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Before the major could answer, Lieutenant Steele interrupted. “What the major is saying is that you need to keep your damn mouth shut, Philly. Think you can do that from here on out?”

“Yes, sir.”

The major continued, but not before Lieutenant Steele had gone to stand beside Philly like a teacher who had singled out a troublesome student. “You may have heard the rumors that our next operation is going to be the invasion of the Philippines. Well, you heard right. The plan is to land on Leyte, which is one of the Philippine islands. I know that’s hardly a secret at this point. It’s probably where you’ve been expecting to go. That’s where we’ll start the business of taking back the Philippines, which the Japs captured from us right after Pearl Harbor. General MacArthur vowed to be back, and he meant it.

“The Japanese are not going to let us just stroll onto Leyte, of course,” the officer continued. “They have had months and months to build up their defenses, which are quite formidable, I have to say. You’ve had some experience with that here on Guam, I know. Our intelligence indicates that they have done a much better job on Leyte — which is to say, it’s going to be a lot worse.”

Philly opened his mouth but clamped it shut when Steele nudged him none too gently with the toe of his boot.

“The Japanese had built the usual dugouts and spider holes for snipers,” the major said. “But what really concerns us is their artillery. In fact, the Japanese have installed a battery of naval guns that gives them tremendous reach and firepower. Basically, it would be a suicide mission for the invasion fleet.”

Now it was the lieutenant’s turn to ask a question. “Can’t the flyboys knock out those guns, sir? Or the navy?”

“They’ve tried, all right. But we just can’t reach them. The bunker where those guns are hidden is just about impregnable. Nobody can get to it from the air. I’m afraid that the only way to get to them is to send in a demolition team. We intend to sabotage those guns, basically to destroy them one way or another. If we don’t, it’s going to be a slaughter when our landing fleet gets within range.”

Lieutenant Steele spoke up. “With all due respect, sir, my boys are marksmen, not demolition experts.”

“Don’t worry about that, Lieutenant. I know that you and your men bushwhacked your way through the jungle here, dodged the Japanese, and somehow came out the other side. Those are the skills we want from you and your men. We’ll have someone else take care of setting the charges.”

He waved over the marines. Deke couldn’t help but notice that one marine was quite tall, while the other was shorter and broad as a barrel.

As they stepped closer to the dappled shade where the briefing was taking place, it became clear that these were the same marines they had run into earlier — the ones who had taken the last bottles of soda ahead of Deke and Philly.

“Just great,” muttered Philly, who had also recognized the two marines.

“I know it’s a little unusual,” the major stated. “But these are the best demolitions experts that we could come up with on short notice. They just happen to be United States Marines. They will be under your orders, Lieutenant.” Addressing the men, he added, “Now I will turn it over to Lieutenant Steele to give you the details.”

That said, the major made his exit, leaving the two marines behind. For a moment, Steele simply watched the major walking away, looking as if he might want to leave with him. The silence was broken by Philly.

“What are those details, Honcho?” he asked.

Quickly, Steele filled them in. The plan was for them to go in ahead of the main landing force, knock out the guns, and then be extracted. Rumor had it that there might even be friendly Filipino guerrillas to help them out, but running into the right guys would depend on pure luck. There was no means to communicate with any of the guerrilla forces. Finally, if extraction wasn’t possible, then they were to wait until the actual landing — easier said than done.

“You mean, hide out on an island full of angry Japanese?”

“That’s about the size of it, Philly.” Steele looked around. “You all heard the major. This isn’t going to be some cakewalk. Just the opposite. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that none of us will be getting off that island alive. I want to make it clear that this is a volunteer-only mission. If anyone doesn’t want to go, you don’t have to go.”

Quickly, Patrol Easy was on its feet. As if on cue, each one of them took a step forward — even the marines.

“You can count on us, Honcho.”

“I knew that’s how it would be, but I had to ask,” Steele said.

The lieutenant was interrupted by the arrival of a courier. While he was off to one side reading the message, Philly took the opportunity to get acquainted with the marines.

“You two, huh? How’d you like that soda pop?”

“I’ve got to say it was pretty good. It’s a shame that you didn’t get any.”

“I’ll bet. You two must have seriously pissed somebody off to end up on this mission.”

“Well, you know, it’s just like the army to call the marines when there’s a job to get done.”

“Very funny. You guys have names?”

“Cal Hartley,” said the tall one. “This ugly one here is Beryl Watts.”

“Pleasure,” Beryl said.

“Beryl?” Philly snorted. “Isn’t that a lady’s name?”

Beryl glared, clearly unhappy that Philly was giving him flack about his name.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be too quick to kid Beryl about his name,” the tall marine warned. “The last guy who did that is still looking for his teeth. Come to think of it, I might have helped.”

“You marines don’t scare me. We can see what’s what right here and now.”

Cal was taking Philly’s measure. He had a good six inches on him, and at least thirty pounds. He smiled down at him. “Nah, you’re not worth it. None of you guys could scare my grandma, except maybe him.” He jerked his chin in Deke’s direction. “Now that one, I’ll keep my eye on.”

“Why him?” Philly sounded offended. “I’m bigger than he is!”

“You don’t want to mess with him, that’s why. With scars like that, he’s got to be a mean son of a bitch.”

Deke just shrugged. He was sick and tired of hearing about his scars.

“Never mind about him,” Philly said. “It’s me you ought to worry about, tough guy.”

“Yeah?”

Philly and the tall marine stood there glaring at each other.

Steele returned before things turned any uglier.

“Knock it off, Philly,” he said, then turned to the two marines. “Listen, I know you two don’t want to be here any more than we want you here. But as long as you two pull your weight, we won’t have any problems.”

“It’s not us we’re worried about, sir.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, sir.”

“Good to know,” Lieutenant Steele said through clenched teeth. “I can see that we’re all going to get along like gin and tonic. Now we’ve got two days before we ship out for Leyte. I plan to spend them training. We’ll start with a shakedown hike tomorrow morning.”

Philly groaned. “Is it too late to unvolunteer?”

“I hate to tell you this, Philly, but the fun is just beginning,” Steele said.

CHAPTER NINE

A jungle trek wasn’t anyone’s idea of fun, but the soldiers of Patrol Easy found themselves heading into the forest not long after the sun was up. The only one who didn’t seem to mind was Lieutenant Steele, but then again, this hike had been his idea. He seemed almost cheerful this morning, as if he took a perverse pleasure in making them all miserable.

In terms of the patrol’s leadership, Steele essentially functioned as a lieutenant and sergeant all rolled into one. If he had a second in command, that distinction fell to Deke. Deke had no interest in being in charge of anyone but himself, but Steele seemed convinced that Deke at least had enough sense not to get everyone killed outright in Steele’s absence.