"Better," Fiorina said. "We've made a few improvements to the CDF body structure since you were enlisted. They've been incorporated into the leg, and the rest of your body will feel the benefit, too."
"Makes you wonder why the CDF just doesn't go all the way," I said. "Replace the body with something designed totally for war."
Fiorina looked up from his data pad. "You have green skin, cat's eyes, and a computer in your skull," he said. "How much less human do you want to be?"
"That's a good point," I said.
"Indeed," Fiorina said. "I'll have an orderly bring in that cane." He tapped his data pad to send the order.
"Hey, doc," I said. "Did you treat anybody else who came off the Sparrowhawk?"
"No," he said. "Really, Corporal, you were challenge enough."
"So none of the Sparrowhawk crew?"
Fiorina smirked. "Oh, no. They're Special Forces."
"So?"
"Let's just say they have special needs," Fiorina said, and then the orderly came in with my cane.
"You know what you can find out about the Ghost Brigades? Officially, I mean," Harry said.
"I'm guessing not a lot," I said.
"Not a lot is an overstatement," Harry said. "You can't find out a damn thing."
Harry, Jesse and I were lunching at one of Phoenix station's commissaries. For my first trip out, I suggested we go as far away from Brenneman as we could. This particular commissary was on the other side of the station. The view was nothing special—it overlooked a small shipyard—but was known stationwide for its burgers, and the reputation was justified; the cook, in his past life, had begun a chain of specialty hamburger restaurants. For a literal hole in the wall, it was constantly packed. But my and Harry's burgers were growing cold as we talked about the Ghost Brigades.
"I asked Javna and Newman about getting a note to the Sparrowhawk and got stonewalled," I said.
"Not surprised," Harry said. "Officially, the Sparrowhawk exists, but that's all you can find out. You can't find out anything about its crew, its size, its armament or its location. All the information isn't there. Do a more general search on Special Forces or 'Ghost Brigades' in the CDF database and you likewise get nothing."
"So you guys have nothing at all," Jesse said.
"Oh, I didn't say that," Harry said, and smiled. "You can't find out anything officially, but unofficially there's lots to know."
"And how do you manage to find information unofficially?" Jesse said.
"Well, you know," Harry said. "My sparkling personality does wonders."
"Please," Jesse said. "I'm eating here. Which is more than you two can say."
"So what did you find out?" I asked, and took a bite of my burger. It was fabulous.
"Understand that this is all rumor and innuendo," Harry said.
"Which means that it's probably more accurate than what we'd get officially," I said.
"Possibly," Harry granted. "The big news is that there is indeed a reason why they're called 'Ghost Brigades.' It's not an official designation, you know. It's a nickname. The rumor, which I've heard from more than one place, is that Special Forces members are dead people."
"Excuse me?" I said. Jesse looked up from her burger.
"Not real dead people, per se," Harry said. "They're not zombies. But there are a lot of people who sign up to join the CDF who die before their seventy-fifth birthday. When that happens, apparently the CDF doesn't just throw out your DNA. They use it to make Special Forces members."
Something hit me. "Jesse, you remember when Leon Deak died? What the medical technician said? 'A last-minute volunteer for the Ghost Brigades.' I thought it was just some kind of sick joke."
"How can they do that?" Jesse asked. "That's not ethical at all."
"Isn't it?" Harry said. "When you give your intent to sign up, you give the CDF the right to use whatever procedures necessary to enhance your combat readiness, and you can't be combat ready if you're dead. It's in the contract. If it's not ethical, it's at least legal."
"Yeah, but there's a difference between using my DNA to create a new body for me to use, and using the new body without me in it," Jesse said.
"Details, details," Harry said.
"I don't like the idea of my body running around on its own," Jesse said. "I don't think it's right for the CDF to do that."
"Well, that's not all they do," Harry said. "You know that these new bodies we have are deeply genetically modified. Well, apparently Special Forces bodies are even more modified than ours. The Special Forces soldiers are guinea pigs for new enhancements and abilities before they're introduced into the general population. And there are rumors that some of the modifications are truly radical—bodies modified to the point of not looking human anymore."
"My doctor said something about Special Forces soldiers having special needs," I said. "But even allowing for hallucinations, the people who rescued me looked human enough."
"And we didn't see any mutants or freaks on the Sparrowhawk," Jesse said.
"We weren't allowed full run of the ship, either," Harry pointed out. "They kept us in one area and kept us disconnected from everything else. We saw the sick bay and we saw the rec area, and that was it."
"People see Special Forces in battle and walking around all the time," Jesse said.
"Sure they do," Harry said. "But that's not saying that they see all of them."
"Your paranoia is acting up again, sweetie," Jesse said, and fed Harry a french fry.
"Thank you, precious," Harry said, accepting it. "But even throwing out the rumor about supermodified Special Forces, there's still enough there to account for John seeing his wife. It's not really Kathy, though. Just someone using her body."
"Who?" I said.
"Well, that's the question, isn't it," Harry said. "Your wife is dead, so they couldn't put her personality into the body. Either they have some sort of preformatted personality they put into Special Forces soldiers—"
"—or someone else went from an old body into her new one," I said.
Jesse shivered. "I'm sorry, John. But that's just creepy."
"John? You okay?" Harry said.
"What? Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "It's just a lot to deal with at one time. The idea that my wife could be alive—but not really—and that someone who isn't her is walking around in her skin. I think I almost preferred it when there was a possibility that I hallucinated her."
I looked over to Harry and Jesse. Both of them were frozen and staring.
"Guys?" I said.
"Speak of the devil," said Harry.
"What?" I said.
"John," Jesse said. "She's in line for a burger."
I spun around, knocking over my plate as I did so. Then I felt like I got dunked directly into a vat of ice.
"Holy shit," I said.
It was her. No doubt about it.
FOURTEEN
I started to get up. Harry grabbed my hand.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm going to go talk to her," I said.
"You sure you want to do that?" he asked.
"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Of course I'm sure."
"What I'm saying is that maybe you'd want Jesse or me to talk to her first," Harry said. "To see if she wants to meet you."
"Jesus, Harry," I said. "This isn't the sixth fucking grade. That's my wife."
"No it's not, John," Harry said. "It's someone entirely different. You don't know if she will even want to speak to you."