Rhodes stepped into Neiland’s lab and looked down at a capsule sprouting wires from every surface. Alyssa Thackery lay under the transparent cover. She had her eyes closed.

He didn’t see any damage to her facial implants. Dietz’s gunshot imploded half of her head. The doctors must have repaired her implants. She would have been dead for certain if that gunshot had hit the organic side of her head.

Now all her vital signs read normal including her brainwave patterns, but that meant nothing.

Dr. Irvine stood by her capsule tapping on his remote device. “Is she going to be all right?” Rhodes asked.

“She’ll be fine. All her systems are back online and we repaired the damage to her implants.”

“Why is she still in here, then?”

“We’re making some adjustments to Koenig’s Grid matrix. Once he comes back online, she’ll be ready to return to duty.”

“Whatever changes you made to our behavioral protocol caused this. You turned all of us violent—including me. You have to switch it back.”

“I understand, but you would have to take that up with General Brewster. He was the one who ordered the changes.”

Rhodes raised his eyebrows. “Why would he order it? Is he trying to turn us all into murderous psychopaths? Is that his new plan?”

Dr. Irvine bent over his device. “I don’t know why he ordered it, but I do know that he plans to discuss it with you.”

“Me?! Why would he discuss it with me? He’s in charge of this project. I’m just a captain.”

“I’m sure he’ll tell you what he wants when he talks to you.”

Rhodes turned away from Thackery with an effort. He never liked her careless attitude, but he wouldn’t wish this fate on anyone.

He stopped in front of another capsule across the lab. Dietz lay asleep in this capsule. “What are you going to do about him?”

“We’ll adjust him back to the way he was. Some of his antisocial tendencies should diminish then.”

“Some of his antisocial tendencies? Not all of them? He’s a danger to the rest of us the way he is.”

“He had a criminal record before this. I suspect he may have been like this before. Getting recruited into Battalion 1 didn’t change his base personality.”

Rhodes stiffened. “What did he do?”

Dr. Irvine tried to shrug it away and wound up squirming. “A few different things. I wouldn’t want to breach his confidentiality….”

“You better damn well tell me if you expect me to go into battle with him or ask anyone else to go into battle with him. He tried to kill one of my people and he came close to kill another. He tried to kill me before he hit Thackery. Dietz turned a weapon on Fuentes on his very first day out of the box. This guy is certifiable psycho if anyone is.”

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you what’s in his record…..”

“Confidentiality should have stopped you from telling me that he had a record in the first place.”

“You’ll have to ask General Brewster about it. He’ll tell you if he decides you really need to know.”

“I do need to know. I’m the one risking my ass out there on the front line—not you—not any of you.”

“I’m sorry. I would tell you if I could.”

“You can. You just don’t want to. This is another way for all of you to screw us over.”

Dr. Irvine winced and walked away. He left Rhodes stewing in barely suppressed rage.

He saw himself acting overly emotional, but he didn’t try so hard to control himself. This absolutely capped it all.

Rhodes stayed where he was just long enough to satisfy him that Dietz wouldn’t be going anywhere. Thackery’s vital signs remained stable.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

They did. Neither of these two had been out of their capsules since Dietz shot Thackery.

Dietz better not wake up saying he only did it because he malfunctioned. Rhodes would never believe that if he lived a thousand years.

Whatever modification the technicians made to the battalions’ behavioral protocols—the same modification must have released Dietz’s psychotic tendencies.

He’d been covering it up all this time. He behaved well during the Ohait campaign. He even behaved well during all the battalion’s training sessions……or did he?

Dietz didn’t go out of his way to help his comrades. Dietz didn’t put himself in danger to help anyone. He took care of himself first and foremost.

Rhodes would give anything to see Dietz’s criminal record. It must be pretty bad.

Rhodes could only get that information one place. He walked out of the lab planning to go see Colonel Kraft—which was what Rhodes planned to do before this whole disaster happened.

He walked out to find the rest of the battalion standing in the hall waiting for him. “How is she, Sir?” Rhinehart asked.

“She’s on the mend,” Rhodes replied. “Her implants have all been repaired. Her brainwaves, vital signs, and neural systems are all functioning normally. The doctors are making some final adjustments to Koenig’s Grid matrix. After that, Thackery will get back on her feet and I’m sure she’ll be as annoying as ever.”

“This is my fault,” Oakes growled. “I did this.”

