The field psychologist shouted over the blizzard: 'You're gonna die.' He jabbed a finger at the three of them in turn. 'You, and you, and you.'
Their grins were resolute. Desperate. All except the lieutenant, who bared his teeth and kicked the snow. ‘Fuck’s sake,’ he barked, and stormed off. One of them made to follow him but the radio operator grabbed his shoulder.
‘He’ll be fine,’ she said.
‘Well.’
She shot a look at the field psych, who shrugged. ‘So how’s it come about?’
‘Right.’ Carlyle tugged a zip open on his jacket and dug out a tablet. He shook off a glove to dabble with the screen. The cast of the soldiers’ eyes changed as maps and enemy positions overlayed their vision, and bending into the wind Carlyle waved for them to follow him. ’Seems the mercs the cap hired didn’t get the arty after all.
’You and Ansell’s lot get about half way up the mountain before an AP round rips you three to shreds. The rest of ‘em’ll get away more or less scott free after the guys outside the impact radius cart them back to camp for aid, but you guys? Sorry. Actually,’ Carlyle sniffed, wiping his nose, ‘the shell cracks you right in the neck, Parthaguin. You’ll hear the whistling, there’ll be a second—oh no, you’ll think, it’s just like he …’
‘Fuck you.’
‘Won’t tell the marshal you said that, but if you weren’t to die in three hours I’d have you up for discipline.’ They were close enough to the camp to make out the tents now, pale shapes whipping in the storm, barely darker than the snow. The field psych waved. Something waved back. Might as well have been a snowman for all they could tell who it was. ‘So,’ he went on. ‘You two need a moment to call your folks? Can’t promise a clean line in this shit.’
The other dead guy, who still hadn’t said a word, started laughing. Uh oh. ‘You okay, private?’
‘Man,’ he said. ‘Oh, man. They weren’t kidding about you guys.’ Still laughing, he gave a wobbly salute. ‘Sir.’
‘Not a lot of kidding goes on in my profession, private. Some folks’d hum and haw about the whole mess, they sit you down one on one. I bet you got some suspicions why I called you in, they’ll say, so let me be straight with you, the worst is true. Waste of goddamn time. You don’t need me talking down to you. Gonna die soon, no time for that. Anyway.’ He gave the tablet another pitter-patter then shoved it back in its pocket and regloved his hand before it went numb. ‘You see that?’
The chuckling had stopped. Parthaguin had her eyes on the other guy, but after a moment her eyes fixed on somewhere in the top right of her vision and she said, ‘Got it.’
Carlyle nodded at the man posted outside the main tent. He nodded back, unzipped the thing, and they slipped through. The marshal looked up as they entered, squinted at them each in turn, and when the lieutenant didn’t follow them inside he sighed and glanced at one of the guys crowded around the table, a man hunched over his phone, frowning in concentration. He looked up at the new arrivals, then at the marshal, then straightened.
When the marshal spoke, his voice was solemn. ‘Fetch lieutenant Slough, private,’ he said. ‘Use your judgement. He has just received some distressing news.’
