The Cairo Saga, Book 2: The Solaris Irregulars
Part 43: I am my bothers keeper
Io city
Callisto V
Lyran Alliance
The farmhouse was indeed deserted, and by the looks of it, it had been ransacked for anything of value. Cairo remembered one of the briefings they had been given about Work of Blake, and about how they often recruited from pirate bands to fill out the ranks of their foot soldiers.
He managed to find a bed in an upstairs room where he could change Slone's bandages: most of the bleeding appeared to have stopped, but there was still the question of the amount of blood she had lost, and the damage done of the bullets as they passed through. He checked her vitals, and she seemed to be stable, so he decided to have a look round the house to see what he could find.
What ever had happened here, it had happened in a hurry: personal possessions were strewn across every room in no discernable order. He managed to find a shirt and pair of denim trousers to replace his blood-soaked combat gear. He found a few extra shirts he could use as bandages for Slone if needed.
Slone was awake when he went to check on her, "How do you feel?"
"Kind of tingly." she smiled slightly.
"That's the morphine I gave you: you'll feel great for now, but as soon as it wears off, the pain is really going to hit."
"How bad is it?"
"I don't know, but it doesn't look good: you lost a lot of blood, and took at lest 4-rounds through your guts."
Despite the effects of the morphine, Slone's mind seamed to work fine: "There should be some blood-expander packs in our med kits, but you're have to be careful how you use them: too much and I could start bleeding again."
"I think I can remember something about that from my training."
Cairo sat on a chair next to the bed as he went through the equipment, "There's something I've been wanting to ask you ever since you sighed up back on Solaris."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere right now: ask away."
"You seemed more eager than anyone else to sign up, why?"
"Well, they say confession is good for the soul: My mother was from the Free Worlds League, and my older brother joined the FWL military when he was 18; He's a Knight of the Inner Sphere. At first I was really proud of him, of the fact that he was considered good enough to join such an elite unit. But then he seemed to change: His letters has always been very open, but he started becoming more and more guarded about where he was and what he was doing. At first I put it down to typical military security, but then all of this started."
"All off suddenly, everything that had happen made sense: my brother was working for Word of Blake. I couldn't believe it at first, but then I got a letter from him, telling me to get off of Solaris ASAP. I figured out that he must have had something to do with what was happening, so I signed up with you in an attempt to atone for what he had done."
"You've nothing to atone for: he made his own decisions, and nothing you can do now can change that. But, you are one hell of a Mech-jockey, and I'm glad that you did sign up." Cairo stood, "Now, I'm going to go see if I can find us a way out of here before it gets too light outside."
To Be Continued…