Punishment

I met the squad just inside of the Underground. They looked at Forty’s injury, barely covering the smirks that were still painfully obvious. Her first command action with the Betas, and she was the only injury.

Or was she… where was Forty-Eight?

I asked and got a head shake. “He tried to move through the sewers and they cut him down,” Forty-Five explained. “We didn’t dare go after him, but he was hit about a dozen times, so I’m sure he’s dead.”

Forty sighed. “Right. What else did you learn, if anything?”

“I think that should wait,” I told her, prompting a few gasps from the rest of the squad. “You need a medic.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded. “How dare you try to countermand me!”

“I’m the guy that just faced down two gun-toting enemies to save your sorry ass,” I told her in a scathing voice. “Or would rather I’d just left you there?”

The captain appeared, cutting off her response. “Hey, the sentries sent word. How bad is it?”

“Just a flesh wound,” I said before Forty could respond.

“How did it happen?” he asked, clearly addressing me, and not her. She tensed. If I told him that she’d deliberately sent me on a suicide run, it would be the end of her command, and possibly her life.

I had a better idea… I wasn’t sure where it came from, but I went with it before I could think better of it. “We were doing recon at the two main exterior entrances of the tower. The first run went okay, but for the second we knew they’d be watching more closely. Forty drew their fire while I made the run to see what response we would get.”

She tensed even more, barely keeping her face even. She was stunned.

Lucky for her, the Captain swallowed it whole. “Insane, but inventive, I’ll give you that.” He nodded up the corridor. “Take her to the medics, then meet me at the barracks for debriefing. I want to know everything you guys found out.”

I nodded as Forty muttered some kind of acknowledgment. The rest of the squad headed back right away. I caught a weird look from Forty-Five… he knew the truth and he wondered why I had stuck up for such a witch?

She wondered the same thing. “Forty-Two… why did you lie to the captain? I almost got you killed.”

I hesitated, stopping for a moment and setting her down to sit on a pile of brick. “Permission to speak freely, sir?” I asked dryly.

She nodded, folding her arms. “I want the truth.”

“You’re a jerk… to everyone. I don’t even remember why it is that you hate me so much, but I know one thing… you’re brave. Nuts, yeah, but you don’t shy away from danger. We were given what could easily be classified as a suicide mission, and you didn’t hesitate. I don’t know if you’d have had my back… probably not, but I admire your guts, and I think the squad could learn a few things from you.”

Is that the truth, or are you just kissing up to me?” she asked pointedly.

“Something tells me that kissing up would get me shot,” I responded. “It’s the truth.”

She fell silent, just nodding. I picked her up again, and we said nothing else all the way to the medic station. Once I’d set her down and explained what had happened, I got an acknowledgment and the medics handed me a new roll of bandage for my pack.

Just before she was pulled into surgery, she caught my hand. “Forty-Two… thanks.”

I nodded. Nothing more was said… not then. But I knew I had her attention. Since I still couldn’t remember a damn thing, I didn’t know if that was a good thing… or a very bad thing.

When I got to the barracks, I noticed that we had a guest standing with the captain. General Case. He had his usual expressionless face, but I couldn’t help seeing that his eyes followed me all the way to my seat. I was the reason he was there… and I didn’t think that was a good thing.

I sat down and looked around. I was the last to arrive… and the others were avoiding my gaze. Something was up.

“As you all know by now, Beta-Four was sent on a recon mission this morning,” Captain intoned. “We believe they’d gleaned some valuable information for us. Unfortunately, in the process, one of the team died and another was injured… and we believe we were given some false information about how that came about.”

I felt a shiver down my spine. They knew… what, exactly, I wasn’t sure. I noticed that Forty-Five’s shoulders were hunched and he wouldn’t look at me. That explained how they knew.

I’d thought he was my friend. Apparently, his hatred for Forty was stronger than his supposed friendship with me. Either that or he was just another guy being nice to the poor lost lamb on the team. I’d been such an idiot. I should never have trusted any of these people.

“Forty-Two… stand up.”

I stood, doing my best to keep my face calm as the Captain came to stand in front of me. “Sir, yes, sir!”

“When your team returned, you told me that Forty had drawn fire to allow you to make your run. You said she’d done it deliberately. I heard something quite different from others of your team. How do you explain this?”

I shrugged. “To be honest sir, I don’t know. It certainly looked like that’s what she was doing. Why would she have given her position away, knowing they had guns, unless it was a deliberate distraction?”

“Why would the others of your team say differently?” he asked, just a hint of uncertainty on his face.

“Again, I don’t know. They weren’t the ones actually doing the recon run with Forty, so I don’t know how they could think they know what happened better than I do.”

My voice was a bit more tart than I’d intended… but it had the desired effect. Mostly.

Captain pulled something out of his pocket. A tablet. He tapped the screen and showed it to me. I tried not to flinch… I could see it was an audio clip. I had my suspicion as to what it was, and I was right. He played it… the clip was of my conversation with Forty in the corridor as I was taking her to the medics.

I was caught… convicted by my own voice.

“You admitted you lied… why?” Captain Beta demanded, putting the tablet back in his pocket.

