Scavenger Falters (The SkyRyders Book 2)

by Liza O'Connor

  “Sir, yes, sir!” The reply came immediately.

  “I hope the slowness of your response was because you were in shock at the realization of the monstrosity of this practice each of you has participated in. Because if you only replied because I prompted you, then your time as captain will be very short-lived. And I don’t just mean at this fort.” The general entered the commissary and walked to the table where Alisha stood.

  “We’ve all been the dog,” he continued. “I was one, myself, when I was a cadet. But until today, I’d forgotten the horror of that year: the beatings, the abuses. When my year was up, I put it behind me. I convinced myself it made me a stronger soldier. But it didn’t make me stronger. It just made me hate a couple of officers for the next forty years.”

  The remark got several nervous chuckles from some of the men.

  The general was not smiling, however. “We are at war, gentlemen, and our enemy is well financed, clever, and determined. If Colonel Kane’s reasons have not convinced you that the practice of dogs must stop, then let me try one more reason. We can’t afford to waste Corps resources. Had Colonel Kane died during her time as a dog, the war would be over now. And every man here would be nothing more than a glass-framed picture on his mama’s mantel.”

  The general let his words sink in for a moment and then continued.

  “Now, is there any soldier here that thinks I’m not dead serious that the days of dogs have ended?”

  The reply was instantaneous. “Sir, no, sir.”

  “Consider this a part of the new world, gentlemen. No dogs, no rabbits, no nothing! You will treat your newest members with the same dignity and respect you expect from your own commander.” He looked up at Alisha. “Sorry for stealing your thunder, Colonel. Is there anything you’d like to add?”

  “No,” Alisha said. “I think they’ve gotten the message.”

  The general held out his hand and helped her climb off the table. “Gunny usually gets cranky when anyone stands on his tables, but in this case, I think he’ll forgive you.” Powell glanced over at Jack. “Unless you’ve turned into a statue, Jack, come along with us. I’d like to know exactly what set this most valuable lecture off.”

  General Powell didn’t ask for further details as they walked to the commons. However, he did take the time to reflect on portions of Alisha’s speech. “The likening of new cadets to new children was powerful, Alisha, but most of these captains are too young to understand the horror the comparison brings. However, it hit home for me. Because these are my children, and the image was enough to wake me up and see the monstrosity of the practice.”

  He thumped her on her back with his large heavy hand. “You’re a breath of fresh air, Alisha.”

  Chapter 18

  Logan read the reports from the East Coast with dread. The news just got bleaker every day. Another fifty Ryders dead. God Almighty!

  He looked up, sensing he wasn’t alone. He turned around to see a terrified young private standing in the doorway of the commons.

  “What is it, soldier?” he asked, as he opened the drawer and locked up the reports.

  “Colonel Kane,” the boy stuttered.

  Logan stood. “Has something happened?”

  The boy couldn’t seem to speak over his terror.

  Logan ran past him and looked out toward the field. There were no catchers in the sky. He returned to the boy and grabbed his arms, trying to shake a voice into him. “Did something happen to Alisha?”

  The boy shook his head.

  Logan forced himself to stop shaking the boy and step back. “Then tell me why you’re here.”

  After several false starts, the boy finally got out that Alisha had told him to come. But he was clearly lying when he said he didn’t know why. Then Logan noticed the finger bruises on the boy’s throat. “What’s your name, Private?” Logan asked.

  “Benjamin Abrams, sir.”

  “Well, come with me,” Logan ordered and walked to the officers’ exam room. When he looked back, he realized the boy hadn’t moved an inch.

  “Now, Private!” Logan ordered and watched as the order kicked in and the boy rushed into the room. “Sit on the table,” he ordered as he pulled out a box of latex gloves and slipped two on.

  When he turned around, the similarity between the boy and Alisha struck him forcibly. This young boy looked every bit as terrified as she had that first day when he examined her. I really need to work on my bedside manner.

  “How’d you get these bruises on your neck?” he asked as he examined them.

