Chapter 4 third chapter

Mosca let a German porter carry his case out of the plane, and he saw Eddie Cassin coming down the airport ramp to meet him.They shook hands, and Eddie Cassin said, "It's a pleasure to see you again, Walter." He said it in a soft, sincere voice, modulating his tone as he did whenever he felt unnatural. say. "Thank you for arranging the work for me and going through the clearance procedures." Mosca said. "Nothing," Eddie Cassin said. "It's worth running some errands for the old man. We had a good time, Walter." He lifted one of Mosca's suitcases, Mosca picked up the other and the blue gym bag, and the two of them walked up the ramp , leave the flight area.

"Come over to my office, have a drink, meet those guys," Eddie Cassin said.He put his free arm around Mosca's shoulder, and after a while he said in a natural voice, "I'm really glad to see you, old man, do you understand?" Something not felt, a real feeling of reaching the final destination. They followed the barbed wire to a small brick building, which was some distance away from other facilities on the base. "Here I'm in charge, I'm in charge," Eddie said. "This is the Employees Department. I'm the assistant to the director. The director is always on the plane. Five hundred Germans think I'm God, and a hundred of them How about fifty women in my line of business, Walter?"

It was a one-story house, with German clerks hurrying in and out of the large office outside, and a crowd of Germans waiting patiently for verbal review of job applications.There were rough-looking men, young women, young men, young girls, and some of them were pretty.They applied to work as yard mechanics, canteen helpers, and consignment store salesmen, Eddie walked by.Their eyes all followed him. Eddie opened the door to the inner office.Here are two desks facing each other.In this way, the two could see each other's faces while sitting, and there was only a small sign with a green background and white space on one of the tables, which read "Lieutenant Ford, Employee's Office".There is also a small pile of documents neatly placed waiting to be signed, and on another table there are two double-tiered document baskets piled full, and a small sign is almost covered by the documents on the table, which says "Mr. Eddie Cassin, Assistant Director, Employees." There was also a desk in the corner of the room, and a big, ugly girl was sitting there typing. She stopped what she was doing and said, "Good afternoon, Mr Cassin, the Colonel called and wanted you to call back."

Eddie winked at Mosca and grabbed the phone, and while he was on the phone, Mosca lit a cigarette and tried to relax.He looked at Eddie and tried not to think about Helene.He didn't think Eddie had changed at all.Gray curly hair framed his delicate but strong face, his lips looked as sensitive as a girl's, but his nose was straight and majestic, and the shape of his jaw gave a sense of determination.His eyes were sensual, and his thick gray hair seemed to have tinged his skin with gray.He came across as youthful, with a candor and enthusiasm that bordered on innocence, but Mosca knew that when Eddie Cassin was drunk, his sensitive, slender lips twisted into an ugly slit , the whole face turned gray, and became old and fierce.But there was no power behind that vicious look, and like Mosca, everyone laughed at him a lot, so he had to take it out on the woman, verbally and physically on the woman who was his mistress at the time.Mosca had a stereotype of him: a rabid womanizer mixed with a nasty drunk.But in other respects he is indeed a good man who would do anything for his friends.Besides, Eddie was wise enough to never do anything wrong with Helene.Mosca wanted to ask Eddie if he had seen Helene, or if he knew anything about her, but felt hesitant.

Eddie Cassin put down the phone, opened a desk drawer, and produced a bottle of gin and a can of grape juice.He turned to the typist and said, "Inchburg, wash the glasses." She came out of the office with some glasses and some containers of cheese-coated knives.Eddie Cassin walked to the door leading to the inner room. "Come here, Walter, and meet some of my friends." In the next room, a squat, pale man in a grass-green uniform like Eddie's was standing at the table, with one foot resting on the rung of the chair, bent forward so that his stomach was against his thigh. superior.He was reading a questionnaire in his hand, and before him stood a stocky German standing at attention, with his requisite service cap tucked under his arm.Sitting by the window was an attentive American employee, with the long chin and small angular mouth of a weather-beaten American farmer, who seemed to have the power to do what he wanted.

"Wolf," Eddie said to the dumpy man, "this is an old buddy of mine, Wolfe. Moccasin. Walter, Wolfe's the security guy here. Before the Germans came to work on the base He examines." After they shook hands, Eddie went on to introduce: "The guy sitting by the window is Gordon Middleton. He's a clerk, so he was assigned here to help. The colonel didn't want him, so he didn't have a regular job." Middleton didn't get up from his chair to shake hands, so Mosca just nodded, and the other waved his long, thin arms in return. Wolf pointed to the door with his thumb and told the German, who was still standing at attention, to wait at the door.The German snapped his heels to attention, bowed, and walked out quickly.Wolfe laughed and threw the questionnaire contemptuously on the table.

"Never been in the Nazi Party, never in the S.A., never in the Hitler Youth. Well, I'm sworn to death with the Nazis." They all laughed, and Eddie shook his head knowingly. "That's what they all say. This Walter is right on your mind, Wolfe. He was so tough on the Germans when I was with him in the Junta." "Really?" Wolff raised his sandy eyebrows, "This is the only way." "Yeah," Eddie said, "we had a problem with the military government. The Germans delivered coal to all the German houses, but when it was time to deliver coal to the Jewish refugee camp in Grosse on Saturdays, it wasn't the truck that broke Well, it was the German coal man who said there was no more coal. This guy solved the problem."

