Chapter Four.

“Om... May Durga's Lightning bolt protect me and guide me towards righteousness and right action.”

-A simple prayer.

Tamari went off on her new mission with a smile on her lips and a much lighter mood as she thought to herself, “I can understand why this is needed. But damned if I ever tell my mother I had to requisition every condom and lubricant on the planet to keep our vehicles on the road! Still! Its funny as hell.”

After almost an hour of quiet conversation with one medic after another, Tamari decided to cut out all the damn useless rug merchants in the middle of her hunt for 'special supplies' and go right to the source.

Her boots took her to the Commissary Corp area of responsibility. “Everyone hates these damn Kabandah box wallah trolls! Fucking ugly little officious brutes jealous of anything you want to ask of them and jealously guarding their boxes like a dragon guarding her loot!”

It was a universal conceit amongst most members of the Hegemony Armed Forces, Commissary Corps personnel were not human beings, but evil spirited shit heads who's sole mission in life was to cause grief and agony to the souls of those who had to come before them. After logging in at KMA security, Tamari Kapoor made her way through the labyrinth of stacked cargo containers which had been used to make a series of inter-connecting corridors. Considering how hot it was normally outside, it was considerably cooler in their lair and dimly lit.

“Goddess in the void! I feel like I am traveling down into the bowels of some beast's cave. Any second now, bats are going to go flying past my face.” Tamari thought as the walls closed in between the cargo containers and the light dimmed down from distant openings.

Coming to an intersection, Tamari read a set of signs, indicating where the loading docks locations were at, and consequently where her four times removed cousin Mera Kapoor roosted in her cave of officialdom. “If you can't use the family connections, then what use is there to having family connections?” Tamari chuckled at the thought of asking her cousin to procure fifty liters of lubricant and a gross of condoms.

Mera Kapoor dealt with food supplies. Her office was just off the main loading docks, alongside the vast refrigerated shipping containers kept perishable food stuff for later distribution. Didn't matter if it was a manor home, hotel or military base, the food receiving area was always busy, and always had a slight off putting smell of food past its consumable time.

“Funky trolls and their damn scent dead noses!” Tamari found herself cursing aloud her mission and the need to get it done under the table...

Stepping through a series of clear plastic slatted curtains with refrigerated air blowing down, Tamari Kapoor who still possessed a nose that was not scent blind, smelled something seriously wrong ! It took her a moment, human shit, mixed with the iron and copper smell of blood assaulted Tamari's nose. The real kicker was a horde of flies hanging in the air like a plague in an area known to be absolutely ruthless in their extinction of anything vaguely insect. The hairs on the back of Tamari Kapoor's neck stood straight out. Something or someone had been killed. Kali and her shadow minions might have still been running wild through the loading dock, as the place normally a hive of activity was quiet, as in the kind of quiet only funeral parlors know.

Lt. Tamari Kapoor, removed her 10mm side arm, and eased the safety off. Her body went into a combat crouch as she moved silently through the loading dock towards the shipping office. The hair on her neck and arms felt like it was standing straight up, as when she had been stalking the Dagger Face in the hills above her home, all of her senses told her the attacker or attackers were still in the area. It felt like a million pairs of eyes were watching her every move. So intent was she in trying to look everywhere at once she didn't at first notice the slight tug on the soles of her boots.

Looking down Tamari saw she had stepped in a widening pool of blood which had started to congeal. It was tacky like drying paint. In the gloomy half light of the loading dock, she could see a dark wine stain with what looked like drag marks leading into the office interior which was dark and as foreboding as a tiger's lair in a bamboo thicket.

Thoughts began racing through her head “Shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” Her heart began pounding in her ears, as she slowly moved her way into the dark office space. Out of the corners of her eyes Tamari could see the crumpled forms of women piled up behind their desks. Each had been shot in the head and what looked like their sternums. Their damned firearms and body armor stacked tidily behind their desks.

“If they had been wearing their body armor like WE were told to when we in processed in this hell hole, they might have had a chance”

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind, Tamari sensed a movement out of the corner of her left eye. A couple of soft pfft, pfft noises from a dark office doorway and she found herself punched into the left center of her chest.

