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others, Levine and Lieberman and recruit -
no, Private - Dietz, and the rest, dead and blended together in my memory
until I can't remember where they died or what for, only that I killed them.
But we won. It was a glorious victory. That was enough for Falkenberg. He had
done his job and done it well. Was it enough for me? Would it be in the
future?
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When I was up and around, I couldn't avoid meeting Governor Swale. Irina was
nursing Louis
Bonneyman. Louis was worse off than I was. Sometimes they can grow you a new
leg, but it takes time, and it's painful. Irina saw him every day, and when I
could leave the hospital she insisted that I come to the palace. It was
inevitable that I would meet the Governor.
"I hope you're proud of yourself," Swale said. "Everyone else is."
"Hugo, that's not fair," Irina protested.
"Not fair?" Swale said. "How isn't it fair?"
"I did the job I was paid to do, sir," I said.
"Yes. You did, indeed - and thereby made it impossible for me to do mine. Sit
down, Captain
Slater. Your Major Falkenberg has told you plenty of stories about me. Now let
me tell you my side of it."
"There's no need, Ggovernor," I said.
"No, there isn't. Are you afraid to find out just what you've done?"
"No. I've helped throw out a gang of convicts who pretended to be a
government. And I'm proud enough of that."
"Are you? Have you been to the Allan Valley lately, Captain? Of course you
haven't. And I
doubt Kathryn Malcolm has told you what's happening there - how Wan Loo and
Harry Seeton and a religious fanatic named Brother Dornan have established
commissions of deacons to inquire into the morals and loyalties of everyone in
the valley; how anyone they find deficient is turned off the land to make room
for their own people. No, I don't suppose she told you any of that."
"I don't believe you."
"Don't you? Ask Miss Malcolm. Or would you believe Irina? She knows it's
true."
I looked to Irina. The pain in her eyes was enough. She didn't have to speak.
"I was governor of the whole planet, Slater. Not just Harmony, not just the
Jordan and Allan valleys, but all of the planet. Only they gave me
responsibilities and no authority, and no means to govern. What am I supposed
to do with the convicts, Slater? They ship them here by the thousands, but
they give me nothing to feed them with. You've seen them. How are they
supposed to live?"
"They can work - "
"At what? As farmhands on ranches of five hundred hectares? The best land on
the planet, doled out as huge ranches with half the land not worked because
there's no fertilizer, no irrigation, not even decent drainage systems. They
sure as hell can't work in our nonexistent industries. Don't you see that
Arrarat must industrialize? It doesn't matter what Allan Valley farmers want,
or what the other holy Joes want. It's industrialize or face famine, and, by
God, there'll be no famines while I can do something about them."
"So you were willing to sell out the 501st. Help the Association defeat us. An
honorable way to achieve an honorable end."
"As honorable as yours. Yours is to kill and destroy. War is honorable, but
deceit isn't. I prefer my way, Captain."
"I expect you do."
Swale nodded vigorously, to himself, not to me. "Smug. Proud and smug. Tell
me, Captain, just how are you better than the Protective Association? They
fought. Not for the honor of the corps, but for their land, their families,
for friends. They lost. You had better men, better officers, better training.
A lot better equipment. If you'd lost, you'd have been returned to Garrison
under terms. The Association troops were shot out of hand. All of them. Be
proud, Slater. But you make me sick. I'll leave you now. I don't care to argue
with my daughter's guests."
"That's true also, isn't it?" I asked Irina. "They shot all the Association
troops?"
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"Not all," Irina said. "The ones that surrendered to Captain Falkenberg are
still alive. He even recruited some of them."
He would. The battalion would need men after those battles. "What's happened
to the rest?"
"They're under guard at Beersheba. It was after your Marines left the valley
that the real slaughter began."
"Sure. People who wouldn't turn out to fight for their homes when we needed
their help got real patriotic after it was over," I said. "I'm going back to
my quarters, Irina. Thank you for having me over."
"But Kathryn is coming. She'll be here - "
"I don't want to see anyone just now. Excuse me." I left quickly and wandered
through the streets of Harmony. People nodded and smiled as I passed. The
Marines were still popular. Of course. We'd opened the trade route up the
Jordan, and we'd cleared out the Allan Valley. Grain was cheap, and we'd held
the convicts at bay. Why shouldn't the people love us?
Tattoo sounded as I entered the fort. The trumpets and drums sounded through
the night, martial and complex and the notes were sweet. Sentries saluted as I
passed. Life here was orderly and there was no need to think.
Hartz had left a full bottle of brandy where I could find it. It was his
theory that the reason I
wasn't healing fast was that I didn't drink enough. The surgeons didn't share
his opinion. They were chopping away at me, then using the regeneration
stimulators to make me grow better parts.
It was a painful process, and they didn't think liquor helped it much.
To hell with them, I thought, and poured a double. I hadn't finished it when
Kathryn came in.
"Irina said - Hal, you shouldn't be drinking."
"I doubt that Irina said that."
"You know - what's the matter with you, Hal?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.
"I was going to. Later. But there never was a right time."
"And it's all true? Your friends are driving the families of everyone who
cooperated with the
Association out into the hills? And they've shot all the prisoners?"
"It's - yes. It's true."
"Why didn't you stop them?"
"Should I have wanted to?" She looked at the scars on her hands. "Should I?"
There was a knock at the door. "Come in," I said.
It was Falkenberg. "Thought you were alone," he said.
"Come in. I'm confused."
"I expect you are. Got any more of that brandy?"
"Sure. What did you mean by that?"
"I understand you've just learned what's happening out in the Allan Valley."
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