“I had never realized that sort of thing could happen,” Anastasia said, somewhat bitterly. “He was the only man I had ever been with and he was nothing like that. He was there for his pleasure and a girl got whatever she could from that. Thank you for being different.”
“Thank you,” Mike replied. “I won’t promise to work on you as much every time; sometimes I’ll just want a quickie. But that was pretty quick, I have to admit.”
“I will be jealous when you are with other women,” Anastasia admitted. “I will want you all to myself. I could have fun with you many times every day.”
“Too much else to do, alas,” Mike replied. “Among other things, I have seven girls to introduce to sex. Care to help?”
“If you insist,” Anastasia said, sleepily. “But I don’t think two at once in the same bed is a good introduction. Start as you mean to go on. I need to clean up. Talk about it tomorrow?”
“Whenever you want,” Mike said.
“You look like shit, Mike,” Adams said, his fingers just touching the weight bar.
“Long day yesterday,” Mike admitted, struggling to lift the weights. He’d gotten up to fast repping two-seventy-five and heavy lifting three-fifty, but at the moment he could just barely lift the two-seventy-five.
“And a very short night from the sounds of it,” Adams said. “The squeals from your new girlfriend kept waking me up.”
“It was really amazing,” Mike said, setting the weights into their holder. They’d ended up screwing at least four times during the night, despite the time they’d gotten in. He really should have slept in today, but he’d been up at six for PT instead. “And I am officially worn the fuck out.”
“You’ve got seven more to go, man,” Adams pointed out. “What the hell are you going to look like in a couple of weeks?”
“Probably dead,” Mike admitted. “But what a way to go.”
“Equipment issue starts in an hour,” Adams said. “You going to be there for it?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Mike replied. “But I need breakfast first. And coffee. Lots of coffee.”
“You’re going to need lots of oysters, bud,” Adams said, chuckling as he tossed the former SEAL a towel. “And Viagra stock.”
“Chief, they’re teenage virgins,” Mike said, toweling off. “Viagra is not going to be necessary.”
Three buildings had been completed as part of the construction. The issue was taking place in a building that would later be converted to a weapons and storage building. At the moment the lower floor was simply an open shell with a solid counter made of tables hooked together running down the middle.
The Keldara were entering through the north door and being issued their uniforms, boots and field gear by Keldara females who had been chosen for the job. The militiamen had already been broken down into six mixed platoons and assigned their two primary instructors. The instructors were already in field uniforms, Canadian digi-cam, with their rank badges, the badges of former units, specialty badges and subdued flags marking country of origin. They were standing by to answer questions as the Keldara got their issue but the issue was proceeding without a hitch.
As the Keldara entered they were each given a large duffle for their gear. Instead of being a standard seabag it had a zipper down one side and folded out. The bags were a civilian design from L.L. Bean that Mike found far superior to the standard seabag the military used, especially in these circumstances. They then proceeded down the tables, being issued hygiene items, uniforms, boots, underwear and basic field gear and cold weather gear. Mike had checked the duffels and all the gear would fit, if placed in carefully. The women had been instructed on how to load the gear and all the militiaman had to do was slide his bag down the counter and have it loaded. Each station had a list that had the name of the militiaman and his sizes in clothes and boots. Since the men were known to the women it was easy enough for them to issue the material. At the end the bag was zipped, the integral backpack straps came out and the Keldara was ready to go get it set up.
Once Team Oleg was completely issued, the two primary instructors, Matt Randolph and Duncan McKenzie led them off to their barracks. Mike followed the team over to the open bay barracks and watched, leaning against the wall, as each of the militiamen was given a designated bunk and footlocker.
“Right,” McKenzie said when all the troops were in place by their bunks. “Open your duffels. Remove one bath towel, one hand towel, the small container of shampoo, the bar of soap, one uniform blouse, one uniform trousers, one pair of socks, one pair of underwear, one T-shirt, your forage cap and one pair of boots.” As he gave the orders, he held up each item from a pile on the table at the end. “Ensure you don’t disturb all the other crap in there, or you’ll be all night sorting it out. Don’t touch the envelopes on your bloody beds; we’ll get to them in time.” The senior NCO of Team One was a veteran of the Black Watch and had a noticeable brogue even in Georgian.
Each of the items was in a plastic wrapper and there was quickly a large quantity of plastic scattered around the room.
“Efram,” the senior NCO said to the closest troop. “Grab a trash bag and get that all sorted out. Each of you pick up your litter and stuff it in the bag as Efram goes by.”
Once the litter was collected the NCO had them get out of their civilian clothes until the entire platoon was standing in the bay naked, then had them wrap the bath towels around their middles.
“Most of you lads don’t know what a bar of soap is for,” McKenzie said, striding down the runway in the middle of the barracks. “We will now conduct a class on the taking of the shower. Bring your hand towel, the shampoo and the soap.”
He led the platoon into the bathroom and had Oleg get in one of the four stalls.
“Right, two controls,” the NCO said, brusquely, pointing to them. “The left hand is usually the hot and will be marked, as this is, in red. The right is the cold. Upon one holder is a bar of soap. This is for use on the majority of your body. In the other is a bottle of generic shampoo. Shampoo is for use on the hairs of the head. In a pinch, soap can be used for shampoo and vice versa but we won’t get into advanced hygiene at this time.
“Oleg,” he continued, stepping back out of the stall, “ensuring that the majority of your body is out of the stream of water, turn the left control, the hot water control, in a clockwise motion to full. Wait until the water is running hot, then turn the right control, the cold, to a position of desired temperature. This may require turning down the hot, depending upon the relative thermal characteristics of the waters involved.”
He led the team through the class on taking a shower, including washing behind their ears with the hand towel.
“In general, you will be under time for showering,” McKenzie said when the whole team was done and standing around in their towels. “The term is shit, shower and shave. We will conduct a class on the use of a razor, which few of you are old enough to need, later. For now it’s time to get your pretty new uniforms messed up.”
For many of the Keldara the uniforms were the first completely new clothes they’d ever had and for now they found the clothing exciting rather than a pain. There was a fair amount of conversation as they changed and McKenzie got redder and redder as they took their time.
“Dawdling over clothing is for women!” he finally bellowed. “Anyone not in uniform in fifteen seconds is going to give me fifty push-ups to show they can motivate!”