Carnifex

3/5/467 AC, Isla Real, 1 st Tercio Centurions' Family Quarters

"Can you hear me, Ricardo?" Cara asked in a furious voice. "I am proud of you, yes. I love you, yes. But I cannot—do you hear me? CANNOT!—stand this anymore! You were almost killed two months ago. How many more times were you almost killed that I never found out about? Do you have any idea what it's like for a woman to lay awake at night worrying that her husband—the man she loves most in the world—might be lying dead in a ditch? Or captured and butchered—yes, I've seen the films on the TV—by some ragheaded maniacs? Or blown to bits by some coward's bomb with never even a body to bury?"

She buried her face in her hands and began to cry. That was, for Cruz, worse than the anger. The anger he could fight against. Against the grief and the hurt he felt helpless.

"But, Cara," Cruz answered, despairingly, "I don't know how to do anything else. And I'm good at this. Then, too . . . I don't know if I'd like doing anything else."

"You have veterans' benefits. I checked; they're matched to your rank. As a centurion, junior grade you could go back to school full time and earn a degree, then maybe teach . . . or be an engineer . . . or a doctor . . . or a lawyer."

Cruz shivered. "I hate lawyers. My father would disown me if I became one. And I can't stand snivelers. How can someone be a doctor when he can't stand people who whine about being sick? Other than our own kids, I don't really like kids. So how could I teach? And engineering doesn't really interest me. What's the challenge in working with unthinking, inert material when I've grown used to building with the hardest material of all to build with, men?"

"If you loved me, you would think of something you could do," she insisted, through tears.

"If you loved me, you wouldn't ask me to give up a job I love for one I would hate," he countered.

To that objection Cara had the definitive answer. She ran off to the bedroom in tears, slamming and locking the door behind her.

* * *

Each tercio's caserne had a club for officers and another for centurions. These were mostly frequented by the junior officers, lowest grade tribunes and signifers, and the centurions and optios. There were larger and considerably more ornate clubs for seniors at the main cantonment area on the north side of the island, overlooking the bay.

The theory behind the club was, at one level, organizational and, at another, moral. Carrera believed that men could best identify with and care about all the members of groups of between about one and two hundred. Anything smaller was too likely to be demoralized by losses; anything larger was too big for every man to know every other, care about those others, and value the good opinions of those others.

He further believed that men could normally feel that way about two groups at a time. These groups were, presumptively, the maniple—most armies said "company"—to which the soldier belonged and, for leaders, the leadership corps to which they belonged. For example, within a tercio of four cohorts, there were approximately one hundred and sixty officers and warrant officers. They represented a primary group which had a potentially serious emotional hold on each of them. Thus, there was an "O" Club to each tercio caserne. There were also about two hundred centurions and optios, so they too belonged to a primary group in addition to their maniple and, thus, had their own club. There were also, within each cohort, something over two hundred non-coms, corporals and sergeants. Though this was a bit large, there was a non-com club for each of the four cohorts in a tercio. Soldiers had a club within their barracks for the roughly two hundred men of their maniple.

Guests from outside the applicable unit or corps were, by and large, not welcome except by special invitation. Girls were always welcome, of course.

Some armies looked at the clubs as businesses, to be kept if profitable or at least self sustaining and to be discarded if they failed to support themselves. Carrera considered them to be, in the broadest sense, training opportunities, to be supported whether they made a profit or not.

As a practical matter, legionary clubs typically broke even. If they found themselves with an embarrassing profit they threw large parties. If they found themselves operating at a loss the price of drinks went up until the loss was made good or the club manager had the money squeezed from him ("squeezed" being something of a euphemism).

Arredondo found Cruz sitting at the bar squeezing a lemon into a rum and cola.

"I didn't think you drank, normally, Ricardo." First names only in the club. "Hell, you usually give away the little rum bottles in the combat rations."

"Normally, I don't, Scarface." Or nicknames, where appropriate. Arredondo had a broad scar running from one side of his jaw up to past his hairline, a gift of some long-deceased Sumeri rebel. Since the scar was honorably earned, Arredondo rather liked the nickname.

"And, besides, the ration rum's pretty vile. This"—his finger indicated his

drink—"is the good stuff."

Legionary combat ration rum was 180-proof suicide-in-a-little-bottle that was only palatable if cut—much cut—with something. On the plus side, one could theoretically pour it into raw sewage, mix it up, wait a few minutes, and then drink with reasonable confidence that all one was drinking was shit, not the various bugs that usually went with it. Best of all, it made legionary rations very popular with FSC forces, such that a six for one trading ratio was standard fair market value whenever the two forces worked in close proximity.

The ration rum was vile, true enough, but Esterhazy had seen to the creation of a not unimpressive microbrewery to produce Cervesa del Cid on the island. Arredondo signaled the bartender for a beer.

While waiting for his drink, Cruz's boss rubbed the scar on his cheek. He looked at Cruz's face, then at the rum and coke. Adding one somber face to one rum and coke he came up with the perfect question: "You have a problem, Ricardo?"

"Bad one," Cruz answered, succinctly "Cara wants me to leave the Legion. I don't want to. But if I don't, I think she may leave me."

"Oooo, that sucks."

"No shit."

"How are you leaning?" Arredondo asked as the bartender set a frosty mug down in front of him.

"I'm not," Cruz shrugged. "I have no clue what to do. If I leave the Legion, I'm going to be miserable. If Cara leaves me, I'm going to be miserable."

"Switch over to one of the reserve cohorts of the tercio?" Arredondo asked, helpfully. Each tercio had several reserve cohorts, composed of discharged regulars and volunteers who joined expressly for the reserves. The reserves only served one three-day weekend a month, plus a month a year, for which they were paid at standard rates and were entitled to a reduced scale of benefits. They were obligated to come when called but, so far, there had been no call up.

"I considered it, Scarface, but it wouldn't really be the same. I'd feel second-rate. I'd see the regulars often enough to realize what I was missing, too."

Arredondo absentmindedly bit at the right quadrant of his upper lip. "What's her problem?" he asked.

Cruz shook his head. "I . . . think . . . yes, I think, that it's a mix of things. Mostly, though, it's that I'm gone a lot and she doesn't want me to get my ass shot off."

"Well, you can understand—"

"I do understand. That doesn't make it any easier."

"Could you buy her off if you took some other kind of duty? Like . . . mmm . . . maybe took over a slot as a combat instructor or basic training platoon centurion? I think I could arrange that."

Cruz had considered it, but, "I don't think so. That would still keep me gone much of the time and there would still be the chance that I might get sent back to the war."

Arredondo tilted his head to one side. "It would be more than a chance, Ricardo," he admitted. "We've got a little break going now while the Tercio Don John takes up the fight at sea, but that can't last. We'll be back at the war within a couple of years, I figure."

Nodding, Cruz agreed, "So does Cara. I think that's part of her reasoning, if reasoning is the right word to use when discussing a woman's thoughts. Right now, while the ground forces are not in the war, I can leave with a good conscience. If we were still engaged, our boys still under fire, I probably couldn't . . . wouldn't anyway. She knows that."

"'Women are stupid but clever and bear considerable watching,'" Scarface deliberately misquoted. "Did you tell her you're probably moving up to take over the platoon? That it would mean a promotion and a not-exactly contemptible pay raise?"

"I mentioned it. She wasn't impressed. Hell, Scarface, if it were about money then she'd have to admit I make more here than I am likely to on the outside, even with reserve pay tacked on to whatever I might make as a civvie."

Cruz sighed deeply. "It really comes down to the fact that she wants me home and she doesn't want me hurt or killed. And I don't know how to argue against that. She wants me out."