From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [175]
“Sure. All us noncoms got heavy responsibilities,” O’Hayer said sympathetically. “Look at me,” he waved his hand behind him at the shed.
What was the use? Warden asked himself. You cant talk with him. Only way you can ever talk with him is blow your top and get mad like you did over the clothing issue, and even that dont do you any good. You might as well quit fencing.
“Listen, Jim,” he said. “Theres going to be a lot more stuff coming up soon like this change of chrome bayonets for black. We’ll be getting the new M1 rifles pretty soon, and they are experimenting with a new style helmet at Benning now. We’re getting ready to get into this war and from now on there will be all kinds of changes, not only in equipment but in administration. I’m going to have my hands full with the orderly room and the records, from now on. I wont be able to handle the supply.”
“Me and Leva are handling it,” O’Hayer said, still untouched. “I aint had any complaints from anybody about how we’re handling it. Except from you. I think me and Leva are doing a pretty good job of handling it. Dont you, Top?”
Ah, Warden thought. He held the hypo up to the light then and squirted the needle, just to make sure, just to see that it was working right.
“What would you do,” he asked, “if Leva transferred out of this company?”
O’Hayer laughed. It was like with his smile. “Now you’re trying to scare me, Top. You know Dynamite would never okay Leva’s transfer. I’m ashamed of you, stooping to such tricks.”
“But what if the transfer came down from Regiment, from Colonel Delbert?” Warden grinned.
“Why, Dynamite would just take it back to him and explain the facts of life to him, thats all. You know that, Top.”
“No I dont,” Warden grinned. “And apparently you dont know Dynamite, not if you think he’s going to jeopardize his chance of getting that majority he’s bucking for by arguing with The Great White Father.”
O’Hayer looked at him coolly, Warden could almost see the tumblers moving.
“People aint mathematics,” Warden grinned, savoring the coming epigram; it was one he’d had in mothballs for a long long time, looking for a place to use; Pete Karelsen would turn green at this one.
“People aint mathematics, Jim. If they was, you and Einstein would of fought it out a long time ago, to see who rules the world.”
“That’s good,” O’Hayer said coldly. “You ought to tell that one to Pete.”
“Leva,” Warden grinned complacently, “has been talking it up with M Company, Jim. They want him for supply sergeant. All he has to do is transfer and the rating’s his. And M Co’s CC wants him so bad he taken it up with the 3rd Battalion Commander, who is not a Captain but a Lieutenant Colonel, a Lieutenant Colonel who has taken it up with Delbert, Jim.”
“Thanks for the tip,” O’Hayer said. “I’ll work on it.”
“Its no tip,” Warden grinned. You’re enjoying this, aint you, he thought. What a prick. “If it hadnt already gone too far for you and Dynamite to stop it, I never would of told you, Jim. Leva’s a good man. I’m a prick, but I aint that big a one.
“Its only a question of time, Jim,” he grinned.
O’Hayer did not say anything.
“So this is no tip. This is a favor I’m asking you. A personal favor. Will you ask Dynamite to relieve you from supply? You can tell him you’re bored with it and get him to carry you surplus for straight duty, and let me give Leva that rating? As a personal favor to me. You lose nothing; I get to keep Leva.”
“You know how The Man feels about surplus noncoms,” O’Hayer said. “Theres no use asking him that. He thinks its a reflection on his soldiering, to carry a noncom surplus.”
“He’s do it for you, Jim,” Warden grinned. O rare Milt Warden, O what a prick Milt Warden, O what a rare prick Milt Warden. I only just hope it works. “He’d do anything for you, Jim,” he grinned.
O’Hayer was looking at him thoughtfully, the tumblers making little clickings as they moved, still unemotionally, calculating.
“I like it where I am,” O’Hayer said, finally. “I see no reason to change my status, not from what you’ve told me. He might even end up by wanting me to pull drill with the C