Cobra Alliance

Jonny snorted. 'You underestimate the Trofts' ingenuity. Like you very nearly underestimated my kind heart. You could've told me you were with the underground, you know.'

He was expecting her to come out with some stiff and wholly inappropriate local security regulation; and so her reply, when it finally came, was something of a surprise. 'I could have,' she acknowledged. 'And if you'd looked like you were making the wrong decision I sure would have. But... you'd jumped to a rather paranoid conclusion without any real evidence, and I... well, I wanted to find out how far you'd go in acting on that conclusion.' She took a deep breath. 'You see, Jonny, whether you know it or not, all of us who work and fight with you Cobras are more than a little afraid of you. There've been persistent rumors since you first landed that you'd been given carte blanche by Asgard to do anything you considered necessary to drive the Trofts off—including summary execution for any offense you decided you didn't like.'

Jonny stared at her. 'That's absurd.'

'Is it? The Dominion can't exercise control over you from umpteen light-years away, and we sure can't do it. If you've got the power anyway why not make it official?'

'Because—' Jonny floundered. 'Because that's not the way to liberate Adirondack.'

'Depends on whether that's really Asgard's major objective, doesn't it? If they're more interested in breaking the Trofts' war capabilities, our little world is probably pretty expendable.'

Jonny shook his head. 'No. I realize it's hard to tell from here, but I know for a fact that the Cobras aren't on Adirondack to win anything at the expense of the people. If you knew the screening they put us through—and how many good men were bounced even after the training—'

'Sure, I understand all that. But military goals do change.' She shrugged. 'But with any luck the whole question will soon be academic.'

'What do you mean?'

She favored him with a tight smile. 'We got an off-world signal this morning. All underground and Cobra units are to immediately begin a pre-invasion sabotage campaign.'

Jonny felt his mouth drop open. 'Pre-invasion?'

'That's what they said. And if it succeeds... we owe the Cobras a lot, Jonny, and we won't forget you. But I don't think we'll be sorry to see you go, either.'

To that Jonny had no reply, and the rest of the trip was made in silence. Ilona drove several blocks past Jonny's old apartment building, stopping finally before another, even more nondescript place. A tired-eyed woman greeted him at the door and took him to a top-floor apartment, where his meager belongings had already been delivered. On top of the bags was a small envelope.

Frowning, Jonny opened it. Inside was a plain piece of paper with a short, painstakingly written note:

Dear Jonny,

Mom says you're going somewhere else now and aren't going to be staying with us anymore. Please be careful and don't get caught anymore and come back to see me. I love you.

Danice

Jonny smiled as he slipped the note back into its envelope. You be careful, too, Danice, he thought. Maybe you, at least, will remember us kindly.

Interlude

The negotiations were over, the treaty was signed, ratified, and being implemented, and the euphoric haze that had pervaded the Central Committee's meetings for the past two months was finally starting to fade. Vanis D'arl had expected Committe H'orme to pick this point to bring up the Cobras again; and he was right.

'It's not a question of ingratitude or injustice—it's a question of pure necessity,' the Committe told the assembly, his voice quavering only slightly. Seated behind him, D'arl eyed H'orme's back uneasily, seeing in his stance the older man's fatigue. He wondered if the others knew how much the war had taken out of H'orme... wondered whether they would consequently recognize the urgency implied by his being here to deliver this message personally.

From their faces, though, it was obvious most of them didn't, an attitude clearly shown by the first person to rise when H'orme had finished. 'If you'll forgive the tone, H'orme,' the other said with a perfunctory gesture of respect, 'I think the Committee has heard quite enough of your preoccupation with the Cobras. If you'll recall, it was at your insistence that we directed the Army to offer them exceptionally liberal reenlistment terms, and in your place I would consider it a victory that over seventy percent chose to accept. We've all heard from Commander Mendro and his associates just how much of their equipment the other twenty-odd percent will take back to civilian life with them, and we've concluded the Army's plans are acceptable. To again suggest now that we force those men to remain in the Army strikes me as a bit... overconcerned.'

Or paranoid, as the word will be interpreted, D'arl thought. But H'orme had one tacnuke yet in reserve, and as the Committe picked up a magcard from his stack, D'arl knew he was about to set it off. 'I remember Commander Mendro's visits quite well, thank you,' he addressed the other Committe with a nod, 'and I've done some checking on the facts and figures he presented.' Dropping the magcard into his reader, he keyed to the first of his chosen sections and sent the picture to the other viewers around the table. 'You will note here the percentage of Cobra trainees that were actually commissioned and sent into the war, displayed as a function of time. The different colors refer to the continually updated initial screening tests the Army used.'

A few frowns began to appear. 'You're saying they never got more than eighty-five percent into the field?' a Committe halfway around the table spoke up. 'The number I remember is ninety-seven percent.'

'That's the number that were physically able to go after training,' H'orme told her. 'The rest of them were dropped for psychosociological reasons.'

'So?' someone else shrugged. 'No testing method's ever perfect. As long as they caught all of the unacceptable ones—'