Page 11 (1/2)

“I freely confess I am an amateur,” Rainy says, io-round with the annoying agent

“Not talking about you, sister” He jerks his thuh which they have both just eed “You knohat Corelli did before the war?”

“Colonel Corelli?” She pointedly emphasizes his rank

“Professor of Oriental Languages at soe up in Vermont”

He lets that sink in, and it does Rainy’s guard comes down just a little

Bayswater continues “We have professors too, all kinds of professors working for the Bureau Very helpful, some of them But we don’t let them plan or run operations Guy like that is way smarter than me, but he’s never done this work before His whole outfit—your outfit—you’re supposed to be counting tanks and deciding where some bunch of Krauts will be This is not your bailiwick”

That sinks in as well

“Word to the wise,” Bayswater says “Do this, this et people hurt And your colonel is the textbook definition of an aoing to get you killed” He touches the brim of his fedora, nods, and walks briskly away

4

RIO RICHLIN—CAMP ZIGZAG, TUNISIA, NORTH AFRICA

“You knohat I want to do today?” Luther Geer says, stifling a yawn and using the heel of his hand to grind the sleep froo sit in a daain At least I get cool and clean wading through the waves”

His kitten, the former Miss Pat, now renamed Miss Lion of the Sahara, blinks owlishly from her position on his chest

Rio Richlin has not warmed up to Luther Geer She thinks he is a bully and not very bright to boot, but she nevertheless agrees

Since the fighting wound down in Tunisia, the 119th Division has trained and practiced and trained some more There has been renewed effort to improve soldiers’ effectiveness with the bazooka There have been lectures on the necessity of actually firing one’s rifle and not just carrying it around like some family heirloom There have been the inevitable marches around the desert—marches that had started off unpleasantly cold and thenfiercely hot And there have been amphibious assaults

They have assaulted the sa the deeply bored GIs of Second Squad, Fifth Platoon, Company A of the 119th, was that today heralded yet another phony invasion