The sound of ringing steel sounded as my knife fell from my grip and onto the frozen tile.

My ears were ringing, and even though I could hear someone talking even though the words were just noise.

...we're in bad trouble...

....Anthony, I love you...

...we're gonna die, aren't we, brother...

...fuck you and your snowmen...

...US Rangers, we're here to get you out...

Hands grabbed me and turned me around, shifting to grab my arms and shake me. I struggled, not seeing anything but the killer in the cold weather mask. I couldn't move, I couldn't fight, I couldn't do anything but open my mouth and suck in air to start screaming. A sudden sharp impact against the side of my face snapped my head around as LT James slapped me across the face.

"Corporal Stillwater. Corporal Stillwater!" LT James's voice carried the whip-crack of command as he finally reached me. I closed my mouth and blinked a few times. "Lock it down, Corporal. You have fellow soldiers who are counting on you. Push back the memories and come back, I need your help."

I shook my head like I was trying to shake off a hard right hook to the side of the head. I knew I was shaking as he let go of me and took a step back. "On line, on time," I managed to say.

"That piece of equipment has some significance, Corporal?" he asked me.

"The killer that attacked us last month wore one just like it," I told him. "It was bloody like that about halfway through it."

He squinted outside in the snow and dark for a moment. "Let us withdraw to the CQ Area and make plans, Corporal. Our position here is tenuous at best."

I didn't trust myself to speak, just nodded and followed him into the Orderly Room. Nancy and I waited while he locked the door. The temperature was dropping fast as we moved into the hallway that separated the Ready Room from the Orderly Room and offices. Bomber stood there with my knife in his hand, trying to watch the door to the Ready Room, the Orderly Room hallway, and the back door all at the same time while keeping his back to wall instead of the stairwell door.

"Are we fucked?" Bomber asked.

"No, Specialist, we are not 'fucked' in my opinion," LT James said from behind me when I opened my mouth to tell Bomber that we were probably screwed. "However Corporal Stillwater and I have managed to ascertain that we are indeed not alone in here as I had suspected."

"So what does that mean for us, sir?" Nancy asked. She pulled open the stairwell door at the LT's motion.

"We are in imminent danger, with no outside communication, no way to obtain extraction from our situation, and without reinforcements," LT James said, his voice clipped and steady, moving into the stairwell. I noticed he glanced beneath the stairs as well as up the middle of the stairwell to ensure the stairwell was clear. "Many of the soldiers have critical injuries, including Corporal Stillwater, who should be in ICU, so we will approach this from an offensive mindset to offset our weaknesses."

"What do we do, sir?" Bomber asked, shivering as a gust of wind from the broken window blew over us.

"We carry out our mission and carry on, Specialist," the LT said, pausing just before the door closed with a crash and a scream drifted down the stairs. "There is little else we can do."

"Roger that, sir," Bomber answered.

"Corporal Stillwater," the LT said as we headed up the stairs.

"Yes, sir?"

"The barracks will be locked down as per my earlier plan," he said, and then paused on the middle stairwell. "Tomorrow you and I will discuss the fact that I am going to have you performing other duties than you originally thought you would be carrying out."

"Like what?" I asked, suspicious. He was probably going to have me standing guard outside in the snow or some shit.

"I want to ensure that as many people survive this detachment assignment as I can humanly possibly manage. You and I shall discuss reaction planning, possible extraction and/or withdrawal plans, as well as whatever we can think of that will increase the survival factor for the members of 2/19th Special Weapons Group Rear Detachment," he told me. He suddenly turned to Nancy, his expression grim. "Specialist Nagle,"

"Sir?"

"Go through the members of Rear Detachment and select anyone you think might be able to retain and effectively utilize any medical training you can give them. Select two to four assistants and begin training them as quickly as possible in as many techniques as you think will be safe," LT James said. "I learned long ago that quick and effective medical care could make the difference between a successful mission and an entire team being wiped out and the mission failing." I was two steps down from the landing and saw his fist clench, his knuckles popping loudly in the dark silence of the stairwell. "I refuse to lose any members of Rear Detachment due to succumbing to basic officer pride and refusing to take the advice of experienced and highly skilled subordinates." He looked at me for a moment. "Corporal Stillwater, tonight I want you to consider members of Rear Detachment that are you would select for a Quick Reaction Force that are highly skilled as well as professional. Above all I want you to consider how they would interlock with the people that I have high confidence that you will chose as members of the Quick Reaction Force. Do not select anyone that you feel that you cannot trust at your side."

I thought for a moment while the LT and my friends looked at me. When I opened my mouth the LT chuckled. "I had assumed, Corporal, that you would automatically choose Specialists Bomber, Stokes and Nagle to help you head up the Quick Reaction Force. Your other choices will undoubtedly be made depending on your opinion of each soldier's combat familiarity, familiarity and personal relationship, and known skill levels, so let that allay any fears that I will override your decisions."

I nodded. "We'll need to break into the Armory, I'll want some of the heavy weapons."

The LT nodded slowly. "Tomorrow we will discuss what heavy weaponry you wish to have issued to the Quick Reaction Force." He paused for a moment, frowning to himself. "Tonight I will seriously consider allowing at least one of the M2A2 .50 caliber general purpose heavy machineguns, five hundred rounds of ball and white phosphorous three to one mix, and an M3 tripod to be kept in the CQ Area in case we end up defending the barracks from outside incursion." When Nancy opened her mouth he nodded. "Rear Detachment's primary mission is ensuring the security of the entire Group's secure data, including the location and arming instructions for the nuclear weapons under our control. The fact that we are isolated, without reinforcement, and do not have the support of the rest of the US Army behind us makes us a primary target of opportunity if our status has been discovered by any nearby stationed strike teams of the Soviet Union."

