"Where are the women and children, Sergeant Grove?" Baines said sharply, frowning at the group of natives that were being herded out of the Chinook.
"Too many of them, sir." Sarge replied cooly.
Baines glared at him for a moment, but only saw a soldierly, stoical expression, "Who looks like the chief?"
"Didn't have one. However, that one in the red shirt is Elio. Everyone seems to defer to him."
Baines walked to group, who stood about sullenly, regarding him warily, "You're Elio?"
"Yes. I am Elio."
"I want to ask you a few questions. Did you work here?"
Elio looked at him silently.
Baines put his hand on his Beretta, "I asked you a question! Did you work here?"
Elio's eyes narrowed.
Connors stepped up and delivered a savage punch to Elio's stomach. He groaned and bent over, holding his belly as he dropped to his knees. His companions looked at each other and murmured.
"Wait a-" Sarge protested, stepping forward.
"Quiet, Soldier!" Baines snapped, "I'm in charge, and this is a national security issue!"
"Security, yeah, but whose?" a soldier muttered under his breath.
"Let me handle this." Sarge whispered as he stepped back.
"Wha-?" Connors muttered.
"What?" Baines returned his attention to the native, only to be seeing him grinning and chuckling, "What are you laughing at?"
When Elio did not reply, Baines nodded at Connors, who kicked Elio in the side. Elio fell on his unhurt side, groaning, but soon began chuckling again, albeit a bit raggedly.
Sarge took the opportunity to quickly survey the men he had there who were armed. Two, from his original platoon, looked like they would be on his side, but the other two, who had been transferred in for this job, seemed to be taking pleasure in the beating of the old, unarmed black man. Of the four who were away, he felt he couldn't count on Haldane, another transferee. But he felt very sure of the others, also from his platoon. The odds were about even since Baines and Connors were armed. He glanced around for Travis, but didn't see him. If he was lucky, the civilian wouldn't be a player.
Baines was frowning, "Sarge, were there any animals in that village?"
"What?"
"No sir!" a soldier replied, "There were only people."
"Hmm. The gas killed all the animals, people, and whatever else was here, and it was night, so how-" Baines suddenly brightened, then chuckled, "You were warned, weren't you?"
Elio nodded, "You in-big trouble,-boss man," he gasped.
"Oh Really?" Baines grinned, turned to Connors, and jerked his head toward the mass grave, "Show him."
Connors, realizing also, grinned too as he went to the body bag and dragged it to the small group. He unzipped the bag, grabbed the dead Cyber girl's hair, and twisted her head so Elio and the natives could see her face, "Was it THIS one?" he asked.
There were several gasps from the men, "Oh no!" said one. Elio, for his part, stopped laughing, but got on his hands and knees to crawl to the bag for a closer look.
"YOU!" Connors pointed at the one who had spoken, letting go of the head, which fell with a thump to the ground, "What's your name?"
"Ramas sir!"
"This the one?"
"Yes sir!"
The others groaned and glared at him.
"Finally! The smart man in a bunch of blockheads! Did you work here?"
"No sir, but Elio was the head servant!" Ramas pointed at Elio.
"Ahh! The man who knows the dirty laundry!" Baines chuckled, "Do you know what they were doing here?"
"I'll answer that." Elio said, struggling to his feet. Sarge had been watching Elio. The man's face had run a strange gamut of emotions, but finally ending with a grim, set look of determination, "We were building the Army of Peace." he said, looking squarely at Baines.
"Army of-" Baines started, disbelieving, then burst out laughing, "Come ON! Army, yes, but Von Richter was a scientist working for the Nazis, and your Cybers were being trained by the best instructor of the Reich! Army of peace!"
"Yes." Elio said calmly.
"And-" Baines still chuckled, "WHAT was this army supposed to do? Or conquer?"
"They were to be sown among the armies of the world. To be common soldiers and noncommissioned officers, like you-" Here Elio turned to Sarge and his men, "They would work and live among you, supporting you and being your friends. They would have fought your enemies alongside you. But they would have been watching."
"Watching? who?" Sarge asked.
"You." Elio said, "To make sure you would not be doing what you are doing now, violating the treaties of war and peace. Then they would try to stop you. With their words, if they could, or with their bodies if words failed."
Baines shook his head. He pointed to a soldier, "You. Your dossier says your parents run a construction company, right?"
"Yes sir!"
"Go get that ditch digger at the motor pool and bring it here. They have to have one "
Sarge's lips pursed: one
man on his side gone. "Where are the others, and when the hell
are they going to get here?"
----------------------
"Kyle! Let's get going!"
Jeff said as he walked into the lobby, "We've got four more-"
"They'll just have to wait, soldier."
Jeff whirled at the sound of the girl's voice and found himself staring into the very long barrel of what looked like a modified Magnum stolen from the "Dirty Harry in Wonderland" movie set. His eye followed the slim arm holding it up to the owner's face, and was extremely startled to see that the girl looked very much like the girl he had shot, "W-w-where did you come from?" he croaked.
"Here. This is my home you bastards are raiding. I was up on the mountain when your planes gassed my parents, brothersm and sisters."
