85. The Breakout Challenge
Lt. Garrison stood at the end of the table and surveyed the men lounging in chairs in front of him. Their attitudes were a combination of belligerence and disinterest. He almost despaired at ever succeeding in turning them into a well-oiled, smoothly functioning team. The challenge and his refusal to allow them to win in this battle of wills were the only things feeding his persistence. Well, that and the Army's orders to do just that. "Any questions?"
"Yeah!" Goniff popped up angrily, stomped to the wall, and flipped the light switch on with a snap of his hat before walking back to the table to point belligerently at Garrison and then to himself. "So when does my parole board meet?"
Craig ignored the behavior and calmly replied, "After the war . . . if you're still alive." He looked at his watch. "I'll meet you below in twenty minutes. Pack your gear." He turned and walked out of the room, leaving them the opportunity to take responsibility and follow the orders on their own, without further bullying on his part. He hoped.
Goniff sat sullenly in his chair, both feet crossed on top of the antique wood table. When he had been approached in the beginning by the young lieutenant, he thought the proposition to get out of prison and use his skills again for the war effort sounded like a jolly lark. He had learned quickly it meant being shot at and having to shoot back, not something he had at all expected or appreciated. Now there was this mission. The last place he wanted to go was back behind prison walls.
There was a moment of silence. Actor was playing with a pointer as if it were a pool stick. Casino sat between him and the Englishman, smoking his ever present cigarette. Chief was sitting on the other side of the table, holding an empty coffee cup, immersed in his own unhappy thoughts.
The silence was too much for the safecracker. "Hey, how come we always gotta jump somewhere? I mean, aren't there any boats going to Norway?" Casino hated airplanes, but even worse, hated to jump out of them.
Goniff looked at him sourly. "There's a war on, Stupid. Boats can get sunk."
Casino wasn't used to anyone smarting back to him. "Yeah, well how about that," he shot back loudly. "You know, I've got some information for you. I have actually heard that airplanes get shot down in a war."
Actor continued to play with the pointer, wondering why he had to be subjected to the likes of these low class criminals. Their English was atrocious and they were sorely lacking in anything that passed for class. "What's the matter with you Casino?" he asked. "Don't you like your work anymore?"
"Crazy about it. I just don't like jumpin' outta airplanes," grumbled the safecracker.
The youngest member of the team had been sitting in silence, turned into himself and smoldering like a dormant volcano about to explode. He had grabbed at the chance to get out of prison. He had spent too much time in prisons and that time had been hard. He had quickly learned he had traded one prison for another. Now he was stuck far from the land he was used to, in this country of odd food and drink, cold and dampness. It chilled his desert bred bones and was too darn green. But some things had not changed. He was stuck with the holier than thou Italian confidence man; the nervous, idiotic, constantly chattering pickpocket; and the bullying safecracker, who always wanted to pick a fight with him. To make matters worse, Chief was hiding his embarrassment at the fear he had experienced when Garrison had opened fire at them on the stairs with the machine gun loaded with blanks. He also didn't like to be dressed down in front of the others, even though they had received the same. Casino's complaining now was the straw that pushed his anger to erupt. Chief sprang to his feet with enough force that his chair flew backwards, almost turning over. He placed both hands rigidly on the table and leaned forward toward the safecracker.
"So go tell the Warden you quit," he snarled.
Goniff took up the challenge and looked at Casino. "Yeah, you volunteered . . . go back to Leavenworth."
Chief turned and walked away, leaving the two to start their bickering again.
Casino snorted. "Volunteered nuthin'. I was doin' a ten year stretch for safecrackin' when the Warden broke me out. 'How'd you like to do a little travelin' for the government, he says'."
"Well, try to keep your sense of humor, Old Boy," said the Italian in a haughty British accent in arrogant contrast to the Englishman's Cockney.
Casino got up and walked around the table to sit on the corner opposite Actor and flip on the projector. "What's funny about flyin' two thousand miles into Kraut territory to break into a lousy prison?"
"The irony of it," replied Actor, wondering why he must explain everything to this clod.
"Wadda yuh mean?" asked Casino, not getting it.
Actor slapped the table lightly with his right hand and stood up, leaning on the table and looking directly at Casino with a grin. "Just think of all the time and effort they spent getting us out of prison, so that now they can ask us to break into it." He straightened and walked around the table, flicking Casino in the chest with his right fingers in passing. "There." He walked calmly away, with his back to the safecracker, communicating to the tough man that he did not consider Casino a threat.
"That's hilarious," said Casino sarcastically.
Actor turned around and pointed his finger at the safecracker to emphasize that was his point entirely. "Yes it is." He turned and walked out of the room.
Goniff stood up and pointed at Casino before sitting atop the table and scooting on his backside the length of the table to come off next to the safecracker. "Well, cheer up, Mate. It could be worse." Goniff walked past Casino and out of the room.
Casino looked after him, having to get the last word in. "Don't worry, Baby. It will be."
Left alone in the room, Casino rose and walked up to the screen to study the prison gates in the picture. It figured. The last place he wanted to go was back into a prison. For all of the Warden's seemingly calm assumption this mission would be a piece of cake, Casino had a bad feeling it wasn't going to be.