"Do you think that's a possibility, sir?" Bomber asked.

The LT nodded slightly. "Yes, Specialist, a slight possibility, but a possibility all the same, and as the after action reports from the last Rear Detachment team have taught me, I must take into account any and all possibilities, no matter how slight they might normally appear." He motioned at the top of the stairwell. "If you would excuse Corporal Stillwater and myself, Specialists."

Bomber and Nancy nodded, moving by the LT.

"I'll meet you in the room," I called after them. Both of them called back they'd be waiting. The LT waited until the door slammed, then kept silent for a moment, listening. He seemed to relax when another scream tore down the stairwell, then motioned for me to join him on the mid-way landing.

"Before we lost communications with Group I was informed that I was to station elements at the Motorpool to guard the vehicles as well as the auxiliary armory and NBC room up there." He paused for a moment, gauging my reaction.

...he might as well shoot them himself...

The lizard muttered to itself at the idea of being stuck up there. With the blizzard and the winter temperatures, the only way to get back to the barracks, or even get up there, would be the War Fighter Tunnels. If we opened those it would light up boards all the way to the Pentagon, the lizard reminded me with an image of men in Class-A's and tons of brass running around in circles screaming and waving their arms over their head. To put men in the towers at the perimeter of the Motorpool would leave them exposed to the wind and they'd be dead in minutes.

"Exactly," the LT said, as if he could read my mind and see the little lizard. "The orders I received from our pro-tem Group Commander are based on flawed intelligence regarding the weather conditions as well as the conditions of the soldiers assigned to Rear Detachment. Even if the soldiers I assigned up there were fully Arctic survival qualified, in top physical condition, and were properly geared, those soldiers would be dead before the end of an hour from exposure to the elements." He let out an exasperated sound. "One of the more difficult decisions every officer eventually has to make is whether or not to disobey a lawful order from his superiors, and it appears that the time is now in my own case." He shook his head. "So I will be disobeying the orders to have the Motorpool guarded, regardless of any advantage it gives any theoretical enemy at this time or the possibility of damage to my own career as an officer."

I nodded, absorbing not only everything he said, but the repercussions, the way he said it, and his body language. He looked completely relaxed, but I still could feel malevolence rolling off of him in an almost physical sensation. It made the lizard hiss and expose its fangs. I thought for a moment and decided to take a leap.

"Sir, while we were at the first formation you attended someone tossed my room," I blurted out. The LT raised his eyebrow.

"Amplify, soldier," he said. The lizard noticed the way his words were suddenly clipped and off-putting again.

"While we were gone they confiscated the knives we kept in our room, as well as the two firearms we were concealing, some of our survival gear, the Claymore land mines I require my crew to keep in their ready-bags, and the tactical map of the Group Area that I keep on hand in case I need to plan a training exercise," I told him.

"Did they search the typical hiding places?" he asked me. I nodded. "What about the more little known spaces?"

"Some of them," I admitted. "They missed a few places though."

"And the keys to your FSTS Site?"

"That data's still secure," I answered. "The keys and the codebooks are in S-2."

He nodded slowly, and I knew he was updating his observations of what might be occurring. "That significantly changes our situation, Corporal," he said slowly. "That, based with what we learned in the Commander's Office, leads me to believe that my suspicions that we are not alone up here are nearly validated."

"Nearly, sir?"

"They could have already left the area before the storm came in, or perhaps tried to risk the storm and are now deceased. Part of my job is to attempt to figure in all the variables," he told me.

"Oh. Running the numbers. Yeah, I do that too," I admitted. The conversation felt weird, almost surreal. The fact he'd be talking to me like a normal human being threw me off, and I couldn't help but feel it was just a trick.

After all, everyone knew James was a sociopath who ran First Magazine Platoon like a goddamn tyrant, right? Right?

LT James clapped me on the shoulder, and I noticed that he went to slap his hand down on my right shoulder but changed it so that he didn't strike my injury. The lizard filed it away as he knew where I was hurt, while I was kind of confused that he had not only remembered, but hadn't taken the opportunity to inflict a little pain to remind me who was in charge like the Platoon Leader of my own platoon.

"That is what makes the difference between competent and incompetent leaders, Corporal," he told me. "Take some time to jot down notes on what might increase our survival chances tonight. Do not bother to write up a proper report or analysis, just quick notes for us to discuss. Do not take the time to fully flesh out and explain everything, just make a note that you will be able to remember the idea when we discuss what you come up with."

"No problem, sir," I answered. I understood why. If I was taken out or my notebook fell into the wrong hands it would be next to worthless to anyone but me.

"With that being said, Corporal, enjoy your evening and the company of your friends," he told me, motioning at me to precede him. The idea of having him walking behind me bothered me and made the lizard hiss a warning, but I ignored him and headed to my room.

Hammerhead Hall was dark and cold, only a handful of the lights were working and they were dim and yellow. Frost covered the walls and floors, and little icicles hung from the suspended ceiling tiles. I didn't bother stopping when I heard stealthy boot steps behind me, I knew that was just an acoustic trick, but the lizard hated it, urging me to either break into a run or turn around to confront whoever was behind me.

