Breaking Ranks

Braun: Deserter

He looked at the statue. He looked at me. I looked back. All things considered, there was quite a lot of looking going on. Finally I cleared my throat.

"I bought this," I said. "Last day I was in Sandstone."

"Did you."

I nodded. "Seemed a bargain."

"I had one just like it."

"You have good taste."

"Yes."

We continued looking at each other for some time, and then a thought came into mind.

"I bought it from Felgor."

"Felgor." The Imperial Observer seemed to savor this word in his mouth and found it distasteful. "Felgor. Yes, I know him."

"He can be a shady sort. Come to think of it, I have my suspicions about this statue. It might be stolen. I mean... I hadn't thought of it before, but I don't think I could rule it out."

"Indeed. I have heard of this Felgor. He has been known to traffic in stolen goods."

I scratched my head for a moment. "You know, this might not have been a good purchase. I'm just a simple dung hauler so I don't really know Sandstone too well." I offered the statue to him. "Why don't you take it, sir? As a gift, I mean."

"A gift. That could be interpreted as bribery."

"Well I mean... you're in Sandstone all the time, so..."

The man sighed. "Not anymore. I'm off to..." he paused. "Well, I'm leaving, anyway. Keep it!" He grinned now, a weary look on his face. "You might as well have something to remember Sandstone by. As it is, I have all this," he said, gesturing vaguely at the baggage train.

So much for the inspection.

I settled myself back down, and we began rumbling forward as the day passed by. After a time, I felt a sudden buzzing sensation from my pocket. Somehow, over the rattling, the trader picked up on it and looked back at me with a suspicious gaze. "You're not eating any of those sweet potatoes, are you?"

"No, sir!"

His gaze stayed on me for a time. "I'm not a greedy man. It's just that we're low as it is. I simply can't afford it."

I nodded, and finally he seemed satisfied with this. After a moment I took out my snooper device and fitted it to my ear. Already I was keying up my data slate to forward the transmission. This time it came through crystal clear, as the transmission must have been relayed to the Imps just meters away. Even so, the transmission seemed chaotic and garbled somehow, and it didn't appear as if the speaker was addressing the Observer.

I leaned forward and pursed my lips in thought as I tried to make it out.

***

"There's been a situation," a Seraph said. He must have been a squad leader of some sort. "We've had a deserter." He sounded pained.

"A deserter!?" thundered another speaker, and I got the sense that he may have been a commanding officer. "From your squad?"

"I can handle it, sir. Just give me some time."

"Handle it? You're supposed to be four klicks away, escorting the Observer! All the other squads are in position."

I could attest to that. The place was lousy with Imps, just from my perch at the rear I could see two black armor-clap figures loping along and I didn't doubt they were spread out all around us.

"I was mopping up the remaining forces-"

The commanding officer snorted. "I've seen the data feeds, lieutenant. Anything with a pulse and a pocket knife was mopped up ages ago. You haven't taken any casualties fighting these invisible bandits, have you?"

"One of the squad was lightly wounded, sir. Superficial damage only. And, ah, well we've lost the suppression bot. Critical failure."

"Let me get this straight, lieutenant. Your appointed successor has deserted, another soldier has been wounded, and you lost one of our incredibly valuable, and I do mean incredibly valuable, fire suppression bots. And you wish to pursue further in what you claim to be enemy territory."

There was a long silence. "We have drones out looking for her, sir. Shouldn't take l-"

"Lieutenant, get your men back to base before you lose any more to desertion. We're going to have a lot to talk about. Including your upcoming promotion, which as far as I'm concerned is on indefinite hold."

"Yes, sir."