0IN THE BEGINNING
BY: DIANA M.
Chapter Six
It was dark by the time Duke’s plane landed in El Paso. His flight had been
delayed three hours, and he hadn’t had a bite to eat since the doughnut he’d washed
down with coffee that morning. As he stood to pull his overnight bag from the
overhead compartment, Duke heard his stomach snarl angrily. An elderly woman
who had sat next to him looked appalled. Duke grinned sheepishly.
“I guess I need supper, ma’am. Airplane peanuts just aren’t enough.”
She huffed at him and reached up to haul an enormous suitcase out of the
compartment. It missed Duke’s head by inches and hit the floor with a heavy
thud. The woman then proceeded to drag it slowly up the aisle, to the consternation
of the passengers waiting in line behind her to deplane. The growling of Duke’s
stomach was drowned out by bitter grumbles:
“Ol biddy, it don’t matter if they’s drivin’ or walkin’, I can’t never get out
from behind ‘em.”
“It figures, when I’m in a hurry..”
“What’s she got there?”
“Lord knows, maybe her old man’s stuffed inside.”
Duke sighed to himself and tapped the woman on the shoulder, “Ma’am?
Allow me.” She glared at him, but Duke grabbed her bag before she had time
to collect herself for what promised to be a withering negative reply. Duke hefted
the suitcase up the aisle and into the terminal, much to the relief of the people
behind. Once there, he grabbed a passing attendant and handed the bag over.
The young man nearly doubled under its weight, “Help this lady to her car, son,” Duke
pointed to the woman who was now stalking towards them; laser-sharp glare clearing
a path through the crowd. She stopped and glowered up at Duke.
“I never! I imagine you’re expecting some sort of monetary compensation,
young man. Well, you aren’t getting one! And neither is he!” She pointed to
the attendant, who seemed to shrink inside himself. “Well?!” she snarled and hobbled
towards an exit, “Don’t stand there, pup, get me a taxi! I’ll fall over dead before I
find any decent service in this Hell hole.” The attendant half dragged the suitcase after
its owner, glancing back miserably at Duke, whose stomach announced its own pain.
“Heh heh. Don’t expect any sugar out of those Texas grandmas. They’re
all full of piss and vinegar,” Duke found himself standing next to a man in dress
greens and a wide brimmed cavalry hat. Although it they were inside, and it was
well past sunset, he looked at Duke through mirrored sunglasses. He chuckled
again, “You’re mighty late, Top. I reckon its a mistake to take civilian flights for
government business.”
Duke smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. He had an innate affection
for the air cavalry. The crazy bastards had pulled a lot of men out of sticky situations
back in ‘Nam. He owed his life to quite a few of them himself. “But easier when you’re
trying to keep that business quiet. You must be Hardy,” Duke held out a hand. Hardy
took off his glasses and regarded Duke’s hand with interest.
“Ain’t you gonna salute an officer?” Hardy pointed to his CW-4 sigil.
Duke kept his hand out, and hardened his smile into something slightly
sinister, “Hardy, I’m not just top kick of the outfit, I’m in charge. I’ve played this
particular game longer than you knew about its existence. You’re going to be flying us
in and out of some of the weirdest, scariest, most dangerous shit you’ve ever come
across. Makes the ‘Nam look like Kinder Care. I’ve lived it already. There’s only one
other man with my experience, and they haven’t found all the pieces of him yet.”
Hardy’s eyes widened, and his mustache twitched in surprise. Duke went on, keeping
his voice low, “Now you can either forget the warrant officer crap and do what I tell
you, or give me your mommy’s address now; because any man who doesn’t
fall in line and keep my discipline will end up going home in a pine box with a
flag over it. You got me?”
Hardy’s look of surprise slowly broadened into a grin. He laughed and shook
Duke’s hand, pounding him on the back, “Pardner, you’re everything I heard you were
and more! You can count me in. I was getting hang-dog and needin’ some excitement
right about when them new orders got specially delivered to me.”
That troubled Duke.