The momentum of the rounds hitting her chest made her body spin towards her attacker and Tamari began squeezing her finger on her side arm. She kept firing until the trigger clicked on an empty chamber. Finding herself laying on the blood soaked office floor between two desks, Tamari hastily reloaded with shaking hands while frantically trying to look for her attacker.

With one hand she edged her weapon over the top of the desk she found herself behind and fired off three rounds. With the other she grabbed her personal communication radio attached to her load bearing harness and yelled out “Mayday! Mayday! Attackers in the Commissary Supply! Attackers in the Commissary Supply!”

The dark shadow which had attacked her, hearing the radio burst into life, realized their time was up, came charging out of the back office with a spray of silenced bullets, designed to keep Tamari's head down. Paper and wooden desk chips flew in the air around her. Shards of a ceramic Chaa mug cut her cheek after being shattered by the fusillade of bullets flying in her direction.

From the woman who had faced death on a snow covered hillside so many years ago, the thought of diving out of the way of the bullets didn't even enter her mind. Tamari emptied her magazine into the robed attacker.

She heard him grunt in pain as he was knocked down by her bullets. Cries of frustration met her ears as the robed figure tried to escape an office which had become a trap. Tamari reloaded her weapon again, and fired another series of rounds through the gaping doorway and then into the door frame where she thought he had taken cover. Pausing, she again heard the attacker groan. She could hear thrashing noises and then an office chair was kicked through the door.

Summoning her shaky Ourtai language skills Tamari yelled out, “Come out with your hands in the air! Surrender and you will not be shot! Surrender! Drop your weapon!”

An equally horrible accented male voice weak with frothy bubble sounds answered in Atlantean accented Hind. “I see I made a mistake. You are the one! Know this bitch of Kapoor! The Oracle has placed his mark upon you! Hades shall have your soul as his toy for a thousand years!”

Then a single round was fired and Tamari could see a body slump over into the threshold of the back office doorway. Her years of weapons training seemed to take over her body with the noise of her weapon firing catching Tamari off guard; as she put a bullet through her attacker's spine just to make sure.

“Never leave a living enemy in your rear!” Sword Mistress Tamil's voice echoed through her head...

The ferro-ceramic plates in her body armor had worked. Her Tac Vest had saved her life. But it didn't do so without extracting a cost as pain flooded her chest. It also felt like she couldn't breathe from the swelling where the bullets had hit her, “Shit! I hurt. Damn this silly murdering asshole to the deepest levels of hell and the blackness of the void!” Groaning, she dragged herself upright, as she advanced upon what she suspected was not an Ourtai but rather an Atlantean assassin. Another groan escaped from her lips as she knelt down by his side, checking his jugular for signs of a heart beat. Finding none, Tamari reached down and exposed his left breast. His breast had a chest wound from her pistol. “Seems more than one of my bullets hit home!” Wiping his chest, she could still make out a tattoo. There! Partially obscured by torn flesh and a lot of blood was his tattoo. In her mind, Tamari hoped she wouldn't find one. She prayed to all who would listen to her, this tattoo wouldn't be there, but it was.

“Shit and double shit! Oh the Goddess in the void. Another damn Hades Commando,” ran quickly through her head. Marked by the Oracle? What the hell does that mean?” followed shortly by, “ Damn it to hell! I thought this assassination crap was finished with my sister's death!” Tamari's thoughts raced in her head as she watched the life blood of the assassin and her poor cousin laying on the floor behind her desk with a grotesque parody of a Bindi in the middle of her forehead. Tamari felt the adrenaline rush leave her like water pouring out of a pitcher as the growing stench of voided bowels filled her nose.

Her grasp on consciousness ebbed and flowed for several moments. She was only able to roust herself when she heard, “Throw your weapon to the floor! Stand up slowly, and Identify yourself! Slowly! Slowly! Or I will shoot to kill!” Shouted commands filled her ears and it dawned on her it was over.

