The Eternity Brigade by Stephen Goldin, Ivan Goldman Page A

stood up. “If, uh, if you’ll excuse me….” He backed away a few steps, then turned and walked quickly back into the hotel.
    Symington was left with his mouth open. “I’ll be damned.” Turning to Hawker, he added, “You don’t suppose he really is a fag, do you?”
    Hawker was equally puzzled by their friend’s behavior. “I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t think so. He seemed perfectly normal. I don’t know what got into him.”
    With a characteristic shrug, Symington dismissed the problem from his mind. “Oh well, that just means there’s more for us, doesn’t it?” He put an arm around the deserted Maya and pulled her closer to him. “I never tried it with two at once, it might be kinda fun. Have fun with Felicia,” he waved back at Hawker as he led his two women off to his room.
    Hawker was worried about Green, but Felicia’s expert ministrations soon made him put the thought to the back of his mind. He was a little concerned, as he led the woman back to his own room, that Green might already be there and he knocked self-consciously before entering. But Green was not there; Hawker and Felicia had the room and the afternoon all to themselves.
    Afterward, Hawker made sure to give Felicia a generous tip, even though he was sure Symington had already paid her well. Felicia smiled and thanked him, and told him that she stopped by the hotel every couple of days if he should want to see her again. After she left, Hawker returned to his bed and slept soundly for several hours.
    It was after dark when he awoke. There was no sign that Green had returned to the room. Hawker tried Green’s cell phone, but got no answer. Now seriously worried, he set out to search for him. He checked the casino and the restaurants without success. A waitress in the bar said Green had spent most of the afternoon there, running up a tab and getting progressively drunker. She remembered him staggering out several hours ago, and he hadn’t been back since.
    Hawker checked the lobby and the casino again, but there was still no sign of his friend. If Green had wandered off to one of the other hotels there’d be no way of finding him until he decided to reappear. Hawker was half ready to make the rounds of the city anyway, but decided to give the grounds one more search. On a hunch he checked out by the pool, and that was where he spotted the lone figure sitting motionless in a deck chair staring into the surface of the water.
    Hawker came up slowly behind him, and saw that it was indeed Green. The young man had a drink in his hand, but was staring intently into the swimming pool as though trying to fathom from it the secrets of the universe. He looked up as Hawker reached his side, then returned his gaze to the water.
    Hawker pulled up another chair and sat down beside his friend. For a long time, neither man spoke. The night was warm and quiet. Finally Green tired of the silence. “I suppose you think I’m gay.”
    “I don’t know,” Hawker shrugged.
    “Sure, why not? That’s the logical assumption, isn’t it? I’ll bet that’s what Lucky thinks.”
    “He asked me if I thought you were,” Hawker said. “I told him I didn’t know.”
    “There’s a lot of things you don’t know, isn’t there?” Green raised his glass to his lips, then put it down again without drinking from it. Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, he continued, “Well, I’m not. So there. But it might simplify a lot of things if I were.”
    Hawker accepted that with his usual silence.
    Green let the quiet reign for a few more minutes before breaking it again. “We’re all being pushed, Hawk. We’re all being pushed into this damned project, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.”
    “No one forced us to volunteer.”
    “The push was made a long time ago,” Green said, shaking his head. “Before we ever knew what was happening. Except for Lucky. I really think he enjoys this kind of crap. A natural-born