Lewis and Fink were treated as passengers, while Victor was assigned a place on the crew. The trip took three days through rough seas. The island they approached rose out of the sea, layer upon layer, until it disappeared into the clouds. Lewis studied it through his binoculars and saw a lot of rock faces with deep fissures.
Landee turned out to be a quiet port town when they arrived in the middle of the day. As they steamed up to the pier Lewis scanned the faces of the people scattered about the harbor. Even with his binoculars he didn’t find anyone from Romeo, but he did spot the warship, Solution, that had escorted them from Dontil.
The gang plank swung out from the prow as the ship thumped into its place against the bow thruster. When it was locked in on the pier, a sailor opened the gate and a score of passengers disembarked. Lewis and Fink waited until last to see if Victor would be joining them. When all the other passengers had left, they looked around for him, to no avail.
“I guess he’s not coming,” Lewis observed. “Let’s go.”
At the bottom of the gangplank they encountered a soldier who asked their business in Landee.
“We are looking for our people, led by Alice Roquette,” Lewis informed him.
He nodded. “May I help you with your bags? I know where they are.”
Lewis handed him the long box and they headed into the city. The buildings here were mostly newer construction, with planks for siding. They came to a wide plaza where soldiers were running in full gear. Four groups of twenty-five followed each other around a track, and in the center another hundred were participating in dry fire exercises. Buildings encircled the plaza and shops, restaurants and offices faced inward as if they were all watching the defenders train. Halfway up on the right, the members of Team Romeo were seated on an outside veranda. As Lewis and Fink approached, Roquette stood and took a couple of chairs from a nearby table. Their escort handed the box to Derrik, saluted Lewis, and continued on around the plaza. Everyone at the table was standing, so Lewis bade them sit down.
”How was your trip?” he asked Roquette.
“It was uneventful sir,” she replied. “You showed up remarkably soon, we’ve only been here since midnight.”
They sat for the rest of the day, Telini outlined his conversations with the DeLeahs and Gomez told Lewis about their trip from Port Mist. Lewis told them about their time in Farside and the rifle he’d had modified. Fink seemed overjoyed to see them, smiling and laughing, he talked to everyone at once.
“We have rooms over there,” Telini said, nodding at a large building across the plaza. “We couldn’t figure out how long it would take for you to get here, so we asked for ten days. How did you get here so fast?”
“Fink pulled some strings that the rest of us couldn’t reach,” Lewis told him. “In the morning I need to see Commander Flagg. I’m curious about what’s happening with that guy that thumped me in Dontil. Then we can resume the mission. The sooner we get back to Ascore the better.”
“The boss keeps changing the priorities,” Gomez put in. “I was looking at the map the other day and I think we’d have been back by now if we had traveled directly there.”
Dinner was good, they watched groups of soldiers rotate in and out of the plaza, and then they retired to their rooms. Fink showed them how his card game worked while Lewis and Roquette examined the rifle that the guys in Farside had modified. Victor showed up late that night with a bottle of whiskey and morning came too soon.
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Gomez was asleep, Fink and Derrik were still playing cards and Roquette sat on the balcony when Lewis awoke. He looked at his watch and saw that he had slept for three hours.
“May I join you?” he asked Roquette.
“Sure,” she replied. “What do you think of this place?”
“Good view of the plaza, decent beds,” he mused. “Not bad, I guess.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said quietly, leaning her chair back on two legs as she stared out over the city.
“I know, but it’s easier than answering your real question,” he reached down his hand to help her up. “Let’s go down and see about getting some coffee.”
They made their way downstairs to the dining room. Victor and Telini were in the far corner, talking quietly and looking at a book.
“What do you think?” Lewis asked, turning her earlier question around as they took their seats.
“Not fair,” she grumbled. “I asked first and you distracted me with the coffee thing.”
“You must admit – it’s good, huh?” Lewis countered.
“What, the coffee or the ploy?” she asked.
“Yes. We spent years going on special missions,” he told her. “The context and situation are a bit different here, but the special mission we are on? I think it’s the same sorta thing Team Romeo has been doing.”
“Do you think we’ll ever get home?” she inquired.
“Beats me,” he said, looking at her over his mug.
“Doesn’t it bother you?” she asked, looking intently at him. “I mean you’re a married man who might never see his family again. What’s Gloria going to do if you never come back?”
“It does bother me sometimes,” Lewis admitted. “But I know the family will take care of them as best they can. We’ve lived through hard times for generations by sticking together. By now the army has probably decided we died in that fight in Romania, and hopefully they’ve sent her a check already.”
“You seem to be okay with the whole thing,” Roquette looked sad. “Some days I just want to go home and see my family. I mean we didn’t die there, but we probably should have. And after they blew up your jeep I couldn’t feel my legs; those people fixed that, you know. I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong, but we’re aliens here and mercenaries, too. What the hell is it about the situation that you find acceptable?”
“Listen, Master Sergeant, the fact is we lost that fight in the face of overwhelming odds, but we accomplished our mission by evacuating the people,” Lieutenant Lewis said, as sternly as he could manage. “Now I need you to hold it together, because the people of Team Romeo are all we have left. And we need to stay sharp. If we don’t, we’re all going to die here. I find that a lot less acceptable. Maybe someday we’ll find our answers, but right now we have a mission to complete. Help me see it through, will ya?”
“Yes sir,” Roquette answered, wiping at her eye. “But I lost a whole team before I signed up with you, I can’t go through that again. Maybe Stander was right about us growing into a great fighting force, but we’re vulnerable now. I had a dream that I was the only survivor of this team and was stuck here alone. It shook me more than I thought it would, I guess.”
“Did you talk to Lindy about it?” he asked.
“I don’t need any of her mumbo-jumbo crap,” she replied, looking suddenly hard again. “Sometimes I wonder if she actually believes it all or if she’s just trying to get a response out of us, just to get people to look at her.”
“I don’t know,” Lewis commented. “But it seems to be holding her together, and I don’t see it’s hurting anyone.”
Roquette nodded and rose. “Thanks for listening, Lieutenant.”
As she moved off, he pondered the fact that he had been so busy he had not taken the time to consider the impact that coming here was having on his team. Maybe, he mused, keeping busy was the key, keep them so occupied with current activities that they all just get used to the new environment. He came to a decision in the dining room of that hotel in Landee.
He got up and went over to Telini. “Meeting in my room. Fifteen minutes.”
When Telini nodded, Lewis turned to Victor. “I wanted to thank you for your help.”
“No problem, I hope we have a chance to work together again,” Victor replied with a genuine smile.