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."No way, Mouse.""OK, let it go," Felter said."Tell me about flight school.""There I was, ten thousand feet up, with nothing between me and the earth buta thin blond."How much have you had to drink?" Felter asked."A bunch," Lowell said."I wasn't prepared for Hartford.""I tried to tell him, Major, that she probably wouldn't recognize him," AndrePretier said."But he insisted on going.""Tell me about Dien Bien Phu," Lowell said."What the hell were you and Macdoing there in the first place?""You know more than you should already, Craig," Felter said."I want to hear about you and MacMillan running around in the jungle," Lowellinsisted."After bailing out of a gloriously aflame airplane.""I'm beginning to suspect who you talked to," Felter said."What happened, for Christ's sake?""Perhaps," Andre Pretier said, "it would be better if I excused myself."Felter looked at him a moment."There's no need."Excuse me," Andre Pretier said, and got up and walked out of the room."I'm not supposed to talk about this," Felter said."And you know it.And Ifeel badly about asking him to leave his own living room."Page 58ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"This is the bar," Lowell said, "not the living room.And it's mine, not his.""God, you're impossible.You know what I mean.""That's so much bullshit," Lowell said."If you can't tell me, Mouse, who canyou tell?""Maybe I will have a drink," Felter said."Can I trust you to keep your mouthshut?" He answered his own question."No, of course, I can't," he said."But every spook has to have one weakneds.You're mine."He related what had happened at Dien Bien Phu, painting a picture of himselfas a rear echelon chair-warmer being led to safety through the Indo-Chinaforest by a French ForeignLegion corporal, one of the Army's most decorated parachutists, and anineteen-year-old sergeant with a sawed-off shotgun.Lowell automatically added Felter's role to their exploits.In his judgment, Major Sanford Felter was quite as accomplished a close combatwarrior as MacMillan or anyone elseLowell had ever met in the service.He had seen Felter in action; in fact, heowed his life to Felter, who had blown away an officer who had stood in theway of a reinforcement column coming to Lowell's rescue duringcounterinsurgency operations in Greece.A mental picture came into Lowell's mind of Felter in IndoChina in his tropical worsted uniform, the large.45 automatic he was neverwithout held in front of him with both hands.He literally wasn't largeenough, or his thin wrists strong enough, to fire the.45 with one hand.Withtwo hands, firing slowly and deliberately, he seldom missed.He was literallya dead shot."So, with appropriate pomp and ceremony," Felter concluded,"during a barrage of 105 mm fire, cannon and ammo courtesy of the FirstCavalry, we were formally inducted as honorary members of the 3rd RegimentParachutiste of theFrench Foreign Legion.""Christ," Lowell said, "I wish I had been there." He wondered if he reallymeant that.He knew that his saying so had pleased Felter, for Felter had longhad the notion (Lowell considered it unfounded) that Lowell was a natural-borncombat soldier."They tried to give us the Croix de guerre," Felter said."Naturally, since we weren't supposed to be there in the first place, there'sno way we'll be allowed to accept it.""Christ, and what I've been doing, at enormous expense, is learning how to flya whirlybird," Lowell said."Tell me about it," Felter said.Page 59ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Nothing to tell," Lowell said."It's just as idiotic, having a major fly ahelicopter, as I thought it would be.Like assigning a major as a jeep driver.I felt like a god damned fool, when, with the band playing and flags flying,they pinned our wings on us.""You don't believe that," Felter said, firmly."I don't know if I do or not, Mouse," Lowell said, drunk- serious."I have tobe periodically rebrainwashed; my faith wavers."Felter glanced out the window and saw Andre Pretier walking on the wide lawnwhich stretched from the house down to the water's edge.He opened the Frenchdoors and walked out to him."I seem to have run you out of your own house," he said."But I'm through talking about what I shouldn't have talked about, if you'dlike to come back in.""I understand," Pretier said.Felter led him back into the house [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]