage went in the trunk and Jack sat in front with another smaller bag between his legs. Karen started the car, shifted gears and found her hand on Jack’s leg. She looked at him mischievously.

“It’s going to be painful when I go into second or fourth,” she said.

Jack rolled his eyes and gave her a lecherous grin. “But I do love you,” he said, and then moved his leg away from the gear shift.

They pulled out of the lot as people began leaving the bus station in pairs and groups, then drove down the empty main street of Simonsen Park towards the university campus dormitories just outside of town. A few homes for the four thousand-plus permanent residents of the university town were scattered along side streets. All were new, sprawling ranch-style homes with large lots surrounded by pine trees and short walls of yellow brick. The stores were new as well, since the entire town had been born with the university only a decade before: gas stations, two grocery stores, a couple of fast food chains and a single theatre currently featuring two old films titled Porky’s Place and Porky’s Revenge. They passed the only bar in town, The Plumbing Shop, quiet now, but soon to be noisy again when the bus station parking lot was emptied out. There was no off-sale liquor store in town, except at The Plumbing Shop. At the other edge of town, nestled in pines, was The Heidelberg, an A-frame chalet serving European foods with some class, but at prices even students could occasionally afford. With seven thousand students, a faculty of over three hundred at the university, and no other real restaurant within forty miles, business at The Heidelberg was brisk.

At the edge of town the road began to climb. Jack rolled down a window, and pine scent flooded the stuffy car. Ahead of them rose the dark silhouettes of brick dormitories, only a few windows showing lights, and then they were at the border of campus, a sprawling array of white granite buildings arranged in spokes radiating outwards from a seven story tower which was the administration building. Unseen were the underground tunnels connecting all buildings, with shops, cafeteria, book store, even a cabaret for the long winter nights. Nearby rose the dome of the nuclear power plant which provided energy for both the university and the town. It was a technological community, proud of itself and totally self-contained.

They stopped in front of a dormitory. Jack unloaded luggage while Arnie struggled to get out of the tiny car. “My legs are all weird,” he quipped. “Thanks a lot, Karen.”

“Good night, Arnie,” she said, smiling. The two men carried luggage into the building while Karen sat in the car, engine running. Jack returned in a moment, sliding into the front seat and leaning over to kiss her cheek.

“Alone at last,” he said huskily.

“You let Arnie take the luggage up by himself?”

“He insisted. Practically threw me out of the elevator, and told me to get back to you.”

Karen laughed, put the car in gear and pulled away from the building. “I wish we could find him a nice girlfriend, Jack. He’s a sweet guy.”

“What we need is someone who’s big, beautiful, horny, a great cook, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of football. Know anyone like that?”

“Could be a Swedish girl. I’ll keep my eyes open. You had a good game tonight.”

“Yeah, not bad for the opener. Arnie was awesome. He tries so hard when he knows scouts are watching him. I don’t know what he’ll do if he can’t play pro ball. He makes jokes about not playing, but the game is everything to him.

“Well, it’s important to you, too.”

“Sure, but not like Arnie. I mean, it’s just a game to me, and without the scholarship I couldn’t afford this school. God, a full-time job wouldn’t even pay the tuition. I like the exercise, the discipline, being a part of the team. I like being a part of something unified, with a single purpose.”

“Like the military,” said Karen, looking at him seriously.

“Yeah, like that. Sports and military overlap a lot: being the best, team spirit, discipline.”

“Always the discipline. You talk about that a lot, Jack.”

“Does that bother you?” he asked.

Karen kept her eyes on the road. They were coming up to the president’s house. The lights inside were all on, and a county sheriff’s car was sitting in the curved driveway in front of the two story, brick structure. “Not really,” she said thoughtfully. “It’s just that sometimes I think I’ve fallen in love with an ancient warrior who’s out to right all the wrongs in the world. Dedication, perseverance, et cetera, et cetera.”

“Hey, even chemists have concern for the human condition. You guys must care about people too. Better living through chemistry, and all that.”

“Or dying,” Karen said softly.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said, smiling and shaking her head at him. “Let’s change the subject.”

“Okay. Right now I’m wondering what a police car is doing in front of the president’s house this time of night?”

“Probably the trouble on the hill this morning. The rumors have been flying all day. Do you know Doctor Bauer?”

“I had physical chemistry from him. Decent guy, but his lectures would put a hungry shark to sleep. Catatonic.”

“A guard found him dead in his hush-hush lab this morning, and one of his graduate students is missing. The more imaginative rumor is that the student killed him.”

Jack looked at her incredulously. “I can’t see anyone doing in old Bauer. He wouldn’t hurt a bug.”

“Maybe so,” said Karen, “but from what I’ve heard, he’s done some really terrible things to rats.”