“A little bit, yeah,” he said. He glanced around and dropped his voice. “But I’m not going to declare war on the U. S. Army just because I feel a little disturbed. Do I disagree with some of their choices? Yes. Are they doing some weird things with the exes? Hell, yes. But it’s still America we’re talking about. From what Shelly was saying last night it sounds like the President might even still be alive and holed up at NORAD or something.”
“NORAD could be as much a trap as a safe haven if a single infected person was inside. Besides, Shelly did not say the President was still alive.”
“Yeah, but he also didn’t say he was dead, and he did say he was still getting orders from above.”
“I hope you are right, George. But there are too many people depending on us to not make contingency plans.”
*
“I don’t know,” said Danielle. She glanced up from the circuits she was soldering. “Maybe he’s just off checking out other cities or something again.”
St. George threw his head back and sighed with relief. “That’s what I said.”
The redhead bent to her work again. “Besides, what could they even do to him? He’s probably invulnerable to everything they’ve got on this base, even with all the super-soldiers.”
“Zzzap is,” said Stealth. “Barry is not.”
“Look,” said St. George, “we’ll ask the colonel about it again at this meeting. Until then, I think we need to let this drop. I don’t want to mess anything up with accusations and then have Barry show up half an hour later bragging he spent the night racing between Hubble and the space station. Okay?”
Stealth gave him a look he could sense through her mask. The one that meant she thought he was being foolish. “Very well, George,” she said. “If you feel this is the correct path, I shall defer to your judgment.”
Danielle finished her work on the circuit board, blew on it, and removed it from the small clamps. She lowered it into a box that resembled a small metal coffin and reached in with a screwdriver to fasten the board in place. “In happier news,” she said, “I realized something.”
“Please,” said St. George, “share the happier news.”
The redhead glanced at Stealth. “You know what I said yesterday about not wanting to do all these repairs and upgrades because I thought it’d feel like giving up?”
The cloaked woman gave a single nod.
“Well, starting this last night didn’t feel like giving up,” said Danielle. “It made me feel guilty.”
St. George tilted his head. “Guilty?”
“I should’ve been doing all this stuff months ago. It’s easy work. I had enough of the parts.” She glanced up from her work again. “And people were depending on me. That’s been stuck in the back of my mind all morning.”
Danielle pulled the screwdriver away and picked up a studded metal plate the size of a hardcover book. It had a shaft on the back that slotted into something inside the little coffin. There was a loud clack as it settled into place.
“Shelly was right,” she said. “I wasn’t supposed to be the one in the suit. But I volunteered for it. I wanted to be Cerberus, and that’s who I am now. And I think I’m needed at the Mount a lot more than here.”
“I am pleased to hear your decision,” said Stealth.
St. George rapped a knuckle on the steel box. “So what is this, anyway?”
The redhead gave a wicked grin. “It’s a new weapons mount to replace the one Peasy tore off. I’ve been playing with this thing in my head and on paper for almost two years. I might be able to have another one built and both installed by tomorrow.”
St. George smiled. “Just in time to go home?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”
*
“Colonel Shelly got tied up with some administrative things,” said Smith. Today’s suit was charcoal gray with a crimson tie. “He asked if I could go over things with you in his place.”
Stealth crossed her arms. “This meeting is such a low priority he could neither attend himself nor send one of his staff?”
“Is that a problem?”
Stealth glared at the young man for a moment. Her head shifted in the hood as she glanced at St. George. He could see the effort it took her to relax. “No,” she said. “It is not.”
“Good,” said Smith. “Thank you.”
“We’ve got a couple questions, too,” said St. George. “A few things we want to double-check with you.”
“Do you mind if we do these first?” Smith held up a clipboard covered with scrawled phrases and sentences. “I’ll answer anything you want afterwards. I’ve just got a lot of this fresh in my mind and I don’t want to miss anything.”
A twist of gray smoke curled out of the hero’s nose. “I suppose so.”
“Thanks.” Smith looked at his notes. “Now, what’s going to happen over the next few weeks is an assessment, just like I mentioned back at the Mount. The Army’s going to look at your defenses and make sure they’re adequate for the threat we’re facing. If they are, great. If not, they’ll help improve them. Odds are they’ll just leave you to keep running things the way you have. You’re doing fine, so why mess with something that’s not broken, right?”
St. George gave Stealth a cautious glance. “Okay,” he said.