Hannah wrinkled her nose at the answer.
“I’m kind of glad he didn’t visit us, then. It’s not very useful advice. If you think about it, that’s exactly what we did all by ourselves.”
“It would have been worse if you’d stood your ground, don’t you think?” Toni interjected. ”Which begs the question. What happened so you ended up fighting the African guy? Weren’t you supposed to be the rearguard?”
“We were the rearguard. And that’s exactly where we were attacked. Either Davos punched through the van, or he took it out altogether, ‘cause he reached us before any retreating front-liners did. And you, Toni? How did you end up fighting Kaiser here? Weren’t you supposed to be retreating as well?” She inquired, entertained by his sudden apprehension.
“I, uh, had some difficulties finding the retreat axis ...”
His reply was followed by a low chuckle from Kaiser.
“Yes, yes, Sergeant Miura, indeed you appeared to have confused west with east, for when I found you, you were quite a few kilometers in that direction ...” he declared.
“Really, Major? And just what was he doing there?” Hannah inquired in mock seriousness.
“Why, my dear lady, he was trying most diligently to kill me.” He laughed.
The answer seemed to take her aback, and she raised her eyebrows at Toni questioningly.
“I was lost ...” he replied in a monotone as Kaiser chuckling softly.
“Nice, Tones ...” he heard as Ray clapped him on the shoulder.
The march became silent as they fell into a routine, the terrain challenging them as they moved into a land deeply gouged with natural spillways. There were fewer trees there, the space occupied by several bush species that formed an almost impenetrable tangle in some places. Toni knew the spillway, having crossed it in the opposite direction, and he also knew that it extended outwards over fifty kilometers. After several failed attempts to advance over the terrain, and then along the convoluted spillways themselves, he had finally proposed that they move north until they found the trail opened up by Main Force’s passage. The proposal was gladly accepted, and before long they were northbound.
The group’s failed attempts to penetrate the broken land had cost them half a day, and by the time they reached the flattened ground marking Main Force’s passage the wildlife was settling in for slumber. They camped in a particularly dense clump of trees on a hill, in a location that afforded them ideal overwatch of the trail below.
Their difficult progress, along with the decision to abstain from lunch in order to preserve rations, had begun to take its toll on the group. Only Kaiser kept his spirits up, despite having no choice but to share their hunger. As the cadets nibbled on salty biscuits, drinking water instead of milk or juice so as to have something for the following morning, Kaiser spoke of Earth and of the other planets that presently harbored terrestrial life.
He spoke about the first missions to Alpha Centauri A, Epsilon Indi and Epsilon Eridani, which had succeeded in establishing multinational colonies on Earth-like planets.
He spoke also of the second wave of colonization, initiated thirty years afterwards, when the world economy had finally begun to recover from collapse. The second wave had focused on the colonization of the more numerous Red Dwarf systems, and so Mankind had extended its influence out to Bernard’s Star, Wolf 359, Lalande 21185, Lacaille 9352 and Gliese 1061, All falling neatly inside a 12 light-year radius from Earth itself.
Then came the mission to Gliese 667C, the only privately-funded initiative of the lot. 667C’s colonization was the most expensive to date at four Trillion Euros, having been conceived and carried out by a mega-conglomerate of Japanese, Korean and European manufacturing companies, with their employees and stockholders serving as colonists.
The following centuries saw the consolidation of human presence in all locations, all under the care and authority of the United Nations.
And then four hundred years ago, it had all come to an abrupt end.
A devastating war, the kind that could only be born from an exceedingly long peace, was fought between Earth’s Social and Capital Blocs, and had resulted in a draw. Which was one way of stating that both had been remarkably successful in nuking each other into oblivion. The world population abruptly slimmed to a mere billion, the number eventually falling to half that in the first ten years after the exchange. There had been survivors, but the global trauma caused by war led the earthlings to focus on domestic matters over the following three centuries.
