Word of Honor (48 page)

But I'm being extremely faithful to you and chivalrous to her."

Marcy seemed to have calmed down somewhat. "All right ... but things sometimes happen even when we don't want them to."

He drank the champagne. "What the hell is this stuff?"

" Cord6n Negro."

"What? African champagne?"

"No, idiot. It's Spanish. It's not bad, and it's cheap."

372 0 NELSON DEMILLE

"Spain is off the boycott list?"

"Yes, since Franco died. Didn't I tell you?"

"No. Can I buy sherry now?"

"Absolutely. And real Spanish olives for your martinis. And I think you fucked her. Psychologically, I mean. She's old enough to understand a man like you but still young enough to be spiritually seduced."

"How much a bottle?"

"Less than seven dollars. Incredible. The dollar is strong against the peso. She wished you luck with some finality. Does that mean your official relationship is over?"

"Yes. I don't think champagne is the place to cut comers, though. "

"You have domestic beer in the refrigerator."

"Don't tell anyone. By the way, I didn't see the Volvo outside. "

"I guess not, or you two wouldn't have charged in here hot as three-dollar pistols."

"That's hardly the way I would characterize our taking shelter from the rain. Where's the Volvo?"

"It died, and I gave it a Viking funeral. That new Toyota outside is ours."

"What? You bought a Nipponese automobile? Are you crazy? I won't drive it.

How could you do that knowing how I feel about Japanese products flooding the country, and--

"Don't try to change the subject. Will you have any occasion to go to Washington to see her again?"

"None. The preliminary investigation is concluded. And I'm not speaking to anyone again without counsel present. "

"All right." Marcy drank her champagne. "You do have taste. She's quite good-looking. A natural wholesome beauty. She even looked good wet. I wonder why she never married. Did you ask her?"

Tyson didn't think this was a subject he wanted to discuss any longer. He said, "She's engaged to a colonel. The papers never tell you that."

"I didn't see an engagement ring."

"Well . . . engaged to be engaged. Anyway, are you really moving in?"

"Yes. David is coming as soon as we're set up."

WORD OF HONOR 373

"Why?"

"Because we had a family council and decided you couldn't be trusted alone.

Also, your mother called again. This time to inform me that a wife's place is with her husband. I didn't know that. Did you know she lived in a converted chicken coop near Fort Stewart, Georgia, while your father was training in the Army Air Corps?"

"I believe she mentioned it a few hundred times when I was growing up. In fact, I was conceived in that chicken coop. Born in a private hospital on Park Avenue, to be sure, but conceived in a chicken coop."

"That explains a lot. Anyway, if she can do it, I can damned well do it."

"Don't put yourself out on my account."

Marcy looked at him. "Actually David was coming with or without me. He decided he loves you and is willing to give up his first lay in order to be here with you. Knowing men as I do, I would say that is a supreme sacrifice." She added, "Sometimes adolescents act like adults. Sometimes it's vice versa."

Tyson said, "I do miss you both, but it's ... embarrassing . . . I mean, for you to see me like this. . . .-

She replied, "You're not on the Bowery. You are an officer in the United States Army. And that's nothing to be embarrassed about."

Tyson tugged on his ear. "I must be hearing things."

"I'm not as subversive as you like to think," she said. "Anyway, the point is the minister said for better or worse, and I said yeah, okay, and we've had it mostly better for our whole married life, and what the hell, it could be even worse. And I love you and missed you like hell."

Tyson put his arms around his wife, and they embraced.

Marcy said, "You are a proud man, Benjamin Tyson. Entirely too proud and too macho to survive in this sort of world. You have to show your weaknesses, let your friends and family share your pain."

He squeezed her tighter. "You know, Marcy, I've been a careless husband, indifferent father, shallow friend, and undedicated employee. I haven't shown any commitment to you, David, my job, or anything. And it started sometime before this mess. -

374 & NELSON DEMILLE

"I know. Other people noticed. But don't be too hard on yourself."

"Why not? I'm glad I got this kick in the ass to wake me up. I'm not going to romanticize how things were before this started, but life was good. It was my perceptions of home, family, job, and friends that had gone wrong.

