The Cairo Saga, book 4: Operation Chindit
Part 2: Wheels within wheels

Sigfried Glacier Reserve
Evirons, Tharkad City
Tharkad
District of Donegal, Lyran Alliance

"I will go, I will go
When the fighting is over
Tae the land o' MacLeod
That I left to be a soldier
I will go, I will go."

A drunken voice echoed along the long corridors, distracting Cairo from what little paperwork he still had. Grumbling under his breath, but secretly grateful for the distraction, he got to his feet and walked to the door.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" He yelled in the general direction of the singing, "You're not even confined to quarters: go and annoy someone else you crazy bastard!"

"Sorry sir!" Captain Sharpe called back, his already thick Scots burr rendered almost unintelligibly by drink, "But we gott'a stick together!"

"Just cut-out the singing!" Cairo slammed the office door loud enough to rattle nearby ornaments: he didn't like being so hard on those under his commanded: the Irregulars had lost a third of their combat strength fighting for the Lyran capital, and those left where shell-shocked and weary. They all deserved the chance to let their hair down a little, but events where conspiring against them.

Just two days after the Military Police had arrested Cairo and the survivors of the Hesperus II mission, word had come through that Star Colonel Jake Kabrinski and his Ghost Bears had been recalled. They left, taking with them the bulk of the combat ready troops. Cairo had sent the Smoke Jaguars taken bondsman on Tukayyid with them: he could live without the constant bickering between them and the rest of the regiment.

The only thing he'd found amusing was the look on Precenter Martail Davion's face when he told an emissary from the newly reunified Clan Wolf that they could have the Nature's Wrath back. Although still not full repaired after its clash with the Word of Blake McKenna only three months before, it was still a potent weapon that the head of ComStar's military had been hoping to redeploy in the Inner Sphere.

Finding new and intriguing ways to annoy his superior was one of Cairo's few hobbies, and he enjoyed it immensely.

"O.K., Brunnen danken Ihnen für versuchenden General. Auf Wiedersehen." Sinead walked in a side door with a cellular phone in her hand, "That was Spendlove: he's called in every favor he has, and a few he hasn't, but he can't help." She sat down on a chair near the desk, "Was that Ian singing?"

"Yeah: drunk as a Lord." Cairo slumped back down into his own seat, "One of these days he's going to push his luck too far and I'm going to bust him down to cadet..."

"Rather you than me."

"Why do you say that?"

"Jesus Steven; are you the only one who doesn't know?"

"Know what?"

"He's a Death Commando."

"WHAT!"

"I thought you knew? It's in his file if you look."

"I never saw that." Cairo typed a rapid string of command into his computer, "It says he was an AFCC officer who was visiting family on New Caledonia when the fighting started..."

"Look closer." Sinead walked round the desk and looked over her husbands' shoulder, "It says that he was Capellan Special Forces."

"You wouldn't think of it to look at him." Cairo sighed, rubbing the right side of his face.

"Stop that!" Sinead swatted the hand away, "You know what the doctor said: if the inflammation doesn't go down, they can't put your new eye in."

"Bloody bone-shakers." Cairo muttered, wishing the constant itching would go away, "Don't know why their even bothering to grow a replacement: the JAG's going to put me up against a wall and have me shot."

"Simon will come up with something."

"He claims that he has, but he'll only discus it face to face."

"So? He'll be here in two days."

"I'm in court in three: if he doesn't come up with something good, I'm dead."

"You're too negative."

"What have I got to be positive about? In the past 6-years I've lost my parents, my sister, my home, my best friend, my home world, found out that a guy I thought I'd killed is still alive, and then lost another good friend."

"So you don't consider me or the kids a good thing?"

"Don't look at me like that: you know I love the three of you more than anything, but I can't help but feel a little guilty about how it all came about."

"You feel guilty about everything."

"I'm a Catholic: it comes naturally to me. Anyway, who's your little meeting go?"

"I've never under stood why they call it a 'civil' court when it's anything but civil."

"Things still not getting on with your mother I take it?"

"The psycho bitch-queen of the universe? No: she's trying to have the kids taken away from us, claiming we're unfit parents." Sinead sat on the desk, "Think Leroux would drop a NAC round through her house if I asked nicely?"

"Possibly." Cairo shrugged, "Don't worry: Rix and Xander have orders to shoot first and ask questions later if anyone should try anything with Jane and Paul." He smiled, "And you owe me 10 C-Bills: a little bird tells me two of our subordinates spent last night together."

"I should have frigging known." Sinead laughed, "Still, I expected Sara to put off telling Kerry how she felt. I think they'll be good for each other."

"I hope so." Cairo's phone rang, "Cairo. Ok, tell him I'll be right down." He dropped the hand set back into the receiver, "The JAG's here and his staff are here."

"We'd better go get this over with." Sinead got to her feet and led the way down to the reception room.

A staff officer in dress uniform was waiting for them, along with someone Cairo had never expected to see again.

"Hello Steven: surprised to see me?" Élan Frasier asked, her new Kommandant's uniform neatly pressed, "I've been assigned to handle the prosecution."

To Be Continued...