Hanging on

we fight like men? Don't you agree?"
        Kelly sucked in a deep breath. "You're an asshole, Slade," he shouted, his voice growing louder by the word. "You're an idotic, simpleminded emotional and mental wreck!" He could not imagine how he could have forgotten the Slade who had shot that German soldier in the back of the head, or the Slade who thought war was glorious, or the Slade who read the Army field manual for relaxation. "You're insane, Slade! You're a monomaniac, a fiend, a myth-enthralled child, a monster!"
        "I thought you wanted to be friendly," Slade said, his face ashen.
        "Fuck friendliness!" Kelly roared.
        "You were going to be warm and understanding."
        "Fuck warmth and understanding!" the major screamed, spittle flecking his chin. He stomped his foot as if he had just squashed those virtues under his heel. "I want to be cold, hostile, isolated! I don't want to hear your fucking complaints. You're a creep, Slade. Everybody loathes you!"
        "I'll get you for this," Slade said. "So help me-"
        "You're an imbecile, Slade!" Kelly screamed, red in the face now.
        Slade turned and ran, arms out in front of him like a comic-book character fleeing a grisly, risen corpse. The workmen stopped working to watch him go.
        "And another thing!" Kelly shouted, doubled over as if suffering cramps. "No more messing around with that questionnaire! We don't have time for that shit! We have four days! Four days, and we need every minute of them for serious business!"
        Slade scrambled over a slight rise, then down the river-bank, out of sight. He was probably just going to sulk in a patch of cat-o'-nine-tails. Dreamer that he was, Kelly hoped Slade intended to drown himself.
        Drained, Kelly turned abruptly and walked into Angelli and Pullit. Without a word of apology, emptied of words now, the major pushed past them. A dozen long strides later he stopped, turned, suddenly conscious of the anomaly he had just seen. Pullit and Angelli were walking hand-in-hand. Kelly remembered what Tooley had said: Angelli was romancing the nurse; he had fallen for her…
        "Private Angelli!" he called. When the loving couple turned, Kelly said, "Come here, Private." He hoped he sounded stern.
        Vito and the nurse exchanged a few brief words. He kissed the nurse on the cheek, and Pullit hurried off toward the hospital bunker.
        "Yes, sir?" Angelli asked, walking back to the major. He was not wearing a shirt. His slim, brown torso was sweat-slicked-and decorated with what seemed to be a fresh tattoo: two letters, N and P. They were done in blue and red, and they were so fresh that the swelling had not yet gone down.
        Kelly looked sideways at Angelli, as if he were ready to turn and run if the private made a wrong move. "Uh… what's this about you and Nurse Pullit being… well… having a-romance?"
        "Isn't she perfect?" Angelli asked, grinning winningly.
        Kelly winced. "She's not a she. She's a he. Angelli, what is going on here?"
        "I think I love her," Angelli said, as if he had not heard Kelly's news. Or did not believe it.
        "Pullit is a him," Kelly insisted. "Look, this is-sick. Vito, I know that some of the men have gotten strange since the pressure was put on, but this is too much. It's too far. You have to get over this."
        "I'll never get over her," Angelli said, dreamily, smiling just the way that Beame had smiled when talking about Nathalie Jobert.
        "Vito, we have four days or so to build this town. That means we need full and enthusiastic cooperation between us and the French. There are only three people who can generate that cooperation: Maurice, me, and you. I need you to keep the largest French work crew on the ball. And this morning, you weren't with them. You were romancing-Pullit."
        Angelli was hard-muscled, scrappy, not at all in line with Major Kelly's picture of a pervert. Yet he sighed and said, "I wish I could speak French. It's the language of love"
        Major Kelly backed up a few feet. "Look here, Vito. I'm ordering you to stay away from Nurse Pullit. You will be severely punished, maybe even court-martialed, if you go near the nurse."
        Angelli's face fell. He touched the swollen letters on his chest. "But I might lose her if I'm not persistent."
        "Good," Kelly said. "Now, get back to your work crew. For Christ's sake, man, the Germans moved