  The boy insisted he got them in the Broadtown battle, but Logan doubted that. The SkyRyders never landed. They just killed everyone in the fields with lasers.

  He let the lie go unchallenged. When he asked the boy to strip out of his flight suit, he thought Private Abrams would faint from terror. Alisha had never been this scared. “Benjamin, I’m not going to hurt you. But you show signs of injury. I need to examine you to ensure you are okay.”

  “Please don’t,” he whimpered.

  Logan sighed. “Would you rather a nice lady medic perform the exam?”

  Benjamin whispered, “Yes, please.”

  Logan stepped out of the exam room and called Sandy. When he explained the situation, she promised she’d come as quickly as she could. It wasn’t until she arrived in civilian clothes that he realized she was on leave today.

  “Sandy, I’m sorry to pull you off leave, except the boy seems positively terrified of me.”

  “If you wore your current expression when you examined him, I’m not surprised. You should consider smiling on occasion.” She set her coat and purse down on the chair.

  “One look at his throat removed any chance of me smiling.”

  “I didn’t say you should feel like smiling. I just said you should put a smile on your face,” Sandy replied.

  “Well, if his aversion to the exam turns out to be my horrid bedside manner, I’ll owe you big time.”

  “And I’ll claim my reward. When’s the last time you dated a woman your own age, Colonel?”

  Logan froze. What the hell was she implying? “I haven’t dated since I joined the Corps.”

  “Married to the Corps.” Sandy sighed. “You’re like a priest, Logan. There’s nothing in the regs that says you can’t date a nice ground medic! And you’re going to find that out if there’s nothing wrong with this boy.”

  Logan briefly wondered if dating Sandy would help Alisha break away, but he discarded the idea. It wasn’t fair to Sandy; it would be cruel to Alisha; and he knew he didn’t have the stomach for it.

  He took Sandy into the exam room and introduced her. Benjamin calmed under her sunny bedside manner, so he stepped out and left Benjamin in her fine care.

  He looked at his watch. His allocated time in the tunnel would begin in ten minutes. The exam would certainly take longer than that. He felt torn. He couldn’t just abandon the boy in Sandy’s care, but his time in the wind tunnel was critical. Every day, Ryders were dying on the East Coast, and would continue to die until he learned to fly the maneuvers.

  Thankfully, that decision would not have to be made, for exactly at six, Alisha, Jack, and General Powell entered the commons. He had been hoping for Alisha alone. The general would probably dismiss the severity of this issue and send Alisha into a court-martial-level rage.

  “I’ve got your care package, Alisha,” Logan said cryptically.

  “It’s okay, Colonel. General Powell has pretty well figured out I’ve got a rescued cadet on my hands,” Alisha said.

  “Have you had a medic look him over?” the general demanded.

  “Logan is a medic, General,” Jack said.

  “That’s right. You’re a damn useful colonel,” the general declared.

  Please go back to hating me, Logan inwardly begged. “In this situation, I asked Sandy to perform the exam.”

  “Damned cruel practice. It’s good we’ve stopped it.”

  At first Logan thought the general was
talking about exams, but finally it dawned on him Powell meant the practice of making dogs. This only confused him more, since he had heard the man claim on many occasions that the practice toughened the men into soldiers. He looked at Jack to see if he found the general’s one-eighty turn-about a shock as well.

  “The practice of dogs was most definitely ended tonight,” Jack explained. “First by Alisha threatening to bring down a wrath of hell upon any offending captain so hard that they would wish for the general’s wrath instead, and then by General Powell who made it quite clear they’d never fly again…” Jack paused. “And for some reason I got the impression the reason why, was because they’d be six foot under…but you never actually said that.”

  Powell grunted. “The regs forbid an officer from threatening death.”

  Logan felt like he had just landed in an alternative universe where General Powell was a kind and gentle soul. Thank God I’ll be out of his command soon! He checked his watch. He had already lost ten minutes of his airtime. “Well, if you will excuse me, I’ve got practice time in the wind tunnel.”

