“They’re going to love that.”
“Yes. Practically the last country on the planet to join, and I’m sure they only did it because of the aliens. No mere human threat could get them to join in the last century, anyway—that old distrust of theirs of outside alliances. But then they were burned by them so many times in the past…. Whatever. Wherever we do finally settle, our cover is that we’re setting up a ‘neutral observation’ facility to test UN cooperation with local defense forces.
Some army people will be helping us with this, though they won’t be in on the secret behind the cover. We’ll be setting up a small, ‘overt’ base somewhere in the area, and we’ll have a little office, probably in Andermatt itself, to answer the locals’ questions and act as a PR front end. If you’re not very careful and don’t start flying a little straighter on your ground assaults,” Jonelle said, “I’m not kidding—you may wind up running it.”
Ari made a sour face. “Yes ma’am, Commander ma’am. I’ll be good. I promise.”
“You’ll wind up behind that desk occasionally no matter how good you are,” Jonelle said, “and so will I, since a good commander doesn’t send her people into any fix she wouldn’t go into herself.”
“Just so long as I don’t have to do filing.”
The look on her face suggested that she agreed with him. But she said, “We will both do whatever we bloody well have to, Ari. As usual. Including leave this nice, comfortable place, which I finally was getting to run the way it should….”
“Would it be indelicate to suggest to the Commander that this is her own fault for being so efficient?”
“Yes. But at least I can’t fault where they’ve asked me to put the new base,” Jonelle said, gazing placidly at the map. “The Swiss location is good for Europe-wide cover, as I told them. The Andermatt location is the best in Switzerland, as far as I can figure. A near-impassable gorge to the north, a backstop of very difficult peaks to the south—most of them twelve to fourteeners—a very avalanche-prone pass on our right flank, and on our left, the longest glacier in Europe.”
“Sounds like a holiday wonderland.”
Jonelle snorted. “Unfortunately, it is. When its not being a garrison town, Andermatt is a ski resort. A lot of our people are going to have to ski in their spare time, as a cover.”
“How they’ll suffer!”
“Don’t tell me about suffering, Ari. The average daytime temperature there is already down to twenty-five degrees-—it’s going to be an awful winter. But at least the ground-based strategic qualities of the area are plain. Air-based strategic defense is another matter, but those mountains lend us another advantage: only pilots practiced in handling those air currents will be able to move at any speed there. And if we find a spot we like, we’ll start practicing right away. Aliens doing low-level work anywhere in the area will be badly handicapped. Now, can you make any case for a better spot elsewhere? None of this is written in stone yet.”
Ari sat quiet for a minute or two, then shook his head. “It looks sound.”
“Thanks, Colonel,” Jonelle said. “I’m reassured. I’m going around to inform the team I’m taking with me on the assessment run. Would you care to accompany me?”
“Delighted, Commander.”
It took them about two hours to get around to everybody. Jonelle never liked to hurry when doing her rounds, at the best of times. Now, late in the evening, with the night shift settling in and the day and evening shifts mostly in the lounges, she kept the pace leisurely on purpose.
She and Ari ambled through the main lounge in the second living quarters module. The place was full of an affable mix of ranks and specialties, some sitting and reading, a few playing cards off to one side, but these people were in the minority. There was a lot of noise at the moment because there was a serious game of “Crud” going on. Around the billiards table, a crowd of about twenty men and women were yelling their heads off at two teams of four people, who were enthusiastically body-blocking one another as they took turns trying to get at one of two billiard balls and use it to knock the other one into a pocket.
Jonelle eyed the blackboard where the intricate score-keeping grid was laid out. It seemed that the squaddies were beating the sergeants, which was the reason for a lot of the noise. As she watched, two of the sergeants shouldered a squaddie onto the floor. One of them sprawled across the table and made a mad swipe for the free cue ball. Another squaddie dove across the table, rescued it, and flung it at the free ball. It was certainly an accident that the ball hit the sergeants head instead.
“I never could get into this,” Ari said, watching with a wry expression as the sergeant, amid much laughter, staggered away from the table clutching his head.
“That’s why I’m a commander,” Jonelle said under her breath, with a twist of smile, “and you’re not.” She had been one of three people who routinely placed in the top three of the Crud championships in Rio. There was no X-COM base where the game wasn’t played. “Where there is no Crud,” the saying went, “there is no life.” Some went so far as to claim that X-COM people had invented it, even though it had actually been caught, rather like athlete’s foot, from fighter pilots formerly in the British and Canadian forces.
“Can you see Rory in this crush?”
“Markowitz?” Ari looked for a moment, saw nothing, then put his head down and listened. “There,” he said, glancing off leftward. “Can’t miss that laugh.”
They headed that way. After a moment, Rory Markowitz slid out of the crowd, heading for the coffee dispenser. “Oh. Commander—”
“That was a nice job this morning, Rory,” Jonelle said to him. “Doctor Trenchard is going to be very pleased.”
Rory ran one hand through his dark, curly hair and grinned. He had one of those amiably ugly faces that prevents fights just by other people looking at it, speculating about how it got that way, and deciding they don’t want to be involved in anything similar. “Thought he might like that little parcel, ma’am,” he said.
“Well, so did 1.” He had single-handedly captured not merely one but two Ethereals while out with the team he commanded in an interception and ground assault that morning, down in Sudan. Jonelle was very pleased with Rory, as well as pleased to see him still alive. The assault had been a particularly bad one, out in an open plain with no cover of any kind. “So I’ve got a little parcel for you. Better run up to the quartermaster’s office tomorrow morning and get yourself some colonel’s stripes in time for the a.m. briefing.”
That grin stretched right across Rory’s face. If it could go any farther, the top of his head would fall off. “Whatever you say, Commander.”
“Don’t you look at me that way, Colonel. Our staff strengths support the move, and you’ve been a captain more than long enough. Besides, there are going to be some other changes, and I want you where you’ll be able to do the most good. Capisce?”
“Uh, I think so, ma’am.”
“Don’t let them catch you thinking, Rory. They’ll promote you.” She gave him a little wave and headed off.
Ari walked quietly beside her for a moment as Jonelle worked her way around the table. “Other changes?” he said.
“You don’t need to take that innocent tone with me. You know who Rory will work best with.”
“Chavez.”
“That’s right. This time tomorrow, she’ll be a colonel as well. So will Riordan. We were lucky in having a lot of ground assaults in the past few days—they make the changes I want easier. The numbers now back up my intentions very nicely.”
“If I didn’t know you better,” Ari said, “I’d suspect you of changing the team makeups so that the results of the assaults would reinforce your intentions.”