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“What am I supposed to do about it?” Dunwiddie asked.
“You’re a Cavalry officer, Chauncey, you’ll think of something,” Mrs. White said.
Captain Dunwiddie stood beside the Storch and told Cronley what he had thought of as a solution to the problem.
“I’ll have my guys form a human shield around Max and the boy as they get out of the plane and then march them across the hangar to where we billeted the ASA guys. And while they’re having a shower, I’ll get them clothing from somewhere.”
“Good thinking, Chauncey,” Cronley said. “You’re a credit to the U.S. Cavalry.”
“Fuck you.”
Cronley stayed in the plane until Max and the boy, shielded by eight very large, very black soldiers, had been marched across the hangar and into the building at the rear.
Then he climbed out of the Storch.
Mrs. White, Mrs. Likharev, the younger boy, and the dachshund were standing near the ambulances. The boy was feeding Franz Josef a piece of his hot dog.
Cronley exhaled.
Well, it’s over. Really, completely over.
Or will be as soon as we get those two some clean clothes.
I feel sorry for the kid. He has to be embarrassed.
For himself.
And for what he did to Max.
And then his mind’s eye was filled with the older kid’s terror-frozen eyes in the airplane right after they’d taken off.
And then he felt a sudden chill.
And threw up. And then dropped to his knees and threw up again. And then once again.
Jesus H. Christ!
He got awkwardly to his feet.
He felt dizzy and another sudden chill.
Oh, no, not again!
He closed his eyes, put his hands on his hips, leaned his head back, and took a deep breath.
And was not nauseous again.
He opened his eyes and found himself looking at Major Harold Wallace.
“I must have eaten something . . .”
“You all right now, Jim?” Wallace asked.
“I’m fine. A little embarrassed.”
“Don’t be. It happens to all of us.”
“Yes, it does,” Lieutenant Colonel William Wilson said. Cronley hadn’t been aware of his presence until he spoke. “When I picked the colonel up outside Králický Snežník, he didn’t even wait until we got home. He puked all over the L-4 before we got to two hundred feet.”
