Savage Sniper

But Deke wasn’t going to leave Danilo behind. He turned to the guard. “He’s one of us. He goes where we go.”

The guard squared his shoulders as if he might make an issue of it, but looked away from Deke’s hard glare. “Suit yourself,” the guard replied. He stepped to one side so that they could pass.

The tent was full of tired-looking men in uniform, most of them with a few days’ worth of stubble on their faces. It was quite dark compared to the relentless brightness of the beach. The tent flaps had been left rolled down to keep all the paperwork from blowing around, which meant that the interior felt stifling.

A haze of tobacco smoke added to the murkiness within. The atmosphere was not improved by the proximity of soldiers who had not had the luxury of showering for several days. On the plus side, everyone stank about the same.

Deke looked around for someone in charge, but it seemed like every officer there was too busy to pay attention to them. Where the hell was Lieutenant Steele?

Finally, after a few moments, an older man in a major’s uniform stepped out from the gloom at the back of the tent and greeted them keenly. “You boys must be Patrol Easy?” he said with a smile.

“Yes, sir,” Deke replied. Although he didn’t outrank anyone in the patrol, he always seemed to become their point man by default. After all, headquarters was just another jungle of sorts.

The officer introduced himself as Major Henry Flanders, an intelligence officer from General MacArthur’s staff. Hearing that, all sorts of alarm bells began to go off in Deke’s mind, as he recalled their earlier mission to take out the guns on Hill 522 near Palo ahead of the first landing on Leyte. Those orders had come right from the top. Now what?

“You boys are doing one hell of a job out there, and I want to thank you for that,” Major Flanders said quietly. Deke couldn’t help but notice that the major’s combat uniform was sweat stained, but clean in the sense that it wasn’t covered in grime, gun oil, and flecks of dried blood.

Deke’s first impression was that Major Flanders was a no-nonsense sort of man, right down to the .45 on his hip. The worn leather of the holster hinted that the sidearm had seen some use. The major was in his late forties and heavyset but not fat — it looked as if he could still throw a punch or two that would get someone’s attention, and probably had done just that from time to time.

Coming from most officers, Deke would have dismissed the major’s words of thanks as only so much biscuit gravy, but Flanders appeared nothing but sincere. He offered them cigarettes from a fresh pack. Rodeo and Philly accepted, and when Philly tried to hand back the pack, the major waved him off. “Keep it,” he said.

“Thank you, sir,” said Philly, sounding like he meant it for once. Then again, when a man said he was from MacArthur’s staff, that tended to prompt respect.

“Let’s grab ourselves a corner of this circus tent and let me explain what this is all about.”

The major led the way to an unclaimed corner of the tent and told them to grab a knee, while he remained standing. Once again, Deke looked around for Honcho. To his relief, he saw him come through the tent flaps, spot his men, and make a beeline for the corner. He was carrying several bottles of Coca-Cola, which explained his absence from the tent.

“I see you boys have met Major Flanders,” Lieutenant Steele said. He handed the bottles around, and the men accepted them eagerly. To Deke’s surprise, the soda pop was even somewhat chilled. It had been weeks since they’d had anything to drink other than canteen water and coffee that was just this side of rusty water. “I thought you all could use something cold to drink while you heard his proposition for us.”

“Proposition?” Philly snorted, then took a long drink from the bottle and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He smacked his lips in satisfaction. “That makes it sound like we have any choice in the matter.”

“Just shut up and drink your soda,” Steele said. “Major, they’re all yours to brief.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Major Flanders once again praised the men for what they had done up to this point, saying that MacArthur was pleased with the progress on Leyte.

The major filled them in on what they had accomplished so far — they had located several Japanese positions scattered throughout the jungle and hills and were actively rooting out any remaining resistance they came across. It wasn’t anything that the men didn’t already know, but the major’s words made it official.

Then Major Flanders got down to business, revealing why Patrol Easy had been summoned to HQ. Lieutenant Steele had framed it as a proposition, but it soon became clear that the men were being presented with something that they couldn’t turn down — it just wasn’t in their nature.