The Lieutenant's Nurse by Sara Ackerman

Author:Sara Ackerman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2018-12-11T15:01:24+00:00

EGG LAYING

0730

Clark ran as much for his mind as he did for his body. Nothing could beat the peace and quiet of an hour of running. His body craved the movement and his mind required the trancelike state he fell into step after step after step. Running had been his salvation after Beth died, when the agony of living had been almost too much to bear. Today, it had taken him longer than usual to settle in. Too much on the mind. Eva, and that damn Flag Officers Code that was stubborn as a blind mule with three legs.

Under patchy clouds and a light drizzle, he had taken the road toward Ford Island and headed south along a rocky path, through kiawe trees with one-inch thorns and down to a marshland where long-legged birds hunted for fish.

As always, he admired the might of Battleship Row. Arizona, Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, California and West Virginia all lined up along the southeast side of Ford Island. Of the bunch, the Nevada and the Oklahoma were the navy’s first super-dreadnoughts, and Clark, like any good soldier, got a lump in his chest just looking at them. Triple gun turrets, a radical new armor scheme, geared steam turbines, and they burned oil instead of coal for fuel. There was no doubt in his mind that here were the greatest battleships afloat.

At Hickam Field, he circled the long runway, waving at a couple of airmen getting ready for the B-17 Flying Fortresses that were scheduled to come in. Hickam housed the bombers—B-17s, A-20s and B-18s—whose pilots loved to razz their sailor neighbors with screaming flybys. But when the carriers came in, the navy hotshots gave them a run for their money. Clark got a kick watching their antics. No carriers today, though.

Being Sunday, Ford was off and had a family picnic planned, but Clark had decided it was time to bring up the matter of the radio signals. He had waited three days, and in those three days not one person had mentioned anything about ships being detected northwest of Oahu. Even the boys at He’eia. They were focused on radio activity in the South China Sea and the Dutch West Indies. There is no activity of importance observed in the Sub Force, they’d told him. Clark was more confused than ever. He would swing by Ford’s this afternoon.

His T-shirt stuck to his back as he hit the grass for a round of push-ups. Once a football player, always a football player. Show him a green grassy field, and he would show you fifty push-ups. Sometimes, he felt like a show-off because he could outwork most of the younger guys, but he believed in keeping himself finely tuned and ready for action.

He heard the planes before he saw them, thinking it would be a treat to watch those babies come in. Forty-six, forty-seven. Beads of sweat dripped down his nose. He jumped up, dusted the grass from his palms and looked north, facing the middle of the island.

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