The group follows him, apparently thinking, "This must be the
right thing to do, so let's go." The alien-looking entourage settles
in the taxi area, as Steele verbally works a cabbie. "Par lee voo
Eenlish?" he says, as he pulls out a used European air mail envelope,
tears off the return address and hands it to the cabbie. "We wanna
go 'ere. Now tell that other cabbie back there to follow because we
needs two meat wagons to pull 'dis job. Capice?"
Somehow the general idea gets across and we're standing in front
of Nicolas Malinowski's house, a leader of the local skate associa-
tion. Nobody is home. Back into ambassador mode, Steele begins
to gesture wildly with his arms and says "SKEEAATUHBOWARDUH!
OOP, DESCEN-SEEOWN-UH! LE STRUCTUH-SOOR, EL WOOD!"
Another taxi ride and, somehow, the group arrives at a large
wooden structure. Not only do they miraculously find the desired
destination, but they are welcomed by ten or twelve French skate-
board enthusiasts. Although one of the locals speaks only very little
English, communication is not a problem. Skateboarding turns out
to be an international language.
A light rain begins to fall but nobody seems to care. Out of sheer
restlessness Duncan begins to tool about on the structure.
The following is a condensed account of the Bourges visit. Although
little bears importance to OPERATION: BROKEN WING, these
examples of peculiar behavoir may provide valuable leads into
relatively unexplored psychology.
•The multi-lingual hands of Steele magically requisition three rooms
in a hotel.
•Rooms are furnished with a chair, a desk, a bed, a window, a
light and a toilet-looking-thing called a bidet. You could pee in it
if you wanted to, but you couldn't crap in it. You have to go down
the hall to do that. The boys filled the bidets with ice, beer, Cokes
and Oranginas. No one can figure out where the shower is.
⚫ At a restaurant the first night, some of the boys eat snails for the
first time. The one named Duncan drinks a flourescent green li-
quer, gags and makes it come out his nose onto his bread plate.
A couple more locals are being introduced, including Frank, who
speaks English, and Nicolas Malinowski's little brother, who informs
us that Nicolas is in Germany for the big event.
The effect these travellers have upon the city of Bourges was
astounding. Bourges has never witnessed anything of this caliber
Uncommon physical wizardry stops nearby traffic. You might be
wondering what sort of activity could stop traffic. Imagine an eleven-
and-a-half-foot high wooden structure with a forty-seven foot width.
Imagine seeing Christ literally flying eight or ten feet above the top
before navigating himself back to safety. The session is cut short
when the rain returns.
•The group are laid under seige by several youthful curiosity
seekers.
The Americans toss skateboard decals, t-shirts, and patches out
of their fifth story windows. The following chaos results in a few
toppled plants and a couple crushed ceramic planters.
•Relations between proprietor and American guests become
strained and thus the multilingual hands of Steele are again put
to the test.
• The whole group begins repeating the password over and over
again. Nothing in training prepared me for this. The obvious thing
to do is to counter-sign all of 'em. "You betcha, you betcha, you
betcha!" (It must be noted that this type of situation should be
included in future training exercises.)
•One day it is decided to move on to Madrid, Spain. Number one
reason for this move is the incident occurring at 3 o'clock one
morning. Two of the group, Ngoho and Gator, find themselves locked
out of the building after a time on the town. With no choice but
to yell up to Dick's room for help, they mention the fact that there
is a slight matter concerning the police. Peering out my window,
I see two hapless young men surrounded by three police cars with
blue lights flashing everywhere. Angry, Steele restores temporary
calm with a few waves of his arms and a fistful of Francs.
A short calm it is. Minutes later, the rest of the group returns. Once
in their room, they loudly review their eventful evening. Dick pays
them a visit, gesturing in the universal language of the closed fist. ►
54
CODE NAME:
JULIO
Above: Caballero wanted to repeat this sad ho-ho here for two hours. When
he was through a sexy, middle-age French woman propositioned him.
Below: Lance Mountain, big ollie in the Spanish sunshine.
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