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knew that voice. They had known it
since their first day at the National Women’s Military Academy. The
soldier turned around to look at them.
    “ Jesus Christ , Steph! What the hell
are you doing here?” Robin blurted out. The soldier was the first
person she had met at the Academy, a tall, slender brunette and
fellow “Cadet Cunt”, Lieutenant Stephanie Carroll.
    “She’s here for the same reason I am. We came
to rescue your sorry little butts, meaning no disrespect, General,
sir,” said Major Rodriguez from behind them. His voice sounded
higher than before. Jodie and Robin’s heads swiveled back, as if
they were spectators at a tennis match. They saw the NSB man
pulling at the mustache on his upper lip, and cursing foully under
his breath. “Fucking glue won’t come off.”
    Jodie and Robin gazed at him open-mouthed.
“Who…?” Jodie asked.
    “It’s me, Kate Swenson,” replied Major
Rodriguez. Kate was another member of their class at the NWMA, a
fellow “Cadet Cunt” from Company A, First Cadet Platoon. She was a
natural blonde, with the pale complexion of her Scandinavian
ancestors, and it took them a long second to recognize her in her
current dark-skinned incarnation. “I just cut and dyed my hair and
tinted my skin,” she explained. “Turn around and let me get those
cuffs off you.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    After hugs had been exchanged and the tears
dried, Kate briefed Robin and Jodie as they drove away from the
Military Police compound. “General Cafferson thought that something
like this was likely to happen after he died, so last year he
formed a special squad from some of his most trusted men and us
“Cadet Cunts”. We’re paid out of a ‘black budget’, unofficial and
off the books. We all have bogus assignments, disguises and fake
identities, spook gadgets, and top level security clearances, but
our real job was to keep an eye on you, General, and I wish we had
done better job of it. We should have gotten you out of your house
before the MPs picked you up, but they moved a little faster than
we thought they would, dammit. I’ll have that sorry piece of shit
Harkness’ balls for breakfast, see if I don’t.”
    “They? Who are they , exactly?” Jodie
asked.
    “We don’t know, exactly,” Steph answered.
“We’re still trying to find out who’s behind this conspiracy…”
    “It’s those Navy bastards,” put in the
driver, speaking for the first time.
    “That’s Captain Dick Murphy, Cafferson’s
personal spook,” Kate explained. “I agree, it probably is, Dick,
but we don’t have any proof.”
    “Yet,” added the intelligence man.
    “That’s it, “ Kate said. “We are going to
find somebody who knows who the sons of bitches behind this coup
are, and we are going to peel him like an onion until we have the
details of the plot and the names of the traitorous bastards behind
it.” Her eyes had a faraway look, as if she could see the guilty
parties trying to hide from her fierce gaze.
    She returned her attention to the present.
“But in the meantime, you two will have to make yourselves scarce
for a while. It won’t do us much good to uncover the plotters if
you’re lying in a shallow grave somewhere when we finally clear
your names.” Kate looked at Robin and Jodie’s expressions, and
nodded grimly. “Yeah. These boys are playing for keeps. There are
not going to be any second chances for anybody in this game. It’s
their necks or yours, all or nothing.”
    “We’re here, Kate,” Murphy said. The car
turned up a driveway and rolled into an open garage. The door
closed silently behind them.
    “Listen, Jodie, Robin,” Kate said urgently.
“There’s not much time. Pretty soon somebody’s going to start
wondering what happened to the real NSB men we took out before we
came to get you away from the MPs, and then they’re going to start
asking where you are. In a few hours, you two are going to
be hotter than bubbling cheese. This is a safe house, where we