“Not at all. You captured me fair and square.”
“In other words,” I said, “you are an embarrassment to the administration now that you failed.”
“I’m just a renegade. A madman. I deserve my fate.”
“What if I go on live TV and tell the people the truth. What if I tell the world what really happened down here?”
Kerr aimed his pipe at me in an accusatory gesture. “That’s the sort of talk we don’t need right now. Humanity faces extinction. Let’s pull it together as a single world and stop the alien menace.”
“Let’s kill him,” suggested Crow. “No one will blame us with that cover story.”
I stared at Crow and sighed. His eyes were bulging again. His cheeks were red. I had to admit, his idea was appealing. Kerr watched us both quietly.
“What about him?” I said, indicating Barrera.
“He’s napping,” said Kerr.
“I mean, what did you do to him and why?”
Kerr shrugged. “He was interrogated. He withheld the requested information. I think the process tired him out.”
A wide, vicious grin spread on Crow’s face. “That gives me an idea. We’ll take little slices out of our fine General. We’ll shoot his legs with nanites, repair his tissues, and do it again. It might take weeks, but we’ll get everything he knows. I’ll know his mum’s shoe size. Every name and detail.”
For the first time, Kerr’s tough exterior crumpled a bit. His face appeared to glisten slightly. His pipe went out and he didn’t bother to relight it. His eyes searched my face as I considered the matter.
I nodded. “Your idea has merit, Admiral. Let’s go outside for a moment.”
I directed two men to watch Kerr and another to try to wake up Barrera, then followed Crow. As I stepped outside onto the sandy soil, I couldn’t help but look upward to the patch of sky where I’d last seen the
The beach wasn’t far off, and once again I promised myself a fine vacation on the windy, white sands. I’d get a tan, and I’d watch Sandra’s tan deepen. I looked at the bright blue waves and white foam. Strips of seaweed were visible forming dark, curving lines along the beach.
I excused myself from Crow for a minute. I stood apart from the buildings and marines. I worked my com- link, trying to contact Sergeant Kwon.
“Kwon? This is Riggs.”
“Sir? One second.”
I waited, worrying. Was he in some kind of trouble? I didn’t hear any gunfire.
“Where’s Sandra, Kwon?” I asked, unable to contain myself.
“She’s right here, sir. We are driving south to your position. How are things? Did we retake the camp?”
“Yes. Yes we did.”
“Was it a big battle, sir?” asked Kwon.
I looked around at the calm beach and the quiet buildings. There was a little damage, but not much. A few bullet holes. Something over in the direction of the mess hall was smoldering, but I didn’t see any flames. Kerr and his men had marched into the camp after Barrera had sent his garrison to me with Crow at the lead. This attempted coup had been much smaller than I’d realized. It was nothing at all compared to the titanic battles we’d fought against the Macros in South America.
I thought more deeply, however, about the struggle for power between the entrenched world governments and the fledgling Star Force. I thought of the assassin, Esmeralda, who had fought me to the death aboard Pierre’s ship. These fights had been relatively small, but perhaps each had helped decide our world’s fate. They had certainly decided mine.
“Yes Kwon,” I said at last. “It was a big battle. We won the day-this time.”
— 19-
Crow and I talked it over. We finally decided that Kerr would be more forthcoming-or at least less full of crap-if he and I talked alone. Crow seemed to take this as a hint that I meant to lean on Kerr. He was excited by the prospect.
“Okay,” he said. “Just you and the good General. But don’t go easy on him, Kyle. And don’t trust a word he says.”
I had to agree with Crow’s point of view. I had no intention of being bamboozled by this Kerr. I had no stomach for actual torture, however. I didn’t tell Crow that, figuring he might figure I needed help.
I moved Kerr to the medical facility next door where we often strapped men in to administer the nanite treatments. He walked in and dubiously examined the stainless steel chair and restraints. The leather loops were torn apart and the metal buckles had snapped.
“What’s this about?” he asked, trying to sound disinterested.
“This chair is where we put men who are undergoing nanite-transformation.”
“The restraints are all broken,” he pointed out.
“Yes, well, that happens fairly often,” I said. “Unfortunately, no reasonable set of leather straps can hold one of our raving marines, not once his strength has been enhanced by a full dose of nanites.”
“Why strap them in at all, then?”
“The transformations vary. Some men just puke and faint. Others rave and seek to damage themselves, but that phase usually passes before they become strong. In short, the chair and the restraints work for most men, but not all.”
Kerr licked his lips. There were dark smears of dried blood on the flat, reflective arms of the chair. I wondered if electric chairs looked like that. I’d never seen one in person.
“Seems like you could build metal restraints,” Kerr said. “Manacles the men couldn’t break.”
“We tried that,” I said. “It was a disaster. The men who went wild tore loose anyway, leaving their hands and exposed wrist-bones behind, if necessary. Repairing a man at that point takes much longer and is more traumatic for everyone. The leather straps hold most people, and those that break them have to be dealt with individually.”
Kerr nodded. “Such a sacrifice,” he said.
“Yes, it is,” I said. I watched him, wondering if he was feeding me more bullshit. I didn’t think he was, but I no longer trusted my own judgment around this man. He had fooled me as few people ever had.
“Let’s talk, General,” I said. “Just you and I, off the record.”
“An excellent idea.”
“Can you tell me why so many fine men had to die here on this island? Why their blood is on your hands-and mine?”
I think that statement got to him, if only for a second. He nodded. “All right. I think you’ve earned a bit of truth from me.”
Kerr looked around for a place to dump his ashes. Not finding anything reasonable, he tapped them out on the stainless steel arm of the electric chair. A gray little pile of smoldering dust formed among the bloodstains and ripped leather straps.
“I think you understand most of the score by now,” he said. “This took us all by surprise. I had to move down here with whatever assets I could, within a few hours. The military just doesn’t move that fast. There never was a full taskforce down here. We had a group of subs to send tomahawks at you. Choppers brought in a team of commandos and snipers from Florida to harass your camp. The carrier group just got into range this morning, and you managed to send them packing. The few companies of regular troops which I put up north you took apart easily.”
I blinked and absorbed this information quietly. I’d been bluffed. There had been no full scale invasion. They had bullied and herded my men without a tenth of our strength. Without our Nano ships and our communications systems, we’d been thrown into confusion. This was what people liked to call a
