“I’m sure you missed Delta.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cathy lied. Sweat popped out on her upper lip and she stared straight ahead. Adrenaline spurted through her bloodstream.
“You lying bitch,” Lane accused softly. “I saw you over there at the rifle competition. You had it made over there, didn’t you? Pampered like a bitch in heat. Well, they obviously didn’t use your talents at point.” She took her oak swagger stick, systematically slapping the head of it into her opened palm. “In all the time you were over there, not one kill, Fremont. It’s obvious they didn’t work you. Or put you where you could use your rifle for anything except that meaningless rifle competition.”
Cathy said nothing. The constant smacking sound of the swagger stick sent a thread of sheer terror through her. Would Lane hit her with it? Painfully, Cathy swallowed.
Louise rose, her face inches from Fremont’s. “Starting tonight at 2300, you’re taking out a four-woman patrol. An ambush patrol. I want results. Understand?”
Her breath was punctuated against Cathy’s face. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m giving you back your squad. I can’t afford to keep you at point.” Louise jabbed the head of the swagger stick sharply into Cathy’s rib cage. Fremont blanched and staggered back a step, remaining at attention.
“Thatcher’s dead,” she hissed, and jabbed her again, intent on bruising the hell out of Fremont and frightening her even worse. “You fucked up out in the field, Fremont. You do that one more time and I’ll let Captain Ingram take care of you. Understand?”
Pain flickered up Cathy’s side. She could feel the faint trickle of warm blood winding its way down across her ribs. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Now go see Captain Ingram. She has your assignment. Dismissed.”
Cathy saluted, did an about-face and left. From the frying pan into the fire, she thought, closing down the cauldron of emotions that threatened to explode in her. She had her squad back and she’d gotten away with little punishment so far. But Lane never did do the dirty work when she wanted to pull a woman back into line. That was left to Ingram, who was only too happy to handle it.
Kay’s head snapped up, her eyes narrowing to slits as Fremont came to attention at her desk. A taut smile crossed her mouth as she laid the pen aside.
“Well, what do you know? One of my favorite women is back.” Kay saw the dark splotch of blood on the side of Fremont’s blouse, guessing what had happened. For the next ten minutes, she went over the area where the patrol was to take place. It was a known area of high contact. She saw Fremont’s pallor and smiled to herself. Good, she was properly scared. She’d better be. After getting coddled and pampered over at Alpha, Fremont was going to make up for it—in spades.
“Got your patrols mapped out for the next two weeks, Corporal,” she informed her icily. “A sort of ‘welcome back to Delta’ I’ve arranged just for you. We’ve missed you. And we want body count. Now get to hell out of here and get ready for that first patrol.”
THE MUGGINESS in the tent increased Lane’s moodiness. The reports sitting in front of her made her anger soar. Fremont had been back with Delta for three weeks now and her squad still wasn’t producing a big enough body count. Her gaze flicked to the latest statistics: she was losing more women than ever. Five patrols a day had been a tactical error on her part. And now she was going to be forced to pull women from Delta’s pool of clerks and paper pushers and put them into the field. They were totally unprepared to go from filing papers to carrying an M16.
“You wanted to see me?” Kay stuck her head around the flap.
“Come in,” Louise muttered, scribbling out a note that the radio operator would send later. “I’m changing some things up, Kay,” she said, looking up,
“I’m ordering Hayes out into the field. We need replacements for the women we’re losing and I’m forced to start selecting from our clerk pool. I’m sorry to take your office assistant, I don’t have any choice in this matter.”
Kay stood dumbfound, finally finding her voice. “Hayes is incapable of being in a squad. That’s a confirmed KIA for us!”
Louise’s mouth pursed as she signed her initials to the message. “I know, but we’re operating under unexpected conditions.” Louise glowered at the stat boards behind her. “We’re hurting, Kay. I need every available woman. We’ve got a little over a month to go. I’m not going to have Delta plowed under or have some fanatical senator like Fredericks saying we couldn’t make the grade. I can’t afford to keep sending out smaller and smaller patrols. Hell, we’ve had to cut out that fifth patrol, anyway.”
