“Yes.” A rare smile spread over the gray-haired man’s face. “However, I had no choice. With me it was that way or not at all.”
“All the same,” Norma insisted, “I want to get out and do some real work. I was in college for four years, and now at the Fort for a month. What I want to know is, can I really do any worthwhile work?”
“Good!” exclaimed Lieutenant Warren. “I hoped you would say that. And now may I serve you some of this chicken while it is hot?”
“But why are you glad?” Norma asked in a puzzled tone, after the chicken had been served.
“Because I am leaving here in two days and I want to take you with me.”
“Going where?” Norma asked in surprise.
“To the coast. I can’t tell you the exact spot because I don’t happen to know, and because if I did know, I would not be permitted to tell. It will be somewhere on the rugged coast of New England, rather far north, I imagine. I am to be given a station of the Interceptor Control, and—”
“Interceptor Control!” Norma exclaimed. “Those words charmed me from the first. They somehow seem to suggest dark night patrols, intrigue, mystery, and perhaps real danger.”
“Perhaps you are making too much of it. That depends,” Lieutenant Warren drew a deep breath. “Be that as it may. I’m in for it, and I am to select a squad to take with me. It’s a relatively small station. One squad will be enough at first.”
“She’s asked my squad to go,” Norma thought. “She didn’t ask me because she thought I might want to take a step up, join the officers’ training school at once.” Then she asked a question on impulse: