29
Rev’s high didn’t last long. As he returned from the range, the charge nurse grabbed him and told him he had a visitor waiting in one of the admin offices.
“Do you know who it is? Someone from my Raider team?”
“All I got was the message. Probably some documents you have to sign or other admin BS.”
“OK, I’m on my way.”
Rev made his way to the H-wing where most of the administrative offices were. In some ways, the Union military was the epitome of a bureaucracy run wild, but it was just something to put up with. And some of it was really well-intentioned, such as the continual effort to certify next-of-kin and insurance data. With the high mortality rate, it made sense. It still was a pain in the butt, however.
Rev found the designated office and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
He pushed it open. The office was bare, with a single desk and a chair placed in front of it. A grandfatherly looking man sat behind the desk, but his eyes were sharp and piercing, belying the rest of his appearance.
“Sit, Sergeant.”
Rev hesitated, unease rising, but he didn’t have much choice. He walked in and sat down.
“Thank you for coming.”
As if I had a choice.
“Are you Omega Division?” Rev asked, suddenly sure of it. He’d expected a visit after hearing about the Frisian accusation, but now that it looked like it was time, he could feel his panic rising.
<You haven’t done anything wrong. Get a hold of yourself. This is a routine investigation.>
“You don’t know the OD.”
“Why would you ask me that, Sergeant Pelletier?” the man asked in a calm voice.
Rev shrugged but didn’t answer.
The man said, “I would like to ask you some questions.”
And you didn’t answer mine.
That, more than anything else, merely confirmed that this man was Omega Division, and that made him the opposition. OD agents were all over the holovids, and rarely in a good light. Rev, like most citizens, didn’t know how much of how they were portrayed was true, but he was not happy that he was in this situation. Nothing good could come of it.
“Have you spoken to anyone about the Centaur body you and Sergeant Reiser discovered on Rohoer-104?”
Boy, he gets right to it.
“You don’t have to swear me in or something? Read me my rights?”
The agent smiled. “I don’t need to get you to swear to anything. The truth is the truth. As far as your rights, I’m merely asking you some questions. Surely, you, a Marine NCO, can’t object to that.”
Rev just stared at the man, trying to will his heart to slow down.
“So, I’ll ask again. Have you spoken to, or communicated in any way, with anyone about the Centaur body you found on Roher-104?”
<Just keep your answers to the point.>
“No, sir.”
“Hmm.” The man sat back in his chair, folded his hands, held them under his chin, and stared at Rev for a long moment over them. “I don’t think I really have to tell you that you shouldn’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying,” Rev said, his voice rising as the panic surged.
“I’ll ask you one more time. Have you spoken to, or communicated in any way, with anyone about the Centaur body you found on Roher-104?”
“No! I haven’t. You have to believe me.”
The man watched him, and Rev could almost feel the man’s eyes burn him like lasers.
“OK, then. Let me ask you this. Who is Hank?”
The question caught Rev off balance. “Who? Hank who?”
“That’s what I want you to tell me. You said you’ve never spoken to anyone about the Centaur body. Now I want to know who Hank is.”
“But I don’t know . . .”
But he did know, he suddenly realized. Hank was the name he and Tomiko had used to refer to the body. He felt his heart skip a beat.
“Have you spoken to Sergeant Reiser?”
“She is being interviewed now, yes.”
Then how the hell does he know about their nickname for the tin-ass?
And he does know. Rev’s mind raced as he tried to come up with an excuse, but if they knew about the name, then he couldn’t hide it.
“Hank was just a name Sergeant Reiser and I had for the body in case anyone was listening in.”
Like the Omega Division, it turns out.
“So, you have spoken about the Centaur to other people.”
“But she was there. The lieutenant, too. And then all the SeaBees. We were all together for a month. You know that.”
“I never differentiated in my question between those who were involved with the operation and those who weren’t. So, you have communicated with others.”
“When you put it that way, sir, yes.”
The agent was quiet for a moment and then said, “And that leads me to my next question. Have you communicated in any way with people other than those who were present during the operation about the Centaur body?”
“No,” Rev said forcefully.
He knew it wasn’t just the agent there deciding whether to believe him or not. There were sensors taking in everything about him now—his breathing, pulse, sweat, whatever they could use to indicate if he was telling the truth.
The agent said nothing. His throat was slightly twitching, indicating that he was probably subvocalizing with his AI. Most people wouldn’t pick up on that, but most people didn’t have Rev’s augmented eyesight.
Rev sat and waited. He was telling the truth, he knew, but still, he was nervous. Omega Division didn’t need the truth if they wanted to do something.
Finally, the agent pulled a small remote out of a pocket and pressed it. Immediately, Rev felt a . . . not a loss, but maybe a void?
