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“So am I, Eric,” Colonel Stevens said.

“How’s the guy I hit?” Fulmar asked.

“He’s probably going to lose an eye,” the Air Corps colonel said, “and I, Lieutenant, intend to see that you are brought before a court-martial.”

“I’m sorry,” Eric said. “I’m really sorry.”

“Sorry won’t wash, Lieutenant,” the colonel said. “I’m going to do whatever is necessary to take that bar off your collar and put you in the stockade. ”

Colonel Stevens gestured for Fine and Fulmar to precede him out of the room.

When Fine and Fulmar reached the Dorchester, where Canidy, at Stevens’s order, was waiting for them, it was long after hours and the bar was closed. There was nevertheless the sound of voices and feminine laughter behind the door. Fine knocked, and a bartender quickly let them in.

Canidy was inside, by himself. Fine wondered where Ann Chambers was.

The Scorpion was there with the usual crowd of young officers hovering close to her. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Fulmar.

“What happened?” Canidy asked when they sat down beside him.

“The colonel had to call Bedell Smith to get him turned loose,” Fine said.

Canidy shook his head.

“They’re going to court-martial me. I put a guy’s eye out,” Fulmar said.

They’re not going to court-martial you. You could have put Bedell Smith’s eye out, and they wouldn’t court-martial you. Not now.

“You’re leaving town just in time, then, aren’t you?” Canidy said.

The Scorpion came over.

“And where have you two been all night?” she asked. She slipped into a chair facing Eric.

“As a matter of fact, they’ve been out ca

rousing,” Canidy said. "Whiskey, wild women, brawling. That sort of thing.”

“That sounds terribly naughty,” the Scorpion said.

“If I asked you a question,” Fulmar said to her,“could I get an honest answer? ”

She leaned forward across the table and ran her fingernails across the back of his hand.

“You can ask me anything you want, darling,” she said. “Whether you get an—”

“Have you got someplace we could go?” Eric interrupted. “Or would you rather we stayed here and groped each other?”

“Don’t be a bastard, darling,” she said, stiffening. “I’ve never done anything to you.”

“The question, then, is do you want to? And if so, where?” Canidy said.

The Scorpion angrily flashed her eyes at Canidy and then moved them to Fulmar.

He stood up and walked to the door, then turned and looked back at the table.

“Opportunity knocks but once,” Canidy said.

“Fuck you, Canidy,” the Scorpion said. He laughed, and she glowered at him. Then she got up and went to Fulmar.