When the light touch hit the back of my arm I realized that for once that my insistence that nobody was there was wrong. I spun around, hands coming up to defend myself, and saw Lancer standing there, taking a quick step back and holding his hands out at his sides to show that they were empty.

"Easy, Stillwater, it's just me," Lancer said in careful tones.

"Sorry, man, just keyed up," I told him.

"I'll bet. LT James told me someone tried to clock you in the head with a claw hammer." He rubbed his face. "Listen, uh, about last month..."

"Yeah?"

"You think whatever's coming down the pipe is worse?" He shrugged. "I mean, I'd rather not be walking into this shit blind, and I've got CQ tonight." He shook his head. "I've never been up here during the winter, and right now I've got a really bad feeling."

I heard the mid-way doors open up and turned to look. Nancy was headed toward us, swinging the sock full of quarters and smiling. I turned back to him and kind of shrugged.

"Just keep everyone together, two men patrols, see if the LT will let you draw weapons from the Arms Room and stay alert." I took Nancy's hand when she stopped next to me. "The worst part about last time is we didn't know we were in trouble till it was almost too late."

Lancer nodded, turning to walk with us as we headed back. "Probably not too smart to finish the security sweeps by myself?" I grunted and he laughed. "Hey, I'm a bad mother-fucker, but whoever jumps will me will have surprise on their side, probably be armed, and probably be three of them."

Nancy chuckled at that. "You'll be fine, high-speed."

"Shit, I hope this isn't too bad. I mean, I'll probably do fine if combat breaks out, but I don't want other people getting hurt, you know?"

That startled me. I glanced at him and his face was serious.

"Shit, my weapon isn't zero'd out since I cleaned it last." He started digging in his pocket to get his green notebook. He flipped through it and stopped. "Good, got it right here." When he saw me looking at him, he waved the book and grinned. "Can't win the fight if you can't hit shit, man. I'm pretty hot shit with a rifle." He waved at my hip with the book. "You suck pretty bad with that rifle, so you might want to stay with that pig-sticker of yours."

"Heh, he'll be lucky he doesn't manage to shoot himself in the face with his sixteen," Nagle laughed as she pushed open the door to the stairwell. Lancer laughed and I made a face. Just before the door closed behind us, as we were heading down the stairs, Lancer suddenly stopped and held up a closed fist, cocking his head.

"Did you hear that?" he asked quietly.

I listened close, but didn't hear anything. I didn't bother to ask. "Got your back," I told him.

We moved down to the hallway that led to the Ready Room and the Orderly Room, Lancer pausing every few seconds to listen. Snow was blowing into the hallway and piling up pretty well, about four inches by the window and an even inch for the rest of the little hallway. Lancer reached up like he was going to rap on the mailboxes on the wall and stopped, pulling his hand away, making that fist again and holding it up.

That time I heard it to.

Someone was in the Orderly Room, opening file cabinets and trying to be sneaky about it. I nodded at Lancer and checked Nancy. She hefted the sock of quarters in her left hand and her bayonet in her right. I glanced at Lancer and he shook his head. I reached behind me and pulled out the bayonet, handing it to him, then knelt down to grab the Gerber on my boot.

We all nodded to each other, then moved into the hallway that went past the mailroom and into the hallway. I led the way, coming around the corner to see the Orderly Room sitting there nice and quiet. Lancer checked the mop closet quietly behind us as Nancy and I moved into it, Nancy checking the door handles on the 1SG, XO, and CO's office while I hit the lights.

Three of the cabinets were open, and I knew they hadn't been open when we'd been there less than fifteen minutes before. There was a dusting of snow on the floor and I moved up to the windows as Lancer came back in.

"See if you can figure out what they were looking for, Lancer," Nancy snapped, moving up and looking in the garbage can. It should have been empty, since nobody assigned to the Orderly Room was up on the mountain.

At the base of the window, in a light dusting of snow that would have normally melted off already, was part of a bootprint. I knelt down and looked at, tracing over it with my fingertips but not actually touching the snow. I recognized it.

...aw shit...

"Someone's been down here," Nancy said, standing up from the garbage can. On the point of her knife was piece of gum. "Spearmint, but I don't recognize the color, weird dental marks, still warm and pliable so it hasn't been down here in sub-zero temperatures for long." She shook her head. "To be honest, I don't think it's American."

"Looks like they were looking for our marksmanship records," Lancer said, he was holding a folder in his hand. "This one was partially pulled up. I checked and your records are missing, Stillwater."

"Who's is that?" I asked, checking the handles on the window. They were unlocked.

"Stokes," he said. He opened it. "Shit, this is supposed to be classified data, what the fuck do the Orderly Room bitches need Stokes test scores and school scores for?"

"They don't," Nancy growled. "They just don't like having to go up to the Training Office or S-2 and ask for the file. They'd rather sit on their ever-widening asses and do their fucking nails."

"Hey, now, Shaft isn't that bad," I said, turning and looking in the other garbage cans and on the top of the desks. I found two places where someone had set a gloved hand on the desk, unaware that the light coating of frost would melt and leave a mark. Another garbage can had a match in it that had melted the plastic bag slightly.

"Watch your mouth," Lancer grinned.

"He's just talking about Shaft," Nancy finished, and we all chuckled. If Shaft had been there she would have been pissed, having heard that joke all her life. "True, if it wasn't for her this whole place would probably spontaneously catch on fire."

"Yeah, she fixed my pay pretty quick when I was still getting jump pay instead of hazard pay." He shook his head. "Looks like whoever it was took a whole bunch of files. And Stillwater,"

"What?" I asked, locking the windows.

