exercise all these abilities in A Company, I assure you.'
'Sir ...' said Huber's lips. He was watching from outside himself again. 'I don't think I have enough ...'
This time he stopped, not because he didn't know how to finish the sentence but because he thought of Steuben's hell-lit smile the night before. The words choked in his throat.
'Ruthlessness, you were perhaps going to say, Lieutenant?' the major said with his cat's-tongue lilt. 'Oh, I think you'll do. I'm a good judge of that sort of thing, you know.'
He giggled again. 'You're dismissed for now,' Steuben said. 'Go back to Logistics -- you'll have to break in your replacement no matter what you decide. But rest assured, you'll be hearing from me again.'
Arne Huber's soul watched his body walking back down the hallway. Even his mind was numb, and despite the closed door behind him he continued to hear laughter.
