Roba spoke up, almost nervously. "We"re as close to the Spook Quadrant as anyone can get."
"We"re several thousand miles within Earth s.p.a.ce," Haunt said, too quickly, too loudly. "Our rights to be here are universally recognised, you understand that, Roba?"
Shade noticed Denni trying to catch his eye. She whistled silently through her teeth, and he nodded. Roba must be feeling lucky to have raised Morphiea at all, given Haunt"s track record.
"I understand that, Marshal," Roba said quietly.
"You"d better," Haunt told him. But just for a moment she looked suddenly uncertain, as if aware she"d overreacted.
Shade had never seen her give the slightest concession to what other people thought of her. He caught Denni"s eye. She looked oddly apprehensive, like she was really spooked. He tapped his hand against the needle mark on his wrist. "The drug," he mouthed.
Haunt seemed to have recovered herself. "All right, Shel.
Mission objective."
Shel tapped some b.u.t.tons on the palmscreen: "Our objective is to locate and secure a Schirr cypher and disable two droids operating inside the planetoid."
"Two!" warbled Frog in disbelief, grinning round at the others. Seemed the drug hadn"t left her with any ill-effects.
They probably ingested worse stuff than that at the kindergarten where she grew up. "Took us four weeks to get here, boys and girls, and we"ll be done in an hour."
Haunt wasn"t smiling now. "These are new droids, still crated up in the hold. Princ.i.p.al Cellmek has advised me that no one"s met Kay-Dees like these, in conditions conditions like these, on any prior training," she said simply. "Consider this active service." like these, on any prior training," she said simply. "Consider this active service."
The words were enough to crush what little ebullience there was in the cramped cabin.
We"re not Elite, thought Shade. We"re not the best.
We"ve just survived.
"How did I ever get here," he whispered to himself, shutting his eyes as he tried to shake the lingering hold of the drug.
He wanted to enjoy the dark for a couple of seconds.
But Shel had overheard him. He was consulting his top-secret little pad. "After turning your back on escort a.s.signment, Adam Shade, you fast-tracked through the ranks in just three years. As an Earthborn, the fact that you were willing to serve at all, let alone out here on the frontier, guaranteed you favourable treatment." Shel smiled, got up and started showing the pad to every trooper in turn.
Interested eyes scanned the text, lips were pursed, heads were shaken. "You accepted this without question at first - until the looks your squad were giving you finally began hurting more than the hits you were taking off the Kay-Dees."
Shade listened in horror. He wanted to yell at Shel to stop but his throat was too dry, too tight, the words piled up there.
Denni read some more of his file. Her face filled with disgust.
"So you went all-out to prove you had what it took. You risked everything to make good."
Creben threw his head back and laughed when the pad was waved under his nose.
Shade stared at the rest of the squad in panic.
"The Schirr a.s.sault on New Jersey seemed the perfect opportunity -"
"That"s enough, " Shade shouted. " Shade shouted.
Everyone turned and stared at him. Except Shel, who was focussed entirely on inputting some data to his palmscreen, still strapped into his couch like the rest.
"What"s enough, Shadow?" asked Denni, a trace of annoyance in her dark eyes.
Shade shook his head, screwed up his eyes, willed himself not to fall asleep and start dreaming again. "Nothing. Sorry."
"Shadow"s losing it." Joiks wore a sly smile beneath his crooked nose. "Hey, stay with us, buddy. We need you."
"Yeah, any holes in the road, Denni"ll let you jump and see how deep they get," laughed Lindey.
Shade forced a smile, turned away, tried to focus on what was real. He put his hand to his face, felt the hard lumps under the skin that still didn"t seem right or normal, even two years on. He listened to the mocking banter of the rest of the unit. Wondered what thoughts went through their their minds at the words "active service". minds at the words "active service".
III.
Shel fed the two Kill-Droids their sealed orders and activated their release program from the bridge. The only way Haunt knew that the creatures had vanished into the depths of the asteroid was when the squad viewed the pulverised packaging left behind.
An hour later, Haunt sent her personnel off ship with a blast of orders and threats. Not even she was entirely sure which were which.
They scrambled down the flexible ladders that stretched down from the bright ship into the dark, wet pit of the planetoid"s entry zone, their websets recording motion and emotion alike. Haunt led the commandos through the darkness until they came to a large circular chamber. Joiks immediately christened it the bullring. Five further tunnels had been drilled into the rock, stretching away into the dark.
At Haunt"s command, the ten quickly split into groups of two. Haunt chose Shel to partner her, and directed each pair to take a different tunnel. The groups sprinted into the pitch-blackness, weighed down with torches and guns.
Haunt checked her scanner. Multiple lights edged through its grids; the peak-level stats of her unit glowing brightly on a secret wavelength as they fanned out through the tunnels.
Somewhere in the dark, things were hiding that wanted them dead.
Haunt beckoned Shel to follow her and set off down the last remaining pa.s.sageway.