In the interest of time, Hawk had started couriering orders to a few of the more
specialized soldiers. It was faster than getting everyone in person, but more of a
security risk. Hardy read Duke’s worry, “I made sure I kept it to myself, though, Top.
No sense spreading trouble. Took a weekend pass just to pick you up. People
back at base think I’m playin’ it up in town.”
“I still have to get Graves and Steinberg, two others stationed here,” Duke
hadn’t been able to figure out exactly what the infantrymen were doing at Bliss.
Although there was a light infantry stationed there, specialists of their caliber seemed
out of place. Duke’s thoughts were stopped by another loud growl of the
stomach. Hardy smiled.
“Bear to the core, ain’t you?”
“Hungry as one, anyhow. I haven’t eaten since this morning.”
“Well, since you’re late, I don’t figure you’re in too much of a hurry. How’s this?
We get some grub in town, and you can round those boys up in the morning.” Hardy
started leading the way out of the terminal, “I’ll take you to the best steak house in
town, and you can stuff yourself full of grade A Texas beef.”
At the mention of food, Duke’s stomach rumbled again. He looked at his
watch and sighed. Graves and Steinberg would have to wait, “Sounds good to me,
Hardy. They’d better have good beer, though. I’m ready to bend a few rules and
sneak a glass or two.”
“Pardner, they have the best beer you ever tasted. Import a whole ton
of stuff from all over. But you’d better start calling me Wild Bill, else we can
just mosey back to Bliss.” They crossed the bridge over the drop off area and
headed for the parking garage.
“Wild Bill, eh? Will plain Bill suit you just as well?”
“Top, Bill is even better.”
Duke’s stomach roared, “It’s Duke, Bill, and you’d better get me to that
steak house before my stomach decides to find its own way there.” Wild Bill
laughed and stopped in front of a dusty jeep. They were soon on their way to
downtown El Paso.
****************
Duke was feeling somewhat better. He had devoured a salad with a speed
that made Hardy chuckle. There was a surprisingly good selection of beer, and a
large steak would soon be making its way out to him. Duke polished off another roll
and burped contentedly. “ Excuse me,” he muttered, more for the benefit of the
couples and families around him than for Wild Bill, who had already announce his
pleasure with the beer in a symphony of belches. Duke began to relax. Bill was
an interesting companion, and knew a slew of stories the likes of which he hadn’t
heard since his unit had entertained the tribesmen in ‘Nam. He could even bring
himself to ignore the rowdy noise from the bar, which clearly annoyed most of the
patrons around them.
Bill smiled at a passing waitress, “Darlin’, we’ll be needing a couple more
beers with our steaks.”
She smiled at Bill in a long suffering sort of way, “I’ll get them as quick as I can.
We got another group of soldier boys and some bikers raising Hell in there.”
Duke took another pull at his beer and smiled encouragingly, “They ain’t
raised Hell yet, ma’am. Its probably safe for you to get a few brews out here to us. If
you can get it, I want to try that Belgian one.” The waitress patted Duke on the
shoulder and went to try and rescue beer from the rising din in the bar.
“Bikers,” Bill mused to himself, “Now I’ve known some interesting bikers. Do
you know any gentlemen of the motorcycle mentality?” He raised an eyebrow and
downed the last swig.
The waitress put a plate in front of Duke. At least, he assumed there was
a plate holding up the large slab of meat in front of him. A similar slab found its way
to Bill’s place mat. The waitress went back to get their beers and Bill took up knife and
fork and dug in. Duke slathered horseradish on half of his steak, and waved his knife
at Bill, “Actually, yeah. Have a soft tail Harley myself, as a matter
of fact.”
Bill swallowed a chunk of meat and grinned, “Impresses the ladies, don’t it?”
A loud crash came from the bar, followed by loud guffaws. It was getting
loud in there. Duke turned back to Bill and shrugged, “Doesn’t impress them as
often as I’d like, come to think of it. Leave it at my mother’s place when I’m not on
leave. I’m not on leave most of the time.”
