What are men to rocks and mountains

The Inspector

--- 1944 ---

"Right, now that everything seems to be in order, it's time to discuss other important matters. Operation Franklin." Declared the Captain, his nose in the air and bouncing slightly on his heels, swagger stick tucked neatly beneath his arm.

"Frankton." Havers said, raising his finger slightly as an apology for the interruption.
"I beg your pardon?"
"It's operation Frankton, sir, not Franklin." Havers repeated.
"Oh, it seems you're right. Operation Frankton." the Captain said, coughing slightly as he futilely tried to hide his embarrassment.
"Should really... come up with a new name for that sometime." He joked softly, glancing over at his second in command.
Havers chuckled. The Captain could be a bit chaotic or forgetful at times, but he had yet to meet any other man who could lead a team as well as the Captain could. Plus, that's where he was for. If the Captain were to be capable of everything, surely he wouldn't need a second in command. He'd be out of a job.

"Well, is there another word you can remember more easily? Something you love? Maybe a sort of drink? You like port, don't you?" Havers suggested. The Captain nodded curtly, already deep in thought.
"Yes. Yes, I'll think about it. But for now, let's discuss the prototype shall we? Italy is not going to surrender itself dear Havers."

--- 2019 ---

"Operation William?" Havers asked. He hadn't heard of any such operations at Button House. "I'm sorry Alison, the last operation I worked on was called operation Diamond. It was a limpet mine, though only a prototype. I suggested the name because my Captain kept forgetting the actual name. Because you mine Diamonds you see." He said with a slight chuckle at the memory.
"Your Captain?" Alison asked, raising an eyebrow. Havers nodded. Could it be her Captain? Could there be such a coincidence?

"Yes. His name was-"
"-So! Good news, and bad news! Good news is, the organizer chap just left." Mike interrupted William as he stepped into the kitchen. Alison groaned.
"Mike! William was in the middle of a story!"
"Oh, my bad mate. Carry on then. I'm Mike by the way" Mike said, holding out his hand to the Lieutenant and giving an apologetic chuckle.
"No, no. It's quite alright, no use in beating a dead horse. My name's Lieutenant Havers, but you can call me William." Havers replied with a polite smile, shaking Mike's hand. Alison almost laughed at the irony in that sentence, but then immediately remembered that Mike had yet to tell her the bad news. She turned to him as he leaned against the kitchen counter, almost knocking over a bowl of cereal Alison had left there that same morning.

"What was the bad news then?" She asked worriedly. Mike smiled sarcastically.
"Well, bad news is he wants a second opinion now. Said he had this mate who was a safety inspector who lives in the next town over. He's going to send him by in... 30 minutes. To check the safety of the electricity and all. So if we still want to rent out the house we need to get an electrician in here, and seeing that it's after 5 on a Wednesday, I don't think we'll have much luck." He said, walking over to the light switch in the kitchen and trying in out, just in case.

"Oh god. So much for that party pay check then." Alison sighed, putting her head inside her hands in defeat. Why could nothing ever go as planned?
"Perhaps I could help? I dealt a lot with electricity when I was stationed here before. And if I'm going to be staying here I might as well lift my weight. I think the problem may be with the fuses. I remember it giving us all sorts of trouble way back when." Havers said, standing up to take a closer look at the light switch beside Mike. Mike shoots Alison a questioning look as he turned between the William and his wife, who mouthed a quick 'explain later' in his direction before making her way over to strange world war two-clad stranger, who was now apparently going to be staying with them for a while.