Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [83]
5. It is believed that the intensive drilling already instituted in this command will rapidly bring about competent performance, and such incidents will not recur.
PHILIP FRANCIS QUEEG
That night at the officers’ club in the Navy Yard the Caine wardroom had a drinking party to celebrate their departure from Pearl. Captain Queeg joined his officers for an hour or so before moving on to another party of lieutenant commanders in the patio. He was full of jocular good humor, drank faster than anybody else without becoming fuzzy, and entertained them with long anecdotes about the invasion of North Africa. Good feeling ran high. Willie was more convinced than ever that BuPers had sent the Caine a prince of a skipper to replace the sour sloven, De Vriess. He snuggled down in the clip shack at three in the morning, feeling that his term aboard the minesweeper was going to be pretty good, after all, while it lasted.
He was shaken out of his sleep by Rabbitt when day was just dawning. “Sorry to bother a man with a hangover, Keith,” the OOD said, “but we just got an action from ComServPac.”
“Right, Rab.” Willie pulled himself wearily out of the clip shack and went to the wardroom. While he was clacking away at the coding machine Gorton came out of his room naked and watched over his shoulder, yawning. The words formed one by one: Caine departure Pago Pago canceled. Moulton replace Caine convoy duty. Caine remain Pearl target-towing duty. Obtain towing gear target repair base.
“Now what the hell?” said Gorton. “What kind of quick switch is that?”
“Ours not to reason why, sir-”
“Hope that goddamn grounding didn’t- Well.” Gorton scratched his bulging belly. “Okay, put on your asbestos suit and take it in to the skipper.”
“Think I ought to wake him, sir? Reveille’s only-”
“Hell, yes. Right away.”
Willie disappeared into the captain’s cabin, and the executive officer paced the wardroom, chewing his lips. In a couple of minutes the ensign came out, grinning. “Well, it didn’t seem to faze the skipper any, sir.”
“No? What did he say?”
“Why, he just said, ‘That’s fine, fine. Nobody can get me mad by switching me to Pearl Harbor duty. The more the merrier.’ ”
Gorton shrugged. “I guess I’m crazy. If he’s not worried, no reason why I should be.”
Through the loudspeaker came the shrill boatswain’s piping of reveille. Gorton said, “Well, time to retire. Call me if anything else comes in.”
“Aye aye, sir.” Willie left.
The exec went into his room, wallowed into his bunk like a big pink bear, and dozed off. The captain’s buzzer brought him sharply awake an hour later. He threw on a bathrobe and went to Queeg’s cabin. He found the captain sitting cross-legged on his bunk in his underwear, unshaven and frowning. “Burt, take a look at the despatch on my desk.”
“I saw it, sir, while Keith was breaking it-”
“Oh, you did, hey? Well, that’s something we can start knocking-off right now. Nobody, repeat nobody, will have access to action despatches except the coding officer and myself until such time as I release them. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir-”
“Kay, kay, just so’s you know,” Queeg grumbled. “Well, if you’ve seen it, what do you make of it?”
“Well, sir, it seems to me we tow targets instead of going to Pago Pago-”
“Do you take me for an idiot? I can read English, too. What I want to know is, what does it mean? Why the changed orders?”
Gorton said, “Sir, it bothered me, too. But according to Keith, you were perfectly satisfied-”
“Hell, I’d rather stay here in Pearl any day than go moseying out west-if there’s no more in it than meets the eye. That’s what I’m beginning to wonder about. I want you to get dressed and haul yourself over to ComServPac. Find out what this is all about.”
“From whom, sir-the operations officer?”
“I don’t care from whom. You can go to the admiral for all I care. But don’t come back without the dope, understand?”
“Aye aye, sir.”
The office building of Commander, Service Squadron Pacific,