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supposed to leave the E-Club and head out of town, but pitchers kept being bought, and they each had to be drained.  After an hour-and-a-half, it became evident that the night out in the ville had been abandoned.  Sergeant Vinter made her excuses right about then, and Corporal Acosta left soon thereafter.  Both Corporals Wheng and Sativaa hung around, though, closing the club at 0100 with the non-rates.
    Liege had a good conversation with Korf, and her initial impressions were confirmed.  He was an eager puppy, wanting to please.  Although the party was for both of the newbies, he must have bought at least a third of the pitchers.
    Veal was a tougher nut to crack, but Liege pulled up a chair beside the big woman and shared a stein or two with her.  She thought Veal somewhat reserved, but not in a snooty way.  One-on-one with Liege, the lance corporal opened up about her career to date, which was entirely on the track team.  By closing time, Liege had decided that she liked Veal—which wasn’t surprising; Liege liked almost everyone.
    Wythe and Williams wanted to take the party out in town as the E-Club closed, but with a 0600 PT [4] session in the morning, cooler heads prevailed.
    More than slightly tipsy, Liege and Fanny started to leave together to go back to the barracks.  As they stepped off, Liege looked back to the table and saw Veal standing in the awkward manner of someone not quite knowing what to do.
    She pulled Fanny to a halt and asked Veal, “Well, girl, you coming?  We sisters have to stick together, you know?”
    The lance corporal smiled with a hint of relief and joined them.  With one arm linked in Fanny’s, Liege hooked her other in Veal’s, and the three squadmates stepped through the club’s front hatch and into the night.

Chapter 4
     
    “You have what?”
    “I’ve got the Brick.”
    Liege stared at the lance corporal standing in front of her.  Golf Company had been out in the field for the last two weeks on their work-ups, and this was her first day back assisting in the battalion sick call since then.
    “Uh, according to your records, Lance Corporal Weisman, you’ve never been in regen, so how could you have BRC?”
    “I don’t know,” he said.  “I just know I have it.”
    “OK, wait a second while I talk to the chief.”
    Liege left the Marine standing there as she searched out Chief Sou—Chief Hospital Corpsman Soukianssian and the senior corpsman in the battalion.
    “Uh, Chief?” she said when she tracked him down.  “I’ve got a lance corporal who’s telling me he has the Brick.”
    “Have you taken his vitals?”
    “No, Chief.  I mean why?  He’s never had regen, and he’s 19 years old.  He doesn’t have the Brick.”
    “You know that and I know that, but does he?”
    “We’re eight days from our shake-down cruise, Chief.  He’s trying to scam out of that.”
    “Who is he?”
    “Lance Corporal Weisman, from Fox.”
    “Bigeye, what can you tell me about Weisman, lance corporal, one each,” the chief asked HM2 Fiorelli, one of the Fox Company corpsman who was going over some sort of list at an adjacent desk.
    “Weisman?  Good kid, bad story.  He brought his honey-wa from Kunter or Dysktra 3 or someplace like that and set her up in the ville.  Only this fine young lady is rather fond of the many strapping young Marines here.  Rumor has it that she’s had more than a few boyfriends since she’s been here and she’s only waiting until we deploy so she can shack up with some guy from 3/4.  Weisman’s been pretty stressed out, from what I hear.”
    “She’s shacking up with other Marines?  And they know she’s with Weisman?” Liege asked, surprised at what Fiorelli had just said.
    “That’s the scuttlebutt.”
    “But they know Weisman’s a Marine?”
    “Geez, Neves, come on back down to reality,” Doc Fiorelli said.
    “But that’s a Jody,” Liege protested.
    “And the military doesn’t Jody each other, yeah, we know,” Bigeye