"Do you reckon Haunt"s OK?" Denni asked Joiks as they picked their way through the rubble-strewn tunnel.
Joiks came to a sudden halt. "You"re worried about her?" he asked in disbelief, and tapped the metal band round his head. "You telling me this for her benefit, back at base debrief? Getting yourself some love from above...?"
Denni pulled off her webset.
Joiks stared at her in amazement. "What"s with you?
Removing your webset -"
"Brain scramble," Denni replied. She studied the workings in the band. "My stats sometimes throw out the frequency, give me migraine."
Joiks remembered hearing that had happened to Denni once before on an exercise. A freak occurrence Haunt had said. What were the chances of it happening again, and on a live ammo shoot? The webset was off now. Denni could tell a dozen barefaced lies, and who"d know?
She turned to him, cold and beautiful by torchlight. "Give me yours. I need to fix the frequency."
"Intermission," Joiks announced, and flicked the band over to her. "School"s out." He rubbed his hands through his close-cropped hair. He looked at her slyly. "So - what"s this really about? You don"t want the world to know you"ve always loved me? Everyone knows that, Den!"
Denni grimaced. "Like I say, it"s Haunt. Something"s not right. What she did to Shade -"
"Feelin" sorry for your Earthborn ex? Awww."
"It was a little extreme, wouldn"t you say? And the way she blew up at you just for mentioning Morphiea."
"It"s a real-ammo exercise," Joiks said. "Aren"t you you a little on edge?" a little on edge?"
"Of course I am. But should our CO be?" Denni shook her head, answering her own dumb question. "We"re so close to Morphiean s.p.a.ce... Too close. I think it"s too much for her."
"So she hates Morphieans. Hates their Spook guts. Seems a pretty good qualification for fighting them to me."
"Duh? They stopped stopped her fighting them! After what she did on New Jersey -" her fighting them! After what she did on New Jersey -"
Joiks scoffed. "They had it coming."
"And the human casualties."
"We"re at war. There gotta be casualties."
"Most of the ones she fried were repatriated. On our side."
"Still Schirr, still sc.u.m. Back in the Incendiaries we -"
"Enlightened, Joiks." She kept her cool as usual. "All I"m saying is, we have have to follow her orders here. But what if they turn out to be bad orders, Joiks? After what she"s been through -" to follow her orders here. But what if they turn out to be bad orders, Joiks? After what she"s been through -"
"What is this, psychology?" psychology?" Joiks wasn"t sure if he was amused or disgusted. "She"s too Joiks wasn"t sure if he was amused or disgusted. "She"s too involved involved in all this, is that what you"re saying?" He spat on the floor. "She"s a good soldier, Denni." in all this, is that what you"re saying?" He spat on the floor. "She"s a good soldier, Denni."
"She was was a a great great soldier." Denni bunched her slim fists. "All I"m saying is that her judgement may be shot because of her personal Involvement with all this c.r.a.p." soldier." Denni bunched her slim fists. "All I"m saying is that her judgement may be shot because of her personal Involvement with all this c.r.a.p."
"But you"re saying it just in private to me, not on the record? Trying to turn us against her one by one, is that it?
Gee, that"s brave."
"Jesus, Joiks, she"s our CO." Denni sighed. "I"m not here just for the ride, I"m going career with the military. I want to live long enough to long enough to go go career -" career -"
He took a step closer. Took a chance and put his hands on her shoulders. She gave him a small smile. There was a tiny nervous flicker in her eyes.
"Hey, Den. You got the jitters? Is that what we"re really talking about here?"
No," she said softly.
"Thought Stellar Infantry were tough b.i.t.c.hes?" Joiks went on quietly, caressing her upper arms. You know, you got a problem with Haunt, you should"ve said before we got here."
"How was I to know we"d wind up training here?" Denni took a step towards Joiks. "Listen. I"m going to talk to the others.
If enough of us lodge a complaint against her... right now...
Cellmek would listen to us, I know it."
So. She wanted something from him. Figured.
"You want out of this mission," Joiks whispered softly.
"Don"t you."
"I want it led by someone detached. For all our sakes." She moved closer to him.
He laughed uneasily.
She made eye contact again. Lowered her voice to a whisper. "See... you don"t know what we"re going up against here."
"And you do?"
Denni nodded. "I reckon so. Bad, bad stuff, soldier."
Joiks looked at her just a few moments more. Something in her voice sent a chill through him. He let go of her arms and took his webset, held it just over his head.
"If you"re done checking your frequency, let"s forget about this, OK? Concentrate on staying alive down here." He paused, chanced a smile. "And don"t worry. I can keep a secret."
Denni nodded. "I"m glad. Because so can I."
He watched her place the webset back over her dreadlocks and followed her into the darkness.
IV.
Marshal Nadina Haunt moved quickly and freely, feeling a part of herself coming alive as she angled her gun into every corner of the thick shadows thrown up by her torch beam.