"The Orderly Room is keeping our psych profiles. Yours is missing," he told me. "I'm gonna check and see if the rest of Atlas' psych profiles are in there."

"See if the locks have been tampered with," I suggested. The blotter on SPC George's desk was bulged and I moved up to it.

"Nope, I can tell they used a screw driver to lift it after they broke the strip free," he answered, going quickly through the files. "Bomber's is missing. Stokes. Mine. Nagles. Lieutenant James. Shit, the stupid bitches put red tags on them for some of us." He looked up and shrugged. "I almost blew my psych in Special Weapons Training."

"So they didn't follow SOP and now someone has our training records, our psych files, and what else?" Nancy bitched.

"Our 201 files," I said, sliding out Nagle's. "I thought this shit was stored in S-2?"

"It is," Lancer said. "Goddamn it, these lazy bitches just handed over everything about us to someone." He rolled his head to crack his neck. "When we get back, I'm taking this shit to Corps, see what they say about these worthless bitches..."

"Lay off the 'bitches' talk, Lancer. Not all females in the military are bitches," Nancy said, her voice hard.

Lancer looked at her and raised his hands. "Sorry, Nagle. But we'll see what Corps had to say about these worthless pikers leaving our secure records around for anyone to look in."

She nodded, mollified, and accepted her 201 file when I handed it to her. She opened it, glanced at it, and growled, shaking her head. "My picture's gone, so whoever this is knows what I look like."

"Not now, not with the scar," Lancer said. "If you're like me, that's your Special Weapons pic, and I don't think you look like you used to." Before Nancy could bitch him out he smiled at her. "You look pretty hot now, definitely fuckable, not like some Lunchmeat Lucy with a chip on her shoulder and some rank in her pocket." Nancy was obviously at a loss for words as Lancer's praise as he kept going. "Just look at Stillwater. His AIT pic? Hell, I saw him when I first got here, they were going to put me in his crew, and I don't even recognize him half the time. Fuck those pictures, they ain't of us, they're of the people we used to be."

I nodded, picking up the phones and listening. All of them were dead.

"Let me run it down real quick, and you guys tell me if I'm missing anything," Lancer said, parking his butt on the edge of Shaft's desk. He didn't wait for us to answer, just started talking. "So they take everyone who's busted up and send them to the barracks to fix it after you guys trashed it to keep a nutcase from killing you. Then LT James gets sent up here. Now we're missing men, our commo is down, someone threw a hammer at Stillwater, someone got our training records, psych profiles, and our pictures and God knows what else from our 201 files."

"And?" I asked, curious if he'd come up with the same conclusion I had.

"Imminent enemy contact," he said quietly. "The Soviets are gonna make a push on us, take us out and the grab all the data they can. Relations between us and the Soviet Union must have went to shit and they've put into action the pre-conflict scenarios."

I shrugged. "Don't read that far into it. The reasons don't matter."

"The hell they don't," Lancer snapped. "If it's a pre-conflict strike we could be facing up to a company of troops, backed by Spetznas, and it'll be followed up by World War fucking Three. On the other hand, if it's a strike of opportunity then we're facing whatever a local commander could scrape up. That matters. Enemy force numbers matter."

I nodded slowly, smiling. "Except that if it's pre-strike they'll still be using scraped up troops, since they can't be seen moving big troops, so the same people they'd tap for any strike of opportunity will be hitting us." I waved at the windows. "And either way, the mountain will kill them just as fast as it would kill us if given the chance, so I ain't worried about enemy action."

"It doesn't feel right," Nancy said, still flipping through her 201. I looked at her and she shrugged. "The Spetz are just as gung-ho and brain dead as any Ranger or Special-Ed on our side. They'd figure they were dealing with REMFs and come straight down our throats with snake-eater logic. At the most they'd hit us at night when we're separated." She shook her head. "No, something else is going on. I don't know what, but whatever it is, we can't see it."

"Not enough data," I said.

"Fuck," Lancer said softly. "We better get back before some dumbass lists us as AWOL or MIA and they fuck up my pay again."

I laughed at that, clapping Lancer on the shoulder as I passed him.

Yeah, he was an asshole, but that didn't make him a bad person.

We left Lancer in the CQ Area and moved over to where the soda machines were. The little room was empty except for us, the soda machines, the candy machine, a weirdly out of place pinball machine, and the window that showed us nothing but snow. It was twenty feet to the ground outside that window, and I'd already seen it covered in snow once.

"You wanted to tell me something about Stokes?" Nancy asked quietly, moving over to the pinball machine once she got a Coke and dropping a quarter into it. She was using the racket to cover up what we were talking about.

"Something bit her, whatever it was fired up her blood and she damn near raped me," I told her.

"She OK?" Nancy asked. I knew that she didn't need to ask about me; if I had a problem, I'd tell her when I was ready and not a moment sooner.

I shrugged as Nancy played. "I don't know. The bite fucked her up, I've never seen her like that. You know how she usually is."

She nodded, hitting multi-ball and concentrating. I waited for a minute.

"Yeah, she's usually shy and uptight. How bad was it?"

"Not bad. A little aggressive, and holy shit is she strong."

"Her pussy good?" Nancy asked. No jealousy, just a question.

...my Nancy...

"Don't know, didn't fuck her."

"You should have." She glanced at me. "What, it would be weird because your brother tapped that ass? Hell, a girl like Stokes you nail when you get the chance, because she ain't gonna give you another one." She licked her lips. "I'd love a taste of that pussy."