  ***

  “How’s he doing in the wind tunnel?” Powell asked once Logan was gone.

  Alisha smiled. “Fine, after I found the switch to turn the setting off ‘tornado alley’,” she admitted and explained how she hadn’t realized the setting until after each of the first group took an incredible pounding.

  They were chuckling over Alisha’s story, when the door opened and the chief medic exited the room, closing the door behind her. She did not look happy. “Where’s Colonel Logan?”

  “He had to leave,” Alisha said and came forward. “How’s Benjamin?”

  Sandy gave General Powell a sharp glare. “Things are as the colonel feared,” she replied cryptically.

  “Speak plainly, woman. Was the boy sodomized or not?” Powell demanded.

  Sandy glared at him. “If you care, General, yes, he was, with a broomstick. I removed several splinters of wood embedded in his rectum.” Then she turned back to Alisha. “It’s a good thing you rescued him. A couple more days, and he would have been a very ill boy. He was developing a serious staph infection from the wounds.”

  “But he’ll be all right?”

  “Physically, yes, but he’s terrified he’ll be killed when he returns to his squad.”

  Sandy glared at the general again. “You know when I first joined the Corps, I actually asked to work here. You have a reputation for running the finest fort on the West coast. But you don’t deserve that reputation, and you sure as hell don’t deserve to be charged with the care of young boys. They should limit your troops to hard-core criminals!”

  Without waiting for a response, the medic stormed out of the commons.

  “She didn’t know what you did tonight, General,” Alisha tried to explain.

  Powell held up his hand. “No, she didn’t. She only knew what I didn’t do every day before this. If you’ll excuse me, I need some time to myself.” He left her and Jack alone.

  Jack’s face contorted in pain as he watched the general leave. Finally, he seemed to remember she was still beside him. “Do you need my help with Benjamin?”

  “No. I can handle it,” she assured him.

  He nodded, clearly distracted. “In that case, I think I’ll make certain the general’s all right.”

  Just as he was about to leave, she stopped him with one more question. “Would you mind if I let Benjamin sleep in our quarters tonight?”

  Jack paused. “Give him my bed. I’ll find somewhere else to sleep.”

  Alisha stared in confusion as he left the room. She had done a good thing tonight. So why did she feel so responsible for the general’s misery and Jack’s pain? And why was Jack in pain anyway? General Powell slammed everyone else for their mistakes—why shouldn’t he take responsibility for what went on in his fort? Why would Jack want to shield him?

  She continued to ponder these thoughts until Benjamin opened the door and peeked out. “Colonel Kane?” he whispered.

  Alisha put on a cheerful face and turned to Benjamin.

  “Am I supposed to stay in here, or go back to my quarters now? The medic didn’t say.”

  Alisha took him by the hand. “Neither. You’re sticking to my side for the rest of the evening, and tonight I’m giving you safe shelter in my quarters.”

  The boy looked positively terrified.

  “Safe shelter means that nobody touches you.”

  “In your quarters?” he clarified.

  “Benjamin, you know I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “You wouldn’t hurt me, but…”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t want to get on Colonel Sparkes’ bad side, sir.”

  Alisha sighed. “First, Colonel Sparkes is not my boyfriend. Second, he doesn’t mind you being there. In fact, he is generously giving up his own bed for your use.”

  “You’re very kind, colonel,” Benjamin said, “But you can’t change the way things are.”

  “Actually, I can. Didn’t you hear? I’m famous for doing the impossible. As of today, there are no more dogs, ever, in the Corps.”

  He stared in wide-eyed amazement. Then the sparkle diminished. “If that’s true, then why are you offering me safe shelter?”

  “Because it will take a while for you to really believe the torture has stopped, and you are not likely to sleep a wink tonight waiting for retaliation. Tomorrow is the most important day of your career in the Corps. I need you well-rested and focused on Man One and Two.”