Lt Tamari Kapoor turned slowly around, dropped her weapon to the floor, and raised her hands above her hands. She was quickly identified, cleared and taken away to an interrogation cell, where she promptly threw up all over the floor in a delayed stress reaction. Having two large spreading bruises sitting on her chest didn't help matters much either for her mood, especially when the MP commander decided she finally had enough time in her schedule to interview a by now thoroughly pissed off and to be honest worried Tamari Kapoor.

“Lt Kapoor thank you for patiently waiting for us to finish up a preliminary assessment of the crime scene.”

“It was an assassination attempt, gone wrong.”

“Excuse me? That's not what we found.”

“Have you ever heard of a Hades Commando?”

“Only in penny thrillers designed to scare the children with.”

“Oh ma'am they are very much real. One attempted to kill myself, and my mother back before I went into the Academy. I think you need to double check his chest for the blood tattoo which you will find there. The grinning skull which normally is found to the right of the Tattoo has a 10mm bullet wound obscuring it. But the rest of the script is there. Trust me ma'am. That is a dead Atlantean in there!” Tamari realized she had begun to shout at the worried and overly stressed out Captain.

The MP officer recoiled from the table as if she had been given a poisonous pit viper to pet.

Tamari realized she had both her hands clenched into fists and her whole body was rigid with fight or flight stress hormones. It didn't help that she kept seeing images of her sweet cousin, who was never meant to be a warrior with her brains sprayed across her office, sitting in a pool of her own excrement and urine.

“Captain....?”

“Captain Tandor. My name is Captain Shar Tandor.”

“Ma'am, you better get some Military Intelligence specialists in on this. I would also like to suggest, you secure the bodies. But especially handle the Atlantean carefully. They have booby trapped their own bodies! The one who tried to kill myself and my mother, had small minute needles in his skin! Each needle was full of a neurotoxin so virulent it killed one of the security forces inside of eight minutes from the time they were scratched. It happened when they tried to remove his body.”

Frustration writ large upon Tamari's face, as she could see the light of comprehension was not exactly dawning on Captain Tandor's face.

“Am I under arrest? Can I at least contact my chain of command?”

“Well no. You are not under arrest, nor are you up on charges. But until we get to the bottom of this investigation of this Terrorist attack. We are...”

“Assassination Attempt.”

“As you claim. An alleged Assassination Attempt. We are going to need to keep you here in protective security detail.” A snarl of offended officialdom scrolled across her long thin face. A face only a politician or a pelican could come to love.

“Ma'am with all due respect. I saw the tattoo. Even more importantly, he told me The “Oracle of Hades” had placed her mark upon me. Which means it was an attempt to kill me. He mistakenly killed my cousin! He said as much!”

Slapping her hands down on the table top where she sat across from the security officer. Tamari could feel herself getting sick again.

“Well let us play that by ear. Shall we?”

Groaning, Tamari Kapoor lifted the Velcro flap on the front of her body armor, reached into the protective plate pocket, and pulled out her cracked and broken ceramic armor. Throwing it down on the table, “Here ma’am play with this if you want to.” she looked at the Captain across from her, “Can I at least have a couple of pain pills, and a cup of Chaa? I think I might have a cracked rib or two.”

Captain Tandor mumbled something inconsequential, grabbed her sheaf of notes, and knocked on the interrogation cell door and walked out. Two very long hours later Tamari could hear a noise and ruckus outside her cell door, as a series of increasingly louder voices began arguing and yelling at each other. A barked command quieted the voices outside her cell, followed by the noise of the lock being opened up on the outside.

“Damn that officious bitch to the nine frozen levels of hell!” Gunnery Sgt Chavram said, as she dragged along with her, the 221st company medic Sgt Andara, and pulling up rear duty her company commander Capt Pradesha Kandam, who's dark features and black eyes, were flashing her annoyance and frustration like thunderheads above the mountains of Tamari's home district.

“Oh shit, am I glad to see you!” Tamari said, in the calmest tones she could manage to croak out, as her rib cage was throbbing with pain.

