“I’m giving you an order,” Sagan said.
“And I’m telling you to take your orders and shove them up your ass,” Jared said. “I’m suddenly very tired of being part of Special Forces. I’m tired of being shoved around from place to place. Unless you tell me where I’m going and why, I think I’m just staying right here.”
Sagan audibly sighed. She turned to Cloud. “Believe me when I tell you that if any of this passes your lips, I will shoot you myself. At very close range.”
“Lady,” Cloud said. “I believe every word you say.”
“Three hours ago the Redhawk was destroyed by the Obin,” Sagan said. “It managed to launch a Skip drone before it was totally destroyed. We’ve lost two other ships in the last two days; they’ve entirely disappeared. We think the Obin tried to do the same with the Redhawk but weren’t able to do it for whatever reason. We got lucky, if you want to call this lucky. Between these three ships and four other Special Forces ships that have disappeared in the last month, it’s clear the Obin are targeting Special Forces.”
“Why?” Jared said
“We don’t know,” Sagan said. “But General Szilard has decided we’re not going to wait until more of our ships get attacked. We going in to get Boutin, Dirac. We move in twelve hours.”
“That’s crazy,” Jared said. “All we know is that he’s on Arist. That’s an entire moon to look at. And no matter how many ships we use, we’ll be attacking the Obin home system.”
“We know where he is on Arist,” Sagan said. “And we have a plan to get past the Obin to get him.”
“How?”
“That I’m not saying out loud,” Sagan said. “It’s the end of discussion, Dirac. Come with me or don’t. We’ve got twelve hours until the attack begins. You’ve already caused me to waste time coming down here to get you. Don’t let’s waste any more time getting back.”
ELEVEN
Goddamn it, General, Jane Sagan thought, as she tracked through the Kite, heading toward the landing bay control room. Stop hiding from me, you officious prick. She took care not to actually send the thought in the conversational mode of the Special Forces. Because of the similarity between thinking and speaking for Special Forces members, nearly every one of them had had a “did I say that out loud” moment or two. But that particular thought spoken aloud would be more trouble than it was worth.
Sagan had been on the hunt for General Szilard since the moment she had gotten the order to retrieve Jared Dirac from his AWOL adventure on Phoenix. The order had come with the notice that Dirac was once again under her command, and with a set of classified memos from Colonel Robbins detailing the latest events in Dirac’s life: his trip to Covell, his sudden memory dump and the fact that his consciousness pattern was now definitively that of Charles Boutin. In addition to this material was a note forwarded by Robbins, from General Mattson to Szilard, in which Mattson strongly urged Szilard not to return Dirac to active duty, suggesting he be detained at least until the upcoming round of hostilities featuring the Obin was settled one way or another.
Sagan thought General Mattson was a jackass, but she had to admit he’d hit the nail on the head. Sagan had never been comfortable with Dirac under her command. He’d been a good and competent soldier, but knowing he had a second consciousness in his skull waiting to leak down and contaminate the first made her wary, and aware of the chance that he’d crack on the mission and get someone killed besides himself. Sagan considered it a victory that when he did crack, that day on the Phoenix Station promenade, he was on shore leave. And it wasn’t until Mattson swooped in to relieve her of further responsibility toward Dirac that she allowed herself to feel pity for him, and to recognize that he had never justified the suspicion she held him in.