"How many-"
"Just me." she said, voice breaking slightly, "Your tracker, Porter, is very good. As you were when you sneaked up on my batchmate, Cyber 356. Of course, she was already dead, so it wasn't that much of a challenge," The girl smiled slightly, "I didn't know daddy gave us such substantial skulls, although with 356, one always wondered..."
Jeff glanced behind the girl to another corridor. "Oh, looking for your friend? Right there, under the desk," she said, voice going cold again, "I didn't appreciate what he was doing to my sister, Cyber 3. Rape is forbidden by the Geneva convention, as are hollow point bullets."
Jeff looked down and noticed, with a start, the unnatural angle of Haldane's head and neck, "Umm, what's your name, err, number?" he asked her.
"I'm Cybersix. Turn around, soldier, I'm going to tie you up."
"Look, I didn't know I had hollow points!"
"I know. TURN AROUND!"
"But how did you know-"
Cybersix tapped at her left ear, "Good ears. Now turn around or I'll do it for you!"
Jeff had been delaying, looking the girl over. "Slight and small boned," he thought, "She's probably tired of holding that big gun. Maybe-" Sighing, he turned around, waited until he heard the gun being put on the desk behind them, then leaped backwards, hoping to knock her to the floor by his larger weight and bulk. He felt the front of her body against his back and heard her boots as she stumbled.
Then he felt one hand grab at his belt, the other on his shirt. He gasped as he felt himself being quickly lifted and thrown end over end! He slammed into the wall with his back, hung there for a second, then slid down to the floor, jarring his whole skeleton when he hit.
BLAM! BLAM!
Very slowly, Jeff reached up to his head and felt at the crumbly stuff that had fallen on his head. He looked at it, and saw that it was chalky. He reached back up, felt at the wall, and found a hole bigger than his fist blown through the mortar board. He decided that the multiple stings he had felt in his buttocks was from the same stuff flying away from a similar hole that was made by a similar bullet that hit the same wall about a couple of inches below his crotch...
The girl was on the desk, on one knee, holding the gun and slowly lifting and lowering the barrel, as if trying to decide which end of him to shoot next.
Slowly, Jeff raised his hands.
"On. The. Floor. Soldier." Cybersix stated, obvously not willing to entertain any more foolishness from him.
He stretched out on the floor and put his hands behind his back. Within seconds, his hands and feet were bound with several turns of duct tape. She then picked him up by the belt and carried him like a piece of luggage out the door, "Let's see," She was muttering, "That's three down, one captured."
"T-t-three?" Jeff gasped, trying to keep his nose out of the dirt as it went by.
"Yes. While those two guys were counting the weapons on the third level, I snuck into the top level and initiated the self destruct. Went off when I wanted it to, so I very much doubt-" She stopped.
From far away came the roar of a ditch digger's engine.
Jeff felt her jerk at his belt, and he flew upwards, spinning and flipping. She caught him on the stomach as he came down, and draped him over her shoulder. His head was down, and he was looking at the back of her boots and the handle of the big gun tucked under her belt. He dipped toward the ground as she crouched, then it flew away as she leaped over several trees.
Jeff's eyes bugged, as much
from trying to keep his lunch down as from the dizzying view, "We are-"
he thought, watching the branches fly toward them, "-in DEEP SHIT!"
----------------------
"You want me to do what,
sir?"
Baines sighed, "Start digging another trench. Next to this one. NOW!"
"Uhh, yes sir!"
Sarge wasn't sure what Baines was doing. They had been "interrogating" Elio, who refused to answer any more questions, but had stopped when the sound of the ditch digger indicated its arrival. The soldier skillfully excavated the trench while Baines and Connors made the natives watch.
Baines grabbed Ramas by the arm and jerked him toward the edge of the trench. He then pulled out his Beretta and pointed it at Ramas' head, "If you think I'm kidding or joking, old man, then you are WRONG!" he said to Elio, who was lying on the ground, "Want a demonstration?"
"BELAY THAT!" Sarge said, bringing his M-16 up and pointed it at Baines, "THAT'S GOING TOO FAR!"
"What Sergeant Grove? All that native's blathering about the Geneva Convention get to you? Lemmie tell you this, the Geneva Convention is enforced by the winners, not the losers! Isn't that right, Travis?"
"YES SIR!" Came Travis' voice from above and behind Sarge. He turned around, and saw Travis on the balcony, holding a Haskins gun. He turned back, and saw that Baines and Connors had their guns aimed at him.
"Recognize the Haskins, Sergeant? Nasty. Can cut a man in half with one round. You don't stand a chance. Who's prepared to follow the chain of command?" he addressed the soldiers.
Porter, Sarge's remaining armed man, put his M-16 down, letting one of the other soldiers confiscate it. Sarge handed his gun to the other, saying, "You won't get away with this at my courts martial, Baines."
"What courts martial, Sergeant? Get over here."
"WHAT?"
"Summary execution for defying orders in the field, attempting to countermand the orders of a superior, and treason for supporting a suspected enemy of your country. Come here, or I will shoot you there."
"Don't bother, sir." The soldier who had taken his M-16 shoved Sarge toward the trench, "I don't want to drag his carcass anywhere anyhow."
"Thanks patriot," Baines said appreciatively, "Now, Elio, to show you how serious I am, I'm going to shoot my own countryman. No great loss, since he's a traitor anyhow."