When the enemy pulled back, Sandra was at my side and full of questions.
“I heard from the men that the nuke was set too high,” she said.
“Yes. Somehow, one of the grenades must have malfunctioned.”
“I thought maybe it was because you put four bombs down, not just one.”
“We put down four in case they were detected by the Macros. I wanted to be sure they couldn’t all be knocked out before one went off. The first that detonated should have destroyed all the others.”
Sandra narrowed her eyes. I could tell there were wheels turning up there.
“So either all four malfunctioned,” she said, “or it was a twenty-five percent chance the bad one happened to go off first.”
“Something like that. Time to head to the bunker and check on the overall situation.”
“Not so fast,” she said. “How often does Nano tech equipment fail on you, Kyle?”
“Uh, not very often.”
“Nearly never. How many of the other hunter-killer teams reported this kind of trouble with their grenades?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Try none. I checked with ops.”
“What are you getting at? I can tell you have an idea in your head and you are working up to it.”
Sandra looked at me oddly. I could see her intense expression through her faceplate, but she tried to sound calm. “Nothing,” she said. “I need to go take care of a few things now. I’ll see you at the bunker.”
She sprinted off, and I looked after her in concern. I knew her pretty well by now, and her odd behavior caused alarm bells to go off in my mind. I frowned, wondering at her attitude. She’d clearly reasoned out that someone must have tampered with the grenades, just as I had. But what did she plan to do about it?
The more I thought about her demeanor, the less I liked it. I recalled when she’d brought in Ping like a cat’s kill dropped on a doorstep. She had that predatory attitude right now.
I reached the door of the bunker and hesitated before entering. I’d half-expected to find Sandra doing her gargoyle routine on the roof, but she wasn’t there.
I cursed and turned toward the officers’ barracks. Sandra had headed in that direction.
“What’s wrong, sir?” Kwon asked me.
“I don’t know…” I said, “and I don’t like not knowing.”
“Are we going down now?”
“No,” I said. I turned and headed toward the barracks. I thought I had an inkling of what was going on. Maybe Sandra had reasoned out there had been sabotage. Maybe she believed she knew who was behind it. The last time she’d had such a suspicion, she’d been right, and Ping had died.
I saw a commotion up ahead. Was that laser-fire? I began to run. Kwon chased after me. I jumped into the air and glided over the ground. The scorched sand and ashes swirled and rippled below me as I flew at top speed toward the disturbance.
I saw two lieutenants running out of the officer’s mess.
“What’s going on in there?”
“Some kind of a duel, sir. They ordered us out.”
I threw open the door and walked inside. I supposed when I saw the scene, I shouldn’t have been surprised, but somehow I was. Sandra was there, standing on a mess hall table. In the farthest corner was Major Sarin. She had a beam pistol in her hand. Both wore light nanite armor. Sandra had two knives out, and she had assumed an easy, relaxed pose.
Sunlight streamed in from several holes behind and above her. The holes were bigger than bullet holes, about the size a small beam weapon would make punching through nanite alloy.
Sandra glanced at me as I walked in.
“What the hell is going on?” I roared at them. “Both of you lower your weapons. It’s against Star Force code to fight amongst yourselves in the face of the enemy.”
“But she is the enemy, Kyle,” Sandra said.
“What?”
“You know what happened out there. Someone tampered with those grenades. It had to be someone inside Star Force, who would have had access. An officer with technical knowledge.”
I looked at Jasmine. Her faceplate had cleared enough to allow me to see her eyes. Her sides were heaving and she kept her eyes and her weapon trained on Sandra. Both women watched the other. Sandra was much faster, but she couldn’t outrun a laser beam. As long as Jasmine kept her at a distance, she would be safe. Apparently, that was her intent.
Could Sandra be right? Someone had to be doing this, possibly someone who high-up in my command structure. First, there had been Ping, the infiltrator. Who had let her in? Then the two assassins who’d tried to fry and gut me in my tent. The last straw was the sabotaged grenade.
I knew Sandra was becoming increasingly paranoid, but she had a point, someone was behind all this and Major Sarin had the means and the motivation. Could Jasmine be that upset with me and Star Force?
“She nearly killed us all, Kyle,” Sandra said. “Don’t protect her just because you think she’s cute.”
“Jasmine, is there any truth to all this?” I asked.
Jasmine’s attention flicked to me, I could see the hurt in her eyes. Unfortunately, that was all the distraction Sandra needed. She flashed across the room, snatched the pistol out of Jasmine’s hand and placed one of her knives against the smaller woman’s throat.
I took two steps forward. “Hold on now, Sandra. We’ll get to the truth. Let’s do this by the book.”
The two women were nose-to-nose, glaring at each other.
“Since when did you ever do anything by the book?” Sandra asked. “Screw the book. I’m going to cut her head off and mount it on the wall over our bed for you to look at whenever you like.”
“Look down,” Jasmine told Sandra.
We all did, we couldn’t help it. Sandra had removed Jasmine’s pistol, tossed it away and pinned one of Jasmine’s weaker wrists to the wall. But the other hand was still free, however. Jasmine had drawn her combat knife and held it poised at Sandra’s tight belly. It was aimed upward. One quick thrust, and it would be driven into the heart. Nanotized marine reaction times being what they were, I suspected both women would die in an instant if either made the final move. I wasn’t sure if we could patch them up afterward or not.
“Uh-oh,” Kwon said unhelpfully.
“Stay here at the door,” I told him. “Don’t let anyone else inside. We’re going to settle this.”
Sandra looked surprised by Jasmine’s move, but not frightened. By their expressions, I thought neither of them was afraid. Instead, both women appeared to be intensely pissed-off. I drew a breath and let it slowly out. I knew I was partly responsible for all this. I’d been unprofessional, and I’d caused strife among my staff. Probably, this was why most generals didn’t have their spouses in the command post with them. Hell, in the old days they didn’t even let women crew ships because people in close quarters for long periods tended to get funny ideas.
“This is all my fault, ladies,” I said. “Can we possibly disarm and sit around a table to discuss it?”
“It’s not just about you and your cheating, Kyle,” Sandra said. “She nearly killed us. She’s a traitor to Star Force.”
“You’re a psychotic killer, and you aren’t even human anymore,” Jasmine retorted.
I winced. Things weren’t winding down. I got to within ten feet of them, and stopped. I put my arms up, palms forward, hands empty.
“Whoa,” I said. “Let’s take things down a notch or two.”
“You can’t keep us both,” Sandra told me. “I want you to choose. The loser dies—now.”