“You didn’t do anything, man,” Rhodes told him. “You lost your mind when the technicians adjusted your systems. The same thing happened to all of us. This is not your fault. You wouldn’t have done anything like this if not for that.”

“Dietz would have,” Rhinehart murmured. “That dude has been waiting for a chance like this since he woke up.”

Rhodes passed his hand across his eyes. “I know.”

“What are you gonna do about him?” Lauer asked.

“I’m not going to do anything about him. I can’t,” Rhodes replied. “Dr. Irvine says Dietz was probably like this before….”

“Of course he was,” Lauer countered. “The implants don’t change who a person is on the inside.”

“I can’t do anything about him,” Rhodes repeated. “We can only hope General Brewster orders the doctors to put Dietz back to the way he was before—when he could control it and somewhat behave himself in public.”

“Somewhat?” Rhinehart snorted. “You call that somewhat behaving himself in public? He’s a sociopath. You can’t expect us to go into battle with him. He could turn his weapon on any of us. He’s already done it twice.”

“I don’t expect any of you to do anything, pal,” Rhodes groaned. “Do I look like this is my idea of a good time? I don’t want to go anywhere with Dietz. I don’t want to sleep next to him. I don’t even want to be in the same room with him. We don’t have a choice unless General Brewster listens to us and takes Dietz off the roster.”

“He better,” Oakes muttered.

“You would be out of your minds if you held out any hope for that. He’ll leave Dietz on the books and we’ll be stuck with him. Make up your minds on that right now. Then, if God intervenes and something happens to Dietz to get him out of our lives, we’ll all be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime, I’m working on the assumption that we’re stuck with him for life. I suggest you all get comfortable with that, too.”

“One of us should put the son of a bitch down,” Rhinehart growled. “We would all be better off.”

“I don’t want to hear that, Lieutenant,” Rhodes snapped. “I don’t want to hear that ever again from any of you. Understand? The people in this battalion are all we have. Everyone in the whole damn sector is against us. The people in this battalion are the only people on our side—ever. Dietz has his problems. I’ll be the first to admit it, but any of us could have suffered a malfunction that could have caused exactly the same problem.”

“That was no malfunction,” Lauer pointed out. “He was about to shoot Oakes.”

“Oakes was about to shoot Oakes,” Rhodes fired back. “So what if the malfunction caused Oakes to point his gun at himself or someone else? It was still a malfunction and someone could be just as dead. It doesn’t mean we should put Oakes down. Dietz is one of us whether we like it or not. He might be a psycho murderous lunatic. He could also be the person who saves one of us on the battlefield.”

Rhinehart snorted and looked away. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“None of us will ever put anyone else in this battalion down,” Rhodes ordered. “I don’t care what they’ve done or what they might have been before this. If Dietz points his weapon at you and tries to kill you, you have my permission to defend yourselves by any means necessary. Until then, we just have to live with him the same way we have to live with each other. I don’t like it any better than you do, but that’s the way it is. Got it?”

The others shuffled their feet and looked at the floor. Only Lauer mumbled, “Yes, Sir.”

Rhodes turned away….and stopped when he saw Fuentes and Henshaw standing off to one side. They didn’t get involved in the conversation.

Henshaw writhed and twisted in misery. The side of her face that was still human screwed up in agony. She grimaced in pain and tears poured from her eye.

Her lips shivered back from her teeth and she kept contorting and squirming in all directions. “I tried to kill her!” Henshaw moaned. “I tried to kill her!”

“You didn’t kill her,” Rhodes murmured. “You malfunctioned.”

“I wanted to!” Henshaw choked. “I wanted her dead!”

“You could have killed her by shooting her in the head. You didn’t. You might have been angry, but I don’t think you tried to kill her and I don’t believe you wanted her dead—not really. You malfunctioned. The technicians altered your neural system and you snapped. The same thing happened to all of us.”

Rhodes glanced over at Fuentes. He stood with his shoulders hunched. Of everyone here, he showed the least emotional reaction to what happened.

He didn’t get involved in the barracks fight. He had nothing to blame himself for.

Rhodes studied the kid for a second and then walked off. Fuentes held up better than anyone else in this battalion. Maybe he would pull his socks up and become a decent soldier after all.

Rhodes didn’t have anything to complain about in Fuentes’s behavior during the Ohait campaign. Fuentes held his own, helped his comrades, used The Grid to fight the Emal, and made it back alive.

That was saying something. It was better than countless Legion soldiers could say.

End of Chapter 33.