Even though he does not have an official pass, Yossarian catches a ride to Rome with Milo, who takes the opportunity to scold the Captain for “rocking the boat” and not being “a good member of the team.” For perhaps the first time, Yossarian notices that Rome, “The Eternal City,” is a city in ruins. The Colosseum is “a dilapidated shell,” and the airdrome has been bombed into “knobby slabs of white stone rubble.” At the bordello, he finds only the old woman. She reports that the police have run off all the girls; the only reason given is “Catch-22.” The old man is gone too, living one minute and dead the next. Yossarian leaves the some money with the old woman and goes to police headquarters with Milo to seek help finding Nately’s whore’s kid sister, a twelve-year-old virgin. Both Milo and the police commissioner initially misunderstand. The commissioner suggests, “A virgin might take a little time. But if he [Yossarian] waits at the bus terminal where the young farm girls looking for work arrive, . . .” Yossarian is looking for a specific child, a little girl who needs help. Soon abandoned by Milo, the Captain wanders the streets, witnessing one horror after another.