I looked at him. “I gave my reasons in that voice recording. I didn’t think she deserved to die.”

“She tried to kill you… which is a direct violation of command policies. No commanding officer is permitted to send a subordinate on a suicide mission with the desire of seeing them killed,” he retorted. “That’s tantamount to execution and it’s not allowed. The only one that can order a soldier to be executed is General Case.”

I glanced at the General. He was still watching me… and I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. He was a cool one.

“The only thing worse than a rogue officer is a soldier who thinks he can lie to the officers and get away with it,” Captain Beta continued. “You could easily have put your entire team at risk. Therefore, I am sentencing you to the loss of your Pit night… and twenty-four hours in The Box.”

I saw a ripple run across the room, wide eyes everywhere. I got the impression that this was unusually harsh.

“What level, sir?” Lieutenant Beta asked quietly.

Captain’s eyes narrowed. “Four.”

That engendered an even stronger response. General Case even took a step forward, frowning. “That seems a bit extreme, Captain. Are you quite sure his infraction deserves such a severe punishment? He is new, after all.”

“Exactly. He needs to learn what happens when someone lies to me,” Captain said, glaring at me. “I think he needs to be taken down a peg or two. He not only lied, he tried to justify it.”

There was more going on here than he was saying, and I had the feeling I knew what it was, but I had no power to call him out on it. I said nothing, just watching as he moved back to the front of the room.

General Case still looked unhappy. “Captain, you know I try not to interfere in the affairs of the teams, but… I still have my reservations about this. He is not as well-conditioned as the rest of the team. Sending him to the lowest level could… well, it could kill him.”

“If it does, then he’s a weak l**k, and we don’t need him anyway.”

Case raised his eyebrows. “Now who’s giving commands tantamount to execution? I think you go too far, Captain. However… I’m going to let the punishment stand. I think it could be quite instructive to see what happens… and what effect it has on your team.”

Great… I was the sacrificial lamb to prove what an ass the captain was. I could see that Captain Beta’s face now looked a bit uncertain, but he couldn’t call it back. He couldn’t afford to look weak.

The damage was done. I could see dark looks on the faces of the rest of the team members as they glared at the captain. He gave the harshest of punishments to the lowliest rookie… for nothing more than trying to cover for a teammate. 

Yeah… I’m sure Case would find the situation very interesting. Part of me hoped I wouldn’t live to see the results.

Before the captain could say anything else, General turned to Lieutenant Beta, who was quite pale. “Lieutenant, please escort Forty-Two to the box to carry out his punishment. I want him closely monitored, however. He has done nothing worthy of death, and I don’t want to see him killed. Is that understood?”

She nodded and saluted, her hand shaking a bit. “Understood, sir.”

I slipped around the captain, who looked a bit bewildered now, still keeping my face even. I followed the lieutenant out of the room and out to the main corridor, wondering what I was in store for.

Cold, I could handle, but if the rest of it was as bad as Forty-Five made it sound… this wasn’t going to be fun. 

When we arrived, she nodded to a guy in a heavy coat, who stood by a door simply marked “The Box”. It was locked tight. 

“Hey… is level four busy?”

The guy shook his head. “Naw, hardly ever. What did this guy do to earn level four?”

“Lied to his C.O.” Lieutenant Beta said quietly.

The man frowned. “That’s hardly worth level four. Seriously, what did he do?”

“Slept with the captain’s girl, apparently,” I spoke up, drawing a sharp look from the lieutenant. “A mistake I’ll certainly never make again.”

The guy gave me a bemused look. “Oh really… did you know?”

I looked at the lieutenant, who was turning crimson. “No. I didn’t. Now I do. Like I said… it’ll never happen again.”

“Forty-Two… I’m sorry-”

“Not as sorry as I am,” I snarled. “Go back to your boyfriend… this lost lamb doesn’t need cuddling. Let’s be honest, he didn’t send me because I lied about the mission. He sent me here to punish me for sleeping with you.”

“Maybe, but-”

“No maybe about it,” I interrupted again, not interested in hearing any more lies from her. “Just save it… I’m tired of being lied to and told what to do, not having any control over my own life. I’m sick of this whole mess. If I freeze to death down there, it’s better than being betrayed by someone who claimed to love me more than life.”

Tears streamed down her face. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

The guard sighed. “Okay… enough of the soap opera. Come on, kid, let’s go.”

He unlocked the door and pulled me inside. The last I saw of the lieutenant was her hunched back as she hurried away with her arms wrapped around her. 

The door slammed, and I was pulled down a long, dark corridor, then through another door. A blast of frigid air hit me hard as the guy dragged me over to a wall and put me in manacles. I had no idea how he navigated so easily without light, but I figured he’d done this for a while.

“Did they specify whether you needed to disrobe?” he asked.

I shook my head, forgetting he couldn’t see me in the dark. “No, nothing was said about it.”

“Then I’ll assume they didn’t mean for you to disrobe,” he said, locking my ankles. “Good luck, kid… and if you survive this… well, let’s just say guys that make it out of Level Four tend to be a rarified lot. Your captain may yet come to regret this.”

I shrugged. “Maybe he will.”