Five minutes later, he was back.
“Coffee and some pastry is on the way,” he announced. He walked to the window.
“It’s locked,” Clete said.
Enrico looked at him and winked.
“The clowns in the corridor asked where I was going. I told them for breakfast, a telephone, and the key to the window. They told me I could have neither the key to the window lock,” he held up a small key, “or a telephone.”
He removed the padlock, opened the vertical blind three feet, and then opened the window. He whistled. Moments later, a telephone appeared outside the window; it was hanging on a cord. Enrico hauled it in, untied the cord, then closed the window and the vertical blind.
He plugged the telephone in, picked up the handset, listened for a moment, nodded his head in satisfaction, then unplugged the telephone and put it in the cabinet beside the bed.
“We will keep it there until we need it, mi Teniente,” he said. “In case the clowns in the corridor become curious.”
“How did you do that, Enrico?”
“The Suboficial Mayor of the hospital was in the Husares de Pueyrredón when el Coronel and I were with the regiment. He was injured in a bad fall, and is on limited duty.”
“He gave you the telephone?”
“Sí, mi Teniente, and he will see that we eat well, from the Sargento’s mess.”
“When they hear what happened on Avenida Libertador and cannot find me, my two friends will be worried about me. Can I call them, Enrico?”
Enrico met his eyes for a long moment.
He is not going to let me use the phone. All that talk about going against my father’s wishes sounded great, but when push comes to shove…
“The clowns cannot listen to that line,” Enrico said, pointing to the telephone wall plug. “I thought of that. But I think the clowns will be listening to the line of your friends.”
“You’re probably right.”
Probably, shit! Of course he’s right.
“It would be better to have them come here. Do you need both of them, or just one?”
“Just one. Could you do that? How would you bring him past the clowns?”
“You do not have suboficiales mayores in your army, mi Teniente?”
“I am a Marine, Sergeant Major, not a soldier. But yes, we have men like you in the Corps. They call them ‘gunnys.’ It means gunnery sergeant.”
“And when your officers have a problem they cannot solve, do they turn to the ‘gunnys’?”
“Yes, we do.”
“It is the same here. This problem may take some time, but it can be solved. I suggest, mi Teniente, that you write a short note to your friend, telling him to accompany the man who gives him the note. And tell me the address.”
XVIII
[ONE]
Room 305
Dr. Cosme Argerich Military Hospital
Calle Luis María Campos