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Kemo didn’t understand English too well, and she spoke it pretty badly, especially when it came to naming colors. Had she described the color of that fan wrong when the court asked her about it, things might have worked out differently. But Kemo was remembering all the indignities she had suffered at the hands of Jason Trench, Kemo was remembering the bruises he had left on her breasts and thighs, remembering that he had never treated her like anything but dirt, never like a woman even when he was inside her, remembering his wife Annaburr to whom he had sent the pearls. All these things combined to make it absolutely essential that there be no mistake about the color of the fan that had been stolen in Kagoshima. Kemo lifted the hem of her kimono clear up over her thighs, showing the court a splendid pair of whore’s legs, and also showing them a nylon slip that had been given to her by her Army sergeant friend.

“This,” she said, and glared at Jason.

The slip was pink.

He always felt later that they were being particularly hard on him because he had pulled down that Jap house and beaten up Kemo. He could not understand it. Kemo and the carpenter were both enemies of the United States; what difference did it make what happened to them? But he knew that this was why they were being so hard on him. After all, he was an officer in the United States Navy, a combat officer; they didn’t have to throw the book at him that way. Oh yes, the yeoman from Kagoshima came down to testify that a pink fan had been discovered missing from the office shortly after the visit of the 832 in the second week of January, a visit confirmed by the record of harbor traffic that month. He also testified to having seen Jason in the office on at least two occasions, but all this was circumstantial since the missing pink fan was at no time offered in evidence. (How could it be? Jason had sold it to a shopkeeper in Kyoto.) It seemed to Jason, in fact, that the only few things they really had him on were the ones the Japs testified to, and he couldn’t understand why the court was willing to accept their word over his.

The charges included violation of Paragraph 187, Article 108 of the Punitive Articles, Selling or otherwise disposing of military property of the United States; that was the pink fan, all circumstantial. Then they charged him with the Wasting, despoiling or damaging of any property other than military property of the United States. That was the Jap house. The court valued the fan at between twenty dollars and fifty dollars, and the house at more than fifty dollars. In either case, the punishment — if he had been an enlisted man — could have included dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances, as well as six months at hard labor for each offense. That wasn’t all, though. They charged him with two counts of assault. The assault on the Jap carpenter was called aggravated assault, because it turned out the bastard had suffered a concussion when Jason kicked him in the head. They called the assault on Kemo an assault with intent to commit rape, which couldn’t have been further from the truth but which carried a possible twenty-year sentence as opposed to six months for simple assault and battery, and five years for aggravated assault. They also added looting and pillaging to the list of offenses, because he had taken a slat of wood and tossed it on the fire, and — as an ironic fillip to the whole episode — they charged him with misbehavior before the enemy in that his intentional misconduct in the presence of Kemo and the carpenter had endangered the safety of the place (Japan) which it was his duty to defend.

According to the code, an officer could not be sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, but he could be dismissed from the service for an offense in violation of an article of the code, and Jason was convicted of several such offenses. His dismissal included a forfeiture of all pay and allowances and immediate transfer back to the United States. Back in Louisiana, Annabelle was waiting with the pearls he had sent to her, and which he estimated to be worth about thirty-five thousand dollars.

Many years later he would use the money he received from the sale of those pearls to buy a cabin cruiser named The Golden Fleece, to rent a warehouse and a truck in Miami, to acquire automobiles and rooms in Key West, to pay for plane fares, to buy pistols and rifles to support an invasion. He thought it supremely ironic that he had taken this money from a past enemy of the United States and was now using it against a present enemy.

The sound-powered phone at his elbow buzzed. He opened his eyes and blinked at it curiously for a moment, as though his mind were still elsewhere, and then lifted it from the bulkhead bracket.

“Bridge,” he said.

“This is the captain,” the voice on the other end answered.

17

“Well, how are you, Captain?” Jason said pleasantly. “Everything all right down there?”

“I... I don’t like to ask for favors,” Cates said.

“What is it?”

“I’ve got a bad tooth,” Cates said. “It’s been...”

“Yes, what about it?” Jason said.

“We have a hospital corpsman aboard. I thought—”

“Oh, do we?”

“Yes,” Cates said, and waited.

“Did we leave the corpsman aboard?” Jason asked Alex.

Alex turned from the wheel and said, “I think so.”

“You sure he’s not ashore?”

“No, I think he’s down in the engine room with the others.”

“Tell him I’m about to have my baby,” Annabelle said, and giggled. “I want to see him go pale again.”

Jason laughed and pressed the button on the phone grip. “Captain,” he said, “we do have a corpsman aboard. What is it you want?”

“I thought he could pull this tooth,” Cates said. “I’m in pain.”

“Well, I don’t like to see a man in pain,” Jason said, and hesitated. “I’ll send somebody for the corpsman. He’ll be down there soon. Why don’t you take a swig of brandy meanwhile? You’ve got some in your safe, haven’t you?”

“I’ve already had some.”

“Don’t get loaded, Captain. We may need you later on, just in case anybody gets too curious.” Jason laughed again. “I’ll have the corpsman brought down. You just relax.”

“Thank you,” Cates said.

“Sure,” Jason answered, and hung up the phone. He turned to where Rodiz and Fatboy were seated at the chart table. “Anybody feel like taking a walk?”

“What is it?” Rodiz asked.

“Captain needs a tooth pulled. I’d like somebody to go get the corpsman and take him to the captain’s cabin.”

“I’ll go,” Fatboy said. “Where is he?”

“In the engine room.”

Fatboy stood up and stretched.

“You’ll need a key,” Alex said from the wheel. “The cabin’s locked.” He reached into his pocket and then extended his hand back to Jason, who took the key from it and passed it on to Fatboy. “What’s the corpsman’s name?” Fatboy asked.

“I don’t know. Just go down there and ask for him. Who’s down there, anyway?”