Part 16 (1/2)
Cortin returned the grin. ”I shouldn't be greedy, and I do have something else to look forward to from him; you go ahead.”
”Thanks.” Bain glanced at her, then obviously decided not to go on.
Cortin hid a sigh. Having civilians apprehensive about her was one thing, but her men should feel free to ask or tell her anything.
”What's the problem, Dave?”
”It's not exactly a problem, ma'am . . . uh, Joan.”
”What, then?”
Bain looked uncomfortable. ”Uh . . . you're the first lady trooper I've been around, and . . .”
”Oh.” Yes, that explained his hesitation. ”I've been the only woman on a team most of my career. I'm neither a virgin nor a prude, though I sometimes find it useful to pretend the latter around civilians. So spill it.”
Bain grinned in relief. ”Right, Joan. Okay, then--Mike says that before the Brothers messed you up, you enjoyed using our dispensation whenever the opportunity offered. Nothing fancy, but not skimping anyone, either.”
”True,” Cortin said, smiling. ”I'm a firm believer in the basics, and G.o.d was generous enough to let me enjoy them in abundance. If He's merciful enough to let this work out, I'll do it again.”
”Just let us know what you want, and how much; we'll do our best to oblige.” Bain grinned again. ”Always a good idea to keep the CO happy, you know.”
Cortin couldn't help laughing, in spite of the pain. She knew that a commanding officer taking part in a team's s.e.xual activity tended to have an extreme effect, one way or the other; it could tear the team apart, or it could weld it into near-unity. From watching hers work together, she was certain it would react positively, so she said, ”And from my experience with other teams, I doubt you'll find at least that aspect overly disagreeable.”
”Or at all difficult,” Bain agreed. ”I'm looking forward to it, in fact.” He gestured in a way that told her he was still unsure. ”I've been with a lot of civ women, paid or curious about an Inquisitor, but they didn't--oh, h.e.l.l!”
”You're not the first one to tell me that,” Cortin said drily. ”I was lucky, always had enough willing troopers around I never had to go to a civ man--but I always got more out of Special Ops men. The emotional feel was better, even when physical things were the same.”
”You do understand, then.” Bain's look was full of relief and something else she couldn't quite identify.
”Yes--and if this works, I want all of you to feel free to come to me.
Other duties permitting, I'll be more than happy to help keep up morale.” She grinned. ”Rank doth have its responsibilities, a few of them pleasant; a CO is expected to be available for counseling whenever it's needed.”
Bain chuckled. ”'Counseling'--I like that. You may have the best-counseled team in the entire Service, here shortly.”
”Most counseled, anyway,” Cortin said. ”And while you're here, I've been meaning to ask--if you don't mind talking about it, I'd like to hear how you ended up in the Strike Force. Records are all very well, but there's no feel to them.”
”I'd rather not,” Bain said slowly. ”Fair's fair, though; Mike told us all about how you got into this.” He paused, clearly trying to organize what he wanted to say.
Cortin had suspected Mike might have given them the details of her background, probably because he'd thought it would somehow help her.
He'd be right, too, if it helped her get insight into her people. She waited for Bain to speak.
”I come from a big family,” he said at last. ”Four sisters and a baby brother, with me the only sterile in the bunch. I enlisted in Enforcement, beccame a demolitions expert, got a recommendation to the Academy and graduated about the middle of my cla.s.s, put in for SO and got it, made First about three years later. By that time, my baby brother was in the Service too, a top-notch medic.” He paused, and Cortin saw tears in his eyes. ”We weren't stationed together, but we were close enough we got to see each other regularly. He loved his work, would go out of his way to help anyone who needed it, wouldn't hurt a fly--wouldn't carry a gun, even on a remote patrol. He had a great family, wife and two kids with a third on the way, he and Betty both hoping for eight or ten . . . He couldn't understand why I wanted to be an Inquisitor, even though he knew someone had to do it--h.e.l.l, he couldn't understand why I went into demolition!--but I was his big brother, so if I wanted it, he wanted it for me.”
Bain paused. ”I'm rambling--sorry. Anyway, about a week after I got my Warrant, my team got called out to help search for survivors of a terrorist ambush on a patrol. I heard the patrol that got hit was from Lancaster, but I didn't get scared until I heard the Team-Leader's name. It was Jeffrey's team . . . and on the ride out I heard other searchers had found seven bodies from the ten-man team. The medic wasn't one of them, and that scared me worse. Jeffy didn't have what it takes to escape an ambush, and you know what's likely to happen to an Enforcement trooper captured by terrorists.”
”Nothing good,” Cortin agreed.
”We were the first combat team to get to the ambush site, so after a quick briefing, the on-scene commander sent us after the ambush party--fifteen of them, his Tracker said. With that few, our Team-Leader decided we didn't need any backup, so we got on their trail. When we caught up a few hours later, they'd made camp and were working on Jeffy. I couldn't see them yet, but I knew his voice well enough to recognize it, even screaming and with the overtones algetin adds.”