“But the KIA stats—”
“Dammit, Kay, we’re up against a wall. I need Hayes in the field carrying a rifle.” Hayes was nothing but a wimpy marshmallow without backbone. Walking to the open office door, Louise caught the attention of one of her radio operators. The corporal came over and took the message.
“Send this back to regimental supply,” Louise ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kay watched Lane go back to the desk. “Hayes isn’t up to the field, Louise.”
“I’m ordering Hayes into Fremont’s squad. It’s the safest place I can put her. You know how well Fremont mother hen’s her women. That’s the best I can do.”
Kay blinked once, her dark eyes filled with frustration. “I just can’t believe this is really necessary. I’ll have to do all the damned paperwork myself!”
Sitting down, Louise grabbed the latest flock of reports. “Kay, sometimes I don’t think you look beyond that nose of yours. Look at these stats. We’ve passed the regiment on a percentage basis for KIA and WIA. That makes us look bad. I don’t care how much trouble Fremont causes—she’s good as a squad leader and she’ll take care of her women, including idiots like Hayes.”
Chapter 16
“YOU CAN’T let this happen, Captain Ingram. You just can’t!” Janet Hayes whirled around, facing the captain in the poorly lit bunker. Her round face was in torment, huge tears rolling down her flushed cheeks. “You promised me I could always stay and be a clerk!”
Kay opened her mouth and then shut it. She felt embarrassed over the anguish of Janet’s childish outburst. To be caught crying at Delta brought an automatic three days in the Cellar. Thank God, she’d had the foresight to bring Janet down into the relative safety of one of the many bunkers used during attacks to tell her the news. “I can’t help it, Hayes. I’m sorry.”
Rubbing her eyes, Janet moved away from Ingram. “This isn’t fair! You said I’d never have to go out there. God, I hate it! I hate it! I get so scared. The one and only time I went into the field was with Thatcher and she got blown away.” Lifting her head, she hissed, “How could you do this to me, Captain? You’re not good for your word!”
Wincing, Kay snarled. “Stop crying, dammit!”
Janet shrank away. Her voice became shrill with accusation. “I’ve always done everything you always asked of me as a clerk! Always! And this is what I get? If I go out there, I’ll get killed! Is that what you want?”
Kay forced herself to stand and not move toward Janet. Rage got the better of her and she said roughly, “I have to go back on my word, Hayes. It’s just the way life works. So quit sniveling and wipe those eyes of yours dry.”
Janet’s eyes widened helplessly. “I’ve seen what you’ve done to other women that you wanted to get rid of,” she blurted out hysterically.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Kay’s voice grew low and dangerous. Her eyes narrowed on Hayes’s pale face.
“Simmons, that’s who! I saw you shoot her! I saw you kill her and then arrange to have her blown away in that ammo ‘accident’.’” Janet sobbed and backed away, her face white with rage. “I don’t believe you, Captain Ingram! You’ve done it once. You can do it again. You’re sending me out into the bush and trying to make me think Major Lane ordered it. I know better. You ordered this. I must not be doing my job as a clerk in CP. I’ve seen you get rid of people who give
you trouble before.”
Ingram’s lips drew back and she lunged forward. She caught Janet by the arm and shook her as if she were a bedraggled puppy. “What the hell do you know about Simmons? There was no one there when it happened! How do you know about it?” she snarled, pinning Hayes up against the sandbagged wall of the bunker.
With a cry, Janet tried to hide her head as Kay’s hot breath pummeled across her face. “I saw you!” she screamed. “I saw you hit her when she didn’t follow one of your orders fast enough. And when she struck back at you, I saw you go crazy. You lost it because she fought back. She wasn’t afraid of you. And you killed her!”
Color drained from Kay’s face as she stared at Hayes. My God, her secret was out! Only Louise knew about it, Kay told herself, fighting to keep control. With a jerk that made Hayes cry out, Kay wrapped her powerful fingers around her throat. “Who else saw me?” she rasped.
“Ow…you’re hurting me…”
“Who else saw me, Hayes? Tell me or I’ll strangle you right here and now. So help me God, I will!”
