Free RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) by Phillip Richards Page A

to their
prisoners in order to extract the information they needed, and to be honest we
didn’t want to know. There were no rules of war out in the Bosque, and even if
there were, nobody was going to follow them.
    I helped Yulia to turn around so that she could rest
her back against the chamber wall. I flicked my torch over her jumpsuit to
inspect for injuries, but it was hard to tell if she had been hurt since her
outfit was already stained with the blood of another rogue Guardsman she had
killed in Cellini a few hours before.
    ‘Are you hurt?’ I asked.
    ‘No,’ she replied. ‘I have been left alone since I
was brought here. My hood was placed on as soon as I was brought into the
warren, so nobody recognised me–’
    Our conversation was cut short as the sergeant major
emerged within the chamber entrance. ‘Don’t release anyone! Not unless they’re
wearing a trooper’s uniform!’
    ‘Yes, sir!’ my men chorused in response, stepping
away from the hooded prisoners as if to prove their innocence.
    The sergeant major swept his gaze across the room,
scanning for our missing comrades. Eventually his eyes fell upon me and Yulia,
and he frowned deeply. ‘You found your mate, then?’ he asked, a hint of scorn
in his voice.
    ‘Yeah,’ I replied, ignoring his disdain.
    He jutted a finger at her. ‘You watch her like a
hawk . . . understand?’
    ‘Understood.’
    Yulia watched stone-faced as the sergeant major
disappeared back into the smoke. ‘He does not want you to rescue me,’ she
observed.
    ‘He doesn’t think you can help us find the missiles,’
I admitted with a sigh. ‘He’s only interested in finding our platoon commander
and getting out of the warren.’
    Yulia proffered a hand to me and I took it, helping
to lift her back to her feet. She looked around the chamber, seeing where she
had been held captive for the first time. I doubted she could see much, though,
since her civilian respirator didn’t come with the same image enhancing
technology that our visors provided. The only light came from the small
flickering fires that burned in the command chamber, and the intermittent
flashing of FEA torches.
    ‘Your platoon commander is not here,’ she told me.
    I frowned, suspicious of the certainty in her voice.
‘How do you know?’
    ‘Bhasin wouldn’t leave him here,’ she said. ‘A Union
trooper would be useful to him . . . and an officer would be more useful still.
Your platoon commander must have information that could help their cause . . .’
    ‘Handing the missiles over to the Militia,’ I
finished.
    ‘To Helstrom,’ she corrected. ‘But that . . .’ She
swept her arms across the chamber, as if encompassing the entire battlefield
around us ‘. . . this . . . is only part of their plan.’
    I decided to test her knowledge. ‘Well, what’s the
next part?’
    ‘We aren’t sure. They must use the missiles to anger
the Russians somehow. This is the only way to prevent the pact being formed
between the Union and the Alliance, because the Union will never ally with the
Alliance if they will upset their greater ally - the Russians.’
    My mouth worked, but no words came out as I
struggled to think of what to ask her next. Clearly she knew about the planned
annexation of her province, but how? Who was providing her with information?
Who had sent her and her men into Cellini to stop Bhasin and his company of
rogue Guardsmen? My mind was awash with questions, but I knew that I needed to
focus my questioning onto the immediate situation. Our platoon commander was
still missing, and the Militia were still threatening to overrun the FEA if
they didn’t manage to fix the warren network.
    ‘Did you see what they did to the Guard Commanding
Officer?’ I asked, changing the subject.
    The entire Guard headquarters had been in the
command chamber, controlling the battle from the heart of the warren. If their
commanding officer could be found and communications restored, then perhaps he
could