Jack Yeovil - Demon Download

"Come in."

It was Nathan Stack. She looked up from her breviary—she hadn't been focusing on the words for over a quarter of an hour—and smiled at him.

Stack was recovering well. He was strong. He would survive. Many hadn't. The US Cavalry had airlifted the mentally and physically wounded out to a facility in the Phoenix PZ, and buried the dead within sight of Fort Apache. There had been enough to fill a new graveyard. They hadn't had individual funerals, just a mass ceremony conducted by the regimental chaplain. Chantal hadn't felt able to speak, but she had vowed to light a candle for Cat Finney in St Peter's. She hoped the woman had gone where the good sufis go.

"We've got Federico back. The Quince has run a systems check, and there doesn't seem to be any damage. The sergeant and your car are getting along famously."

Chantal got up, and went to the door. She accompanied Stack down to the courtyard. Newly-assigned personnel were supervising the repairs and reconstruction. Major General Hollingsworth Calder, the new commandant, had promised General Ernest Haycox, the overall c-i-c of the Cav, that the fort would be on line within the week. Haycox himself had flown in from Fort Comanche to take a look at the site of the disaster. There were rumours of resurgent Maniak chapters out in the desert. And the corps were complaining about the the roads left unpatrolled.

You could tell from their faces which of the Troopers had been just shipped in and which had lived through the demon download. It was in their eyes.

Quincannon saw her, and saluted.

An ops captain walked over. She was new, and didn't look anything like Finney.

"Sister," she said. "We've had a communication from Rome for you."

The woman handed over a sealed print-out, and left.

Chantal broke the papal seal, and read her orders. They were countersigned by Cardinal DeAngelis, and didn't tell her more than the basics.

"I've been recalled," she told Stack.

"I thought you wanted to go to California?"

She sighed. "I do, but it will have to wait. It's marked urgent. I have a mission. Somewhere in Europe."

Stack didn't look happy about it. Quietly, he had come to rely on her. There was something he hadn't told her about, but which he wanted to. Something he found difficult to get straight in his own mind. She could tell. She had found she could catch his moods.

"I have to go," she said.

"I know."

"And you never told me how you escaped from Lauderdale's androids."

He hesited, "I know. It's kind of complicated."

"Save it for when I come by again."

"Sister…"

"Yes?"

"Never mind," he kissed her on the cheek, like a brother. She tried not to be disappointed. "Goodbye, Chantal."

"Goodbye, Nathan."

He walked away, and vanished into the shadows under the eaves of the fort. She turned to Federico, and keyed in her door-open code.

"Good morning, Sister," it said.

She felt comfortable with Federico's leather seat under her, and experienced that slipping-into-a-warm-bath thrill she always had when she was in the car. Federico played The Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," but she didn't want to hear that. She selected Nat King Cole's "Route 66."

The main gates of Fort Apache slid open, and she drove over London Bridge. Ahead of her was the Big Empty, the desert heart of America.

"Ciao," she said, mainly to herself.