by Ann Wilson
7. Dave
St. Thomas, Thursday, 20 Feb 2572
The Royal Family, the King's Household and staff, and favored noblesflew to Dragon's Lair; everyone else rode. So when Team Azrael and itsprisoner left Middletown for the deliberately-isolated Royal retreat,they were on horseback. Cortin, like most people, had learned to ridealmost as soon as she'd learned to walk, and was expert at it, but shequickly found that riding was another thing she could no longer enjoy.She was wearing the back brace Egan had given her for unavoidablestrenuous exercise and riding the smoothest-gaited horse in the Basestables--a black Arab named Rainbow--complete with a lambswool saddlepad, but within fifteen minutes she was thinking that maybe disabilityretirement might not be such a bad idea after all. Without it she'd bespending a lot of time in the saddle, hurting worse than usual. On theother hand, if she got out she'd be spending even more time in thesaddle, unless she abandoned her crusade--and she had no intention ofdoing that. So she just had to learn to endure this, too. At least,she thought, if they had to ride they had a nice day for it. Thetemperature was still comfortable in the morning sun, and by the timeit got too warm in the open, cultivated areas, they'd be in forestshade. And the quiet was pleasant, only an occasional word or two andthe soft sounds of leather or hooves on dirt breaking the silence. Shecould see landfolk out working their farms and ranches, but they werefar enough away she couldn't hear them--and they weren't likely toapproach a group of Enforcement troopers, especially one escorting aprisoner.
Cortin smiled grimly at that thought. Prewar, even Terran, police,from her reading, had gotten the same reaction: civilians tended tostay away, unless they needed something. And civs were even lessinterested in having anything to do with police carrying out theenforcement part of their duties. Let one get close enough to see anInquisitor's badge, and lack of interest usually turned into activeavoidance of contact; the Harrisons' pleasure at her visits wasunusual. At one time, she'd disliked provoking that reaction; now shewas accustomed to it, and at times found it useful.
She heard a horse speed up slightly, until Lieutenant Bain was ridingbeside her. "Is anything wrong, Captain?" he asked. "I've beennoticing you don't look exactly comfortable."
"Nothing that can be helped, thanks. It seems my back doesn't approveof horses any longer, is all."
"How bad?"
"Late second stage, maybe early third. Nothing I can't handle for afew hours if I have to--though I'll admit I'm already looking forwardto stopping for the night." She gestured to the rear, where Degas wasleading the unconscious prisoner's horse. "How far did you get on himbefore Sis tapped him for surgery?"
"I didn't even start," Bain said, surprising her. "She and I werelooking for a blood type match, plus a couple of other factors shethought might help; when we finally found one she thought would beright, we put him straight under." He grinned. "Don't worry, though.He'll have to stay out while Sis takes what you need--we don't want totake any chances on damaging it--but once he wakes up, I'll make sure Iget anything interesting. Unless you'd rather I save him for you?"
Cortin returned the grin. "I shouldn't be greedy, and I do havesomething else to look forward to from him; you go ahead."
"Thanks." Bain glanced at her, then obviously decided not to go on.
Cortin hid a sigh. Having civilians apprehensive about her was onething, but her men should feel free to ask or tell her anything."What's the problem, Dave?"
"It's not exactly a problem, ma'am . . . uh, Joan."
"What, then?"
Bain looked uncomfortable. "Uh . . . you're the first lady trooperI've been around, and . . ."
"Oh." Yes, that explained his hesitation. "I've been the only womanon a team most of my career. I'm neither a virgin nor a prude, thoughI sometimes find it useful to pretend the latter around civilians. Sospill it."
Bain grinned in relief. "Right, Joan. Okay, then--Mike says thatbefore the Brothers messed you up, you enjoyed using our dispensationwhenever the opportunity offered. Nothing fancy, but not skimpinganyone, either."
"True," Cortin said, smiling. "I'm a firm believer in the basics, andGod was generous enough to let me enjoy them in abundance. If He'smerciful enough to let this work out, I'll do it again."
"Just let us know what you want, and how much; we'll do our best tooblige." Bain grinned again. "Always a good idea to keep the COhappy, you know."
Cortin couldn't help laughing, in spite of the pain. She knew that acommanding officer taking part in a team's sexual activity tended tohave an extreme effect, one way or the other; it could tear the teamapart, or it could weld it into near-unity. From watching hers worktogether, she was certain it would react positively, so she said, "Andfrom my experience with other teams, I doubt you'll find at least thataspect overly disagreeable."
"Or at all difficult," Bain agreed. "I'm looking forward to it, infact." He gestured in a way that told her he was still unsure. "I'vebeen with a lot of civ women, paid or curious about an Inquisitor, butthey didn't--oh, hell!"
"You're not the first one to tell me that," Cortin said drily. "I waslucky, always had enough willing troopers around I never had to go to aciv man--but I always got more out of Special Ops men. The emotionalfeel was better, even when physical things were the same."
"You do understand, then." Bain's look was full of relief andsomething else she couldn't quite identify.
"Yes--and if this works, I want all of you to feel free to come to me.Other duties permitting, I'll be more than happy to help keep upmorale." She grinned. "Rank doth have its responsibilities, a few ofthem pleasant; a CO is expected to be available for counseling wheneverit's needed."
Bain chuckled. "'Counseling'--I like that. You may have thebest-counseled team in the entire Service, here shortly."