“I—I saw Major Lane come later. I heard the two of you talking.”
Kay sucked in a sharp breath. “Then you saw everything!” My God, she’d seen Louise and her rig up the grenade and put Simmons’s body down in the pit!
“Yes.”
“Who was with you?”
“No one! No one! Just me. Me!”
Kay stared blackly down at her, evaluating Hayes’s admission. She closed her fingers around her neck until Janet’s eyes popped out and she began to struggle. “Are you sure?” she ground out softly.
Black dots danced in front of Janet’s eyes. Fear melded with the need to breathe. She moved helplessly, Ingram’s strength superior. “No…one…”
Kay watched Janet begin to lose consciousness and quickly jerked her hands away. Hayes crumpled like a rag doll at her feet, gasping for breath, hands around her bruised throat. Her mind worked like a steel trap in those fleeting seconds afterward. Decision made, Kay squatted down and pulled Janet into a sitting position. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she brushed strands of fallen hair away from Janet’s pale face.
“I’m sorry. Something must have come over me. Look, let me talk to Major Lane and we’ll get this straightened out. In the meantime, you stay here, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Janet waited, cowering like a cornered dog, until Captain Ingram disappeared up the wooden stairs. The instant Ingram was gone, Janet staggered to her feet, holding her swollen and throbbing throat. She had seen the deadly look in Kay’s eyes before—before she’d killed Simmons. Heart banging away in her chest, Janet forced herself to wait another five minutes. Then she scrambled up the stairs. At the top, she looked around: the blackness was suffocating. Hysteria clawed at her and Janet leaped from the last stair, running as hard as she could. Running toward Cathy Fremont’s hootch on the other side of the hill.
Cathy was preparing for her nightly patrol when Janet came to her hootch, sobbing for breath.
“Cathy?”
“Janet? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Hayes reached out in the darkness, gripping Cathy’s arm. “I’m in trouble, Cathy. Awful trouble,” she sobbed. “You’ve got to help me. Protect me. Ingram’s going to kill me.”
“Hey, slow down, take it easy.” Cathy groped in the darkness, finding and then allowing Janet to come into her arms. The woman sobbed wildly, burying her head on Cathy’s shoulder.
What was going on? In the past month, Cathy had felt as if everything were falling apart around them. The only constant that had kept her steady was counting the days until she would be out of Delta. Life had taken on a familiar continuum when she had come back from Boland’s company. But things were different. She was different. And she’d had time in the last month to think about Jim Boland and the abortive mission he’d attempted to foist upon her.
“It’s all right,” she crooned to Janet, automatically stroking her hair. Cathy waited patiently until Hayes could regain control of herself. Like so many other women, they all gravitated to Cathy because she was easy to talk to and never made any judgments on them. And Janet had come often to Cathy to talk wistfully to her about home. Cathy could only listen and had little advice to offer because they were trapped with no way out. Still, Janet always seemed stronger and less depressed after talking, but Cathy was never sure why. Maybe Janet just needed to verbalize her feelings and that was enough.
As Cathy held her, she found herself wishing she could be held in return. God, how many times in the last month had Jim surfaced in her heart at odd, unexpected moments? She still hadn’t forgiven him for his ploy. His last words haunted her almost daily: remember the good times, the laughter, the love…
The pressure at Delta had increased since she’d returned, not lessened. Lane was more and more fanatical every day with her morning pep talks. Kill, but don’t be killed. What a sick joke, Cathy thought bitterly. Still, during those precious minutes just before sleep and just before waking, Jim was an integral part of her, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
“Okay now?” Cathy asked softly, releasing Janet so that she could sit up.
“I—I guess. Cathy, you gotta help me. I’m in serious trouble.”
“Okay, tell me about it, Jan.”
She moaned. “Promise you won’t tell anyone?”
There it was again—that word, promise. Cathy reached out, seeking and finding Janet’s damp hand. “Talk to me, Jan. What’s got you so upset?”
“Captain Ingram’s gonna have me killed. I just know it. I saw it in her eyes.” She gulped back a new flood of tears. “Back in boot camp, you remember Debby Simmons?”
