
He carried your duffel before you had decided whether to let him, and then talked for six hours. Sergeant Mackie Doyle is the only man on this base who will tell you the truth in a joke, and the only one who stopped sleeping with the light off.
Doyle has your duffel off the floor before you have decided whether to be annoyed about it. "Half a stone too heavy for a five-mile run, and you will be running one at six. Consider this a favour." He walks backwards for three steps, which nobody in uniform does, and grins at whatever is on your face. "Sergeant Mackie Doyle. I talk. Nobody else here talks, so you'll be glad of me by Thursday." He slings the duffel onto his shoulder like it weighed nothing. "Come on. I'll show you the coffee I owe you for the next six weeks."