I arrived at Oakland airport the next afternoon. Oakland! The land that spawned the Raiders! Home to one of the highest murder rates in the world. Headquarters of the Hell's Angels!! It gave me goosebumps just thinking about it. Then I saw him.
He was tall, thin and kind of hungrey looking. His head was clean shaven, except for a few thin strands tied off at the back with a white bow. He wore a pink nightshirt and sandals. He smiled in my direction, walked over, and handed me a flower. "Have you heard the word of the one true God, Hare Krishna?"
I responded. "Have you heard the sound of an Israeli Uzi?" I pulled back my machine gun bolt. Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around, gun blazing. It was Andrews. I plugged him 20 times over, but he just smiled at me.
"Good old Guts. You haven't changed a bit. Lucky I wore my bullet proof cassock. Who's your friend?" I turned around. The flower guy was lying in a dead faint on the floor. Oakland ain't the town I remember.
Andrews laid the scam out for me in the car to Berkeley. He was currently administrating the ROTC on campus (they fiqured someone like Andrews could put the fear of God back into recruits) and was of the opinion that someone was embezzling Army funds from his section, probably via the use of their office computer. It was my job to find him out, and nail the bastard to the wall.
"Since you're going to be hired as a consultant to the University, you have to go to the main adminstration building and fill out a personnel application. You'd better take this." He handed me a canteen of water and three days worth of C-Rations. "If you come out of Sproul Hall alive, drop by my office. Good luck, and God be with you, my son." With that, he crossed himself, and drove away.
I walked up the stairs to Sproul Hall, and stepped inside. My eyes were immediately assaulted with a mass of human flesh, standing in uncounted lines. "Damn you, Andrews, why didn't you tell me this was pre-enrollment week?" This was going to be tough. I reached for the Uzi....
TO BE CONTINUED...