Sgt Andara dropped her medic bag at Tamari's feet and began giving her a thorough examination. Her peeling back of Tamari's uniform, and little noises of disapproval didn't sound too encouraging to Tamari.

Looking up at Tamari from where she was kneeling in front of her slight frame she said, “Ma'am you are lucky. Your body armor held. It did its job. Lots of bruising but over all without getting you to the medical scan unit I can't find anything broken. But your cartilage has been 'sprung' around your chest and that takes a while for it to repair its connections to your rib cage. You are going to be sore and have some swelling. But otherwise you will be fine. I have an anti-inflammatory you can take and some fairly non-addictive pain relievers I can give you. But what you mostly need right now is a bed and several hours of sleep.”

Sgt Andara pulled up Tamari's left sleeve and gave her a hypo, which made a soft 'pfft' noise. “That should ease some of the tightness in your chest, and make it easier for you to breathe.”

Tamari could feel a cooling sensation spread through her body as the drug worked its way through her bloodstream and the tightness in her chest began to ease.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Thanks Doc. I appreciate the kindness.”

The temporary relief from pain was soon replaced with a growing sense of anger and panic, when her commanding officer who had been quietly standing at the back of the room, spoke up. “Lt. Kapoor, in light of recent events, there is a serious conversation going on right now about putting you on the next KMA flight out here and sending you home for extended leave.”

Instantaneous outrage, and a quiet sense of panic, seized Tamari by the throat. It was at this moment she realized for all of her internal complaining and to be truthful resentment at being in an Engineering career field, she had come to love her company and her battalion. The thought of not being with them, especially now, set her already frayed nerves jangling.

“Ma'am am I a child? Do I or do I not have a commission in the military of the Hegemony of Hashtur? Did I not give my oath and take my salt when I marched out of the Academy?”

“Yes Lieutenant, you are an adult. And yes you took your salt and gave your oath.”

“Then why in the nine levels of hell Am I being treated like a God's Damned child, who has to run back to mommy when something jumps out of the bushes and scares her!” Tamari all but shouted as she slapped her right hand down on top of the interrogation table she was sitting in front of.

“Because you are not just a serving line officer. You madam are the Heir! The Kapoor of Kapoor! Heiress to one of the largest clans of the entire Hegemony. And whether or not you want to accept this or not, the Army, its commanders placed above you, and blessed Matrons of Hashtur might decide what is in the best interest of the Hegemony might be, that you go home.”

“With all due respect ma'am, that's bullshit and you and I know it. We have both played Chaturanga. You and I also know when you have blocked a stone, you have effectively killed that stone. I don't know why they have targeted my family specifically, but we have always been a target. Since my earliest ancestor led our clan down to the shores of Atlantis and fought our way to the boats with which we sailed away a thousand years ago. My family has been fighting for our freedom ever since! Pausing for a moment, Tamari could see her commanding officer holding her reply waiting for her second in command to finish her statement. “Ma'am they killed my sister, and they were the direct cause of my father losing his arm. But because I am the Kapoor of Kapoor, I have always known the threat! Since I was a very small child that inescapable fact has loomed over all members of my family. We know. We have always known we have had a target painted on our backs.”

“And what sort of slack is that supposed to cut? You and I follow orders, Lieutenant, even if that means we have to do things we don't like. Especially if that means we have to do something we don't like. “

“For Durga's sake! I have an entire damn mortuary of dead relatives underneath the floor of my home. Most of whom died almost to a woman defending all of us, from the predations of those who would see our entire world in flames with every person in it dead or wearing a slave collar. And NOW when it gets hard, those above me, are going to do the work of those Atlantean assholes for them? I may not be able to stop this but damn it ma'am, if you take me off the board, then you are making my cousins death and all of the women in her unit who died as well, mean nothing.”

“Are you done yelling at me Lieutenant? For what it is worth, I agree. I wouldn't have made you my Executive Officer if I didn't see your potential. Regardless of the eventual outcome, you are wounded, and I appreciate your fighting spirit. But you are wounded. And more importantly you have suffered a loss of a family member. I am authorizing in-country leave. Sleep. Eat. Cry and mourn your loss.”

