[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

wishing it would go away.
"I just figured it was a way to get Major LeBlanc naked, a goal not to be
ignored. Worked like a charm, by the way. The decon foam was a nice touch.
Really morale building. I can feel my morale soaring
!"
"I'm so screwed! We didn't even have to decon them!"
"Yeah," Pruitt said with a shrug, "but we got to see
Major LeBlanc covered in ice-cold, slippery foam with a serious case of
nipples erecti.
And we got to watch Indy washing her down. Sort of a two-fer. I
kept trying to think of a way to get the warrant into a white tee-shirt but
nothing came to mind. So keep that in mind as your last thoughts because she's
gonna fuckin' tie you to the ground, strip you naked, paint you blue and run
Page 139
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
you over with one of her tanks. Probably from the groin up. Speaking of which,
is the tank actually hot?"
"I dunno, it was pegging but with the counter set that low . . ." Kilzer said.
"I'm so screwed!"
"Just shoot yourself now, dude," Pruitt said, finally breaking down into
smothered laughter. "I'm so out of here," he snorted, putting the back of his
hand over his mouth and heading for the SheVa's door. Maybe in there he'd be
safe.
* * *
Indy watched as Kilzer walked back up the hill. He had the Geiger counter in
one hand and the other one held protectively in the area of his groin.
"Where is Pruitt going?" she asked, standing in the cold air with the brush
still upraised.
"He . . . had to go get something out of the SheVa," Kilzer said in a rush and
then handed the counter to
Indy. He pointed at the gain control and then turned around. "And I have to go
help him!"
Indy looked at the device then at the gain control as Kilzer pounded down the
hill. Then she swept it across Glennis' back and arms.
"Oh." She just stopped for a moment then looked into the darkness at the
retreating civilian.
"COWARDS!"
Glennis cocked her head to the side and shivered. "I am b-beginning to think
I'm n-not going to die?"
* * *
"How's Major LeBlanc?" Mitchell asked as Indy slumped into her station chair.
"She's fine," the warrant replied wearily. She fumbled out a Provigil and took
it without a chaser. "Angry, but fine. Amazing how fast a person can warm up
in the jet-turbine exhaust from an Abrams." The engineer looked over at Pruitt
and shook her head. "You realize that you're on her shit list, too."
"
Moi
, ma'am?" the gunner replied with a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth
expression. "What did do?"
I
"Failure to point out something like gain fault is the same as intending to
see a female battalion commander naked," the warrant said firmly. "Some
officers would put you up for an Article Fifteen. I
think I'll just let LeBlanc track you down."
"Oh, shit," the gunner muttered under his breath.
"I need an honest answer, Pruitt," Mitchell said, quietly. "When did you
realize something was wrong?"
"Honestly, sir, it wasn't until I was scrubbing down the gunner," Pruitt
replied. "I started thinking about how many rems they might have taken and I
was wondering about the river. Then I had to think about the course it took,
and where it would have gotten contaminated. All that didn't take long, no
more than a few seconds once I started to think about it, but I all of a
sudden realized that it, the river that is, shouldn't have been that hot. And
I made a gain-control mistake in training one time; I caught it almost
immediately, but I knew what could have happened. And with everybody running
around like chickens with their heads cut off . . . So when I was finished
scrubbing down the gunner I went and checked and, sure enough, Kilzer had the
gain cranked all the way to the bottom. That's the default setting, because
you want to catch low-level radiation and then work up to high level. He'd
been using it in the SheVa, and the reactor room high level, so he had the
gain cranked way up and he was used to looking at the is
Page 140
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
readouts and figuring it at that gain. I think he just forgot that the system
resets when you turn it off.
Honest mistake on his part and at least I
did think of it." He looked over at the warrant officer pointedly.
"Instead of, for example, the local radiation expert?" Mitchell grinned.
"It's not funny!" Indy said. "Major LeBlanc was embarrassed, thought her life
was about to end and, and . . ."
"Got covered in slippery foam?" Pruitt asked. "Look, her loader, her gunner
and her driver were all out there, stripped naked and shivering along with
her. If you want to play with the boys, you play the same game." The gunner
shrugged and then snorted. "At least I didn't try to get you into a white
tee-shirt. Now that would have been something to sell tickets for!"
"Enough, Pruitt," Mitchell replied as the warrant drew in a breath through her
nose with a hiss. "And enough, Warrant Officer Indy. We have Posleen to kill.
We'll worry about how to manage accidental sexually overtoned situations in a
combat environment after we survive the combat environment.
Agreed?"
"Agreed, sir," the warrant replied. "I . . . Never mind. We are still in bad
shape physically, the SheVa that is."
"I'm aware of that," Mitchell said. "We're going to have to go with what we've
got. Pruitt?"
"Hydraulics are still showing yellow," the gunner replied in his most
professional voice. "All other systems are go."
"Then let's get this show on the road again." Mitchell keyed his microphone to
the general frequency. "All
SheVa attachments, same plan as before. Let's roll."
* * *
The plan was for the SheVa to follow the river, with one set of tracks
actually in the radioactive water, while the rest of the vehicles followed
along on the near bank; despite the fact that they now knew the water wasn't
dangerously hot, the scare from the crossing had made a lasting impression.
Keeping up was no trouble, however, because with the loss of power from three
reactors the SheVa was limited to a maximum speed of about forty kilometers
per hour. Keeping out of the spray of mildly radioactive water and mud from
its tracks was somewhat more difficult.
There was a narrow saddle between two of the hills near Porter's Bend. The
only way for the SheVa to survive was to limit the number of Posleen that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]