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“Everyone decent?” Strand Braxton asks, grinning He’s in an Air Corps uniform: khaki slacks and a sheep’s-wool-tri and is co for the heat

Rio at thather M1 The pieces are laid out on her cot atop a spread-out towel She has reuard forward and pulled the trigger assembly all the way out She has separated the stock and has even disasse the parts out in a neat, familiar pattern

With clean rags, brushes, and solvent she has cleaned each and every part She is now busy using a second clean rag to cover allparts with a thin coat of oil

Her hands are greasy, and she s aree trousers and a sweat-stained T-shirt The ar the fact that army bras—a device with as many straps and as little sex appeal as a parachute—is only indifferently covered by the T-shirt

The fact that she is in a shocking state of undress flashes through Rio’s , “Strand!”

She sets the traveler (a slances furtively around to see if Jack is there Then she runs to Strand, throwing her arms around him

They kiss, but discreetly, a kiss that is more passionate than brother-sister, but more self-conscious than would be the case if Geer, Stick, and Cat were not watching with undisguised interest

“Huh,” Geer says “So Richlin is still a girl I’ll be damned”

“Strand, this is Stick, the one with the clean new corporal’s stripes, that’s Preeling there, and the asshole is Geer”

The word asshole is out of Rio’s h She sees Strand wince, then cover it up Geer doesn’t even pretend to be offended

“Sorry,” Rio says, genuinely eone toI mean, well, you know”

“It’s good to meet you all,” Strand says Then he looks more closely at Rio “Is that a bruise?”

“What, this?” Rio waves it off “Just, umI accidentally ran into a pole last week” She avoids eye contact with her squad ht be called a patently false silence, including Cat, who ostentatiouslykey motion over her mouth

Just then Jenou enters, spots Strand, and gives him a peck on the cheek “Well, if it isn’t Mr Tall, Dark, and Handso with lowly enlisted types? Did you remember to salute him, Rio?”

“She gave me a different kind of salute, and I liked it a whole lot better,” Strand says