  Alisha looked at her watch. She hadn’t eaten her lunch, and her stomach was grumbling, but she wanted to see how the colonel was doing in the wind tunnel. So with Benjamin in tow, she postponed her need for food to check up on Logan.

  She found him much too comfortable floating about the wind tunnel. She slipped on a flight suit. Benjamin seemed quite happy to stand at the window of the door as she entered and flew up beside her colonel, placing a mic unit on his ear.

  “Is it safe to have two flyers in at once?” Logan asked.

  “If they are in control. At the mall, we’d go in seven at a time and do donuts.”

  Colonel Logan smiled. “I’m afraid to ask what a donut is.”

  “You trust me?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then just do what I tell you.” She allowed her body to rise up and then settle down on top of his body.

  “Alisha…” Logan objected, clearly not trusting her anywhere close to his claim of ‘absolutely’.

  “Relax and let me drive the colonel mobile.” Gently, she reached out and grabbed his arms. When Logan ceded control to her, she moved him to the right and then the left.

  “This doesn’t feel like it should be called a donut.”

  Alisha giggled. “Quiet. You get me tickled, and we’ll both take a dunk. I’m taking this big ship out for a test ride, first. I won’t do a donut unless I’m sure I can pull us out.”

  “That’s comforting to know.”

  She found her giant colonel boat quite easy to maneuver. He was pliable with the gentlest of touch. She soared him all the way up to the top of the tunnel and then spiraled down in a gentle curve around the tubular walled tunnel. She dipped left and then right as she slowly stepped them up the middle. “Just stay as loose as you are now,” she advised as she pulled him up and over, landing them almost where they began. “Now that’s a donut.”

  “Is it possible for you to cede control back to me?” he asked. “I’d like to try that myself.”

  Alisha relaxed her body. “I’m all yours, Colonel.” A moment later they began a roll, but on the upside, it dipped to one side and they began a spiral roll down. Alisha’s grip tightened, but she couldn’t budge his arm. It was about as malleable as a block of steel. “Relax, Colonel, I’ve got you,” she said, hoping that was going to be true. If not, they were going to have a painful bump in about three seconds.

  She felt his muscles relax and she pulled his right arm up just a fraction
and the spiral stopped. “It’s all about little adjustments. No big moves.” She pulled them back up to mid-point. “Now try again,” she insisted and relaxed her grip.

  On the second try, he got it. “See how easy it is? Try climbing to the top and spiraling down.” Again, he maneuvered it beautifully. She swung off his back and grabbed his hands so they were laid out face-to-face. “Having any fun?”

  “Well, certainly more since you joined me.”

  On a wild impulse, she moved in and gently placed a kiss on his mouth. Instantly, he lost his balance and crashed to the floor. She dived down and hit the emergency shut off and floated down next to him as the wind died to nothing. “Colonel, I’m sorry.” She ran her hands over him, checking for injuries. As she worked up his leg, he gripped her hands.

  “It’s all right, Alisha. Nothing’s broken. But what the hell were you thinking?”

  “I said I’m sorry. It’s just that you looked so kissable. I didn’t know you’d turn into a fried frog.”

  “A fried frog?” he repeated, not in the least amused.

  “That’s what they call it. A fried frog,” she insisted and held out her arms and shook them in rapid spasms.

  “That is not what I did, but it does reveal a serious problem. One false move, and you’re dunked before you know it.”

  “You can recover,” she assured him. “But the safest way is not to lose control. And you only get that with practice, which is why I should get out of here and let you get back to work.”

  He reached out and snared her arm. “Stay, unless you’re tired of playing with the old Colonel.”

  “Not a chance,” she assured him and pulled out the emergency stop, causing the wind tunnel to start up.

  She could tell the Colonel was growing more comfortable with the tunnel, because he started talking about other topics as they played a game of follow-the-leader, with Alisha increasing the difficulty of the maneuvers as time progressed.

  “What did Sandy say about your new best friend?” Logan asked. Alisha looked to the window and waved at Benjamin, his face pressed against the glass in utter amazement.

  “All our fears were justified.”