“Don’t get enough action on them weekend passes, huh?” Bill paused
with a dripping chunk of steak hovering on his fork, halfway between plate and
mouth, “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Oh, I get enough of that,” The waitress plunked two open
bottles in front of them and rushed back to help at the bar. Duke took a mouthful and
swished it appreciatively around his mouth before swallowing. Bill waited, still
lofting his piece of steak, “hey, this is alert.” Duke took another mouthful and went
on, “Like I said, I get enough action. Just lately, it doesn’t seem enough. I dunno. I
kind of feel like I want something else. Something more.” Duke took a bite of steak
and washed it sown with a mouthful of beer, “It can get pretty lonely, doing the
sneaky stuff I’ve been doing on the sly lately. Hell, it gets lonely on base.”
Bill nodded slowly, “So you’re getting ready to settle down, huh?”
Duke laughed, “I never said that. Wouldn’t be doing this if I wanted to settle.
I don’t know. Haven’t really figured it all out yet. I’m just looking for...well
something. Don’t quite know what yet.”
Bill had nearly finished half of his steak, “You’ll know when you find it, I
reckon.”
“Maybe,” Duke shrugged, “I won’t hold my breath. Speaking of bikers” Duke
nodded towards a large man draped in leather, striding quickly through the restaurant
and into the bar. The noise level increased tenfold, followed by a new round of
crashes. The waitress ran out, wild eyed, and came over to their table.
“You boys have got to help me. Some crazy soldier’s got himself into trouble,
and those maniacs are ripping the whole place apart.”
Bill wiped his lips and threw his napkin at the table, glancing at Duke. Duke
looked down at his barely started dinner, “What do you mean, ‘got himself into
trouble’?”
“Some Bliss boy decided to link up with Jimmy’s girl Irma. Now
Irma, she’s not really the picky type, else she wouldn’t go with Jimmy in the
first place. She likes to share with everyone, if you get my drift. Jimmy, on the other
hand, don’t like sharin’ at all, especially when it comes to Irma. I guess someone
called Jimmy and let him know, now he’s tossing bottles around and ready to
rip that soldier boy and his friend new ones.”
“Sounds like they’re standing up for themselves.” Bill shouted to be heard
over the cacophony of crashes.
“Not as well as you’d think. ‘Sides, Jimmy’s the best brawler this side of San
Angelo.”
“Oh really?,” Bill looked up in surprise to see Duke shrugging out of his
dress jacket, “Joining me Bill?”
“Pard, are you out of your mind? Come to town on an errand and get into
trouble the first night?”
“I’m not getting into trouble, Bill, I’m stopping it. You’ll find I have a lot of
freedom when it comes to getting dogfaces out of trouble.” Duke slid off his army
ring and dropped it in a pocket, “ Its sort of a hobby of mine, you could say,” Duke
cracked the knuckles of both hands and grinned evilly, “I like a good fight.”
“Damn straight, pard,” Bill took off his hat and glasses, “You keep any
police or MP’s off my back. Don’t mind if I join you, don’t mind at all.”
The waitress looked perturbed, “Boys, that isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
Duke swaggered into the bar, “Ma’am, don’t worry. These things don’t take
long,” inside, he saw two soldiers dodging flying bottles and several grabs from the
rather large biker who had walked through the restaurant a few minutes before. Bill
came to stand next to Duke while he took in the situation. “You sounded mighty
sure of yourself back there, pard. Hope you can back all that up.”
“Huh,” Duke focused his attention on evaluating the situation. There
were a handful of bikers in the bar, but only Jimmy seemed to be taking any sort of
real action. The others stood along one wall behind him, shouting encouragement
and tossing a bottle or two. They all looked utterly plastered, which would make them
sloppy and easy to take care of. On the other hand, the two soldiers were either
similarly bombed, or just stupid; otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten into such a
situation to begin with. They wouldn’t be much help. The bartender had fled, probably
to call the police, which meant Duke had to be fast in whatever he did. And then
there was Jimmy. He was a big man, to be sure, but he carried himself like an
amateur. Furthermore, he looked drunk or stoned, or both. Duke knew very few bikers
who spent their evenings sober. Duke assumed Jimmy won most of his fights with
a combination of bulk and sheer intimidation. So. The most direct approach would
probably be the best. Duke took less than three seconds to come to this conclusion.
