(They continue talking) PART THREE Plant...
(They continue talking)



PART THREE
Plant and Phantom



"Even the wisest among you is only a disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantomBut do I bid you become phantoms or plants?"
-- NIETZSCHE



1

RECON set out on the patrol the next afternoonThey boarded their assault boat several hours before dusk, and in a short time their landing craft rounded the peninsula and wallowed out toward the western tip of AnopopeiAlthough their pilot held them always within a mile of shore, the boat rolled and pitched, continually shipping water which sprayed over the forward ramp and sloshed along the deckThe boat was small, identical to the one in which they had landed on invasion day, and it was poorly equipped to circuit half the islandThe men huddled on their cots, covered themselves with their ponchos, and prepared for a miserable trip
Lieutenant Hearn stood for a time on the pilot's hatch at the stern, staring down into the troop wellHe was a little weary; only an hour or two after Dalleson had told him he was to be assigned to recon he had been given the instructions for the patrol, and the rest of the day chanel sac had been spent in checking the men's equipment, in drawing rations, and in absorbing the maps and orders Dalleson had furnished himHe had acted automatically, efficiently, postponing until later his surprise and pleasure at being transferred from Cummings's staff
He lit a cigarette and gazed down again at the men clustered in the rectangular box of the troop wellAll thirteen were squeezed into an area not more than thirty feet long or eight feet wide, together with their equipment, their packs, rifles, their cartridge belts and canteens, and the Army cots they had spread out on the floor of the boatHe had attempted earlier that day to procure an assault craft which had bunks built in along the walls but it had been impossibleNow the cots filled most of the available spaceThe men squatted on them, their feet drawn up to keep them free of the water that washed along the deckUnder their ponchos they winced whenever some spray would arch over the front ramp
Hearn examined their facesHe had made it his business to learn their names immediately, but that was hardly equivalent to knowing anything about them, and it was obviously dolce and gabbana knock off important that he should form some quick idea of them as individualsHe had talked to a few casually, joked with them, but it was not a process he enjoyed particularly, and he knew his own aptitudes were poorly suitedHe could learn more from observationThe only trouble was that observation was necessarily slow, and by tomorrow morning they would land on the beach, begin their patrol, then every bit of knowledge about them would be important
As Hearn watched their faces, he was aware of a vague discomfortIt was the kind of physical readiness, the slight guilt, the slight shame, perhaps, that he had felt in walking through a slum neighborhood, conscious of the hostility of the people who watched him passCertainly whenever one of the men stared at him, it was a little difficult not to look awayMost of them had hard faces; their eyes were blank with something cold and removed in their expressionAs a group they had a forbidding and rigid quality as though they no longer held an excess bit of weight nor a surplus emotionTheir skins had turned sallow, almost yellow, and their faces, their arms and legs, were pocked with many jungles chanel bags collection soresNearly all of them had shaved before they started out, and yet their faces were unkempt their clothing sloppy
He looked at Croft, who had put on a clean fatigue uniformHe was squatting on his cot, sharpening his trench knife against a little whetstone he had withdrawn from his pocketHearn knew Croft perhaps best of all, or more exactly he had spent the most time with him that morning discussing the patrol, but actually he did not know him at allCroft had listened to him, had nodded, spat occasionally to the side, and answered him when necessary with a few bare words, uttered in a low toneless murmurCroft obviously handled the platoon well, he was tough and capable, and Hearn was reasonably certain that Croft resented himIt would be a difficult relationship to handle, for Croft knew more than he did yet, and unless he was careful the platoon would soon realize itAlmost with fascination, Hearn watched Croft working on his trench knifeHe brooded over it, his cold gaunt face examining his hands as he drew the blade back and forth against the stoneThere was something frozen about him, something congealed in the set of his chanel shopping bags tight mouth, the concentration of his eyesCroft was tough, all right, Hearn told himself
The boat was turning now, angling against the swellsHearn grasped a strut more firmly as it jarred against a wave
There was Sergeant Brown, whom he knew slightly; he was the one who looked like a boy with his snubbed nose and freckles and light-brown hairThe Typical American Soldier -- the agreeable composite hatched out of the tobacco smoke and hangovers of the advertising conferencesBrown looked like all the smiling soldiers in the advertisements, a trifle smaller, perhaps, plumper, more bitter than was permissibleBrown had an odd face actually, Hearn decidedUp close there were jungle sores on Brown's skin, and his eyes had become dull and remote, his skin had begun to wrinkleHe looked surprisingly old
But, then, all the veterans didIt was simple to pick them outThere was Gallagher, who probably had always looked that way, but still he had been in the platoon for some timeAnd there was Martinez, who seemed more fragile, more sensitive than the othersHis fine features had been nervous, his eyes had blinked as he talked to Hearn that prada logo mornin