Читать книгу Eagle Squad - James C Glass - Страница 8

CHAPTER THREE

The appointment was at three o’clock, but butterflies had been in Jack Nelson’s stomach since noon. It was game time again, and adrenaline was pumping. At times like this he tried to go inside himself, but Karen was with him, feeding him cokes in a dark corner of the student union beer bar and making him talk it out.

“I don’t know what you’re so uptight about. You have everything they want: high grade-point average, athletic ability and leadership experience on the team. It’s just a formality, Jack.”

“A lot of it is politics, Karen: how you play the game, how many people like you. There are maybe a dozen slots open in Eagle Squad this year, and fifty guys who want in. Everybody’s competing with everybody, and there are no close friends over there. Sometimes I wonder why I even want to go into the military.”

“So why do you?” she asked.

“You know it’s important to me.”

“I know, but don’t let your whole life hang on it. If you don’t get in, it’s their loss. You can still be an engineer, and the pay’s better.”

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life just making money, and you don’t want it either.”

“I want you be be happy with what you do,” she said. “What you do and how much you earn makes no difference to me.”

“But you’re not a big fan of the military.”

“No, I’m not, but I know it’s necessary to have it, and if you want me to be a military wife I’ll be that.” Her face was suddenly flushed, and Jack took her hands in his at the center of their little table in the dark corner.

“You never let me get away with bullshit, do you?” he said softly.

“Never,” she snapped back.

Jack looked at her steadily for a moment, then sighed. “I’d better get over there. Meet me in the library at six?”

“Yes. Good luck, Jack. Just be yourself.”

“Right,” he said, made a funny face at her, and she rolled her eyes in mock disgust.

He left her alone to read, and walked in sunshine to the windowless, one story concrete building that housed the Department of Military Science. A maze of hallways led to classrooms, projection rooms and a small library. At each end of the building, narrow staircases led downwards to a full basement containing a rifle and pistol range with ten positions, storage and equipment issue rooms and a large open area which doubled as gymnasium and drill field. It was a modern facility, a campus pride, and it was widely known that the United States Army took a special interest in it, sending only their best people as teachers. Jack walked past a reception area where two secretaries sat pecking away at word processors without looking up. He walked to a closed door marked COMMANDANT, took a deep breath and knocked three times on the door jam.

“Come!” someone shouted from inside. Jack opened the door, pulled himself up to full height and centered himself in the doorway.

“Jack Nelson, sir. We have an appointment at fifteen hundred, sir.”

As Jack stood rigidly in the doorway, Colonel William Holleque rose from behind his desk and walked towards him, hand extended.

“Jack, come in. Good to see you.” He took Jack’s hand in a quick, iron grip, then released it. There was an aura of strength surrounding the man: hard, angular body with a face chiseled from brown marble, skin like leather, short-cropped blond hair turning white at the temples, and light blue eyes that could look into a soul. His movements were quick and deliberately orchestrated. He projected a constant image of complete control, and one could not lie to the man or try to deceive him. His eyes wouldn’t allow it. Even so there was something fatherly about him, something caring, and everything one said seemed to be important. He was probably in his late forties or early fifties. Nobody knew. He looked like a thirty-year-old, and among the four hundred cadets, he was simply known as The Man.

They went back to the desk, Jack seating himself in a straight-back chair in front of it. The colonel sat down, and punched an intercom button. “No calls, Margaret,” he said sharply, and the intercom clicked twice. An open file was on the desk, and Holleque studied it for a brief moment, then smiled at Jack.

“What can I say, Nelson? Your record is excellent. Everything we like to see in a candidate for Eagle Squad, provided you have the proper motivation.” He turned a page in the file.

“Motivation, sir?”

“Why do you want to be in Eagle Squad?”

“Because it’s the best, sir. I want to be part of the best, and I feel I’m qualified for it.”

“Every man in that unit intends to be career military.”

“I know, sir. That’s also my intention.”

“Four years active duty minimum, and the scholarship won’t even pay your tuition.”

“I have a football scholarship, sir, but the extra money will help, and I want to get the best possible training. That means Eagle Squad.”

“The field exercises are demanding and dangerous. Two cadets have been killed in the last three years. Your whole life can end before you even graduate. What would your parents think of that?”

“My folks have encouraged me to go for it, sir. Dad goes back a long way with a presidential task force and the national committee. I was raised ultra-conservative, sir. My folks are very pleased about my wanting to go into the military. That’s why I’m here, in the best military science program in the country. My folks know the risks, and so do I.”

“You’re willing to die for your country?”

“I don’t intend to die in combat, sir. The guy I’m fighting will have to do the dying.”