Until the planet’s ultimate unification under the Earth Federation.
In a frenzy of activity, mankind reestablished contact with its colonies, extending its influence beyond the planetary surface to the Moon, then to Mars, and then finally to the remote stellar outposts.
After their meager dinner, the group agreed to password-and-counter-password procedure and settled in for the night, Toni as usual being the first to draw watch due to his injuries. As he sat there, watching Kaiser sleep and trying not to think about the pain in his arm, he felt a mild itch behind his ear. Giving the skin there a light scratch, he felt his driving patch slide easily into his hand. He held it there, noticing in satisfaction how, after six days of use, it no longer had any stickiness to it.
In retrospect, Hannah probably hadn’t saved his life when she had warned him not to remove it. Although the principal withdrawal symptoms from the patch’s Clonidine component was dangerous hypertension, he had already lost so much blood that his body probably would had welcomed it. But was it worth the risk to find out? Probably not, he concluded. Too many novice drivers had stroked out due to having removed their patches before their time. As a rule the patch would need to be replaced by another so as to keep their Clonidine level up, or the patch would have to remain attached for another three days, releasing the drug in ever more diminutive doses to attenuate the withdrawal symptoms. He wondered how many years it would take before his brain finally adapted to Suit locomotion, thus sparing him from medication.
He wondered whether he would live that long.
They had no way to measure the passage of time, and so Toni spent much of his watch walking in circuits around the camp, having as usual found that he was unable to remain still for very long. Fifty slow circuits later, something caught his attention and he looked skywards.
His eyes saw nothing except for the treetops. His ears, however, warned him of a faint buzzing sound from the sky above them. He wondered who the drone belonged to. Remembering his binoculars, He quietly removed them from his travel pack and descended the high-ground they were camped upon until the sky opened above him. He then heard a faint percussion from above and realized he wouldn’t need the instrument to discover where the sound had come from.
High in the sky to his north-east, he made out a distant black bloom that dissipated as he watched, from which a long, thin trail, as delicate as one penciled by an artist, curved downwards towards the ground. As he continued to watch, the falling object disappeared into the forest, and before long his eyes were rewarded with a rising plume from the impact site.
He tried to gauge the distance with his rangefinder, but found that it was unable to measure distances beyond ten thousand meters. Mindful of his duties, he returned to the campsite and confirmed that Kaiser was still asleep. A long while passed by before Toni shook Sueli awake to be relieved.
In the morning Toni informed them what he had seen on his watch and an argument quickly followed.
“I told you, I did not see any other drone!” Toni declared angrily for the second time.
“But there could have been. Which means you could have been seen ... which means Lograin might already know where we are!” Ray exclaimed hopefully.
“There’s no indication that it was on our side,” Sueli retorted, “The other drone, if there was one, could have been EFF, which means you might have given us away ...”
“The way it fell made it clear it was coming from Lograin. And how many times must I say this? There w
as no other drone!” He huffed.
“Was it coming from Lograin, or returning from there?” Hannah asked softly, her almond eyes narrowing.
Toni hated to admit it, but he deeply regretted having abandoned the camp at all. They were right, of course. The optics of most UAVs were quite capable of picking up his figure if it contrasted clearly enough with the background. And it had been cloudless at the time, so his shadow would have been obvious.
That was just the sort of detail that Air Recon software was designed to pick up. If the Capicuan UAVs were that good, he dreaded what capabilities the EFF drones might have.
“Alright, it is a remote possibility,” he admitted, trying for some damage control, “But don’t forget that our friendly UAVs were knocked out around these parts as well, and from enemy ground fire. They’ve got something like a laser platform that does that from a distance. But this raises the possibility that the EFF could field drones to search for us, so I suggest we move parallel to the Main Force trail instead of on it.”
“Toni, that’s obvious. And now we must skip breakfast and move out on the double. Right, Ian?” Hannah suggested.