He turned to Bill, “Get ready to move those boys out of here fast,” he started out to
confront Jimmy.
Bill sputtered, “But what, what’re you going to-” Duke cut him off with a
dismissive wave of his hand and called over his shoulder.
“No time for questions, Bill, get ready.”
Wild Bill shrugged, “Whatever, pard,” he started edging towards the two
soldiers, one of which was berating the other.
“I swear Clutch, I don’t know why I go anywhere with you. How the fuck do
you get us in these messes?”
“Shut up, Grunt, I’ve got other things on my-who the hell?” He dodged a bottle
and watched in awe as Duke calmly walked over and tapped Jimmy on the shoulder.
Jimmy turned and regarded Duke with an even, menacing gaze. Although
he looked large from afar, Duke found the man was actually an inch or so shorter.
Duke smiled at him, “You Jimmy?”
“Yeah.”
“You going after those soldiers there?” Duke pointed over Jimmy’s shoulder
at the two men who were now huddled behind an overturned table. Jimmy spat
tobacco over his shoulder at them.
“Yeah. What’s it to ya?”
“It bothers me, Jimmy,” The bikers along the wall were quiet, but made no move
towards them.
“And?”
“I don’t like to be bothered, Jimmy.”
“Whaddyagonnadoboutit?”
Duke smiled. The strike was so fast, Jimmy had no time to prepare for it, let
alone dodge the blow. Duke popped him one in the stomach that folded him
over, then cracked him in the face, sending him up and over backwards. Jimmy hit the
ground like a sack of quarters and was out. Seeing the opening, Wild Bill hustled
the two soldiers out of the bar, across the restaurant, and into the parking lot. He
grabbed Duke’s jacket and his hat as he passed their table.
Jimmy, meanwhile, responded to the blows by bleeding from his nose onto
the barroom floor. Duke figured he’d be out for a while; he’d hit the floor pretty
hard. Hearing shuffling behind him, Duke turned to glare at the remaining
bikers. He growled quietly, “You boys want some of that?” The puddle of blood
next to Jimmy grew steadily larger. Duke heard faint sirens. “I’d recommend getting
out of here before the boys in blue show up.”
“Screw this, Joey, lets go. I don’t need to see my PO again that bad.” the
bikers went for the back door. Irma remained, standing over Jimmy in disgust.
“Ay, baboso, whaddam I gonna do wit’ you?”
Duke wiped his hand on a cocktail napkin and turned to go.
“Hey, boxeador,” Irma caught up with him, “You need some company tonight?”
Duke glanced back and smiled, “No thanks, ma’am, I like danger, but not that
much.” he quickly hurried out back across the restaurant, past their waitress, who
stared at him in shock.
“Your friend has your coat.”
Duke handed her a hundred dollar bill, “This’ll pay for dinner and to
clear up the blood. Get Jimmy to cover the rest.”
Duke pushed through the entrance to the parking lot. Bill was waiting for him
in front, the jeep already running, the two rescued soldiers in back “Hop in, pard. Cops
are on their way. Whatever freedom you may have, I’d rather not get into that mess
than have you pull strings to get us out.” Duke grabbed his dress jacket, shrugged
into it, and climbed into his seat. The jeep peeled out of the parking lot, wheels
throwing gravel everywhere. They were down the street and around a corner before
the police cruisers were in sight. Bill slowed down once he figured they were safe.
Duke turned in his seat and looked back at the two men, “What the Hell
kind of trouble were you boys looking for?”
The clean shaven one spoke up, “Don’t blame me, Top. It was Clutch
who decided he liked the look of that girl. I wouldn’t touch her with a ten foot
pole.”
