Continued from Part Nine

Snyder stood on the stairwell with Amanda and a cranky Light Bird. Snyder took a deep breath as Dread ranted.

“What is the meaning of this?” Dread handed a Iboard to Captain Greywolf.

She glanced dismissively at the holographic document clipped to the Iboard. “My order promoting Snyder to Private First Class.”

Dread sneered. “Yes, I know. What did this scum do to deserve promotion? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call an inquiry!”

Amanda stared, unblinking, cool as a snake in the grass. “The general procedure is to promote privates after a year. Snyder was past the time he should have been promoted, and he’d helped on valuable projects.”

“My, you do a lot of projects. Anything going on that I should know about?”

Snyder took a deep breath. Amanda’s career was on the line, but Dread would find some way to put him on the end of a noose.

Amanda’s full weight fell against Snyder. He tumbled down the cement stairs, pain throbbing through his body.

Above him, Dread’s voice’s echoed, “Apparently not. As you were, Captain.”

Snyder lay on the stairs for a few minutes. His guts reeled and tears threatened. How could she do that? He’d never do that to her. Not for a million dollars, not even to save his neck from the hangman.

A familiar hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him over. Seeing it was her, Snyder backed up, like-Snyder looked around. Him, scared of a woman? No way. “Well, I love you, too.”

Her eyes held no apology. “Sorry, I panicked. I got you some healing balm. We’ll put it on, and you’ll be just like new when we go to Vegas tonight.”

Snyder nodded. That jerk Cutler didn’t know what he was talking about. It was just a panic reaction. That was all. That was all.

And that cold, calculating look in her eyes just now, that was surely just his imagination. He read into things too deeply sometimes. One of the curses of being an intuitive with high intelligence.

Continued…Next Thursday

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