THE HAPPY HAT by Peter Glassman Read Free Book Online Page A

operation?”
    “Yes there is. I'll be there at visiting hours looking for you and you can point out the assigned patient.”
    “Roger that. I’m on ward G-1 and the patient's name is SGT William Stiles. He goes by the name of Boomer.”
    “See you tonight.” Adam Stokely hung up. He looked at the current roster of Queens Naval Hospital orthopedic patients. The number would seem quite staggering if it wasn't a wartime military hospital. He called his DEA agent counterpart, Robert Dempsey. “Our man is in place and I'm going to meet with him tonight. I think we need at least two more of our people at Queens Naval Hospital.”
    “We already have a nurse and a corpswave plus a physical therapist and an OR tech.”
    “When were you going to tell me this?” Stokely jotted the new info on his note pad.
    “Actually, I was about to call you about it right now. I think our distribution of hospital specialists is complete but we need someone else in place–just one more–to determine how the heroin is received and how it gets out of the hospital.”
    “Let me explore this with our man Kaplan. He's assigned to our target patient and will follow the entire set up from arrival to Queens to the patient's initial and ongoing treatment there.”
    “Put it on this Kaplan tonight. We want to move fast on this. Hanoi wants out of the fighting as much as Nixon does. And Adam thanks for the phone call.”
    Stokely hung up and reviewed his orders from the FBI Agent-in-Charge. It was imperative that the method of heroin trafficking be discovered within the next few months.
    ‡
    “Fifty-grand for a long leg cast. Fantastic. I get my usual ten percent right?” G-3 Corpsman Amstel Perkins was euphoric. He would net $5,000.
    “Ten percent and it could be more or less depending on how thick the Nam plaster application and how big your dude is.”
    Both Linsky and Perkins knew the risks were enormous. If the New York City drug cartel caught either one of them their lives would be terminated in the most prolonged painful way their tormentors could think of.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
    SGT Boomer Stiles
     
    Boomer scanned the orthopedic ward. His bed was right next to the Nurses Station and he had a good view of all the beds and patients across from him and all the ones on his side of the room. I’ve been on G-1 only three hours and already several patients were demanding pain shots or their pain pills . He wondered why his only discomforting experience was being confined in his total body cast. He really had no distinct pain to complain about and looked forward to the neurology consultation for an explanation. The pretty nurse who met him at the train station was talking to the G-1 nurse and looking at him.
    “He's a mystery right now but we’ll figure it out–probably tomorrow.” Nurse LT Dina Sparrow looked from Boomer to Zettler.
    Zettler put Boomer’s chart down. “Let's go break the ice and put him at ease. Dr. Norman heard from X-ray and apparently there’s nothing critical going on underneath his plaster.”
    The two nurses took a position on either side of Boomer’s bed. Seeing two key medical personnel looking down at him made Boomer nervous. His eyes jerked from one to the other.
    “I knew there was something wrong with me. Tell me what it is?”
    Both nurses smiled and Zettler spoke first. “I think we're going to have to revise your cast. We have to figure out a way for you to get exercise. Otherwise you’re going to form blood clots which could be really serious. Everything's okay right now.”
    Sparrow folded her arms underneath her pointed breasts and bent down for a closer look at the window in his plaster helmet and then pulled the sheet back to look at the similar window around his crotch. She pulled the sheet back up and smiled. “I have to figure out how to give you a bath under all this plaster.”
    Kaplan appeared on the ward and immediately went over to Boomer's bed.