I don't know why it did, but it did."

"It was partly my fault. I needed this, too, Ben. Our marriage, our life together, had become unnecessarily pointless. We'T SoN to be one hell of a happy couple when this is behind us.

Tyson stayed silent for some time, then said, "I may be away awhile."

She dug her fingers into his back. "No! No, you won't be! "

He kissed her, and they clung tighter to each other. She put her head on his shoulder, and he could tell she was crying. He said in a light tone,

"Where'd you get that idiotic T-shirt?"

She spoke without looking up. "Oh . . . I had it made at that shop in Southampton. It struck me as a double entendre. Keep a good soldier in."

She laughed. "Get it?"

"No. And I don't find it very funny."

She drew away from him, and he saw that her eyes were moist. She said,

"Then I'll remove the offending article." She pulled the shirt off and threw it on the floor. "Better?"

Tyson found he was staring at her bare breasts. "Yes. Oh, yes." He smiled.

She cleared her throat and wiped her eyes with her hand. "Well, what am I supposed to do as an Army wife? I mean, besides cleaning the upstairs latrine?"

He poured the last of the sparkling wine into their glasses. "Well, get a dependent's ID card first, a bumper sticker for the car, join the officers'

wives' club, volunteer for something worthy, get the downstairs squared away, and invite some of the officers' ladies for tea, familiarize yourself-"

"Whoa, Tyson. Let's just start with the bumper sticker so I can park."

"That reminds me,-"

WORD OF HONOR * 375

"Oh, I didn't buy a Toyota. Just pulling your chain a little. I bought a Jeep."

"A what?"

"Jeep. Very practical. Good for your image. It's out front. Take a look."

Tyson looked out the window and saw a light-colored vehicle glistening in the rain.

"Jeep Cherokee. Four-wheel drive. It's got a CB radio and a gun rack."

"Are you serious?"

"It's only a year old. Bought it from a local out east. It's also got a winch so you can pull in fishnets or small boats or pull yourself out of mud or snow. That's neat. Go look at it."

Tyson turned from the window. "Maybe later."

"Can I see you give a tour of the museum tomorrow?"

" If you wish."

"Great. Hey, put on your uniform."

"No. I I

"Yes. I want to see how you look." She held his arm and pulled him toward the stairs.

"No, really-"

She rubbed her breasts against him. "Come on. I've never done it with a soldier." She winked.

"Well, if you put it like that....

They climbed the stairs and went into the master bedroom.

Marcy sat on the edge of the bed and crossed her bare legs. "Okay, soldier, strip off those civilian duds and get into uniform. "

Tyson found he was self-conscious as he began undressing.

Marcy whistled.

"Cut itout." He stood before her, naked, and drew a deep breath. "Warm up here."

"Turn around. Let me see your body."

Tyson turned around, then faced her again. She said, "Good officer material. Come here."

He approached the bed. She reached out and cupped his testicles in her right hand. "Turn your head and cough."

He did as she said.

She pronounced, "Okay, you're in." She reached around and slapped him on the buttocks. "Get dressed."

376 * NELSON DEMILLE

He went to the closet and began putting on his greens without underwear.

"This is silly-"

"Speak when you're spoken to."

He mumbled something, knotted his tie, and slipped on his tunic, buttoning it as he turned to her.

She nodded. "Not bad. Good fit. Brass all shiny. Ribbons straight. Okay, take a shower. Then report to me here."

"Yes, ma'am."

He undressed again and walked naked to,the bathroom. He showered the sweat off, dried himself, and came back into the bedroom. The bed was clear of luggage, and Marcy lay on the rough white sheets, her legs spread and a pillow under her rear. She was wearing his fatigue shirt, which was hiked up to her waist, and his forage cap sat on her head. She said, "Let's clip those horns, Lieutenant, before you get into trouble."

He got into the bed, on top of her, and slipped in easily, finding her wet.

They made love in the small, hot, airless room, and they both knew this was a sort of parody of what could have happened with Major Karen Harper.

Marcy whispered in his ear as she neared orgasm. "I don't usually do this with married men."