"Most counseled, anyway," Cortin said. "And while you're here, I'vebeen meaning to ask--if you don't mind talking about it, I'd like tohear how you ended up in the Strike Force. Records are all very well,but there's no feel to them."
"I'd rather not," Bain said slowly. "Fair's fair, though; Mike told usall about how you got into this." He paused, clearly trying toorganize what he wanted to say.
Cortin had suspected Mike might have given them the details of herbackground, probably because he'd thought it would somehow help her.He'd be right, too, if it helped her get insight into her people. Shewaited for Bain to speak.
"I come from a big family," he said at last. "Four sisters and a babybrother, with me the only sterile in the bunch. I enlisted inEnforcement, beccame a demolitions expert, got a recommendation to theAcademy and graduated about the middle of my class, put in for SO andgot it, made First about three years later. By that time, my babybrother was in the Service too, a top-notch medic." He paused, andCortin saw tears in his eyes. "We weren't stationed together, but wewere close enough we got to see each other regularly. He loved hiswork, would go out of his way to help anyone who needed it, wouldn'thurt a fly--wouldn't carry a gun, even on a remote patrol. He had agreat family, wife and two kids with a third on the way, he and Bettyboth hoping for eight or ten . . . He couldn't understand why I wantedto be an Inquisitor, even though he knew someone had to do it--hell, hecouldn't understand why I went into demolition!--but I was his bigbrother, so if I wanted it, he wanted it for me."
Bain paused. "I'm rambling--sorry. Anyway, about a week after I gotmy Warrant, my team got called out to help search for survivors of aterrorist ambush on a patrol. I heard the patrol that got hit was fromLancaster, but I didn't get scared until I heard the Team-Leader'sname. It was Jeffrey's team . . . and on the ride out I heard othersearchers had found seven bodies from the ten-man team. The medicwasn't one of them, and that scared me worse. Jeffy didn't have whatit takes to escape an ambush, and you know what's likely to happen toan Enforcement trooper captured by terrorists."
"Nothing good," Cortin agreed.
"We were the first combat team to get to the ambush site, so after aquick briefing
, the on-scene commander sent us after the ambushparty--fifteen of them, his Tracker said. With that few, ourTeam-Leader decided we didn't need any backup, so we got on theirtrail. When we caught up a few hours later, they'd made camp and wereworking on Jeffy. I couldn't see them yet, but I knew his voice wellenough to recognize it, even screaming and with the overtones algetinadds."
Cortin nodded. Screams, to a civilian and even to most Enforcementpersonnel, didn't tell much except that the screamer was feelingintense pleasure or pain. An Inquisitor learned not only to tellwhich, but also several other things; she wasn't at all surprised thatBain had been able to tell his brother had been dosed with thepain-enhancer.
"We took out the sentries, which eliminated five of the terrorists andgave us the advantage of numbers as well as skill, then we moved in onthe camp." Bain paused. "Have you ever been in on a massinterrogation?"
"No, but I know the theory; pick the least likely to be useful and makea dramatic example of him, to save time with the rest."
"That's what they were doing with Jeffy. All three of our people werehanging spreadeagle, but Jeffy was the one their version of anInquisitor was working on." Bain's voice caught, and it was a momentbefore he could continue. "I'd . . . rather not go into the details;just call it a standard demonstration. The plaguer was in the middleof gutting him when we attacked. I knee-shot him, then went to Jeffy."He stared at his saddle horn. "He . . . didn't recognize me at first,and . . . when he did, he begged for help." Bain looked at hiscommanding officer, his expression haunted. "Joan, he couldn't havelived if there'd been a hospital trauma center five feet away, and heknew it. I couldn't refuse him, make him live in that kind of agonyuntil shock and blood loss killed him in spite of the drugs. So I gavehim Last Rites--then I killed him, as quickly and painlessly as Icould." He looked down again. "Dammit, I became an Inquisitor to helpfind the Kingdoms' enemies, not to kill people I love!"
"I understand." His Warrant made his action blameless under both civiland Church law, but that wouldn't have helped his feelings any. "Itwas the only help you could give, and both of us know it can bewelcome. At worst, he's in Purgatory; I'll include him in my Massintentions from now on."
"Thanks--I've been doing it since I was ordained, of course, but extraMasses never hurt, and it'll make his family feel better."
"How did they take it?"
"Betty understood; the kids are too young to know anything except thatDaddy's gone and won't be back. She gets a pension, of course, and I'm'acting Daddy' for the kids when I'm around. You'll have to come outfor a visit sometime, since we're stationed in the area--I'm surethey'd love to meet you."
"I'll do that." She ought to find out if she could still relate tonormal civilians, she supposed; except for visiting the Harrisons,she'd been in a strictly-military environment since the attack. Andnot even a normal military environment, between the hospital, herInquisitor's training, and starting a Strike Force team. She knewshe'd changed, for what would generally be considered the worse; whatshe didn't know was how much.
"Great! If you don't mind, I'll drop back now and pass your invitationalong."
"Fine."
She rode alone the rest of the morning, glad when they got into theforest and out of the rapidly-warming sun. She was pleased to find shecould still appreciate the sounds and smells of the forest, thesquirrels and birds, the green-tinged light. Lunch was good, thoughshe was restricted to broth and more grateful for the brief relief fromjarring pain than for the unsatisfying pre-surgery meal.