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hooked on his belt loops.
    “Nothing that I’m aware of, Sarn’t Major,” Shane said, mentally willing Carponti to keep his mouth shut while at the same time hoping that Nicole would hurry back from the bathroom. If Carponti’s wife was there with them, maybe Sarn’t Major wouldn’t rip them new assholes …
    It wasn’t like Shane and Carponti hadn’t been grilled by the Sarn’t Major before. There was a period right after the last deployment when every single one of Carponti’s team had been arrested. All at once. Shane had managed to keep them from being thrown out of the army. Barely. And just his luck, his bullshitting skills were asleep at the moment.
    Sergeant Major pulled out a can of dip and slapped it between his thumb and index finger then stuffed a wad between the side of his cheek and his teeth. “So there wasn’t an assault on an officer last night at Ropers?”
    “Well.” Shane cleared his throat. “There’s a lot of confusion about what actually happened …”
    Giles jabbed a finger toward Shane’s chest, cutting him off. “Save your tap dancing for the commander. Did anyone get arrested?”
    “No, Sarn’t Major.”
    “Good. So explain to me how you’re the only platoon sergeant who hasn’t cleared the medical section.” He folded his arms over his chest and jerked his head toward Carponti. “Along with this delinquent.”
    Shane cleared his throat, praying Carponti would keep his mouth shut for a fewmore minutes. “Must have slipped my mind, Sarn’t Major.”
    It was a banner day that Sarn’t Major didn’t eviscerate him over that lame-ass excuse. Giles jabbed his thumb over his shoulder toward the medical line.
    “Now” was all he said before he moved off to some other hapless bastard. “You, too, smart-ass.”
    Shane swore beneath his breath as they walked over to the medical line, leaving their weapons with Ross, one of Carponti’s soldiers. Carponti, eager to get the process over with, elbowed his way in front of him. Something tore deep beneath the muscles in Shane’s abdomen and white pain blocked his throat.
    “That was the worst excuse ever.”
    When Shane felt he could talk he said, “We didn’t have to see the battalion commander, so it worked, didn’t it? And thank you for keeping your mouth shut.”
    “I’m not stupid,” Carponti responded. Shane shot him a look that suggested otherwise. “I’m fully aware that assaulting an officer isn’t a good way to start my deployment.”
    Shane laughed, folded his arms over his chest, and scanned the line, seeing many familiar faces. Several guys had their noses buried in books but most of them were just talking trash and throwing insults at one another as the line inched forward. There were a half dozen nurses in blue smocks, poking and sticking the men with last-minute anthrax and smallpox and a dozen other vials of mysterious crap ending in
x
.
    A mass of soldiers stood in several lines, obscuring the view, but every so often he’d catch a glimpse of what was happening at the front of the lines. Each soldier stepped forward, and removed his Army Combat Uniform top, then rolled up the sleeves of histan undershirt. Some would hold on to their weapons, others would hand them to a buddy before they went under the needle. Then he’d hand the nurse his records and wait to see how many needles were involved in this little medical party.
    Maybe he could bluff his way through the line. He’d banked on there not being medical processing today. Looks like he’d been wrong. He
had
to skip a full-blown medical exam. The minute the nurse saw the bandages taped to his belly, he’d be well and truly fucked.
    Most of the guys stood in silence as the nurse reviewed which shot—or shots—they needed. Shane grinned as one of the soldiers tried to convince his nurse to falsify his records so he wouldn’t have to get smallpox. It didn’t work. It never did. Shane scanned the crowd, trying to formulate a plan.
    The nurse at