Turning to the Gunnery Sergeant Chavram, Captain Kandam said, “Gunny escort Lieutenant Kapoor back to her quarters. She is relieved from duty for the next four days.”

“Ma'am, yes ma'am!” Gunny Sgt Chavram saluted their commanding officer and then reached down and gently helped a worn out and exhausted Tamari Kapoor to her feet, murmuring, “Don't worry about it Lieutenant, things are going to be alright.”

****

Twelve very long hours later found Tamari Kapoor, red eyed and blurry from emotional exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and guilt. She was beyond tired. For hours after hours she had lain in her bed, with the lights turned off, watching what seemed to be an endless loop of images of what had happened. Sleeping pills on the side of the night stand next to her bed sat untouched. Guilt over what had happened, what she thought she should have done, and what actually happened played over and over in her head.

“ Oh! Goddess Durga please take my cousin Mera into your care. She wasn't a warrior, yet she answered her nation's call. Please guide her and protect her!” Every time Tamari thought of her soft spoken happy-go-lucky smiling cousin, she felt like crumpling in a small ball. “Demons of inequity shall ride me like a mule! I will have to write to her mother and my mother, and tell them of her death.”

Long moments of crying followed, while Tamari became deaf and blind to the world around her. So much so, she didn't hear Sgt Sita Chambial, her gunner and military aide, and if the truth be told, her only real best friend in the service.

“Excuse me ma'am. I know it's been a shock what has happened but I have orders from the entire medical detachment. You are to drink your morning Chaa, and eat as much of this porridge I have made you. It's orders from the Doc and Captain Kandam. So please don't be difficult.

Tamari dried her eyes, and sat up in bed, “Sgt I am not really in the mood to eat. So you are wasting your time.”

“Ma'am, don't be difficult. I won't lie to the old lady nor to the medics. Everyone in the entire company is both worried about what happened and very concerned. I also have to tell you they are proud they have an officer in the ranks, who can protect herself, and by way of extension them. So don't be difficult. Please eat up.”

Trying hard to not resent her aide, Tamari began eating the porridge. It surprised her how hungry she actually was. There was even a pat of partially melted Ghee butter with a chunks of honey comb flavoring it.-Just the way her Ayah back home made it.

Sgt Chambial pointed to her mess cup full of her patented bitter Chaa. “I know you don't think so but drink your Chaa ma'am. It will certainly help you to feel better.”

Steeling herself for the throat choking bitter brew she was normally served, Tamari gently took a sip. This time it was smooth as silk on a Male Baruchi dancer's thigh. And it was sweet! “Ah! I can tell I must be ill. You actually made me a cup like I like it! Thank you Sita.”

Sgt Chambial mumbled something like “baby sitting fledgling officers... or not knowing what was in their best interest... ending up with something that sounded like wiping noses'' as she went about tidying up Tamari's quarters.

Finishing up the last of the Chaa, Tamari began yawning much to her surprise. She could feel her internal energy rapidly draining away, “What did you... put in my... Chaa?” She managed to slur thickly in a tongue rapidly feeling like it was made out of rubber.

“Soma Lieutenant Kapoor. The nectar of the Goddess herself, on the Doc's orders. It's just going to ease you down a bit. Nanites are going to help you heal, and ease some of the mental trauma ma'am.” Sita sat down next to Tamari and held her hand. “Don't you worry about a thing. I'll be right here. I got my weapons. No one or nothing is going to break in. Go to sleep. Get some rest.”

Tamari wanted to say something, but she didn't have the energy to do so, and before she could summon up the energy to protest, Nidra the Goddess of Sleep, stole her away to the land of rest, and recovery.

“Is she asleep and resting Sgt Chambial?” Asked Medical Sgt Andara.

“Yeah Doc she is.”

“Then I have a request. Clip off a small portion of her hair from the end of her braid.”

“Is this going to hurt her?”

“Nope. I have a Purohit friend of mine over at KMA Command. She owes me a major favor for helping her with a naming day ceremony years back which got out of hand. We are asking for donations of cloth or something personal from each woman in the Company. We are going to use it to build a protective charm for Our Tigress of Kapoor.”

