Sergeant Ruffino banged his hand on the table. “Will you get it in your head this isn’t something to joke about? Lord knows what’s going to happen to us military over this, but I can tell you what’s going to happen to you kids. You’re going to end up out on your ears, with no more jobs, no nothing.”

“You really think that?” the kid asked, in a shocked voice.

I asked Sergeant Ruffino, “Won’t they listen to you?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “The captain’s ordered all the military staff to stay out of things and let them cook their own gooses. His words. To tell the truth, Moss, he’s not making much sense.”

That was shocker enough to halt conversation for a bit. Then I asked, “What’s Compton doing?”

“Giving orders right and left. Only nobody’s listening.”

“I’ll listen,” I said. “If he’s trying to get the fellows to go to work, then I’m going to help him any way I can. And at least us here and Apple . . . Where is Apple?”

Sam said, “On strike.”

Half the guys in B Barracks were still in their beds, and the other half were milling around arguing about whether they ought to storm the kitchen. That stopped when they saw me. I heard some “Hi’s” and a “Hey! Look who’s back!” There were some cheers, too, but I also caught some hostile glances.

Charlie Winden said, “If you’re going to tell us to go to work, you can forget it.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I’m just looking for Bill Compton, to tell him some of us are going out to the project site to see what we can do.”

“Compton’s not here.”

“I can see that,” I said. “I’ll go check the other barracks.”

Cal slipped between me and the door. “I’m sorry, Moss,” he said. “But you can’t do that. You can’t go to work.”

“Sure I can,” I said.

Others moved in, ringing us. Charlie said, “Strikes don’t work unless everybody takes part. If you didn’t want to be part of this one, you should have stayed away.”

I tried pushing my way to the door, and someone grabbed my arm. Whirling around, I saw it was Apple who’d stopped me.

He said, “Charlie’s right, Moss. The only way we’re going to win is if we show them we’re all in this together.”

I stared at him—one of my best friends—not able to believe what I was hearing. “Win what? You aren’t going to win anything except a bunch of discharges out of the CCC. Now let me by.”