Field Gray Read Online Free PDF Page B

wants to go around shooting cops and American sailors, then I say she should go to jail.”
    “Not very gallant of you,” said Captain Mackay.
    “Gallant? What does it mean—‘gallant’?”
    “Chivalrous.” The captain shrugged. “Gentlemanly.”
    “ Ah, cortés. Caballeroso . Yes, I see.” I shrugged back at him. “And how would that sound, I wonder. She was only trying to protect me? Give her a break, Captain, she’s just a kid? The girl had a tough childhood? All right. If it makes any difference, you know, I really think the girl was scared. Like I already said, you know what will happen when you hand her over to the local law. If she’s lucky, they’ll let her keep her clothes on when they parade her around the police cells. And maybe they’ll beat her with an ox-dick whip only every other day. But I doubt it.”
    “You don’t sound too upset about it,” said the cop with dandruff.
    “I’ll certainly pray for her. Maybe I’ll even pay for a lawyer. Experience informs me that paying is more useful than praying. The Lord and I don’t get on the way we used to.”
    The captain sneered.
    “I don’t like you, Hausner. The next time I speak to the Lord, I’m just liable to congratulate him on his good taste. You’ve got a job at the National Hotel? Fuck you. I never liked that damned hotel either. You’ve got a nice apartment on Malecón? I hope a hurricane comes and wipes it out, you Argentine cocksucker. You don’t care what happens to you? Neither do I, pal. To me you’re just another South American greaseball with a smart mouth. You can’t think of a better story? Then you’re dumber than you look. You used to be a cop yourself? I don’t want to know, you piece of shit. All I want to hear from you is an explanation for how it is that you were helping a murderer escape from this miserable fucking island you call home. Did someone ask you a favor? If they did, I want a name. Someone introduced you? I want a fucking name. You picked her off the sidewalk? Give me the name of the damned street, you asshole. It’s talk or lock, pal. Talk or lock. We went fishing tonight and we caught you, Hausner. And I get to toss you in my ice locker unless you tell me everything I want to know. Talk or lock and I throw away the fucking key until I’m satisfied there’s no information left in your lying body that you haven’t puked onto the goddamn floor. The truth? I don’t give a shit. You want to walk out of here? Give me some plain, straightforward facts.”
    I nodded. “Here’s one for you. Penguins live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Is that plain enough?”
    I pushed the chair back on two legs, which was my first mistake, and smiled, which was my second. The Navy captain was surprisingly quick on his feet. One moment he was staring at me like I was a snake in a bassinet, the next he was yelling as if he’d hammered his own thumb, and before I could wipe the smile from my face, he’d done it for me, kicking the chair away and then grabbing the lapels of my jacket and lifting my head off the floor only so that he could punch it back down again.
    The other two each caught one of his arms and tried to pull him off, but that left his legs free to stamp on my face like someone trying to put out a fire. Not that this hurt. He had a right as big as a medicine ball, and I wasn’t feeling anything very much since it had connected with my chin. Humming like an electric eel, I lay there waiting for him to stop so that I could show him who was really in charge of the interrogation. By the time they got a ring in his pointy nose and hauled him off, I was just about ready for my next wisecrack. I might have made it, too, but for the blood that was pouring out of my nose.
    When I was absolutely sure no one was about to knock me down again, I got off the floor and told myself that when they hit me again it would be because I had truly earned a beating and that it would have been worth