Page 14 of Freedom Fighters
“Not hidden enough. Not drunk enough. Can’t do anything right.” He lifted his arm and something clinked against the stones at his side. He raised the bottle to his lips and drank deeply.
“Wheredid you get that?” Carmen asked. The camp had been dry ever since she had arrived. Not because Garrett wanted everyone sober, but because alcohol of any sort was impossible to obtain.
The label on the bottle in Garrett’s hands was a familiar one. Carmen hadn’t seen it since before she had left for college. It was Vistarian mescal. “Did Hernandez slip you the bottle?” she asked.
“Go back to yourskinny lover. Leave me alone.”
He might not be drunk enough to suit his tastes, yet he was still drunk. His speech wasn’t slurring, though. Garrett’s superhuman discipline didn’t take a breather even when he was blasted.
Carmen sighed. “I need you to dig in and focus for a moment.” She made her tone crisp. Pure business. “We need to send someone to the rendezvous point. They must observe ituntil we get there for the meeting, so we can be sure it isn’t an Insurrecto trap. It’s nearly a day’s walk from here, although twelve hours observation should minimize the risk.”
Garrett smiled. His teeth were white in the moonlight, contrasting with the darkness over his eyes. “Ms. Fix It.”
“Garrett, snap out of it.”
“Why?” His tone was reasonable.
“I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
“Don’t want to talk to you, anyway.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” Carmen shot back. “You’re always raving about the chain of command. Ihaveto talk to you and you have to give the order. Save me from having to spend any more time listening to your self-pity. Straighten up for thirty seconds and I’m out of here.”
He stretched out his legs, leaning back to keep his balance on the top of the pile.With one large lunge, he stepped onto the ground. He straightened. The bottle swung from his fingers, making sloshing sounds. He hadn’t bothered recapping the bottle.
Carmen crossed her arms, fighting the anger rising in her. She had never seen Garrett drunk before, yet even drunk, he was formidable.
He stood over her and spoke with perfect clarity. “Send your scout. You will, anyway.”
“I wouldn’t!”she refuted. “Not if you haven’t said to.”
“Then you’ve surprised me.”
“After the weeks and weeks of you bawling me out for not following orders, for trying to do my own thing? Do you think I’m so stupid I can’t learn anything?”
He circled around her and with the moonlight over her shoulder, his moon shadow lurched on the dry ground. “You’re not stupid,” he said flatly. “You’re reckless. Youlet emotions drive you.”
“You sound like Spock now.” She stood where she was and let him walk around her. He was speaking clearly, yet the looseness of his gait betrayed him. He wasn’t staggering—not yet. He was close to it, though.
“He might have been right. ‘motions are grit.”
Carmen cocked her head. “That’s why you’re hiding out here?”
He stopped circling. He was behind her, so she turnedto face him. He was looking at her. No, he was lookingthroughher, as if what she had said had punched buttons and now his brain was firing.
“Go back to the fire.” This time he sounded far more sober than he had since she had stumbled across him.
“I can send the scout?”
He grimaced. “Send Angelo. He’s good at ingratiating himself. The locals will adore him.”
Carmen let out a breath, lettinggo of the need to defend Angelo. She stepped away from Garrett. “I suggest you get some sleep.”
“Nothing there but bad dreams,” he muttered. This time, his words slurred.
Carmen hurried away, heading for the refectory. She hugged herself, feeling an odd chill even though the night wasn’t cold.
It was almost a relief to wake Angelo and tell him what his orders were. She was doing something.She was acting, rather than thinking. She wasn’t thinking about Garrett, whom she didn’t want to think about.
