The next day he accompanied Lambert across the emptied camp to headquarters. The trampled-down, dead grass where the tents had been set up turned the parkland into something resembling a chessboard.
They passed through to the CO's office. Bloom stood there, her files tied up in three big waterproof binders by her adjutant. She walked a little stiffly but kept the cane as more of an affectation than because she needed it for moving about the office.
They exchanged the necessary salutes.
"Fort Seng is yours. What's left of it, anyway," Bloom said. She turned a bit pensive. "Still wish I knew what they did to me when I got all scared," Bloom said. "I never once the whole time felt my mind was not my own. I was just dark and depressed about everything. Doubtful. That ever happens to you, tell somebody right away."
"How were you to know?" Valentine said. Lambert walked over to the east-facing windows and looked out at the Kentucky woods.
"Helluva way to fight: Make someone get so beat up about themselves they start thinking about taking their own life. I'd rather be shot at some more."
"I understand that," Valentine said.
"What ifs-you know. What if I could have been stronger, or figured out something was wrong with me. Does it make you not crazy if you recognize that you're sick in the head? I remember knowing I felt different. I thought I was just cracking under the strain."
"You did better than anyone would have expected."
"It was beautiful for a minute, wasn't it? When we showed up and found the Green Mountain Boys there. Colonel Lambert, you know you did all that. Too bad you couldn't have seen it. Oh, that was a good day."
Lambert turned back to face Bloom. "They fooled me just as much as they fooled you. Wish I'd been a little more careful."
Valentine wondered if his repeated requests to Southern Command for assistance to be sent to Ahn-Kha's coal-country guerrillas figured into Lambert's calculus when she'd decided on Javelin as Southern Command's next venture into the Kurian Zone. She knew Valentine, trusted him. Had he let her down? Maybe that's why she'd been so formal of late.
"I think the Green Mountain Boys were happy to see Southern Command arrive too," Lambert added.
"It's still the spot Javelin landed, as far as I'm concerned. I think we'll be back, one day." Bloom focused on Valentine. "I'm sorry, Val."
"Not your doing. I know you'd have stuck."
Bloom took a deep breath, brightened. "At least everyone's rested and refit. We'll make it the rest of the way . . ."
"Easy," Valentine said.
"I'd settle for hard. One twist away from impossible, even, just so long as I get them home."
Valentine stood flanking Lambert, watching the brigade walk out of camp under an iron gray sky. The soldiers moved in step-a rarity for the men of Southern Command, unless they were moving as part of a graduation class or parade review or under a general's nose.
Valentine expected the Kurians would let them return across the Mississippi. The Kurians liked to see defeated men live to tell their tales. It was the ones who'd beaten them they went after.
Men like his father.
It was hard watching the men he'd come to know on the long advance and the longer retreat file off down the road.
Of course, the few volunteers stayed on: some technical staff, communications people, and trainers helping transform the Quislings into something that could stand up to the Kurian Order. Even Galloby, the agronomist, had remained, waxing enthusiastic about learning more about legworm husbandry. He had some kind of idea about putting a special bacteria in the legworm's digestive tract and getting concentrated fertilizer from the other end. But while he put droplets into petri dishes and ran chemical tests, he advised Evansville on how they could do a better job growing their own food without the rest of Indiana to rely on.
Pencil Boelnitz also stayed, and Valentine wasn't sure how to feel about that.
The supply train left, and then some of the artillery Southern Command had brought in and were now towing out, and finally the rear guard departed, pushing burdened bicycles. Red Dog dodged in and out of their wheels to the turn into woods leading to the gate, then plopped down in the sun to pant.
"You ready for this, Dots?" Valentine asked Lambert, using her old military college nickname in an effort to lighten the mood.
"No," she said, looking around as if she were seeing the tree lines of Fort Seng for the first time.
Valentine chuckled. "Too bad."
"You're helpful."
"I'd be a lot more worried if you were more confident. What's my first order, sir?" Valentine asked.