Free The Heirs of Babylon by Glen Cook Page B

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    suppression. The other, for political reasons, wants to let it grow. The factions were near blows, last I heard. A power
    struggle was shaping up. ..."

    Kurt felt lost. He had never thought of the High Com-
    mand in these lights, nor had he ever dreamed of an
    anti-War underground. Some odd events clicked into
    place, made sense.

    "Well," said Beck, "your loyalty to your friends is stronger than to High Command, so it'd be futile for me
    to ask you to poke around after underground activity. Oh,
    yes, there's a small cell aboard. I'm even fairly certain of several identities. ..."

    Cold fear washed Kurt's soul like the sudden shock of
    thrown icewater. He, too, was sure of one man. Gregor.
    There could be no other explanation for the curiosity he
    had found in that blower room. Gregor, Gregor, he
    thought, what are you doing? He was hurt, hurt deeply

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    because a man as close as his cousin, and a woman as
    close as Karen, had never had the trust to confide in him.

    Sea waves washed the hull, which formed one wall of
    Beck's stateroom, with mesmeric regularity. How like this
    ship I am, Kurt thought. The waves of the world splash
    against me repeatedly, and all the waters of awareness
    that enter do so accidentally.

    Beck! The Political Officer was suffering a coughing fit.
    Blood spume colored his lips. Kurt ran out, found Com-
    mander Haber. Before the night was done. Beck once
    again owed Kurt his life.

    lager rounded Brittany next evening, following a track
    from De d'Ouessant to Cabo Ortegal. A bit over fifty
    hours' steaming if there was no trouble.

    But trouble there was, a small storm which cost an
    hour, and a man overboard—perhaps with help.

    It may have begun at supper, when Jdger was halfway
    across the bay. Kurt, Hans, Otto, and several others were
    sitting at a table in the mess decks, grumbling about the
    food, and about the rolling of the ship in the last breaths of the storm. Somehow, Beck's name arose.

    "Me," Kapp growled, "I wish he'd bought it. Got no use for Political Officers." His eyes were angry as he glanced at Hans. "Nor the War, nor High Command. Maybe
    Jdger ought to blast High Command. Makes more sense
    than sailing around the world for nothing. At least there'd be no more War."

    Kurt was startled. He had suspected Otto's feelings, but
    not that they were this strong. The others seemed equally
    surprised, and uncertain if Kapp were joking.

    Kurt worried. Frieda would never forgive him if any-
    thing happened to Otto. Frowning, he leaned closer, and, as he had thought several times during the meal, caught a
    whiff of alcohol. There had been a rumor about
    homemade vodka brewing in an unused fresh-water evap-
    orator.

    "Ott, take it easy," he whispered.

    Kapp was drunker than Kurt thought. 'Take it easy?"
    He staggered up, spilled his tray in the process. "Take it easy? How can I take it easy when you're hauling me off
    to get killed like a slaughter lamb? And for nothing. If
    there's an almighty War to fight, why doesn't High Com-
    mand do the dying?"

    Otto shouted, "How many of you want to go on?
    What's in this War for us? Where're we going? Why? Just
    because Beck told us to? Let's go home. If we have to, we
    should—"

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    "Ott!" Kurt snapped, cutting him off before he could damn himself with a proposal of mutiny. "Shut up!"

    "You shut up, Kurt! Don't you want to see Karen
    again? Maybe you don't. Beck says there's a War, and you
    always let people run you. ... What's the matter with all
    of you? You don't want this stupid trip. We'll all get killed if we go. Why don't we do something about it?"

    He was hitting them hard, Kurt saw. They were think-
    ing. Trouble would come soon, bad trouble. "Hans, Erich, Fritz, give me a hand," he whispered. They rose and a
    moment later were wrestling Otto forward, down to his
    compartment, with Kurt praying he had acted in time to
    keep Kapp's head out of a noose. Von Lappus and Haber
    seemed to have low opinions of Beck, but they