had a little warboy streak in him. “Delayed replay of an amphibious assault on Punta Patuca. We came, we saw, we kicked butt.” He handed his wet overcoat and hat to the wheelie that had followed him in. “Almost no casualties.”
“What’s ‘almost’?” Amelia said.
“Well, they ran into a shatterfield.” He sat down heavily. “Three units lost both legs. But we got them evac’ed before the scavengers could get to them. One psych, a girl on her second or third mission.”
“Wait,” I said. “They used a shatterfield inside a city?”
“They sure as hell did. Brought down a whole block of slums, urban renewal. Of course they said we did it.”
“How many dead?”
“Must be hundreds.” Ray shook his head. “That’s what got the girl, maybe. She was in the middle of it, immoblilized with both her legs off. Fought the rescue crew; wanted them to evac the civilians. They had to turn her off to get her out of there.”
He asked the table for a scotch and soda and the rest of us put our orders in. No greasy waiters in this section. “Maybe she’ll be okay. One of those things you have to learn to live with.”
“We didn’t do it,” Reza said.
“Why would we? No military advantage, bad press. Shatterfield’s a terror weapon, in a city.”
“I’m surprised anyone survived,” I said.
“Nobody on the ground; they were all instant chorizo. But those were four- and five-story buildings. People in the upper stories just had to survive the collapse.
“The Tenth set up a knockout perimeter with UN markers and called it a no-fire zone, collateral casualty, once we had all our soldierboys out. Dropped in a Red Cross med crawler and moved on.
“The shatterfield was their only real ’tech touch. The rest of it was old-fashioned, cut-off-and-concentrate tactics, which doesn’t work on a group as well integrated as the Tenth. Good platoon coordination. Julian, you would have appreciated it. From the air it was like choreography.”
“Maybe I’ll check it out.” I wouldn’t; never did, unless I knew somebody in the fight.
“Any time,” Ray said. “I’ve got two crystals of it, one jacked through Emily Vail, the company coordinator. The other’s the commercial feed.” They didn’t show battles while they were happening, of course, since the enemy could jack in. The commercial feed was edited both for maximum drama and minimum disclosure. Normal people couldn’t get individual mechanics’ unedited feeds; lots of warboys would cheerfully kill for one. Ray had top-secret clearance and an unfiltered jack. If a civilian or a spy got ahold of Emily Vail’s crystal, they would see and feel a lot that wasn’t on the commercial version, but selected perceptions and thoughts would be filtered out unless you had a jack like Ray’s.
A live waiter in a clean tuxedo brought our drinks. I was splitting a jug of house red with Reza.
Ray raised a glass. “To peace,” he said, actually without irony. “Welcome back, Julian.” Amelia touched my knee with hers under the table.
The wine was pretty good, just astringent enough to make you consider a slightly more expensive one. “Easy week this time,” I said, and Ray nodded. He always checked on me.
A couple of others showed up, and we broke down into the usual interlocking small conversational groups. Amelia moved over to sit with Belda and another man from fine arts, to talk about books. We usually did separate when it seemed natural.
I stayed with Reza and Ray; when Marty came in he gave Amelia a peck and joined the three of us. There was no love lost between him and Belda.
Marty was really soaked, his long white hair in lanky strings. “Had to park down the block,” he said, dropping his sodden coat on the wheelie.
“Thought you were working late,” Ray said.
“This isn’t late?” He ordered coffee and a sandwich. “I’m going back later, and so are you. Have a couple more scotches.”
“What is it?” He pushed his scotch away a symbolic inch.
“Let’s not talk shop. We have all night. But it’s that girl you said you saw on the Vail crystal.”
“The one who cracked?” I asked.
“Mm-hm. Why don’t you crack, Julian? Get a discharge. We enjoy your company.”
“Your platoon, too,” Ray joked. “Nice bunch.”
“How could she fit into your cross-linking studies?” I asked. “She must hardly have been linking at all.”
“New deal we started while you were gone,” Ray said. “We got a contract to study empathy failures. People who crack out of sympathy for the enemy.”
“You may get Julian,” Reza said. “He just loves them