The cold blue eyes searched his soul. Was there a trace of a smile on that chiseled face? Holleque turned a page in the file and then another while Jack waited quietly, ramrod straight in the chair. Time moved like molasses through cheesecloth. Finally the colonel closed the file and leaned back in his chair. His voice was crisp.

“Very well, Nelson, you have my positive recommendation at the board meeting on Friday. I promise nothing, but the board has never gone against a recommendation of mine. With their approval, you should receive a notice within a week, giving you the drill schedules and forms for your professors to fill out when you have to be excused from classes to attend field exercises. This is in addition to your regular military science classes, of course. You’ll receive no extra credit for the field work, but it’s a central part of your training.”

“I understand, sir.” Jack fought for control, wanting to grin, shout, jump up and down, anything to vent his feeling of victory in achieving a goal he had dreamed about for over two years. To the colonel he only showed a muscular, blond athlete, sitting at attention without expression and exuding an aura of total confidence and dedication.

They stood up together and shook hands again. Holleque seemed at ease as they walked to the door. His voice softened. “I handle Eagle Squad myself, Jack. I think you’ll find I’m demanding but fair, and my people are handpicked. I expect nothing but the best from them, and so far that’s what they’ve given me.”

“I’ll give you my best, sir.”

“I’m sure of that,” said Holleque, “but now I have another appointment.”

Jack squared away at the door, suppressed an urge to salute, for he was not in uniform. “Thank you for your time, sir.”

“Have a good day,” said the Colonel. Jack stepped backwards out of the room, executed a left face and walked briskly away.

Holleque closed the door and walked back to his desk thinking, Holleque, my man, you have found yourself another right-wing gem. As he settled in his chair the intercom buzzed again.

“Yes, Margaret?”

“You had a call from President Lundeman, and he wants you to call back. A Mister Ebensack from NSA Arlington called and set up an appointment for Thursday morning at ten. He said it would only take a few minutes.”

“What’s that about?”

“He didn’t say, sir.”

“All right, I’ve got it down. Thanks, Margaret.” Holleque punched the intercom, tapped his pencil on the polished desk a few beats, frowning, then picked up the telephone and dialed the president’s office.

* * * * *

Karen was still thinking about Jack’s interview when she entered the lab. The door was unlocked, so it was likely Doctor Reimer had already arrived. The animal room was dark, but there was light beneath the closed door to the adjacent lab. The animals chattered and squealed in their cages, smelling her perfume and anticipating a meal. Among her menial tasks as a graduate student it was her duty to feed them. Karen turned on the lights, retrieved food dishes from the cages and filled them with pellets.

There were muted sounds from the adjacent laboratory. At first Karen couldn’t identify them. She listened carefully in the silence of her room as the animals fed. Sobbing. Someone was crying behind the closed door. She walked to it, knocked softly.

“Hello?” Is something wrong? It’s Karen. The animals are fed. I need to check on how my assemblers are doing.”

The sobbing stopped, and there was a long pause. The doorknob rattled and Karen stepped back as the door opened. Judith Reimer, her thesis advisor, held the door open and smiled wanly at her. Reimer’s eyes were red, and she wiped at them with one hand.

“Sorry. I’m having a bad morning. Come on in.”

“What’s wrong?” asked Karen, and then remembered. “Is it about Doctor Bauer? I was so sorry to hear about him. So tragic.”

Reimer closed the door behind them. “More tragic than you might think, but don’t mind me. I’m just being dramatic.”

She wiped her eyes again and ran her hands over short-cropped grey hair that made some people think she was on the physical education faculty or even a coach. Karen had quickly learned that behind that hard face with thin lips was a genius who could model molecules hooking together in her sleep.

“There are rumors flying about how he died, and his research assistant is missing. Could he be responsible?”

“So much for military intelligence. That would be an easy answer,” said Reimer. “They’re interviewing all of us who have classified projects. Months to get us our security clearances, and now we’re murder suspects. Brilliant. I don’t even know what Bauer was working on.”

“I didn’t know you had a classified project,” said Karen.

“Well now you know. It doesn’t involve your thesis research, so don’t worry about that. Nobody will be telling us you can’t publish your work. That has been a problem on this campus, a problem doctor Bauer championed in the faculty senate.”

Reimer paused, pressed her lips together angrily. “Maybe he was too loud about it, and pissed off the wrong people.” Her eyes darted around, and she put a fist to her mouth.

“Sorry. I’m talking silly. This has nothing to do with you. A friend has died, and I’m a little scared about being interviewed by the feds. I don’t trust those people to get anything right. Back to work, now. How are the assemblers doing?”

“The chain lengths were up to ninety when I checked last night.”

“Not so hot. Should have been a lot longer by then. Change the temperature, the PH, or try another polymer with fewer side chains. The mites have to work much faster than what you’re getting, and we’re not going to spend time playing with their structure right now. We want to get your thesis finished and you graduated to do great things in the world.”

