The Vastalimi Gambit by Steve Perry Read Free Book Online

times.
    The GU Army hadn’t sent over a rep yet. Buried somewhere in all the briefing material was the report on them, but Cutter hadn’t bothered to find and read it yet. It didn’t really matter, at least at this point. They were HQed near the big mines and not close, but it was only a matter of time. The local commander would know what was going on in his or her backyard, and either somebody would come to call or he’d get a com telling him to report to the base ASAP for a chat. Regular Army didn’t have much use for private military, but fuck ’em—he had enough of that organization when they had set his unit up for a snafu not their fault. The uplevel dicks had pissed on a bunch of good officers to make sure nobody came after their guilty asses. Only reason he had been allowed to retire instead of being court-martialed and sent away was because he had friends among the generals who owed him. They knew he was getting screwed, but their influence only extended so far.
    We can keep you out of the stockade, Rags, but we can’t keep you in the Army.
    No point in dragging that up, done was done, and in the end, he was doing okay . . .
    Maybe it was time to break out the bourbon and have his daily drink a little early, hey?
    No. It could wait. Not the least reason being that he didn’t want to wait. One drink, expensive booze over ice, to be enjoyed, not used as a crutch . . .
    The incoming com chimed. The sig said the caller was Colonel Sett, Galactic Union Army HQ . . .
    Speak of the devil . . .
    Sett? That name sounded familiar. Sett . . . ?
    Cutter waved his hand at the com. The threedee image of a man looking at the camera appeared over the com, quarter scale. “Cutter here.”
    Even as he said the words, he recognized the face. It was still lean and angular, dark-skinned and the hair shaved or depilated, a few more wrinkles here and there. And it had been First Lieutenant Sett the last time he had seen him.
    “Mica Sett,” Cutter said. “How the hell are you?”
    The man grinned. “Other than being posted to the asshole of the galaxy, I’m doin’ jest fahn, Rags.”
    “How long has it been? Fifteen years?”
    Sett nodded. “About that. The Aleutians, that little revolution that took down General Papirósa.”
    “Yep, what a clusterfuck that was. So, asshole of the galaxy, but a full bird colonel?”
    Cutter didn’t ask the next question: Was Sett sent here as punishment that would wind down his career, or because it was a necessary posting on his track to keep going? Sometimes with the Army, you couldn’t see what they had in mind: A rathole in the middle of nowhere could be a curse or a blessing, depending.
    Sett must have known what he was thinking. He said, “And if I don’t screw it up, a good shot at general within two years if my sources can be believed. The politicians have been convinced by the GU Army lobbyists that we need more boots on the ground. More boots, more freshly minted generals to direct them how to step. Better me than some others.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “Thanks. Been a long time coming. Uh, Rags, you aren’t going to be part of the problem, are you?”
    “Not if I can help it. I’m here to protect the root-growers from bandits.”
    “Yeah, we know about that. I sent patrols out, but we are stretched pretty thin here, I can’t afford to keep troops with every van on the road.”
    “What they hired us for. We keep the trucks from being jacked until we can figure out who is doing it.”
    “At which time, you will give me all the particulars so that I can stop them.”
    “Well, of course, Mica. Absolutely.”
    They both grinned at that. He could chop the bad guys into fine soyburger as long as he wasn’t too loud and obvious about it, Cutter knew. Within the ROE, there was a lot of leeway, and as long as he didn’t make the local commander look bad, nobody gave a toad’s ass. And if he could make him look
good
? So much the better.
    Never hurt to