Front Lines. Майкл Грант
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Название: Front Lines
Автор: Майкл Грант
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Учебная литература
Серия: The Front Lines series
isbn: 9781780316543
isbn:
“The Supreme Court, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that we must . . .” Here Colonel Derry searches for the right word and ends up spitting it out like a piece of bad meat. “. . . accept . . . Have decreed that we must accept females into this training facility.” Maybe he is naturally pop-eyed, or maybe the lenses of his spectacles make his eyes appear ready to pop like overfilled water balloons, but most likely, Rainy believes, he is actually enraged. His voice is certainly tense and high-strung. And he bounces on the balls of his feet with each word he emphasizes. It creates an odd sort of show since his choices of emphasis seem almost random.
“I have been ordered to thus accept females, and I carry out my orders. But as long as I am in command of this facility, I will exercise my discretion to the maximum, to ensure that the natural order of the sexes ”—that phrase comes with three rapid bounces—“a natural order that has decreed that woman shall bear children and tend the hearth, while men shoulder the harsher burdens of life’s vicissitudes . . .” He loses his way for a moment, but finds it quickly enough. “Females will be accorded all the courtesies of their rank, and woe to any male who treats them ill. But woe as well to any female who forgets her place or fails to exhibit the virtues of her sex! ”
Throughout this Captain Jon Herkemeier stares straight ahead, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
There are suppressed snickers from some of the male soldiers. Rainy can hardly blame them. Virtues of their sex is a phrase almost designed for deliberate misinterpretation.
Rainy doesn’t look around—one does not look around when a colonel is speaking—but within her peripheral vision are two other females, neither looking pleased.
“In short,” Colonel Derry concludes, “I expect each of you to pay the closest attention to your instructors. I expect your fullest devotion to the task at hand. This is no easy course of study, and if any of you male soldiers think you’re going to avoid service overseas, I can tell you that you are likely to be disappointed. The ladies will surely stay safe, but for you men, your lives and the lives of other soldiers may well depend on the techniques and skills you learn here.”
In one five-minute speech, Colonel Derry crushes any hope Rainy has that she will be treated fairly.
Is there any point in this? No doubt there are useful assignments here in the States, but that’s not the image that’s been in Rainy’s mind, the image that’s motivated her to push through the pain and humiliation of basic training. She did not learn to qualify on rifles, machine guns, rifle grenades, and mortars in order to sit at a desk in some swampy hole somewhere safe. She did not drag her exhausted body up and down hills, through obstacle courses and live fire drills, only to end up typing and answering telephones in Arizona or some other godforsaken hole.
She cannot, will not, spend the war in a swivel chair. Not while Aryeh is chasing Japs across the Pacific Ocean.
But open defiance will get her cut from the program. Complaining up the chain of command will get her cut from the program. Trying to recruit support from male soldiers will make her look weak and cause her to be cut from the program.
There is only one way to prevail. That is to outwork, outthink, outperform every soldier in the school.
Rainy Schulterman is ready for that challenge.
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