Cathy searched her memory. “No…wait, the gal that was accidentally killed over at the ammo dump? Is that who you’re talking about?”
Janet gave a strangled laugh. “Accidentally killed at the ammo magazine? She was murdered, Cathy.”
“What are you talking about?”
Janet got to her knees, gripping Cathy’s shoulders. “Listen to me! There isn’t much time.” She looked up toward the crest of the hill, almost expecting to see Ingram coming to get her. “I have to get back to the bunker before the captain knows I’m gone.”
“Okay, go on,” Cathy urged in a low voice.
“I was out at the ammo magazine one day, taking inventory. Sergeant Rice dropped me off and said she’d come back to get me in a couple hours. I had to go through the underground storage area and count rounds, grenades and the rest. Then, I saw Captain Ingram and Simmons drive up in the Jeep. I hid just inside one of the doors. There was no one for miles around. There were no witnesses.”
“To what?”
“Captain Ingram lost it when Simmons didn’t follow her order fast enough. Only Debby fought back when Ingram slapped her across the face. Debby punched her back. Ingram was shocked. She picked herself up off the ground. She was shrieking at her and drew her pistol. And then, Debby screamed that she was going to report her for abuse. Both of them ran outside. I—I heard a shot being fired. And I heard Debby cry out.” Janet gulped for breath. “I peeked out of my hiding place and I saw Captain Ingram standing over her with her pistol drawn. Debby was dead at her feet. And then the captain called Major Lane on the radio. Within fifteen minutes the major arrived, alone, in a Jeep. They had an awful fight. Major Lane was furious.”
A cold blade slid up Cathy’s spine. “My God, Janet. Is this true? You aren’t making this up?”
Janet’s fingers tightened on Cathy’s shoulder. “Just listen! I watched Ingram and the major drag Debby over to the pit area. You know where they explode grenades and stuff?”
Cathy hung her head as nausea clawed up her throat. “Yes, I know the area.”
“Ingram and Major Lane made it seem like an accident. The captain rigged an explosion. I—I saw her do it. I didn’t know what to do. If Ingram or the Major had discovered me, I’d be dead meat. I waited until they both left and then ran back to
ward the firing range. I put down some numbers for the inventory after I found Sergeant Rice and told her I finished early and she believed me. At roll call that evening, Debby was reported missing and no one knew where she was.”
Compressing her lips, Cathy gently released Janet’s hands from her arms. “They found Debby’s badly burned body later that night. As I recall, there were pieces of her found, that’s all.”
“So badly burned that no one looked for the bullet hole,” Janet added hollowly.
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because I let it slip to Ingram earlier tonight when she came to tell me that Major Lane was putting me in your squad to carry a rifle. I—I thought it was Ingram’s way of getting rid of me and I blurted it out.” Taking a shaky breath, Janet covered her face. “You should have seen her, Cathy. She pretended that everything was all right. She said she’d see the major and make everything okay. But I know she’s lying. I know she’s up to something. She’s going to kill me! I know it. I just know it.”
LOUISE SCOWLED as Kay entered her office unannounced. She looked shaken and pale. “What’s wrong?” she demanded.
“We’ve got problems,” Kay muttered, pacing after shutting the door.
“What kind?”
Kay turned, her face taut. “Hayes saw me kill Simmons.”
Lane’s mouth dropped open and her fingers tightened around the pen. “What the hell are you talking about? There were no witnesses! You said so yourself.”
“That’s what I thought! But when I told Hayes she had to go out into the field, she went hysterical on me. She said I was trying to get rid of her like I got rid of Simmons.”
“Oh, no,” Louise muttered. She stood and came around the desk, glaring at Ingram. “Tell me what happened with Hayes. And don’t leave anything out.”
Haltingly, Kay relayed the conversation. For someone who never got rattled, her hands shook badly as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She wanted something a hell of a lot stronger at that moment. A part of her cringed in fear of Louise, who stood staring at her like an unblinking viper ready to strike.
Danger Close (Shadow Warriors) Page 30
