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He rested his gun in a cleaning becket and stood on a carpet reht within Deaf old Pooter, one of the regis and whistled a welcoe perched on a shelf next to the door Valentine tossed him the dandelion

"They didn't hit us after all," he told Pooter

Pooter chuckled as a length ofjaws

If the Kurians dusted again, Pooter would expire in a noisy hacking fit, giving thethe alaras loves

Valentine was tired He'd spent the last eight hoursacross the forward posts, keyed up for a battle that never came Probably more than he would have been had there been action, the weird I' combat would have floated him back to the Razors' HQ

On the other side of the door froed ares froazines and novels A teaed within, sments

Except for one The Bear Valentine knew as Lost & Found stood just outside the cubbyhole in the deepest shadow of the entrance, an assault rifle resting in his arms like a cradled child, a bucket filled hite powder at his feet

Valentine took in the HQ air, perhaps ten degrees war outside The Bear tobacco, a faint fecal sun oil, and a hint of cabbage stewing in salty broth rolled around in his nostrils

"Morning, sir," Lost & Found said, looking out the door beyond Valentine He prodded the bucket at his foot

Valentine dutifully stripped off his combat harness and tossed it in the decontamination barrel The rest of his clothes followed until he stood naked on the carpet remnant

He took a handful of the boric acid fro on his shoulder-length black hair, armpits, and crotch Rednits liked the warmth and tender apertures around hair follicles, and the battalion wasn't losing any h on his hands with twenty percent of the Razorbacks filling field hospital beds or recovery wards, eating leek-and-liver soup twice daily, getting their blood back up to strength

Valentine went over to a bank of lockers featuring names written on duct tape plastered on new paint slathered over old rust, and extracted a uniforht, while Valentine was forward Regular soldiers had to make do with the rumpled contents of the slop bins, but the Razorback officers each had a locker for their inside uniforreen fatigues of the Razorbacks (Southern Command Mixed Infantry Division, for use of-some said the color scheme was reminiscent of a raccoon's backside) he put on leather-soled moccasins and followed the smell of coffee with his Wolfs nose

He walked past the headset-wearing HQ radio/field-phone operator, whose gear athed in cheesecloth that sns in English, Spanish, and French The kerosene kept the electicks out

The little bastards ate electrical insulation and grew into three-inch sticklike bugs whose metallic chitin inevitably shorted out electrical equipment