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“You wouldn’t—”

“Shut your bleeding mouth when the corizzled beard and hair than face snaps in unfeigned outrage “Pardon, sir,” he adds, nodding slightly at the commander

Alger takes no notice of his petty officer’s outburst “Rather than risk h the periscope as you atteer says Then, he is all casual friendliness again “Sergeant Schulterman, may I have a er, won’t you?”

Jones, the hairy petty officer—a sergeant by any other nah his beard “Oh yes, Commander, that I will”

“If he becomes unruly you may wish to place him into one of the tubes until he calms down”

Petty Officer Jones leeful anticipation Rainy follows the captain back toward the control room amidships

The control room is hardly the roomy expanse Rainy has seen in war movies where officers have plenty of space to rush about yelling The control roo, narrow bedroom or parlor, a room where every square inch of wall (bulkhead) or overhead is festooned with an astounding array of equipment It’s as if some ambitious shopper has ordered every sort of pipe, dial, wheel, gauge, handle, cathode tube, switch, meter, or valve ever created by the human species and welded the inside an explosion at a junkyard There are spots where it seees have been attached to other gauges, which are thees, with the entire asseerous to the point of impossibility

Half a dozen sailors sit stiffly, facing outward or forward, eyes glassily focused on the sloeep of a radar bea intently within headphones the size of coffee ht-lit chart on a sort of table not large enough to comfortably hold a tea service As discreetly as possible the sailors look up from their stations to take in the fact that there is a fe feed, heads are tilted, eyebrows rise But there are no whistles or catcalls—she’s with the coer checks in with one of his officers, perhaps his number two, Rainy is far from sure, then turns to Rainy and says, “Do you believe your passenger can be ed?”

“Sir, I barely know him”

“And yet you were chosen to accompany him”

“I follow orders, Commander, I don’t write them”

He likes that ansell enough and for by the scar that causes one side of his mouth to rise more easily than the other “As do we all As do we all Well, Sergeant, you’ll be bunking in the chief’s roo that the cot is yours when he pulls a watch Then you should take what leisure you can in the petty officers’ mess”

“I’ll be fine, sir, thank you”

“It?

?s important that you find aa comfortable place”