Clutch rubbed the stubble on his face and picked glass out of his hair, “Shut
up, Grunt. How was I to know she dated Godzilla?”
Duke was struck with a sinking feeling, “Hang on...Clutch?” The man
on the right picked out more glass and nodded, “and Grunt?” The man on the left
waved weakly. The sinking feeling increased. Duke reached down for his overnight
bag, slipped his hand inside and grabbed the two envelopes inside. He read the
names written in Hawk’s copperplate script, “Lance J. Steinberg and Robert W.
Graves?”
Both men nodded. Duke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He could
have predicted as much. The day had been bad almost from the start. He resigned
himself to the inevitable and handed each man an envelope, “In that case, gentlemen,
I have your new orders.”
Wild Bill whooped, “Yeehaaw! Boy Howdy, the gang’s all here!”
Duke glared at Steinberg, “Soldier, you owe me a damn big steak.”
Bill began to sing. He had a smooth, even voice. “Down in the west Texas
town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl-”
***************************************
“Bar fighting Duke? I thought those days for you had passed,” Hawk
shuffled the papers on his desk into order.
“Some habits die hard, sir.”
Hawk sighed, “I imagine so. You always do manage to wade right into the
middle of these things.”
“Yessir. I get myself out of them easily enough.”
“Hmmm. That you do. Help yourself to coffee and tell me what you think
of our latest recruits.”
Duke filled a mug, ignoring sugar and cream, “Wild Bill is excellent.”
“Wild Bill is a given. I expect only the best out of him,” Hawk waved
to a chair in front of his desk, “Have a seat.”
“Thank you sir.” Duke eased himself into the chair and blew on the coffee
before taking a sip, “I guess you’re wondering about Steinberg and Graves.”
Hawk nodded, “It bodes poorly to have found them in that kind of predicament.”
“I don’t think they’ll be too much trouble. Grunt is a good enough troop. Honest,
well motivated. He didn’t really loose his cool in that bar, so much as lose patience
with Clutch.”
“Yes, and what of Mr. Steinberg. Seems like a poor influence.”
Duke smiled. “Clutch will fall into line. He’s just begging for some old
fashioned discipline.”
“See to it he gets it, Duke.”
“No problem sir, I’m keeping my eye on that one. He’ll be a good troop,
properly managed, we wouldn’t have chosen him otherwise. He’s already
mastered that VAMP.”
Hawk looked pleased, “Good, I was hoping for a good man behind the wheel.
His background in automobiles is quite extensive.”
“There is one problem, sir,” Duke was hesitant.
“Hmm?”
“Women do seem to be his weakness. He’s already driving Cover Girl up
the wall. Its all she can do to get away from him. Actually, I had him drive me here,
just to give her a break from him.”
“From what you’ve told me, and what I’ve read of the woman, she’ll take
care of it herself.”
“I don’t think she’s come across anyone like him, sir. He’s persistent. I
can’t imagine what he’ll be like with two women on base.”
Hawk raised an eyebrow, “We’ll find out soon, sergeant.”
“Sir?”
“I’ve changed your travel plans. O’Hara’s at Paris Island teaching Judo to
the Leathernecks. I want you to pick her up and swing across to Benning and get
Pulaski. You can tie up your own loose ends while you’re there.”
Duke looked numbly into his coffee. He had barely recovered from El
Paso.
Hawk smiled, “Don’t worry about Clutch. I’ve sent over to USAIC for
Wilkinson. You’ll go to Paris Island in the morning, and Clutch can drive
Wilkinson back to headquarters. He’ll keep discipline while you’re gone.”
Duke brightened. It had been a long time since he had seen Stalker, too long.
Hawk stood up, indicating the meeting was over. Duke quickly finished his
coffee. “I’ve taken the liberty of arranging a room for you tonight,” Hawk handed Duke
an airline ticket to Charleston, “Your flight leaves at eight.”
Duke saluted, “Yessir.”
“Carry on, soldier.”
______________________________________________________
Continued in Chapter Seven!
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