E-DAY plus 14 YEARS, 33 WEEKS

[Port Farrall, 0730 hours]

Cole could see that Baird was pissed by the way he left the battlefield right away, not even asking Marcus if he could go. That meant he was so mad he didn't care if he got put on a charge for ducking out. Cole went and asked for the both of them.

"Yeah," Marcus said, looking around at the lessening chaos. "I guess we've got all the help we need for now. Delta deserves a break anyhow."

"Thanks, Marcus. Radio me if Hoffman calls for a debriefing."

"Will do, Cole."

Baird was, of course, in his garage.

Cole opened with, "Hey, man. Crazy fight, huh?"

Baird was banging viciously on a rusted U-joint he had clamped in a vise. "Yeah. We won. Faaan-tastic."

"What's the matter?"

"I should have thought of those countermeasures myself, that's what! Berserkers started showing up on the surface four years ago. I've known about their hearing for frigging years, and I didn't think to make something that would blow out their eardrums? She probably has a gadget that blocks their ability to sniff us out, too." Baird continued beating on the U-joint. "And that laser! How did she get it to burn that hot?" He turned and threw the mallet across the garage. It knocked over a bunch of empty gas canisters and caused a tremendous noise for a few seconds. "And how the hell did she atomize the Corpser? The COG is nowhere near that kind of technology, and she built it out in the frigging wilderness?" He kicked the side of a metal tool chest and it rang like a giant bell.

'So that's why he's mad,' Cole thought. 'He just got royally shown up by his ex-girlfriend. In front of absolutely everyone.'

"Well, it probably took her all of those ten years of wandering to figure it out. Not much to do but think when you're hiding in a cave most of the time."

Baird turned back to the workbench and braced his hands on the surface. He breathed in and out through his nose.

It was working. "And it's not like you've had a lot of spare time to tinker with lasers and shit. You've been a frontline Gear all this time, man, you've barely had enough down time between battles to eat and sleep for the last decade and a half."

Baird shook his head, but at least he wasn't throwing things anymore.

"It'll be different now that the war's over. We'll crush the last of these Grubs and then you can raid secret underground laboratories to your heart's content."

Baird drummed his fingers on the surface of the bench. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right."

He just knew Baird's mind would grab on to those cold hard facts despite his emotions. Cole might as well plant another seed of truth in there while he was at it.

"Hell, if you could manage to work with Sharon, the world's technology could get back on its feet a lot faster. We'd have factories and computer networks and shit like that in no time."

Baird didn't turn around, but his tone went low and icy. "I'll be damned if I'll work with Sharon Keller. Screw technology. It can wait."

Cole was truly shocked. Normally Baird could put aside any grudge, no matter how deep, if it meant he could play with high-tech toys. Sharon Keller was the first person Cole had ever seen Baird have such a strong emotional reaction to. 'Huh. Maybe that means he still cares about her.' Cole had been convinced for years that what Baird really needed was a good woman, but most women didn't want an acid-tongued hermit who only cared about machines.

"So she's your ex. So she made some impulsive decisions when she was young. Who cares? It's ancient history now. Her husband isn't even around anymore. I mean, you two have a lot in common. You said you were good together in the past. You guys could patch things up and start over."

"I don't want to patch things up! I don't want her in my shop, much less my life! I want her to get the hell out of the COG and never come back!" Baird tightened the vise on the frozen U-joint until Cole though the joint might just crack in half.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why all the hostility?"

"Because she's frakking whore, that's why!"

"Hey now." Cole didn't like hearing ladies talked about like that. "That's not cool, man."

"Why not? It's true."

Cole couldn't button down his curiosity anymore. "Baird, it wasn't just a regular old break-up, was it?" Baird's back stiffened. He said nothing.

"Come on, man, you can tell me. I won't repeat it to anybody. I won't drop hints or give her weird looks or anything."

Baird gripped the edge of the countertop with both hands. "She dumped me for James because he was rich."

"I thought your family was rich too?"

"Yeah, but his was more rich. Like 'you-wouldn't-believe-me-if-I-told-you' kind of rich. My family was just regular old rich. And in order to get my inheritance I'd have to serve two years in the military first. James would get his as soon as he married."

"Yeah, but—"

Baird turned around with his mouth set in a thin, bitter line. "Think about it like this, Cole: say you win the lottery. Would you rather wait two years to get six million dollars, or get forty million right now?"

"Holy shit. That's a lot of cash."

"Exactly." He turned back to his workbench. "And that's why she's a whore. She literally slept with James so she could get his money. The wedding just put a pretty face on it. End of story."

"Damn. I didn't think she was the type."

"Yeah, well, neither did I. Serves me right for trusting her that much."

"Hmm." Suddenly a lot of things about Baird made sense to Cole. "Listen, man, I'll never stomp all over your trust, okay? I even promise not to whore myself out."

Baird let out a tiny laugh. "I'll hold you to that, Cole." He shuffled some things around on the bench. "You know, the first year or so of the war, I was totally pissed at the Grubs. Not for the same reasons as everybody else, though. It was because if they had started attacking us just four months earlier, James's money wouldn't have mattered, and Sharon would have still been with me." He gave Cole a tired, insincere smile. "Took me a while to realize that I wouldn't have known what kind of person she really was until she eventually cheated on me." He spun a wrench that was lying flat on the workbench. "I really dodged a bullet there."

"Yeah, I guess you did, Baird. I guess you really did."