The looks they gave him were like a knife in the gut. They moved out without further delay, even Kaiser looking sullen. That shouldn’t have affected Toni in the least, but it did. After all, the Earthling was his Catch, and in his mind that made it almost obligatory for the man to respect him.
Their intention to move parallel to the trail proved impossible for the same reason they had searched it out in the first place. Before long the group was moving along the three meter-wide path, exposed and in a great hurry. Toni occupied the rear, trying to ignore his shame, as Ian pressed on at the head of the column with Kaiser following closely behind.
As the march progressed Hannah fell back slowly until finally she was marching beside him.
“You know, Toni ...” she mused with a smile, “If it wasn’t for your occasional fuckups, you’d probably be a very reliable soldier.”
“Yes, princess, you could be right about that ...” he answered bitingly.
She flashed him a quick grin before continuing.
“Have you noticed anything odd between Ian and Kaiser?”
“What? Besides Ian hanging on his every word? Besides Ian insisting on personally taking him out to pee all the time? Wait, you don’t think they’ve become assmates, do you?”
“Not anything like that ...” she answered vaguely, “You’re a heavy sleeper, so maybe you didn’t notice, but when Ian’s guarding Kaiser in the night, they talk a lot. Too much. Whatever his family connections, I don’t trust Ian and I don’t like where this might be going ...”
“Welcome to the club ...” he began, but Hannah softly shushed him.
“Which club? Ray doesn’t suspect much. Certainly Sueli doesn’t either, I think. I mean, she’s sweet and all, but she’s quite oblivious to what’s happening.”
They marched quietly for a while, scrutinizing Ian and Kaiser as they walked side-by-side.
“Talking to him about this is pointless ...” Toni finally said.
Hannah only nodded.
“My arm isn’t hurting as bad as it was,” he lied, “so maybe I don’t need to be on first watch anymore. Ian was on last watch this morning, so he can do the first tonight and I’ll go after him. Only I won’t sleep while he’s with Kaiser, I’ll keep an eye out for an escape. You’re usually before him, so on the other nights you can eyeball them after your watch. What do you think?”
She gave a slight nod and returned to her place in the line, leaving him to think dark thoughts about his senior for the remainder of the morning.
They lunched ravenously among the trees, arguing over how they would feed themselves for the remainder of their trek. The group had been traveling at a pace of about forty kilometers per day, but much of that had only been roaming. Ian estimated that it would take at least twelve days of marching before they came within pickup distance of Lograin. He also decided that whatever time was lost due to the winds could be compensated for with Toni’s comm. idea. Whatever happened, however, all agreed that if they didn’t get free of the forests before the diluvian rains fell, their chances of survival would dissipate to zero.
But if they had twelve days ahead and only two days of rations left, then the obvious conclusion was that they would eventually have to forage for food. After an inconclusive debate the discussion was postponed, and they set off for the trail once more.
It proved to be a grueling afternoon. Kaiser’s usual contingency of covering his head with an undershirt proved insufficient to protect against the sun’s UV light, and his black bodysuit absorbed IR light as effectively as tar, slowly cooking him inside. Added to that, they soon found themselves moving along broken land, and their prisoner finally collapsed after a valiant effort, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
For the remainder of the afternoon, the group was forced to carry the earthling on their backs, the effort pushing their already taxed bodies to their limit. Toni, preparing for the pitch to do the second watch, refused to be exempted from carrying him, although he suffered greatly as a result.
Notwithstanding the need to stop occasionally to trade packs and prisoner between them, the group made good time, and by the time they were nearing the end of their day, they had cleared the spillway land and moved into the cooler, shadier forest beyond. Finding a small depression that hid them from their surroundings, the cadets settled down and began to treat their afflictions.
“No conversations from now on,” Ian decided, ”We just eat what we have in our second ration and get some sleep. What, Toni?”
“My arm’s not too bad anymore, I’d like to shift my watch like everyone else. Alright?” Toni asked, trying to make it sound like nothing of consequence.
