Read Online The Road to Hell - eARC by David Weber, Joelle Presby - Free Book Online Page A

straightened his tunic. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirrored surface of the PC and allowed himself a brief lip twitch of satisfaction. As an intelligence officer, he theoretically ought to have worn the Office of Army Intelligence’s gray trousers and maroon tunic with the OAI’s unsleeping eye shoulder flash. Instead, he wore the standard camouflage pattern tunic—still the mottled green, black, and brown of summer—of a line Infantry or Cavalry officer. That was more than sufficient to frost the chops of any hard-nosed operational type like Toralk, and Neshok took a certain degree of pleasure in rubbing those aforesaid hard noses in it. He’d been instructed by Two Thousand mul Gurthak himself to avoid OAI uniform, and there wasn’t much anyone could do about it as long as he was following the governor’s instructions.
    He looked up from the reflection and came to attention as Thousand Gahnyr followed Porath back into Neshok’s workspace.
    “Thousand,” he said, saluting briskly, and Gahnyr nodded back with rather less formality.
    “Five Hundred,” he responded, and accepted Neshok’s gestured invitation to seat himself in the chair floating in front of the desk.
    Neshok dismissed Porath with a flick of his head, then resumed his own chair and leaned back in it ever so slightly, regarding Gahnyr with an attentive expression.
    “How can I help you, Sir?” he inquired as the door closed behind Porath.
    “I’m on my way to a meeting with Two Thousand Harshu and Thousand Toralk,” Gahnyr said. “It’s mostly just a routine base-touching, but I wondered if you’d had time to go over those dispatches from Thousand Carthos? If you’ve turned up anything new, I thought I’d take it along with me.”
    “Of course, Sir.” Neshok’s reply was as crisp as the nod which accompanied it, despite a fresh stab of resentment. Of course Gahnyr would “take it along” with him. It wouldn’t do to have Alivar Neshok’s pariah presence cast its shadow across Commander of Two Thousand Harshu’s latest meeting, would it? Why, if that happened, somebody might actually think Harshu had authorized Neshok’s actions!
    “There isn’t really anything new—certainly not anything earthshaking—in Thousand Carthos’ reports, Sir,” he continued. “I could wish there were more prisoner interrogations”—his opaque eyes flicked up to meet Gahnyr’s briefly—“since that’s proven our best source of intelligence, but apparently not many prisoners were actually taken. On the other hand, he’d only gotten about halfway across Resym before he was recalled to join us here, and aside from the fort at the Nairsom-Resym portal, he hadn’t encountered anything remotely like resistance, so he probably had less opportunity to secure prisoners than we’ve had.”
    “Probably not,” Gahnyr agreed in a neutral tone.
    The infantry thousand wasn’t as imaginative as Klayrman Toralk, his Air Force counterpart, but he couldn’t have missed the implication of Neshok’s remarks, and the intelligence officer felt a flicker of satisfaction. They’d find it a bit more difficult to dodge the crap Carthos’ lack of prisoners was going to splash all over everyone in sight. None of Carthos’ reports said so in so many words, but it was obvious he hadn’t bothered to take any prisoners, and it was difficult to believe every single Sharonian he’d encountered had died fighting.
    Not going to be able to sweep that under the rug, are you? the five hundred thought coldly. And Carthos is a regular Infantry officer, not one of those Office of Intelligence types you can shove all your own responsibility off onto, isn’t he?
    Indeed Carthos was, and—like Neshok—he enjoyed the protection of no less a patron than Two Thousand mul Gurthak, himself. That was a reflection which brought Neshok quite a lot of comfort upon occasion. Harshu and Toralk might think they’d be able to use him as the sacrificial goat if the time came