I laughed at that, then laughed at her as she lost all three balls at once and cursed.

"Let's grab some soda and get back to the room, you can tell me all about you and Stokes while you're buried in my cunny tonight," Nancy said, touching my face lightly. She didn't remark or get hurt when I automatically flinched away, just still made contact and held her hand there. "Do you love me?"

"Yeah."

"Say it."

"I love you," I told her, holding her eyes with mine. For a moment they were soft and warm, then her armor came back up and they went cold and hard when someone else spoke.

"He says he loves you, but he seemed to be loving Stokes earlier today," Aine said. We both turned around to see her standing in the entryway in her little flowerprint dress. She smiled viciously and pointed at me. "When you sent me to go get the supplies I stopped by his room to check on him, since we're old friends, and I saw him in there fucking Stokes."

Aine was expecting Nancy to spin out, to turn around and smack me, or otherwise drive a wedge between us with her words. I could tell by the expression on her face, the same expression she got when she ruined relationships I got into after I broke up with her.

"And Stokes told me I could lick the cum out of her cunny tonight," Nancy said with a big grin. "What's your point, tiny tits?"

Anger appeared on Aine's features but quickly disappeared as she got a worried look on her face. I knew that she usually got vicious with any woman who had larger breasts than her making any kind of comment on her smaller ones. "I just thought you'd want to know that Annie is cheating on you with Stokes, Nancy. He's like that, he always cheats on women."

Nancy nodded slowly, looking thoughtful. "So he always cheats on the women he's dating?" she asked seriously.

Aine nodded. "He cheated on me, he cheated on the girls afterwards, he even cheated on his wife, and now he's cheating on you with Stokes." She sounded sad. "I'm sorry, Nancy, but that's just how he is."

She turned to me. "Is that true, Stillwater? Are you fucking Stokes?"

"It's not quite like that," I protested, hiding a smile.

"Are you fucking her or not?" Nancy sounded angry, but the scar on the side of her face was still pale.

"Not yet."

"Oh, so you admit you want to?" she asked. Aine looked worried, but I knew her well enough to know that she was happy with the havoc she was causing.

"Well, yeah. I mean, look at her tits," I told her.

Nancy laughed at that. "God, I know. Hurry up and fuck her so I can lick you out of her. I told you to do it a month ago, and you still haven't managed to get her panties around her ankles."

Aine's victorious expression crumbled as Nancy turned around to face her. Nancy stepped forward and pushed Aine hard in the chest, sending her stumbling against the cinderblock wall.

"What makes you think I don't want Ant to fuck other women? What makes you think you know anything at all about how much it makes me wet to know he's jamming their cunts full of his cock?" She laughed. "Little tittied women like you never understand what women like me want." She laughed again. "Run along and try on more training bras, little girl, leave the grownups to their fun."

Aine snarled and stepped forward, going to slap Nancy across the face. I could see Aine's class ring and her AIT ring were turned backwards, and knew she was intending on leaving deep gouges in Nancy's face. I'd seen her leave a girl's face hamburger more than once with that tactic. Hell, two girls had had to have plastic surgery by the time Aine was done with them. Now she was going after Nancy, and I knew that Aine intended on following the slap with a rake down the face with her pointed nails. That she intended on ripping up Nancy's face.

...my Nancy...

Without even a pause, Nancy brought up an arm to stop Aine's swing and grabbed Aine's breast in her right hand, twisting hard, her fingers sinking into the other woman's soft flesh. Aine's eyes flew open and she grabbed Nancy's wrist as Nancy twisted even further. Nancy grabbed Aine's other breast and twisted that one too, pulling harshly and forcing Aine to stand on her tiptoes to lessen the pain as Nancy lifted.

"You small tittied, shallow pussied, little bitch," Nancy snarled. "You think I'm just going to let you ring slap me like some pogue?" She twisted further and pulled Aine up another inch or so. "I oughta rip these off so if you ever have kids you'll have to feed them with them by hand." She twisted even harder and Aine moaned in pain, still trying to get Nancy to let go by scratching at Nancy with her nails as Nancy continued to growl at her. "You ever go for me and I'll punt you in your little cunt so hard you'll be tasting Kiwi and your kids will be born spit-shined." She shoved Aine hard, slamming her against the cinderblock, pulled her back, and slammed her again and then again. Aine's eyes crossed on the second hit and rolled back into her head on the third. "You think you got the tits to take me on, bitch?" She slammed her once more for good measure, then let go before turning to me.

"Let's get some soda, we'll stop by Miranda's room and see if she wants some hot sweaty threesome action or if she just wants to drink and tell lies." She grinned. Behind her, Aine moaned and sat up. She glared at Nancy and started to push herself up. Without turning around, Nancy addressed her. "Next beating leaves you bloody. Think about just how bad I'm going to hurt you if you get in between me, a hard cock, and my drink if I just hurt you that bad because you annoyed me, little girl."

Aine looked a little confused but more afraid than anything as she backed up, still glaring at Nancy.

"Figured as much," Nancy snorted. She started feeding quarters into the soda machine and hitting the Coke button, I grabbed the sodas and started stuffing them into pockets. "Seriously, let's go get Stokes, I don't want her sitting in her room by herself thinking I'm gonna stab her ass or something." She sighed heavily. "Goddamn, Miranda is such a nice girl, why do people gotta be such assholes to her?"

"My brother was nice to her," I tried. I liked William, I really did.

