The Intruders by Stephen Coonts Read Free Book Online

booth came, he had called his folks in Virginia, then
Callie. It was after midnight in Chicago when she answered.
    “Callie, this is Jake.”
    “Where are you?”
    “On the pier at Alameda. Did you get my letters?”
    “I received three.”
    He had written the letters and mailed them from Oceana, where he had
been sent to do field carrier qualifications with a group of students
from VA-42. He had completed his field quals, of course, but didn’t go
to the ship. There hadn’t been time. He would have to qual aboard
Columbia after she sailed. He needed ten day and six night traps
because it had been over six months since his last carrier landing.
    “Another letter is on the way,” he told Callie, probably a superfluous
comment. “You’ll get it in a day or two.”
    “So how is the ship?”
    “It’s a ship. What can I say?”
    “When do you sail?”
    “Seven-thirty in the morning.”
    “So when I wake up you’ll be at sea.”
    They talked desultorily for several minutes, the operator came on the
line and Jake fed in more quarters, then he got down to it “Callie, I
love you.”
    “I know you do. Oh, Jake, I’m so sorry your visit was such a disaster.”
    “I am too. I guess these things just happen sometimes. I wish And he
ran out of steam. A phone booth on a pier with dozens Of “Hors awaiting
their turn wasn’t the place to say what he wished
    “-you be careful,” she said.
    “You know me, Callie. I’m always careful.”
    “Don’t take any unnecessary chance&” –I want you to come back to me.”
    Now Jake stood watching the crowd and thinking that. She wanted him to
come back to her. so He took a deep breath and sighed-
    “life is strange. just when everything looks bleakest a ray of sunlight
comes through the clouds, Hope, He had hope. She wouldn’t have said
something like that unless she meant It, not Callie, not when he was
going On an eight-month cruise.
    He was standing there listening to the two bands Playing different times
at the same time, watching the crowd, watching sailors and women engage
in passionate kisses, when he saw the Cadilla,_ A pink Cadillac
convertible with the top down was slowly making its way down the pier.
People flowed out of its way, then closed in behind it, like water
parting for a boat.
    Cars were not allowed On the pier. Yet there it was. A man in a white
uniform was driving, yet all of his passengers were women, young women,
and not wearing a lot Of clothing either. Lots of brown thighs and bare
shoulders were On display, several truly awesome bosoms.
    In complete disregard of the regulations, the car made its way to the
foot of the Officers’ gangway and stopped, The driver got out and
stretched lazily as he surveyed the giant gray ship looming beside the
pier. The “men bounded out and surrounded him.
    It’s Bosun Muldowski! Who else could it be? No sailor could get a car
past the guards at the head of the pier and few officers under flag
rank. But a warrant officer four? Yep.
    Muldowski.
    He had been the flight deck bosun on Shilo, Jake’s last ship. Apparently
he was coming to Columbia. Now Jake remembered-Muldowski never did
shore duty tours. He had been going from ship to ship for over twenty
years.
    Look at those women in hot pants and short short skirtsf Sailors to the
right and left of Jake in the catwalk shouted and shrieked wolf
whistles. Muldowski took no notice but the women waved prettily, which
drew lusty cheers from the onlooking white hats.
    With the bosun’s bags out of the trunk of the car, he took his time
hugging each of the women, all five of them, as the bands blared
mightily and spectator sailors watched in awe.
    “The bosun must own a whorehouse,” one sailor down the catwalk told his
friends loud enough for Jake to hear.
    “He sure knows how to party,” his buddy said approvingly.
    “Style. He’s got style.”
    Jake Grafton grimed. Muldowski’s spectacular arrival had just
catapulted him to superstardom with the white