"True. So we'll be lucky to get four weeks out of the brass back on the fucking Middle Eastern desk and from State."
"Oh, damn."
Murdock grinned. "Hey, what's Mildred going to say you ass-to-elbows all day and half the night with a pretty, sexy woman like Kat?"
"Oh, damn. I won't tell her. No, I have to. No secrets. Damn, already I'm going to be sleeping on the couch."
"Milly might surprise you."
"Yeah, you're right. I'll be sleeping in the garage and eating on the patio. We don't have a dog house."
DeWitt yelped and looked at a small notebook he took out of his pocket. "Oh, damn. Murdock, I need a favor. Tonight you were due at our place for a fried chicken dinner. Call Milly and cancel out. I've got at least five hours of work to get a training sched to map out for my CO tomorrow."
"Done."
"Don't say anything about Kat. I'll have to break that news to Milly a little at a time."
"But don't tell her why Kat has to go with us."
"Naturally," DeWitt said. But both he and Murdock knew that he'd have to tell Milly. There was no way around that kind of a challenge.
Ed arrived at his Coronado apartment off base at 1815. Milly was pacing the kitchen. She scowled at him, and her fists went onto her hips. Ed wished he was a religious man so he could say a prayer.
"I know, I know, he had to cancel out. That leaves more chicken for me." He swept forward and kissed her, then kissed her again until her akimbo arms dropped and she grinned. "Hey, maybe this isn't such a bad deal, after all."
Milly looked at his sandy, dirty cammies. "Shower," she said and pointed.
A half hour later, they were eating the fine meal, when Ed began.
"We had a double whammy, Navy style, today. We got a new assignment, almost, but Murdock told them we needed another month for training."
"Will you get the extra time?"
"I hope so. Think we will. Murdock can be damn convincing when he's talking about the platoon."
"What was the other whammy?"
"Oh, that. We have a new person to work into the platoon for this assignment, a damned civilian."
Milly stopped the fork halfway to her mouth. "You're joking. The SEALs have never taken along a civilian on a shooting mission. What is Washington thinking of?"
"Whatever it is, they don't tell me. Now, how did your day go?"
Milly looked at him and smiled. "Hey, did I tell you that I'm just delighted that you're back from your little three-day camping trip. I missed you. I don't want you ever to go away again."
They both laughed. It was a standing joke. She knew he had to go away, and he did, too. But in more than a year now, the two of them had weathered the separations. Twice he'd asked her to marry him. Twice she had said no.
"Ed, this is a dangerous game that you're playing," she'd said the last time. "I know it. You know it. I've read all the books about the SEALS. I know now that you do some covert work that nobody can be told about. I can accept that for now, this way. But I just can't marry you, and start a family, knowing that you might come home the next time in a damn body bag." Tears had welled up in her eyes and spilled over. She slashed them away with her hand.
For now they both accepted that, and made the best of what they had. Long, quiet walks along the crashing Pacific Ocean. Dinners out at curious and different eateries around the San Diego area. Bicycling up and down the streets of Coronado and then playing racketball. Going to plays and concerts. Walking through the zoo and Balboa Park. For now it was enough. Ed wasn't sure how much longer it would be. She had never asked him to quit the SEALS, but he was sure that was what she was hoping for.
He helped her with the dishes, and cleanup, then they sat on the sofa, their thighs touching.
"So, tall Navy officer, what's on the agenda for tonight?" Before he answered, she leaned over and kissed him, and eased him down on the sofa, so she lay on top of him.
The kiss lasted a long time. When she came up for air, he chuckled. "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?"
She hit him on the shoulder. "That's from an old, old movie. And yes, I am. After three good sessions, what do you have to do?"
"About three hours of planning out a training schedule for this civilian so nobody in the platoon gets killed. First weapons, then conditioning, parachute jumping, underwater — the works. Never know what we'll need to do once we get in the field."
"But you're not going to tell me why it's so important that this civilian go along with you on the mission."
"Absolutely not. Top secret. Anyway, I don't want to tell you anything to upset you while you're looking and sounding this sexy."
"Like the way you think, sailor. So, roll me over in the clover, big guy. As the English song used to go. Do they still sing that anymore?"
He didn't know. He didn't care. He had more important things to do right then. Milly agreed with him, passionately.
6
Kat Garnet had been up since 5 A.M. She frowned. No, that would be 0500 Navy time. She had to immerse herself totally, unrelentingly, in Navy now, specifically Navy SEALS. She could do that. She had a fast breakfast, then tried on her clothes. They almost fit, probably the smallest that the Navy issued. Not exactly from some fancy downtown store. She grinned when she looked at the beige boxer shorts. So they were a long way from Jockey ladies' briefs. She pulled them on. They nearly fit.
She rolled up the cammies legs two narrow turns, then put on the Navy bra and the cammie shirt. It didn't nearly fit. She stuffed it in the pants and tightened the belt, then looked in the mirror and saw silver bars on her collar. She took them off and put them in her shirt pocket. The black jungle boots came next, with the socks rolled down over the tops to keep them from snagging. Like the boxers, the boots almost fit. Somebody must have checked. She realized she'd be spending a lot of time walking and running in those boots, so they better fit right. She'd know after the first day.
She put on the cammie-splotched floppy hat and took another look. It would have to do. She picked up the plastic-enclosed pass she had been given, and an ID card, also sealed, and put both in the big front-flap shirt pocket.
Kat paced the floor of her small quarters a minute, saw that her waterproof wide-plastic-banded watch set for military time showed that it was 0730. Time to move.
She pushed open the door and headed for the main gate, to go across the highway to the SEAL headquarters on the other side of the road.
When she stepped into the SEAL "quarterdeck," she found it to be only a lobby for the headquarters. She showed her ID card to a sailor behind a counter and he snapped a salute.
"Good morning, Lieutenant. I'll have a man take you down to SEAL Team Seven, Platoon Three."
At once a sailor in blue dungarees appeared at a locked door to her left and motioned to her.
"This way, ma'am."
For a moment, Kat felt almost pampered, but she knew that wouldn't last. She had to become "one of the guys" to make this mission work. She had made up her mind about one thing She was going to be so damn tough nobody would question her, and she wasn't going to get herself or anyone else killed on this mission.
A short walk later and she was shown into a building and to an open door. She stepped inside an office.
"Lieutenant Garnet, we were just talking about you," Murdock said from behind his desk in the eight-by-eight-foot room. He didn't get up. Two others were in the room. She knew one was the other officer in the platoon, DeWitt. The third was an enlisted man she remembered seeing. They all wore desert cammies.
"Good morning, Lieutenant Garnet," Murdock said.