'You, clerk, take him down to requisitions. Tell them standard equip, and make sure they get someone to show him around.' Colonel Haddock turned back to Benjamin. 'I'll expect to see you on the training field tomorrow, six o'clock sharp. Dismissed!'
Ben turned about smartly on his heel and left the room, shadowed by the clerk, who paused outside the closed door and tapped his fingernail against his teeth. It produced a strange clicking sound, which Ben thought might have been the sound of a devilish game of dice projected up from hell, so weirdly did it echo in that abandoned hallway.
It has been mentioned before that Benjamin is not very plot- or genre-savvy at this point, so it will surprise no one to learn that he shrugged this foreshadowing sentence off as easily as he had the last.
Ben followed the clerk through winding ways to the requisitions office, where a little man took his measurements very precisely over the course of an hour and a half, then proceeded to hand him two uniforms, each of which was at least three sizes too big, and a pair of boots that were just like the ones he was wearing, but half a size too small. Thus equipped, Ben followed an errand boy around the base for a tour which ended, most likely by design, in the mess hall, so he and the boy (whose name was Ted) sat down together at one of the long tables a bit before the scheduled dinner time.
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