“Cut, print, thank you gentlemen.”

Morton biinked as the spots died away and began to tear off the uniform. “What, may I ask, what was this cagal • about the fresh air.”

“No cagal, old friend,” I said, holding up the liberty pass I had taken from the pocket of the borrowed uniform. “I intend to go forth to bring the word to the troops that when they go out the gates tomorrow night they should not bother to return.”

“I knew that you had an insane idea!” he shrieked, staggering back, wide of eye and pale of skin. “The only way that you can talk to the troops is by going back onto the base.”

I nodded a solemn nod of agreement.

Chapter 23

“It is suicide,” Morton shivered.

“Not at all. Good sense. If that swine Zennor is still looking for me-he certainly won’t be looking among the troops. I have this pass dated for today. I return to base early since there is not much doing in the old town tonight. Then I go to the latrine, the PX, all the other exciting places where the troops assemble, and talk to the lads. And do some other interesting things which it is best you don’t know about. Don’t worry about me.” I could worry enough for myself I thought, darkly. Once back in the army there were a number of problems I would have to tackle. And all of them were dangerous.

“But how will you .get out again?” Morton asked, his voice speaking as though from a great distance, cutting through the black brooding of my thoughts.

“The least of my worries,” I laughed hollowly. And indeed it certainly was. I turned to the ever-patient Stimer who had been listening to us in silence. “You know what to do with the cassettes?”

“It will be as you planned. Volunteers are already waiting to distribute them to even more volunteers who will go forth and do good deeds just as we did. It was inspiring!”

“Indeed it was. But no sallying forth until tomorrow night in the very earliest. The password must be spread,

there must be eager volunteers to make this a mass movement. Because once the officers catch wise things will become difficult. The railroad will be watched or stopped altogether. If that happens other transport must be provided. Keep things moving though, until I get back. You are the authority on desertion now.”

“How long will you be away?”

“Don’t know. But for the shortest amount of time that is possible-that I can guarantee.”

There was little more to say, nothing more to do. I squared my cap upon my aead and turned to the door. “Good luck,” Morton saia. “Thanks.” I was going to need it.

As I walked back through the empty streets toward the Vaillant section of town I fought off the depression that accompanied the uniform I wore. Nor could I drown my sorrows in drink, since money was worthless here and I had returned Stirner’s wirrdisc. Soon I was walking among the inaccessible, brightly lit palaces of pleasure, pressing my nose against the window just like the other uniformed figures that roamed the streets. Some leave! Although the evening was still young, many of them were already drifting back toward Fielden Field where the camp had been built. IJoined in this Brownian movement of despair.

Bright lights burned down upon the barbed wire that encircled the green grassy meadows, where once the good citizens of the city had taken their ease. Green no more, pounded now into dust and filled with gray army tents erected to house the troops. No effete comforts for the conquering soldiers; they might get spoiled. The officers, of course, lived in prefab barracks.

It took all the strength of will that I possessed to join the line of depressed figures that moved toward the MPs at the gate. While my intelligence told me that the last thing to be expected was a soldier with a pass illegally entering the camp, the animal spirit within me was screaming with anguish.

Of course nothing untoward happened. Dim little eyes stared out from under the matt of thick eyebrows, scanned the familiar pass, waved me back into captivity. The sweat cooled from my brow and I jingled the few coins in my pocket that the freedom-bound soldier had been happy to leave behind. There was just about enough of them to buy an understrength beer in the PX. Anything is better than nothing.

I found this depressing establishment easily enough. I just traced the sound of rock-drilling and western music to its source. The PX bar was housed in a sagging tent vaguely illuminated by light bulbs that had been specifically designed to attract flying insects. Here, at rough tables of drink-sodden wood, sitting on splinter-filled planks, the troops enjoyed the pleasures of warm, bad beer. I bought a bulb and joined them. “Got room for one more?”

“Cagal off.”

“Thanks a lot. What is this-cagal your buddy week?”

“It’s always cagal your buddy week.” ” “You sound just like the civilians in town. “ This aroused some interest. The heavyset speaker ‘now focused his blurred vision on me and I realized that all of the others at the table were listening as well.

“You got a pass tonight? We get ours tomorrow. What’s it like?”

“Like pretty grim. They won’t serve you. If you like grab a drink they close the bar and all go home.”

“We heard that. So what’s the point of going in. Nothing.”

“Something. You get to leave the army, travel far away, eat good food, get drunk. And kiss girls. ”

Wow, did I have their attention now. If eyeballs were gunmuzzles I would have been blown out of existence in an instant. There was a dead silence at the table as every head swiveled in my direction.

“What did you say?” a hushed voice asked.

“You heard me. You go down to where the restaurants are and walk slow. If someone says to you-Do you like fresh air? – just say that you do, you do. Then go with them. They’ll get you civvies to wear, a ticket out of town-and set you up on the other side of the country where the MPs will never find you.”

“You are cagaling us!”

“No way. And what do you lose by going along with it? Whatever happens-it got to be better than the army.” There were no arguments with this. Only the muscled guy with the suspicious mind found what he thought was a loophole.

“If what you are telling us is true and not the old cagal-then what are you doing back here?”

“A very good question,” I stood up and held out my pass. “I came back for the bundle of letters from my morn. This pass is good until midnight. See you in paradise-if you want to come.”

I left them and moved on to the next group who were in the comer of a latrine shooting dice. I palmed the dice and won some good pots which drew their attention, gave them my orientation talk and left.

I worked at this until it was almost midnight when my pass ran out and my story would take on a dubious taint. I had planted the seeds in fertile ground. The word would spread instantly through the latrine rumor network. And if I knew my draft dodgers not one of them would return from pass tomorrow night. That should cheer General Zennor up!

So plan number two must now be put into effect.

For what I had to do next I needed a bit more rank. There would be no slow crawl up through the noncommissioned ranks this time. I had tasted the heady glory of being an officer and I was spoiled forever. So I headed for the lair of those brightly-plumaged birds of prey: the officers’ club. I found it by backtracking the drunks. The higher the rank the stronger the booze; this was the army way. I passed a staggering pair of majors, each holding the other up, lined myself up on a colonel flipping his cookies into a hedge, took a sight over an unconscious captain in the gutter and saw my target glowing on the horizon. I skulked off in that direction and took refuge behind some bushes where I had a good sight of the entrance.