Curtain of Death (Clandestine Operations 3)

“What do you think they see?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said sarcastically, “maybe the commanding officer being driven somewhere by his administrative officer?”

“Right. And if you were driving?”

He didn’t reply immediately as it became their turn to have their identities checked.

As they began rolling toward the next checkpoint, he said: “‘There goes the CO again. He likes to drive himself.’”

“Or maybe,” Dette said, “‘There goes the CO again with that blond, quote, administrative officer, unquote, he’s probably screwing.’”

Cronley couldn’t reply as they were now at the final checkpoint.

As they moved away from the outer checkpoint, Cronley asked, “Why would they think that?”

“That’s what Freddy thinks.”

“What makes you think Freddy suspects anything?”

“From the look on his face when I told him I was going to stick around to see if you were going to make it back from Strasbourg.”

“He say anything?”

“Just, ‘Of course.’”

“Oh.”

“I was actually sticking around because I thought the commanding officer would need a ride. But while I was doing that, I wondered how long it was going to be before others—Tiny, Major Wallace, Max Ostrowski, that CIC agent Wallace brought down here, Sergeant Tedworth, Augie Ziegler—started wondering what the real nature of our relationship is.”

“Why do I think this is leading up to some sort of announcement?”

“We have to quit, Jim. Neither of us can afford to get caught.”

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with Augie Ziegler, would it?”

“It does. He’s coming on to me pretty strong. He wants to take me to dinner tonight, for example.”

“And you want to go?”

“Well, there it is—what I was afraid of, the Green-Eyed Monster.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“If I keep pushing Augie away, he’s going to wonder who his competition is. Eventually, he’ll get to you. Bingo!”

“Yeah,” Cronley said.

“Well?”

“Why don’t you get Augie to take you to the Engineer Officers’ Club for dinner? According to Major Wallace, they have a nice kitchen. And Colonel Bristol and his wife are likely to be there and will see you.”

“You are pissed, aren’t you?”

He thought for a moment, then said, “What I am, really, is grateful that one of us was smart enough to see a major disaster looming.”

Claudette reached for his hand and brought it to her mouth and kissed it.

“You’re a good guy, Captain, sir. You go in the Great Memories file.”