Джон Болл: The First Team

“Him again.”

“Quite a man,” Percival said.

“By the way,” Hewlitt began on a different topic, “I don’t really know who you are.”

Percival smiled. “It must have been annoying, but you understood the reasons.”

“Absolutely. And if you don’t want to say any more, stop there. We’ve just won a skirmish, but the real war isn’t over yet.”

Percival became sober. “I’m glad you see that, Hew, because unfortunately it’s so. I wish to hell that it wasn’t, but it is. I know too much about it; the public knows too little.”

“Why don’t you tell them?”

“Maybe you can help do that — in the Senate.”

“Maybe.”

The piercing howl of awakening jet engines cut them off for a moment; they watched as the transport turned toward the taxiway and began to roll forward.

When it was far enough away, Percival said, “I’d better get back to work now, Hew, I’ve still got a lot to clear away.” He held out his hand. “The name is Mark Goldberg; I’ll drop you a line if you’d like when I have a new duty station. I’m a lieutenant commander in the Coast Guard.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed that,” Hewlitt said.

“Our service doesn’t get the publicity, but we do our job. We’re a pretty proud outfit in our own way.”

“You’re a good proof of that,” Hewlitt said.

“It’s not the man, it’s the mission.” He saw Barbara coming back. “Keep that to yourself, my ID I mean; that goes for everyone.”

“I will.”

Five minutes later Hewlitt was alone with Barbara. “I hate to see Percival go,” he said. “I like him.”

Barbara agreed. “You’ll see him again. I’d met him before. I reminded him of that, if you remember.”

He recalled immediately the scene in the safe house. “So you did,” he acknowledged. He made a mental effort at that moment to put the whole business behind him. “Come on,” he said. “I want to go somewhere and do something — anything. You name it.”

She didn’t answer him until they were in his car and he had the engine going. “Hew, I want to ask you something first. I started to make a decision, then I realized that you ought to be consulted.” “About your pregnancy.”

“Yes. Let me make something very clear — you’re not on the hook in any way,”

He rolled the car out of the slot and toward the exit driveway. “Furthermore,” she continued, “I’m not the least bit interested in the morals involved; we’ve outgrown that, I think, and you were literally forced into bed with me.”

Hewlitt took over. “I don’t want your pregnancy to enter into this. If you want it terminated, then by all means have it done with my blessing. And I demand the right to pay the bill if the Air Force disallows it.”

She laughed a little. “I did incur the problem in line of duty,” she reminded him.

He drove out of the lot and picked up the main street of the base. “I realize that you have to make up your mind, and that you can’t wait forever. Now let me explain something: I’m not going to come galloping up on a white horse, leap off with plumes flying, and then ask for your hand before the whole court assembled while you blush violently and hide your face in an ecstasy of embarrassment.” She looked at him with interest. “Why not?” she asked.

“Because there’s a drastic shortage of white horses.”

“Oh, I see.”

He waited until they had cleared the base

“Barb, this whole damn thing we’ve been through has got me off balance. I can’t quite get it into my head yet that for practical purposes it’s all over.”

She came closer to him. “Me too.”

“Now I’ve been all but offered a seat in the Senate and it has more than four years yet to run.”

“Then that answers the question,” she said.

“No, it doesn’t. If I take it, assuming that I can get it then I want you with me. And none of this we-were-secretly-married business either; I don’t like that kind of fraud.”

“No one does.”

“If I don’t go into the Senate, and do something else instead then, if you’re game, I still want you with me. But either way, If you’re willing, let’s have the baby.”

“All right,” she agreed.

He turned and looked at her. “Since that’s decided — another topic. Can you put up with me?”

“Pretty well.”

“Care to perhaps be a senator’s wife?”

“No, but if I must, I will.”

He discovered that he wasn’t watching his driving. For perhaps half a minute he carefully concentrated on what he was supposed to be doing, but his compelling interest was elsewhere. “I want you,” he said. He was glad he had put it simply; he couldn’t stand maudlin sentimentality.

“I want you to have me,” she answered him.

Sentimentality or not, that called for action. He pulled the car halfway onto the shoulder strip and didn’t give a damn if it was still blocking traffic or not. “Come here,” he said.

He had held her before, they had been in bed together many times, but this was different. For a short while he satisfied his hunger for her, as much as he could in a public place, and ignored the barrage of honkings that was building up behind him. If he was blocking the lane he had earned the right, and he was putting it to good use.

When he was for the moment satisfied he released hold of her and put the car once more into gear. “Let’s go and have a good meal,” he proposed. “After that we can decide when, where, and how we’d like to get married.”

“Fine,” she responded. “As a matter of fact, I’m hungry.” “You’ve got a right to be.” He let a car pass him and ignored the glare that the other driver aimed his way. A thought crossed his mind and simply because she was his girl he wanted to share it with her. “I wish we could tell the admiral,” he remarked.

She looked at him sideways, then shook her head to reset her hair. “He already knows,” she said.