Nancy snorted. "Your brother is a perfectly nice guy, but he's got his eyes fixed on making Special Ed, and trust me, it's one thing to know you're going to come in second compared to the mission or the Army, it's another thing to know that you're just temporary pussy till he runs off to eat snakes and turn into an asshole."

I thought about that for a second. It was true that for a lot of spouses they had to deal with someone who was concerned about their career and put the mission ahead of even their own family, but I'd never thought about the fact that, because it was basically a given thing that William would enter Special Forces, Stokes knew she was a short term thing.

"Would it bother you if I went SF?" I asked.

Nancy laughed, reaching up to pat my cheek. "Honey, you'd be in Special Ed about thirty seconds before you stabbed one of those snake eating idiots in the face. You're Special Weapons." She kissed my lower lip, biting it real quick, then kissed me again. "I like you. Now say you love me."

"I love you."

"I know." She led the way back into Titty Territory, both of us waving to Lancer, who was loading up magazines with 5.56mm ammunition. He must have gotten the LT to authorize him pulling ammo and weapons out of the Arms Room.

We stopped at Stokes door and hammered on it. It took three tries before she answered the door. She was wearing tight jeans, a T-shirt, and a cotton western shirt she'd tied in classic Daisy Duke style. Her hair was free, and it suddenly dawned on me that it was all the way down to her waist. She opened her mouth, and I knew it was to try to explain what had happened in the room earlier. When she did, Nancy reached forward and put one hand on top of where the shirt was nodded and pushed Stokes back into the room.

"We need to talk, Miranda, now," Nancy growled at her. Stokes went to protest but Nancy interrupted her. "I found out you and Stillwater got a little naked together."

I shut the door behind me, knowing that Nancy was just yanking her chain. She'd wanted to get Stokes in the sack since the other woman had gotten to 2/19th.

"So you figured you and Stillwater would have a little fun and I wouldn't find out about it? You figured you could just take what you wanted and you and my boy could keep it quiet?" Nancy was still growling as she forced Stokes all the way back into the middle of Stokes room. "Answer me, Miranda, what did you think you were doing?"

"I wasn't thinking, Nagle, I don't know what came over me," Stokes said hurriedly. "I didn't do what I wanted to do, I swear."

Nancy stopped, looking at her. Her voice sounded cold, but that scar was still pale. "What did you want to do?"

"I wanted to push him face first against the wall, finger his ass, and jerk him off, but I didn't," Miranda blushed. "I don't know why," She stared down at the floor. "I'm sorry."

Nancy reached out and patted Stokes chest. "I'm just fucking with you, Miranda." She smiled, but Stokes was still rambling on.

"I mean, I stopped myself, but all I could think of was dominating him, making him my bitch, ordering him around, and for hours all I could think of was nothing but getting fucked." Stokes kept rambling.

Nancy's smile vanished and she turned to me. "And you?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, same here. I've had a hard on all day, even when we were down in the Orderly Room with LT James all I could think of was you, me, and Stokes in a nasty little pile."

Nancy stood there for a minute, thinking. Stokes still looked embarrassed, but I was too busy staring at her breasts to really pay attention to too much else. Nancy kept looking at me and then Stokes, frowning, the little line appearing between her eyebrows.

"How badly did she lose control, Ant?" Nancy asked, her voice gentle.

Stokes blushed and lowered her head again, a really weird look for Stokes' giant Amazon ass.

"It was everything I could do to keep her from holding me down," I said honestly. "I got her in the shower, washed the bite mark, and that calmed her down a little."

"Hmm." Nancy stepped up and tilted Stokes' head. "Who bit her?"

"I don't know," I said. Nancy glared at me but didn't push it.

"That's a human bite." She stood on her tiptoes and sniffed Stokes' neck. "You showered?"

"Stillwater got me in the shower and washed me down. The last thing I remember was taking a nap like you said, then I woke up to holding Stillwater's wrists so he had to cup my chest," Stokes admitted.

"And you were aroused for hours afterwards?" Nancy asked. Stokes nodded. "I need you to be honest with me, Miranda." Stokes nodded again. "Is that normal for you?" Stokes shook her head. "Were they normal thoughts?" Stokes shook her head again and blushed. "If I told you that if you say please I'll have Ant here stuff your cunny full and you can tongue my ass, what would you..." She broke off as Stokes whined 'please' as she reached up and started undoing the knot of her thin cotton buttonup shirt. Nancy reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Miranda?"

Stokes jerked like she'd been slapped and blushed again. Nancy let go of her wrist and turned to me, watching my eyes. "Ant, slap Miranda across the tits to get her warmed up," she said. Without thinking, I went to step forward and follow her instructions, but Nancy stopped me with a hand in the middle of my chest.

"Strip off your shirt, Ant," she told me. Stokes, turn around." We both followed her instructions and Nancy traced something on my chest I hadn't really even noticed.

Aine had bitten me just below the junction of my neck and shoulder, on my back. The wound was scabbed over, but when she touched it my whole body tingled and I felt myself thicken.

"Yeah, same symptoms, same injury." She shook her head. "Miranda, I think you and Anthony were supposed to go crazy on each other. I think someone was fucking with your heads. I know Ant, and he'd no more slap you than he gets off on having to hurt me. Put your shirt back on, Ant." When I was done tucking in the brown T-shirt and started putting on my BDU top, Nancy touched Stokes' back. "You can turn around, Miranda."

"Who would do something like that?" Stokes asked. "Did they give us Spanish Fly or something?"