Reimer put a hand on Karen’s shoulder and squeezed. She was her old self again, quick and decisive. “I’ll be in my office all morning,” she said.

Karen spent the morning and early afternoon running one electrophoresis test after another and the results were all the same. Her chain links had only gone to two-hundred-thirty units overnight, a fifth of what she had hoped for. She set up six new experiments with varying PH and temperature and was ready to leave for the day to meet Jack. The door to Reimer’s office was ajar when Karen went to see if there was anything else she should do.

Reimer was talking to someone on the telephone, and she was crying again. Karen listened briefly, and quickly left the laboratory before Reimer could know when she’d gone. And the last words she’d heard troubled her the rest of the day.

“I’m scared, baby,” said Reimer to someone. “I could be next, and I don’t know who to be afraid of. Please come over tonight. I need a lot more than a hug from you.”

* * * * *

“Hey, spacewoman!” Jack said loudly, and other people in the library looked up from their books. “I’ve just had a major career breakthrough, and you don’t seem to be interested in it.”

Karen blinked her eyes and looked surprised, then hurt. “I have been listening to you, Jack. What do you want me to say? I knew you’d get it, so it isn’t big news to me. I’m happy for you. It’s what you wanted.”

“You seem kind of down.”

“No, I’m thinking about something else. After you left the union I went back to the lab to feed my animals and do some work. Doctor Reimer was there crying.”

“Who’s Doctor Reimer?”

“My thesis advisor; you’ve heard me mention Judith Reimer. She’s a physical chemist: polymer chemistry, nano-tech, that sort of thing. Anyway, she was crying, and I was so embarrassed for her.

Karen quickly told Jack what had happened in the laboratory.

“Hey, hey,” said Jack. “Sounds like she has a boyfriend.”

“Listen to me. She believes it was murder, and said so. I can’t forget that crazy, frightened look in her eyes when she first started talking to me. Then the wall went up, and we only talked about my work after that. She feels threatened by something. I’m sure of it.

“It’s none of your business. You can’t help her unless she asks for it.”

“I’ve never seen her vulnerable like that.”

“We’re all vulnerable.”

“Even you?”

“Vulnerable to your charms. Let’s get out of here, and go for a walk.”

They walked outside, where a cold wind came down from the hills. The campus was brightly lit; they walked arm in arm past silent, granite buildings and around the quad to a winding path lined with brick leading up into the hills. Every fifty yards a small wooden bench was placed looking down on campus, and after a winding climb of four hundred feet there was a covered overlook with tables and cooking grates. They leaned on the four-foot stone wall encircling the overlook, watched the lights from the campus town and a fire tower on a neighboring hill in the north woods. It seemed even the birds were asleep, and then Jack turned Karen to face him, taking her in his arms, and they kissed softly, without haste or force. He leaned her back slightly over the wall, pressing against her until she felt his hardness, and reaching with her hand she pushed down gently, but firmly.

“Ouch,” he said.

“Ouch is right. I can think of better positions.”

“Just a healthy, American boy,” he quipped, but his breathing was deep and he held her hand where it had pressed him.

“I do love you, Jack,” she murmured.

“You’re my woman,” he growled theatrically.

“No, tell me you love me, macho man.”

“I love you,” he whispered.

“That’s more like it. You’ll say it easier with practice.”

At that instant, there was a footstep on the dark path behind them, a tiny stone grinding under a shoe.

“Shit,” said Jack.

They held each other closely, waiting in silence for someone to appear, feeling uneasy until there was a scuffling sound further down the trail.

“Someone watching us?” asked Karen.

“Sounds like whoever it was is headed down now.”

“Kinky.”

“People come up here all the time. If I saw us, I’d know we wanted to be alone.”

“I didn’t hear anyone coming up the trail, Jack. Please, let’s take the dirt trail back. It’s spooky here.”

He wouldn’t tell her about how uneasy he felt. For just an instant he had felt danger, either real or imagined, and his body was ready for a fight.

“Sure, it’s light enough, and we’ll get back quicker,” he said. “The dance started at nine, didn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a quarter-past. Let’s go boogie.”

They picked their way down the steep narrow trail, dropping on a line through thick woods and sharp underbrush. The trail came out of the woods by the brightly lit house of the president, and they crossed the grassy quadrangle towards the student union. Near them, two figures dressed in khaki, black jump boots and red berets suddenly appeared, walking briskly towards the military science armory. As they approached the building, both men turned to look at Jack and Karen for what seemed like a long time, then disappeared inside. Karen, eager to dance, walked jauntily ahead, noticing nothing, but when Jack saw the two men watching him, uneasiness returned.

Red berets were the badges of Eagle Squad.