Helfort's War Book 4: The Battle for Commitment Planet Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, slumping back in his chair, the anger gone. “Sorry, Jayla.”
    “No problem. So is she? That important, I mean.”
    “Yes, she is. From the day I met her back at Space College,I’ve known that she’s the one I want to spend my life with. In this whole screwed-up universe, she’s the only one who means anything. So yes, she’s important, more important than my life, my career, this ship, Fleet, everything.”
    “Even the lives of your crew?”
    Michael’s eyes narrowed; he looked at Ferreira for a long time. “No,” he said eventually. “That is the one exception. No, Anna Cheung is not more important than the lives of my crew.” His face twisted into a bitter smile. “I haven’t lost the plot, Jayla.”
    Ferreira smiled back. “I never thought you had, sir.”
    “Let me put it this way, Jayla. If it takes my life to save hers, then that’s the way it’ll be. I won’t allow Colonel Hartspring to destroy Anna because of me. I can’t. For some reason, this whole fucked-up war has become personal, who the hell knows why. The Hammers hate me so bad, they’ll do whatever it takes to get their hands on me. For chrissakes, I’m just a damn lieutenant doing his job, so why me? Don’t they have better things to do with their time? Anyway, who cares why? The plain fact is that Anna’s got nothing to do with any that, and I won’t let her pay with her life for whatever it is I’ve done to piss off the Hammers. Simple as that.”
    “I guess that answers the question,” Ferreira said quietly. “So why haven’t you told the brass? If you came clean, maybe they’d let you turn yourself over … if that’s what you want.”
    “Hell, yes. It’s exactly what I want, but there’s no point even asking. My security clearance is way too high. I know too much. I’d never get approval.”
    “Thought so,” Ferreira said with a frown. “What about neurowiping?”
    “Not an option. Apart from my neuronics, everything of value to the Hammers is in long-term memory, so I’d need a full neurowipe, which nobody in the Federated Worlds will give me. The law’s clear: Without a court order following a conviction for a criminal offense, full neurowiping is illegal.”
    Michael paused to rub eyes gritty with accumulated stress. “Chicken and egg. I need to get off the Worlds to find someone to neurowipe me so I’m no longer a security risk, but I can’t get off the Worlds because I’m a security risk.” He laughed, ashort, bitter sound devoid of any humor. “Anyway, turning yourself over to the enemy in time of war is desertion. I don’t think the admirals will be too keen to agree with that. No, I’m screwed, Jayla, and because of me, Anna’s dead. The only woman I’ve ever loved, and she’s going to die because of me.”
    “Not sure that’s true, sir,” Ferreira said. “There may be another way.”
    “Another way?” Hope flared in Michael’s eyes for an instant, and just as quickly it died. “No, Jayla, there’s no other way. If I’m not at the Hammer embassy on Scobie’s by October 1, Anna’s dead. The problem is I cannot see how, and believe me when I say that not a minute goes by without me trying to find a way.”
    “Rescue?”
    “Fleet will never go for it even though we know where the Hammers are keeping Anna.”
    “You know that?”
    Michael nodded. “I do. Anna’s one smart woman. She encoded the information in her monthly vidmail. The survivors from
Damishqui
are in Camp J-5209, southeast of the Hammer capital, McNair, along with the crews of the rest of the task group destroyed in the Salvation operation. What’s left of them, that is. Know how many made it to the lifepods, Jayla?”
    “No, sir.”
    “Bit over four hundred spacers and marines. That’s all that’s left from eleven front-line ships thrown away in a pointless operation.”
    “That was a bad business,” Ferreira said. “My sister’s husband lost a cousin. He was an engineer on
Unukalhai
. Poor