Aimes rolled his own cigar around in his mouth. Three hundred acres of coastal desert rolled out below them, dipping down into a little creek bed before rising again to another finger ridge half a mile away. Somewhere out in those three hundred acres was a young Marine that Horse thought had the warrior spirit. 'Not yet, but I'm lookin'.'
Horse smiled wider and nodded at nothing in particular. 'He's right under your goddamned nose, Leon. Hell.'
'Bullshit he is. If he s out there, I'll find him.' Leon Aimes scowled harder and imagined a huge checkerboard laid upon the land. He carefully searched each block on the board, noting clumps of manzanita and puppy grass as he ran a mental comparison to see if anything had moved in the minutes since he 'd last scanned the terrain. He could find no trace of movement, yet he knew that somewhere out there a young Marine was slowly creeping toward him.
Horse drew deep on the stogy, making an exaggerated deal out of it, and blew a great plume of smoke into the breeze. 'Been here damn near two hours, pard.'Really rubbing it in. Really digging at Leon. 'You know he's good, elseyouwoulda found him by now. We gonna keep the boy out there all day, or has this turned into something about you instead Ve something about him?'
Finally, Gunnery Sergeant Leon Aimes sighed and lowered the glasses. His friend Frank Horse was a wise man as well as a warrior. 'Okay, goddamnit, where is he? '
Horse's eyes crinkled, like he'd won some kinda goddamned bet with himself, and Aimes could tell from the smile that Horse liked this boy, all right. Horse pointed off to their left and ahead of them with his cigar. 'Heading three-four-zero. See that little depression about three hundred meters out?'
Aimes saw it at once without even lifting the glasses. The barest of shadows. 'Yeah.'
Horse reached behind them for the bullhorn. 'He came up through that little cut in the creek bank out there off to the right and has been working his way up.'
L.A. REQUIEM 139
Aimes spit a load of brown cigar juice, pissed. 'How in hell did you see'm? '
'Didn 't see shit.'Horse spit his own load, then looked over at his friend. 'That's the way I told him to come.'
Their eyes met and Aimes smiled. 'Get the boy in here, an' let s talk to him, then.'
Horse keyed the horn and called out across the range. 'This program is terminated, Private. Come to your feet.'
The little depression three hundred meters out on heading three-four-zero did not move. Instead, a loose collection of twigs and burlap and dirt slowly rose from the earth off to their right and less than two hundred meters away. Horse's cigar nearly fell out of his jaw, and Aimes burst out laughing. Aimes clapped his old friend on the back. 'Three-four-zero, all right.'
'Icoulda sworn. . .'
'Lucky that boy wasn 't gonna shoot our old asses.'
Then the two combat veterans were beyond the laughing, and Aimes nodded. Horse keyed the mike again. 'Get in here, Private. Triple time.'
Running up to them across the broken ground, Aimes thought that the ghillie suit made the private look like some kind of matted Pekinese dog, all its mats bouncing up and down. Aimes said, 'He ingood shape? '
'Came here in good shape.'
'Farm boy? '
'Lived in the country, but I don't think they farmed!'Aimes liked boys who grew up on the land and knew its ways.
'What kind of name is that, Pike? English? Irish? '
'Dunno. He don't talk about his people. He don't talk much at all'
Aimes nodded. Nothing wrong with that. 'Maybe he s got nothing to say.'
Now Horse was looking a little nervous, like they had come upon something in the road that didn 't sit well with him and that maybe he was hoping that they wouldn 't come upon. 'Yeah, well, just so you know, he don 'tsay much. I don't think he s stupid.'
140
ROBERT CRAIS
Aimes glancedsharply at his friend. 'You know better than to waste my time with an idiot.'He glanced back at the running Marine. 'Boy ain 't stupid who scores as high on his tests as this one.' This boy had tested higher than most of the college boys who came through, and he stood first in every class he was required to take.
'Well, some of the DIsfind him a little odd, and some of the platoon do, too. Keeps to himself, mostly, and reads. Doesn 't grabass during free time, none of that. Don't think I ever seen the bay smile once since he come to me.'
That concerned Aimes. 'You can tell a lot by a man s laugh.'
'Yeah, well.'
They watched him come closer, and finally Aimes sighed. 'Got no use for a man ain't a team player.'
Horse spit. 'We wouldn 't be standing here if he wasn 't. Got a lot of fast twitch in that boy, but out on the course, he 'II throttle back to help his mates. Did it without having to be told, either.'
Aimes nodded, liking that one just fine. 'Then what's all this business about being odd? You say he's the best young man in your training platoon, you show me a file on this boy saying he stands top of his class, then you bring me out here and we both get snaked by a boy seventeen years old same as he had three years as a Scout/Sniper.'
Horse made a little shrug. 'Just wanted you to know, is all. He ain 'tyour standard recruit.'
'Force Recon isn 't interested in standard recruits, and you and I both know that better 'n anyone. I want moral young men lean turn into professional killers. End of story.'
Horse raised his hands. 'Just wanted you to know.'
'Well, all right.'Aimes chomped on the nasty cigar and watched the young Marine. ' What is it he reads ? '
'Just reads, is all. Anything he can get his hands on. Novels, history. Caught him with some Nietzsche once. Found some Basho in his locker'
'Do tell'
'Knew you 'd like that, too.'
L.A. REQUIEM 141
'Yes, sir. Yes, I do.'
Leon Aimes pondered the private with renewed interest, as he believed that all the best warriors were poets. Those old Japanese Samurai proved that, and Aimes had his own theory as to why. Aimes knew that you could fill a young man's head with all the notions of duty, honor, and country you wanted, but when the shit hit the fan and the bullets started flying, even your bravest young man didn 't stand there and die for little Sally back home or even for the Stars and Stripes. If he stood at all, he stood for his buddies beside him. His love for them, and his fear of shame in their eyes, is what kept him fighting even after his sphincter let loose, and even when his world turned to hell. It took a special man to stand there all alone, without the weight of his buddies to anchor him in place, and Aimes was looking for young warriors that he could train to move and fight and win alone. Die alone, too,