Nancy laughed at that. "Cantharidin, from the beetle Lytta vesicatoria, is just a naturally occurring blister agent that causes some engorgement of the penis but the side effects suck and you can get a really nasty case of poisoning from it." She shook her head. "Trust me, this looks like an honest to God aphrodisiac, not some shit high school students sell to each other that, like, totally, like works and junk." She was mimicking the Valley Girl speech at the last.

She shrugged, grabbing Stokes' hand. "Come on, girl, let's go get drunk, tell lies, and hang out. I don't want you down here alone."

"Nobody wanted to room with me," Stokes said, following Nagle and grabbing her keys off her desk as she passed it. "So I was trying to figure out what to do."

"You can stay with us," Nancy said. "I'll tell the boys, and they can just deal." She stopped. "Grab your ready bag, a couple of uniforms, your battle rattle, and some underoos. Ant, carry some of her shit for her."

"Won't people talk?" Stokes asked, unlocking her lockers.

"If they do, they do. If we don't like it, we'll get them where there are no witnesses and break their jaw. Teach a few a lesson, and the bullshit stops," Nancy said.

The rucksack Stokes handed me seemed really light compared to the ones I was used to, and I grabbed her Kevlar vest and helmet out of the locker while she grabbed her LBE. It wasn't too heavy, it wasn't like she had a full basic load or anything.

"Want me to grab any of your blankets? We got basic issue," Nancy asked.

"Yes, please, can you grab my quilt?" Stokes asked, folding her uniforms over her arms and then grabbing her boots. She saw me looking at the lacey pink underwear in her hand and blushed. Nancy grabbed it, and we waited till Stokes finished grabbing what she needed.

"Lock her door, Ant," Nancy told me. I nodded and set down the battle rattle to dig my keys out of my pocket. Without thinking, I just locked her door with my room key. When I turned around, Stokes was staring at me.

"You have a key to my room?" she asked, looking angry.

"It's pretty much a master key, even though it's supposed to be my room key," I told her. Her eyes widened. "Just shut up about it, OK? It's one of the only reasons we made it last month, and I don't want to have to turn it in and then die because I needed it."

Stokes nodded. "You know, you could use that key to come in my room while I was sleeping. I wouldn't be able to resist you, and Arctic Survival training means I sleep naked, and you can..."

"Miranda!" Nancy snapped. "Focus."

Stokes blushed and nodded. "Sorry."

Nancy turned to me. "You having the same problems?" I shook my head. "Huh, maybe you didn't get as big a dose as she did, or maybe you're slightly immune to it." The last part was stressed slightly, and with a sinking feeling I knew that she knew exactly who had bitten us.

We tromped back to my room, Nancy talking about how James and Cass were up there, and Bomber was showing them how to use a whiskey pipe. It was just basically a big glass bowl with a stem, but for some reason it was like drinking beer through a straw. It got you fucked up really fast and really good.

When we walked in Bomber was telling his favorite story. About how we'd gone to a German whorehouse and he'd fucked a Bigfoot. When we walked in, Nancy had Stokes toss her stuff in the same lockers Nancy was using, ignoring the stares of my cousins.

"Single bed's mine, top bunk is Ant and Nagles, you can have the bottom bunk," Bomber said, then went right back to his story. Stokes blushed, but kept putting her stuff away. I dropped her ruck and battle rattle on the floor then went into the main room.

"Hey, Ant, this is bullshit, right? She wasn't that big or that hairy, right?" Cass asked me.

I laughed at that. "Cass, remember Martha Hughes in that high school in Texas?" He nodded. "OK, picture her, add six inches, add about a hundred pounds more, then cover her in butter and roll her around in a pile of dog hair, and that's pretty much what she looked like."

Cass stared in shock as James started laughing his ass off.

We kept bullshitting, drinking heavily. I noticed that my cousins were trying to encourage me to slow down on the alcohol but I ignored it. Sure, I was probably a raging alcoholic, but the mountain would kill me before I'd die of liver disease.

Eventually we ended up getting my cousins out of my room, and just Nancy, John, Miranda and I were sitting in there. Nagle reached over and turned off the light, the nightlight coming on pretty quick and filling the room with a dim glow.

"That's better," Nagle said. She looked over at me. "Come to bed, Ant?" she asked quietly, her eyes soft.

Miranda blushed when I stripped off my clothes and climbed in bed, looking away as I put them on the dresser. Bomber just started doing the same, and Nancy was naked before either of us boys finished getting our shirts off. Her butt vanished under my comforter as I dropped my pants, and she squirmed around to smile at me.

"Put my clothing up, will you?" she asked. I nodded, picking up the pants and shirt and folding them, then setting her socks on top before putting her shoes next to her boots. "Miranda, you might as well get undressed, it isn't like we all aren't going to see your tits anyway."

Stokes blushed and I turned my back on her to climb up into bed.

"Well, that's a view of hell," Bomber said from behind me. "Look up and straight at another man's asshole."

"You like it and you know it," Nancy said as I slid between the covers with her.

"Yeah, I whack off all the time thinking about Ant, you caught me," John said, dropping his socks on the folded jeans. He dropped his boxers and moved over to his bed, stopping to look at Stokes. "You gonna get in bed or what?"

"Umm..." Stokes started.

"Leave her alone, John, she's shy," Nancy said. "Turn around boys."

"Fine." John said, pulling his blanket over himself and turning around to face the wall. "Better?"