"I'd like to hear about it," said Wolfe.He spoke unhurriedly, with a flattering, almost slippery attitude, and he kept nodding his head when he listened to someone speaking, expressing his complete understanding. Ingeborg brought glasses, bottles and juice.Eddie had four glasses of wine, one of which was without gin.He gave that glass to Gordon Middleton, the only one in the occupying army who didn't gamble, drink, or chase women, so the colonel wanted to kick him out, he made a bad impression on the Germans. "Let's talk about that," Gordon said.His low, drawling voice was a reproach, but a mild, calm one.

"Okay," Eddie said, "well, Mosca has to follow the truck to the camp every Saturday and watch the coal get there. One Saturday he was playing craps and let the truck go Well, the coal wasn't delivered. Mosca got a real scolding that I'll never forget. I drove him to where the truck broke down and he gave the drivers a lesson." Mosca leaned on the table, lit a cigarette, and smoked uneasily.He remembered that, and he knew Eddie was going to exaggerate and make him a brutal guy, but that wasn't the case at all.He told the drivers he could release them if they didn't want to drive, promising not to hurt them.However, if they still want to eat this bowl of food, it is better to send coal to the refugee camp, even if they carry it on their own.A driver left, and Mosca took his name and handed out cigarettes.But Eddie made it sound like Mosca beat them all up against six.

"Then he went to the coal official's house to find him, and I heard him talk to him for a while in English. The German was boasting when he got home. After that, on Saturday afternoons, Mosca threw the tweezers at ease, and the coal would come naturally. To the refugee camp. What an excellent administrator." Eddie shook his head approvingly. Wolf kept nodding his head, expressing understanding and satisfaction. "That's the kind of crew we need around here," he said. "These Germans get away with bad things." "You're not doing very well like that, Walter," Eddie said.

"Yeah, we're teaching those Germans what democracy is," said Wolfe, making Mosca and Eddie laugh, and even Middleton, with a wink. They sipped their wine slowly, and after a while, Eddie stood up and looked out the window at a woman passing by, heading for the exit. "There's something good going on here, too," he said. "Would you like to have some fun?" "That's the question on the questionnaire," Wolfe said, and was about to add something when the door leading to the corridor snapped open and a tall, flaxen-haired boy was wheeled in.He had handcuffs on his wrists and tears streaming down his face.He was followed by two short men in dark slacks, one of whom stepped forward. "Mr. Dorman," he said, "we've got this soap thief." Wolfe laughed. "The Soap Thieves," he told Eddie and Mosca, "we've lost a lot of Red Cross soap that was supposed to be distributed to German children. These two are detectives from the city." One of the two men opened the handcuffs.He pointed his index finger under the child's nose, and said as if he was an old man, "Don't pretend to be dumb, huh?" The child nodded. "Don't take off the handcuffs!" Wolfe shouted suddenly.The detective stepped back. Wolfe approached the boy and pushed his head up with his hand. "Did you know that this soap was distributed to German children?" The boy hung his head and did not answer. "You work here, we trust you. You will never serve Americans again, but if you write an inspection and sign your name, we will not do you. Agree?" The kid nodded. cried Wolf in the Inchberg, as the German typist came in. Wolf nodded to the two short men. "Take him to that office, the girl knows what to do." He turned to Eddie and Mosca, "It's so easy," and then he gave a friendly smile. "Everyone saves trouble, the little guy will be locked up for six months." " Mosca said intentionally or unintentionally: "Damn it, you promised to spare him." Wolf shrugged, "Yes, but the German police caught him selling on the black market. The head of the police in Bremen is an old friend of mine, so we are working together." "If it's the law," Eddie murmured. "What should I do with the kid who stole the soap? Give him a chance to reform." Wolfe said sharply: "No, in that case, they will steal more and more fiercely." He put on his hat, "Oh, I'm still busy tonight, all the cooking staff must be fully educated before leaving the base. Cha, there's something tricky about it." He smiled at them. "We got a policeman from Bremen looking for women, and she came with a pair of big rubber gloves and a bar of American military soap. You don't know where those women hide the butter cubes, phew." He spat . "I hope I never get that hungry." After Wolfe left, Gordon Middleton stood up and said in his deep, concise words: "The Colonel likes him." He smiled kindly at Mosca, as if he had said something interesting, Not dissatisfied.Before he walked out of the office, he said to Eddie, "I'd like to catch the first bus home," and said curtly but kindly to Mosca, "Goodbye, Walter." It's time to get off work.Mosca saw through the window that the German coolies were gathered at the gate of the exit, waiting for the military and police to search before leaving the base.Eddie went to the window and stood beside him. "I suppose you're going into town to find your girl?" Eddie said, smiling so sweetly that his delicate lips seemed hesitant, like a woman's smile. "So I took great pains to get you a job here when I got your letter. I reckon you must be here for the girl, don't you?" "I don't know," Mosca said. "I don't think it's quite right." "Do you want to settle down in the dormitory in the city before going to her, or go to her now?" "Let's get the dormitory settled first," Mosca said. Eddie laughed out loud. "If you go now, you will definitely find her at home. It will be at least eight o'clock when you arrange the dormitory, and she may be out by then." He kept his eyes on Mosca when he said this. "Unlucky," Mosca said. Each of them picked up a box and walked out of the house to where Eddie parked the jeep. Before starting the engine, Eddie turned to Mosca and said, "You don't want to ask, but I'll tell you anyway. I've never seen her arrive." The Military Club was or was with the GIs. I hardly ever saw her," he added slyly after a pause, "I don't think you want me to visit her, though."