Five minutes later Medical Sgt Andara walked to her ambulance truck. Getting in she drove to the other side of the base where a small ceremony of enlisted and a few fellow officers gathered in the last light of day. Each had contributed a portion of their hair, or some very personal item. The priests or Pandit collected the items into a bowl. She led the gathered women in a series of prayers and mantras. As she did so, she dropped each item into a small oil fire smoking on a stand, the fire would make whooshing noises as each item was consumed. Lieutenant Tamari Kapoor's hair was the last element added. The fire shot almost a meter into the air, as the onlookers chanted their mantras of protection, the flames turned to ice blue. As abruptly as they had turned blue, the flames died in the small brass bowl.

Turning to Sgt Andara, the priestess held before her a small cloth pouch made of soft blue silk. “Place this around her neck. Do not let her take it off. All of the women of her company have given something of themselves for this protection. She will now be invisible to those who hunt her from the shadows.”

Sgt Andara bowed deeply, “aap pavitr ek dhanyavaad. Thank you holy one!” She got back in her ambulance and drove back across the base to Lieutenant Tamari Kapoor's quarters. She tapped gently on her door. Whispered into Sita Chambial's ears the instructions and the meaning behind the blue pouch. Sita nodded her head, thanked her, and after taking the pouch closed the door.

****

The Drakon Mountains, Atlantis:

“Aaaargh I have gone blind! I can no longer see her, my lord! Aaaagh the pain! I can't see...!”

The wounded cries of a priest of Hades echoed and reverberated down through the subterranean chambers beneath the mountain where the Autokrator of Kings, He who walks in shadow, controlled the fate of mere mortals.

“Tell me priest before I send you to my hounds. Where is she?” A voice hissed with frustration from the dark recesses of the viewing chamber.

“I can no longer see her, my lord. She is now cloaked from my view. She is still in Kazan but other than that, I can't begin to tell you where.”

The Shadow moved. It seized the priest by the throat and held him off the ground where even with his toes outstretched he could not touch the ground.

“Are you faithful?”

“Gibbering in a paroxysm of religious fervor, the dying man could only nod his head as his body began to twitch in macabre rictus movements... Just before he was to die, the Shadow released him to land in boneless rag doll fashion upon the cold carved stone floor of the ancient cavern.

“Find her priest. Never rest until you find her. Events are afoot even I cannot stop. Find her and you shall go on to see your loved ones. Find her not and you shall find the emptiness of the void.”

The Shadow flowed back to the dark recesses of the chamber, causing the ancient torches to flicker and dance in their sockets.

****

Tamari was nervous. It was the morning of the fourth day of her forced convalescence and her body was telling her it was time to get up and start moving. Sita had awakened her before dawn, and the two of them had done their morning stretching exercises along with a vigorous thirty minutes of hand to hand. Now she found herself outside her commander's office, awaiting to hear her fate. Was she to go home like a prisoner with time served on a sentence or would she be allowed to continue forward on her chosen career path?

“Lieutenant Kapoor come in!” Captain Kandam shouted.

Tamari stepped to the exact distance she was supposed to from her commander's desk and popped a parade ground salute, “Lieutenant Tamari Kapoor reporting as ordered ma'am!”

“At ease Lieutenant. In fact take a seat Tamari. We have some issues that need to be discussed.”

Tamari took the offered chair, and sat like she had done in her first year at the Academy. Her spine was ramrod stiff and with her shoulder square to her hips.

“C'mon Tamari. Knock that tin soldier shit out. This is just you and me. We have some things that you need to talk to me about and I am not going to settle for grunts and yes ma'am and no ma'am for answers. Understand?”

Tamari allowed a few millimeters to relax in her spine, as she let out a breath she hadn't until then known she was holding tight in her chest.

