‘You haven’t seen the inside of those things,’ I told her. ‘With a bit of tinkering the in is solid if fucking hairy, but we’re dead as soon as we get in, or more likely as soon as we get close. The only advantage we have is surprise. Once that’s gone, it’s over for us. Even if we get in there’s no way we can get out.’
‘Well isn’t that your job, Jakob?’ Annis growled.
‘Yes, but only if there’s an actual solution. We can look at it some more, but we’re not going to piss everyone’s life away.’ Cat and Rannu were nodding in agreement.
‘You know how much they need this info back on Earth — what’s at stake here?’ Annis demanded.
‘Fuck Earth,’ Mother said. Everyone turned to look at her. There were a lot of angry faces. ‘I’m tired of risking my life and watching my friends die for a place I’ve never seen, couldn’t afford to go to and wouldn’t accept me even if I got there. I know it’s important to you people but not at our expense.’
‘Whether you like it or not, Earth’s key, because if Earth falls then the people here in this cave are pretty much the resistance. Maybe with a few scattered groups who won’t have anything like the advantages we do,’ Merle told her, contempt creeping into his tone, or maybe it just lived there.
‘The Citadel’s the base of their ops here, their main manufacturing site. It’s the key. Vicar knew that,’ Annis said angrily.
‘And how does all of us being dead help?’ I demanded.
‘You fucking coward!’ she spat at me.
I saw people’s postures shift. Not nervous, just getting ready for another one of our arguments.
‘Shut up, Morag,’ Mudge told her. He was staring at her angrily.
‘This isn’t the place,’ Cat told her, shaking her head.
‘This, I guess, shows up another problem,’ I said. ‘I’m not trusted in command of the warfare element of Operation Ungentlemanly Warfare.’ There was little in the way of protest. Merle was smiling in a way that made me want to hit him. ‘Cat, I think it’s better that you take over.’
‘Why? What’d I do?’ She looked surprised.
‘You’ve got experience of command; you’ve not been compromised.’
She obviously didn’t want it. Who would? It was a fucked situation. It also felt like a weight off my shoulders, like I was stepping into lighter gravity. Maybe I was being a coward, but Morag had demonstrated, along with the repeated murder attempts and my total inability to deal with Merle, that I could not lead these people.
The argument was heating up. I understood Morag’s perspective. The exo-armour seemed to be a boon; the two cloaks, if they could hide the hackers from Demiurge, really would be an asset, but there were still many considerations that had to be borne in mind. We couldn’t piss these advantages away by committing suicide.
I watched Annis argue with Merle and Mother. Maybe Morag had become used to doing six impossible things before breakfast. Maybe the extraordinary luck that had seen us through so far had raised her expectations unrealistically, but she was pushing too hard.
‘All of you, shut up!’ Cat said. ‘Everyone calm down. This is getting us nowhere. You’re acting like a bunch of new recruits. Shut up!’ she snapped. Good sergeant voice, I thought, smiling, enjoying it not being me. ‘Okay, we keep looking at this, but until we at least have an out it’s not happening, okay?’ There were muted mutterings but everyone eventually nodded. ‘Until then we help Mother’s people maintain a perimeter and run patrols. Clear? I also want plans to fuck up their infrastructure without committing suicide or unnecessary collateral damage. Any fucking personal problem, sort it out in your own time. Clear?’
More nods. She was purposely talking to us like regular army, conventional soldiers, letting us know what she thought of our behaviour. She had a point.
‘Merle, no fucking around. We get out of here, you look after Jakob’s cheek, understood?’
He looked like he was going to argue but finally nodded. He’d be pissed off because he knew that my wound would heal as a result of the bio-nanites in my blood, whereas he was scarred until we got back to Earth. Which seemed unlikely.
‘Now the Kiwis are watching, so let’s see if we can get through the next couple of days without disgracing ourselves, okay?’ Mother and Tailgunner were smiling.
Under Cat we started to resemble a special forces unit a bit more but we were getting nowhere. We were just going through the motions. We’d been lucky to survive our one operation against the Black Squadrons. We didn’t have anything like the resources we needed to do the Citadel and the rest of our options were risky propositions at best, for very little gain.
Soloso had joined us in the pa. He’d also joined the continuing list of people who were avoiding me. Fine, I was starting to get used to my own company again. With somebody else in charge it was starting to feel like the army again. Guard and picket duty, patrolling, I was quickly into the routine. I didn’t even feel guilty when I used my down time to read what I could find. The firestorm had taken out all the books and music I’d had stored in my internal memory, and my trumpet and the skillsofts were still on the Tetsuo Chou
Mudge at least had started talking to me again. His problem had never really been with me. I welcomed his company though we were both getting worried about the diminishing alcohol and drug supplies. As well as being pissed off with Merle, the constant inactivity was getting to him. He was seriously jittery. The day after our briefing in Dinas Emrys, I saw him having a fierce argument with Morag. I’d been tempted to boost my hearing to listen in but you never hear well of yourself.
Morag, when she wasn’t tranced in working on the stuff they’d got out of my head, the eel net and what little they’d learned when Nuada had fried half their systems, was hanging out with Strange. Apparently the girl didn’t speak to anyone but Tailgunner. Now it seemed she was talking to Morag. Maybe they’d team up and properly murder me.
Hanging over our heads like a bladed pendulum on some kind of ancient clock was the knowledge that any day soon Rolleston and his band of merry arseholes were going to attack Earth and there wasn’t a lot we could do about it.
I was in the main cave in the shadow of Apakura. I’d come to find the motionless giant mech somehow comforting. I was stripping down and cleaning my SAW and engaging in a tried and trusted activity of British squaddies. I was trying to work out how to nick something. Merle’s Void Eagle.
I’d heard raised voices and was watching the whanau on one of the ledges high above where I was sitting. They were arguing about something and Strange was hugging Tailgunner fiercely. I didn’t even consider listening in. It wasn’t my business. Why make my life more complicated?
A shadow fell across me. I looked up to see the most complicated of my complications. Morag was holding two beer bottles. It looked surprisingly like a gesture of peace.
‘Only if it doesn’t end up with us screaming at each other,’ I told her.
‘Do you think you’re in any position to dictate terms?’ she asked testily.
‘No, but I can just walk away.’
‘I’ll scatter the pieces of your gun all over the place.’ But she was smiling. I accepted the beer. She sat down next to me. ‘So Mudge came and shouted at me,’ she said conversationally.
I nodded. ‘He’s good at that if he’s on the right aggro mix of chemicals.’
‘He reminded me that it was you who’d been captured, tortured and possessed and that you’d betrayed us because of me. Which was stupid by the way. Sweet but stupid.’
Sweet? Sweet! Fucking sweet! Remain calm.
‘It wouldn’t have made any difference. They were going to possess me and they would have known everything anyway. In fact it probably took them longer to break me. More fun for Rolleston though.’ Which didn’t quite make sense. Rolleston was an evil bastard but it had all been for practical reasons. Now he seemed to like causing pain.