SLPAD - 47 - cutting no ice with Pierce

[Michael Bailey]

“…my leave starts at 4:30 and I was figuring.” Pierce dropped the fork he
was holding.
               It hit the tray with a loud clank. “No,” he said, “you’ll
have to wait awhile on that
               leave, Levine.” Levine smiled a big loose idiot’s smile that
he knew got on the lieutenant’s
               nerves. “Hell,” he said, “since when am I so indispensable
to the company?” Pierce
               sighed in annoyance. “Look, you know the situation in this
company as well as anybody.
               And the order says specialists, ace specialists.
Unfortunately we don’t have any.
               But you have to do, slobs like you are all we have.” Pierce
was ROTC, a graduate of MIT.”


Pierce bothers to drop his fork.
Acting out authority and annoyance?
But not strictly by the book.

Like saying lower down, “…ace specialists. Unfortunately we don’t have any.
But you have to do, slobs like you are all we have.”


“big loose idiot’s smile that he knew got on the lieutenant’s nerves”

He’s constantly doing these fruitless amateur psy-ops, and he’s not going
to get his way here, but his version of reality seems to be annoying enough
to the Lieutenant that it influences the latter to act less professionally.