The proposition gave Ian pause for thought, but finally he agreed.
“Fine, I’ll do first watch, then wake you up. Now go eat.”
And that was that. Between Toni and Hannah, Ian’s watch was now bracketed by the two people who trusted him the least. Feeling proud of himself, he dined on aquaculture tuna in tough bread and drank only water, pondering the fact that he hadn’t had a single bowel movement in more than four days.
I’m turning into a brick-factory, he thought, hoping there was nothing wrong with him.
After his dinner, Toni chose his sleeping spot so as to be able to discreetly watch the pair. Hannah was right. They were awfully chatty, the two of them.
He marveled with semi-shuttered eyes how Ian’s expression was somehow more human as they spoke. Kaiser was a wily one, indeed, to be able to befriend him like that. The earthling had somehow managed to overcome the blonde cadet’s defenses. Or was it more complicated than that? The pair spoke for what seemed like a long while, Ian squatting while the prisoner sat.
Finally the sentinel stood, helped Kaiser to his feet, and led him out of the depression.
Toni quietly rose and approached the lip. He was very cautious, his body involuntarily remembering the last time he’d tried to follow Kaiser out of a depression. Peering over the terrain, he saw an unbound Kaiser relieving himself against a tree about forty paces away, his guard keeping a respectful distance. Once the prisoner had finished urinating, Ian approached with the strap.
Toni decided to return to his spot as the pair turned towards camp, feeling foolish. Belatedly he realized that the only way to truly foil any escape attempt would be to cover them from up close. Before long, they had returned to the depression.
Toni began to slide into sleep as he watched the pair holding another whispered conversation. His groggy mind saw that their expressions were more earnest and serious, and he wondered whether he was imagining it.
Ian shook him awake.
“Toni, your watch.”
“Huh?”
“It’s your watch. I’m going to sleep.”
“Uh, right ...”
Toni cursed himself silently for having fallen asleep, realizing t
hat he had just given them a perfect opportunity for escape. He approached Kaiser, finding him still awake.
“Not going to sleep?” He asked the prisoner.
Kaiser smiled at him with tired eyes.
“I shall not be awake too long. That boy never stops asking questions. You seem tired yourself, Sergeant.”
Toni nodded, “I’ll sleep soon enough. Goodnight.”
“Until tomorrow then ...”
The earthling lay on his side and promptly fell asleep.
After a while, Toni felt the need to move, and so he quietly stood and began his usual slow circuits of the camp. Twenty seven circuits later, Kaiser awoke again.
“Sergeant, I am afraid I need to relieve myself once more. With my age there is no choice, yes?”
Toni helped him to his feet and directed him to the predetermined watering spot. As he was about to unbind his prisoner’s wrists, a sound from behind caught his attention. Quickly he turned.
Something swished over his head and suddenly his own rifle-strap was constricting his throat. Desperately he grabbed at the strap with his only working hand, but a vicious kick behind his knee caused him to buckle and the pressure instantly doubled. Unable to breathe, seeing starbursts as he desperately tried to make noise, any noise, he was suddenly being dragged deep into the forest. Giving up on the strap, he tried instead to grab hold of Kaiser’s fingers, but the earthling’s slender digits contracted into an impossibly solid fist. Toni blacked out, wondering whether they would ever find his body.
He was still unable to see when he finally realized he was still alive.
“We are alive, yes?” A satisfied voice asked him.
“Whuffah –”
“Yes we are,” it replied in satisfaction.
Toni’s throat was suddenly being constricted once more, and again he was being dragged along the forest-floor. He had enough time to ask himself why he wasn’t dead yet before he blacked out once more.
He slowly returned to consciousness, his asphyxiated mind wondering when the Click would ever end.
“Hello, my boy. We are alive, yes?”
Descent into Mayhem (Capicua Chronicles Book 1) Page 28