“Punch?”
There wasn’t an answer.
“I’ve put your AI to sleep, Sergeant.” He opened a drawer, pulled out a small tablet, and attached a cable to it before standing and coming around to Rev. Rev stared warily at the cable, knowing that whatever the agent wanted to do, with Punch offline, there would be no witnesses.
“I’m going to conduct an II.”
Rev stood. An Invasive Interrogation was supposed to be only done by court order and in the most serious cases. It was essentially a brain dump. Most of what a jacked person had in their drives was supposed to be confidential, but no one really believed that. And that had been one reason that Rev had initially balked at getting jacked.
The agent looked up at Rev. “Really, son? Yes, with your augments, you can fight me. I wouldn’t last a second. But then what? You think you can stand up to the Union government?” When Rev said nothing, he continued. “I suggest you sit down and let me get this done. If you really are not the leak, then you have nothing to fear. I promise you that.”
Rev knew he was innocent. But to have his brain invaded? Everything he’d seen and said would be there. Maybe the thoughts themselves, but even with them, who knew what OD could do?
He thought that maybe he should try and get Colonel Tolouse involved. Surely the Marines didn’t want the project known by Omega Division. But then he realized that he wouldn’t have been allowed to even meet with the agent if the Marines could have fought it.
But he really had no choice. He couldn’t fight the entire government.
With a defeated sigh, he sunk back down to the seat, twisting his head to expose his jack. The agent nodded and fit an adapter to the end of the cable.
“It really is better this way,” the agent said, connecting his tablet. “I’m putting you out as this is going to take a while.”
Rev didn’t know anything about being put unconscious, and he started to protest before the office and agent faded away.
* * *
Rev slowly opened his eyes. The agent was behind the desk, his throat twitching as he made his notes. Rev felt fine, like he’d taken a quick nap.
“You there?”
Still nothing from Punch.
“So, am I under arrest?” Rev asked.
The agent looked up and said, “I have enough here to clear you of leaking the information to foreign powers. But there is still the fact that you continued to speak of the situation despite being told not to.”
Rev shook his head. He really didn’t care at this point, now that they knew he wasn’t a traitor. He might still get in trouble, but if they tried to punish him, maybe convert him to a Ninety-nine or give him a jail term, he thought the commandant might have something to say about that. There was always a degree of competition and distrust between Omega Division and the Navy and Corps, and he doubted the military would start fresh with the IBHU program.
He’d take his lumps, whatever they were, and move on.
“From now on, I suggest you retire ‘Hank’ and forget you ever knew him.”
Rev let out a breath of relief. Maybe he did care, after all.
“So, I’m done? I’m free to go?”
The agent took a moment, then said, “I know what you did with that sniper, Mason. I know you lied to your command.”
The relief Rev had felt was gone, and he could feel the blood rush from his face. He’d forgotten about that, and now it was out. The Marines might protect him from the OD, but he’d broken military protocol. He’d lied in an official statement. They’d crucify him. Only being busted to private would be the best possible outcome, and Doctor Chakrabarti and Colonel Tolouse would be powerless to intervene. He could be put in the brig, only brought out to fight. He could be . . . his mind raced with possibilities, none of them good.
“So . . . so what now, sir?” he barely managed to get out.
The agent shrugged. “I understand why you did what you did. And it’s commendable, in its own way. But you did file a false statement.”
Here it comes.
“Luckily for you, I am Division and not military, so I don’t give a flying fig about that.”
Rev looked up in shock, not believing his ears.
“I was Corps. Ten years in the Twenty-first Marines back before the war. A grunt. And taking care of our fellow Marines, that’s what we do, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Rev said, his voice cracking.
“So, I think we can keep that between us. It didn’t even make my report up the chain.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“No, thank you, Sergeant. I’d forgotten about the esprit de corps, the brotherhood, I’ve been out so long. You just reminded me of what it was like back in the day when I was in. I miss that. So, I’ve got what I need here. You’re free to go.”
Rev didn’t wait. He jumped to his feet and said, “Thank you, sir. Thank you.”
The agent, who’d never given his name, smiled and pulled out the remote. A moment later, Rev could almost feel Punch wake up.
<Are we going to jail?>
“No, we’re fine,” Rev said as he stepped out the door. He was grateful that the agent was letting him go, but he’d just as soon put as much distance as possible between them in case he changed his mind.
<What happened?>
“They found out I wasn’t a traitor. But they also found out about Sergeant Mason. You didn’t do a good enough job hiding that stuff.”
<I told you it wouldn’t stand up. So, what’s going to happen.>
“Nothing’s going to happen. The guy approved of what we did, and he’s not going to report it.”
For the first time since Rev had been implanted with his battle buddy, Punch was at a loss for words.