Seeing her Executive Officer relax, Captain Kandam continued, “Good. Now first off I and the entire company are sorry for the loss of your cousin. Damn shame about that. The Military Intelligence and the Hegemony Secret Secretariat are handling the circumstances of her death. They are telling the general population it was an Ourtai with rebellion fever.” Seeing Tamari start to protest, she held up her hand. “Relax. They are taking the threat seriously and are using what we could charitably call Alternative means? To combat this threat. They are also doing a detailed analysis as to why a certain senior Lieutenant should pose such a threat to the Atlantean Empire.”

“Excuse me ma'am, I was wondering about my status. Am I to remain here with our troops or am I to be sent home?”

“That sort of depends on you. Preliminary analysis by both the MI and HSS has it that regardless of where you might go, the Atlanteans are still going to pursue you until their arcane and dark goals are satisfied. So where we leave you, is basically up to you. Where do you want to be? I can have you in less than ten hours sitting on your mother's porch watching the Sunset drinking alcoholic fruit drinks or sweating your ass off in the backside of beyond... and that still wouldn't keep the threat or the potential threat of them attacking your parents again, a remote possibility. So no matter where you go there you are eh?”

“Ma'am, Captain... With your permission I would like to stay. I have had three days thanks to you to assess and mull over what I want to do and what I find important. Once upon a time, all I thought I wanted to do was join the 1st Guards Regiment like so many before me had, to include my mother. I think I had something I wanted to prove to her. That was until I woke up with this hanging around my neck.” Tamari reached into her new battle armored vest and pulled out a deep blue fabric pouch. “Do you know what this is?”

“I do. Every woman in the company gave something they thought was important to add to that pouch.”

Tamari's eyes tried to mist up, knowing every single member of the company from techs to sergeants and officers had contributed to her pouch which served as a talisman against evil and spying eyes. “I have learned more about leadership and most importantly about humility from women, who come from the farthest, most remote and poorest sections of our country than any posh strutting cavalry officer I have ever known. More importantly I have found acceptance. I have been accepted into the ranks as Lieutenant Tamari Kapoor. Not as the Kapoor of Kapoor. They respect me, and I them. I can't in good conscience abandon them when the going gets tough. The 221st is my home now. I may someday retire to Deodar Hall. But this is my home. Please don't ask me to leave.”

“Good! I hope you are ready for work?”

“I am. More than ready. Do you need a bridge built or a mine field placed?

“No, something much harder. I will need you to be my eyes and ears, much more than you have had to be. By the way, while you have been laying on your backside, Gunny Chavram talked to me about your idea for training our vehicle commanders. I approved it, and have sent out detailed instructions to those squads and such in the field, and all of our drivers and vehicle commanders are going through a crash course. That was an excellent suggestion. I am also going to be leaving on an extended inspection tour. 1st, 2nd and 3rd platoons who are headed into the field for an extended patrol. I am initially going out with 1st and watch how they handle operations with minimum support. It is also my intention to interdict those ORM bastards farther East than we have hit them before. Maybe we can figure out their infiltration routes and stop and or hinder some of this Mining and Ambush shit we have had to put up with in the past couple of months. Which means you, me lass, will be keeping the home fires going. I am going to need you to be my base support, and most importantly you will command my reaction force in case some of us get stuck in and we have to have someone come running.”

It was about this time, Sita Chambial came in bearing a serving tray with two steaming mugs of hot Chaa. “I made my special Explosive Chaa for you both!”

Both officers accepted Sita's tea, and looked at each other with looks a professional gambler would have envied.

Captain Kandam stared Tamari Kapoor in the eyes and said, “I dare you to drink this stuff without making a face.”

“I can't ma'am.”

They both laughed.

A divisional later upon exiting her commander's office, Lt Tamari Kapoor met with Gunnery Sgt Chavram also on her way out of the orderly room.

“So are you here to stay?”

“Apparently so Gunnery. I don't know what convinced the Colonel to keep me here, but I am glad I am.”

“Don't repeat this ma'am, and you didn't hear it from me. But every officer and NCO in the company sent a nice little email with their signatures attached protesting the possibility of your being removed from the company.”

Tamari stopped dead in her tracks. A strange feeling of shock ran through her conscience. “Really Gunny?”

“Really ma'am. Have a good morning.”