Instead, Conner’s face showed recognition, and he was visibly relieved to see her.
Shane shot him with the stunner.
An electric-blue ripple of static electricity shot across Conner’s suit, and the corporal dropped. Shane killed the ECM. Hougland’s transponder was still off-line, and there were no transmissions back to the ship. Hougland didn’t know Conner had dropped.
Conner was draped face-first over the lip of the hole that formed the nest. Shane put her foot on his shoulder and pushed him back in. She turned around and saw, ten meters back, a line of prisoners hovering beyond the fence, watching her. Not knowing what to do, she held up one finger to her visor and hoped that they had enough sense not to fuck up their own rescue.
That was it. Shane was committed now. Things would be over for her the second Conner woke up. That could be anywhere between one and three hours.
Shane headed east, toward Hougland. To Shane’s right, in the prisoners’ compound, more of the civilians were waking and turning toward her. Shane prayed that it wouldn’t draw Hougland’s attention. If Hougland turned before she got within ten meters, Shane might have to use deadly force.
If at all possible, Shane would like to avoid that.
So far, Hougland was covering her flank like the professional she was. Hougland was counting on Shane and Conner to cover her back.
Shane was fifty meters along the containment database, and there was a blip on the tac database.
Shit. Shane almost said it out loud. It was Murphy. He had just turned on the transponder in his suit. One hundred twenty seven meters south-southeast and closing. Damn it, Murphy was supposed to be off-duty at this time of night.
She was thirty meters from Hougland and running out of options.
She couldn’t have Hougland picking up any radio, so Shane activated the ECM. It was much too soon. If Hougland was in range, it was just barely. Shane started running full tilt toward her.
Fifteen meters and Shane cleared the edge of the prisoners’ compound. Hougland was trying to ID the source jamming her electronics. It was only going to be a second before she looked back and saw Shane running toward her like a maniac.
Shane looked to her right, and she saw Murphy. He wasn’t moving with any urgency—
Maybe she could still pull it off.
Hougland turned around and leveled a standard-issue MacMillan-Schmitt wide-aperture plasma rifle at Shane. Without even thinking about it, Shane made the universal gesture to hit the dirt. She hoped that her expression showed all the fear of God to Hougland. The corporal had a split-second decision to make.
Hougland took cover in the nest.
Shane reached the lip of the nest and dived in, firing the stunner. Even when she woke up, Hougland might not be sure what hit her.
Shane landed on top of Hougland’s body armor and killed the ECM. The tac database showed Murphy closing on her position. However, she wasn’t picking up any radio traffic. She was in luck, Murphy hadn’t seen her dive in on Hougland. Or, if he did, he wasn’t sure what he saw.
Now what?
Murphy was a pro. He might only be out for a walk, but once he closed on the prisoners, he’d turn on his database and notice the absence of all three transponders. He’d radio that kind of regulation breach back to base immediately.
He was now within seventy meters.
Thank God the prisoners were being quiet.
She was going to have to meet him out there and try to bull her way through.
Shane turned her transponder back on and climbed out of the nest. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, and started walking toward Murphy. She could feel eyes looking at her out of the darkness. Suddenly the whole GA&A complex was enemy territory. She was heading toward the Blood-Tide, and the heavily-armed drop-ship was no longer reassuring. It was sinister.
Shane and Murphy approached each other, and Shane prayed she reached him before he turned on his database.
“Captain, what are you doing out here?”
Murphy was radioing her. She was still over fifty meters away from him. “I couldn’t sleep. I relieved Clarke.” That was true, as far as it went.
She could hear Murphy snort over the radio. Murphy had no tolerance for things that didn’t go according to program. He rarely, if ever, voiced his displeasure when a superior decided to improvise, but it seemed that this was one of those rare occasions.
“With all respect, Captain, you should be back at the compound at Clarke’s position. I believe you’ve heard my opinion that your guard detail on the prisoners is understaffed as it is.”
Shane knew that well. She kept advancing. Twenty meters. “There weren’t any personnel allowances made for guarding that number of people. If it weren’t for the missions into Godwin—”
“Again, with all respect, we wouldn’t have this problem if you had been more timely in carrying out the colonel’s orders.” Murphy actually interrupted her. He must be really stressed.
Fifteen meters. “I don’t believe there is a problem.”
“Captain,” Shane could make out Murphy’s face now. It was lined and he was practically grimacing. She was beginning to detect the anger in Murphy’s voice. He didn’t know, but he suspected. “I think you’ve had a problem with this mission ever since planetfall.”
Since before that.
They were within ten meters of each other now. To their right was the burnt-out foundation of the old GA&A security building. A slight smell of smoke still filled the air and managed to be cycled into Shane’s suit
Murphy stopped his approach.
“I’ve voiced my reservations to the colonel. I don’t see how they’re your concern, Lieutenant.”
Seven meters. Murphy unlimbered his weapon and pointed it at Shane. “The mission is my concern, and it is my concern when my superior officer is behaving erratically.”
Oh, God, Shane thought, this is it. She slowed her approach. Was he monitoring the radio traffic at the compound? Was that why he was here? “Are you going to shoot me with that, Murphy?”
Murphy backed up a step. “I think you intend some sort of mutiny.”
“You’re going to kill your superior officer because of your own paranoia?”
This obviously wasn’t going as Murphy had planned. “I heard your radio transmission to Conner and Hougland— There’s no enemy out there. What the hell do you think you have them doing?”
Shane began closing. She hoped her renewed confidence was showing in her voice. “You dimwit, Murphy, you know how green Conner is. The only way his performance is going to improve is if I throw him some curves—”
Six meters.
“You should have cleared it with—”
She had him now. “I was not under the impression that regulations required me to clear training exercises with inferior officers. I’m going to ask you again, Lieutenant Murphy, are you going to shoot me with that thing?”
Murphy was no longer angry. He was scared. He should have been. If Shane had been telling the truth, he was the one looking at a court-martial. He lowered the gun.
Shane smiled and shook her head. “You’re lucky you didn’t get shot, Murphy. Go back to your quarters, consider yourself under house arrest.”
Murphy wordlessly nodded behind his helmet and began to walk back to the ship. Shane followed him, five meters behind. “One question, Lieutenant. Do you have any accomplices in this fiasco, or did you engineer this on your own initiative?”