"My wife's a bitch."

"I know. I know."

"Keep a good soldier in," he said.

She wrapped her legs around his back and locked her ankles together. "I am. I am."

M Marcy and Ben Tyson sal across from each other at the small ta-CHAPTER ble. Tyson was dressed

in a maize-colored linen suit. Marcy wore a yellow cotton-knit sweater and matching skirt.

Marcy said, "This was a fort?"

31 "Not this part. This

is the new dining room.

Most forts don't have picture windows."

"Don't get smart."

Tyson picked up the menu. "The steak here is good."

"I don't see any quiche on the menu."

"Nor will you ever."

"You say that with relish."

"With steak sauce."

"I'll bet you stay in if you're acquitted."

"The military has a certain masculine appeal."

"Don't get carried away." She looked at him. "Would 377

378 * NELSON DEMILLE

you . . . would you ever go back in-I mean, under other circumstances-if they called you in a national emergency? Another war?"

Tyson replied, "Yes, I would serve my country again."

"Even after what the Army has done to you?"

"They've done nothing to me. They think I've done something to them."

"Would you go back in for an unpopular, Vietnam-type, undeclared war?"

"Mine is not to reason why. I didn't even fight this recall as hard as I could have."

"Boy, once they've got you, they've got you forever, don't they?"

"I'm afraid so. Military service exerts a lasting influence on a man far beyond the short number of years he was on duty. Just like jail time. Ask anyone who was in-jail or the 4krmy. "

" I believe you. I just don't understand. I never understood how millions of men could clash on the battlefield, leaving piles of corpses, then do it again and again."

"Men love war. They love fucking the enemy, and when they withdraw, there is a postcoital depression that lingers for the rest of their lives."

"Scary, Ben. Scary."

"Don't I know it?"

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Marcy looked out over the nearly empty dining room and saw a couple turn their faces away. She said, "Why do you suppose people are staring at us?"

"They are absolutely dazzled by the dashing new officer and his lady."

She smiled grin-fly. "As long as they're not saying, 'There's that war criminal and his whore.' "

"My dear, in the officer corps all the brothers are courageous and all the sisters virtuous."

"I didn't know that." She sipped on her gin and tonic as she looked out the window. The night sky had cleared as suddenly as it had darkened earlier, and a stiff wind from the south fluttered the illuminated Stars and Stripes on the lawn. On the patio a barbecue was in progress, and she heard the sound of a steel band and saw the flames of the

WORD OF HONOR 9 379

charcoal pit and the Tonga torches. She said, "There's something vaguely anachronistic about this place."

"That's what you say about Garden City. In truth, you are the anachronism, a time-traveler from the sixties."

"Perhaps you're right. Still, this is a very closed society, isn't it?"

"It's supposed to be. It has its own internal reality, which is based in part on its own history, exclusive of the society outside the gates. "

"Now that I'm here in this environment, I'm beginning to understand you better. "

"I'm beginning to understand me better too."

She asked, "Were you invited to that party out there?"

He glanced out the window. "All members are invited to all club functions.

But I'm supposed to send my regrets.

I I I see."

The waitress came, and they ordered their food and a bottle of Mouton Cadet. They chatted pleasantly, just like old times, they agreed. They held hands across the table, and the waitress smiled at them as she brought the food. Marcy and Ben ate in companionable silence.

Tyson finished his steak and poured himself and Marcy more wine. He looked across the dining room and said, "We're about to have company."

Marcy turned and saw a large ruddy-faced man with sandy hair, about fifty years old, making his way toward them from the direction of the patio. The man wore casual slacks and a rather silly flowered shirt. She said, "Who is that?"

"That is the Reverend Major Kennard Oakes, a Baptist chaplain. He has befriended me."

"Well, you need all the friends you can get."

The Reverend Oakes drew up to their table and smiled widely. He drawled in a deep southern accent, "Ben, are you drinking the devil's brew again?"

Tyson shook hands with the minister. "I'm Episcopalian. Drunkenness is a sacrament. "

"Blasphemy. Is this Mrs. Tyson?"