We were quiet while Stokes got undressed, and I could feel the bunk move when she got in. Nancy kissed me, but other than that we just laid there while the alarm clock ticked quietly. Pretty soon Miranda started making the same soft snoring noises she'd been making earlier in the day. I noticed that she mumbled slightly in her sleep too. John started snoring soon afterwards, the comforting sound of a chainsaw ripping through concrete filling the room. Nancy and I made love quietly, her headbutting me at the end so she could finish. She was pleased when I was up for another round, slightly less pleased at the third, and smiling for the fourth. Finally I was sated and cuddled up to her, watching her watch me. We laid there for a little while, enjoying the feeling of each other's bodies.

"You were a bit vigorous tonight," she breathed into my ear, kissing my cheek. Before I could answer she continued. "I watched your eyes, they did the same thing that they did in Miranda's room, same thing Miranda's did." She drew back and kissed my bleeding lip. "I think we need to talk."

"Yeah," I admitted. "Do you still love me?" I asked. She froze for a moment, and then caressed my side.

"Of course I do." She kissed the tip of my nose. "You need to hear that sometimes, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Want to talk about what happened?" she asked. I told her. All of it. From the dream of her and Stokes to the dream of Innie and me before she interrupted me. I wasn't offended by the fact that she started slowly rubbing herself during my explanation.

"That ever actually happen?" she asked, smiling. I shook my head. "Something you wanted to have happen?"

"No. I mean, there was the typical 'wow, she's getting huge boobs' that happens when you suddenly realize your twin sister is changing just like you are, but nothing beyond that," I told her honestly.

"I'm not judging," she told me, kissing me again. "Did Aine ever mention it?"

"A few times. She started to hit on Innie, but I got crazy jealous and she stopped. I figured that she just wanted more attention."

"No. But she got attention, and figured that was enough." Nancy was quiet for a moment, that line appearing again. "Tell me the rest."

I told her, not glossing over anything, not even the fact that I'd almost been angry enough to murder Aine right there on the tile of the room. She asked for clarification of a few things, mostly little details about who was standing where, who moved first, who was breathing how, and other things that I'd missed the first time. At the end I was in need again, and she took me slowly, kissing me and saying that she loved me quietly, something she usually didn't do.

Afterwards she cuddled back up, still facing me, and took my hands. "Look, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think her bite is venomous."

"Yeah. I think you're right," I told her.

"She isn't human, is she?" Nancy asked.

"No, I don't think so," I told her, then chuckled. "You fucked her up though, didn't you? I've never seen her lose a fight, and I think it scared her."

"Yeah, well she thought I was Mary Joe Rottencrotch and thought because she was a tough bitch and vicious in high school nobody could match her." She grinned. "People like her forget that the Army isn't their hometown or high school. People like her don't know that the other women in the Army had a good goddamn chance of being the tough bitch in their high school." She paused for a moment. "Tell me about her."

"She's Aine. We dated, I broke up with her because she kept trying to get pregnant, and she made me..." I started.

"No. All of it." She bumped her forehead against mine. "You're my boy, it's time to tell your girl everything about Aine."

She hit all the right buttons, and any resistance I had crumbled.

"It's a long story," I started.

"We're on Alfenwehr in a blizzard, I've got the fucking time," she told me. "Besides, it might be really important."

I sighed, and started from the beginning. "All right, if you want the whole story, it kind of starts back during the Sixth Century, with Pax Britannica," I told her. "You really want the whole story?" She nodded. "All right."

With that, I told her all of it.

She didn't scoff, she didn't belittle me. She understood family legends, that Aine was something that the modern world didn't believe in, but was real all the same. Hell, she'd seen and felt the reality of the little redheaded girl herself.

"So she pops up in every generation, either in your family or in the McCullens?" she asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much. It might skip a generation or two, but when that happens whatever Aine pops up is usually bad news and the families start fighting," I told her.

"How long since the last Aine before her mother?" she asked me.

"Her great-grandmother, my great-great-grandmother," I told her.

She whistled low. "That's a long time. How bad is she?"

"You're figuring now she's venomous, she likes blood, she thinks she can cast magic spells and make potions and other shit like it's the Dark Ages, and..."

"Don't discount that," Nancy said suddenly. I looked at her in surprise. It was the fucking 1980's, not the 1480's, everyone knew magic didn't exist. But her next sentence made a whole lot of sense. "We're on Alfenwehr, a frozen hellscape where a dead man has killed some of us, a mountain that hates us personally. The SS trained here, there was a Polish concentration camp here in World War I, the Templars fought one of their last battles here, they burned werewolves and witches on this mountain, and all kinds of nasty shit. It may be bullshit superstition back in The World, but here, on Alfenwehr, you better act like what she can do is real."

"Shit, that's the last thing I need," I told her. "She's already hunted me this far; if she can actually work that bullshit the matrons spout, I'm fucking dead. Maybe I should just stab her ass and throw her out in the snow."

"No. Think about how bad she is now," Nancy said, nuzzling my nose with hers again. "Now think of what the mountain did with Tandy, now think of what it might do with her."

"Shit, so I'm basically fucked."

Nancy shook her head. "No. Tomorrow I'll look through the old religions and traditions from my collection and see what I can do." She grinned and I felt her knuckles graze me as she reached between her legs and then brought her hand up in front of my face. "Let's take a few precautions."

She ran her damp finger between my eyes, swept it along my cheekbones, then from the divot under my nose, across my lips, to the point of my chin.

"There, most of them agree something like that will help," she told me. I yawned and she kissed my lip again before biting it. "Get some sleep, boy. I'll be here."

Wrapped in her arms, I slept.

And Aine wasn't in any of my dreams.