If the French got involved, as they were constantly threatening to, it would be the end of independence in Britain. And Harker would rather burn England than see it annexed to France.
Frowning, worried, he made his way back to the mess, where he started towards Charlie, only to be waylaid by Saskia. She looked tense as hell.
'Sask, that alien from last night. Do you know her?'
She frowned, annoyed. 'For heaven's sake, Harker, why would I know her?'
'She's not someone you've socialised with? Eve Carpenter. She mentioned some stuff that made me think she might come from a rich family, and I thought ...' He trailed off as Saskia shook her head, looking impatient. 'You don't socialise with aliens. Okay. Never mind.'
'Wheeler thinks she's a spy.'
'I know. Wants her in St James's by tonight if I can't prove she's innocent.'
'Well, at least she's letting you investigate.' Saskia looked peeved. 'Do you think she is innocent?'
Harker raised his palms. 'How the hell should I know?'
'Well, find out. These attacks have got Wheeler worried. Very worried. She's scheduled a telephone call with the King.'
Harker whistled. Wheeler must think the situation was pretty terrible if she was going to trouble the King with it. Not that Harker expected he could do anything about it. According to all sources, the royal family was being entertained by the King of California, and were likely to stay there until the fighting was over.
Privately, Harker wondered why the King wasn't soliciting any military aid from the Californians, but whenever he'd voiced this thought out loud he'd been told it was due to 'politics', from which he deduced that the Americans, like everyone else, were scared of the French.
'Well, if I get anything, I'll let you know,' he said, and Saskia nodded. But just as he turned away, she said, 'Will, there's something else.'
He sighed, and turned back. It must be serious if she was calling him Will. 'What? France sending warships? America kicking the King out? Wheeler resigning?'
'No. Nothing that terrible.' She said it carefully, as if it was only slightly less terrible than all those things, perhaps if they all happened together.
'What, then? 'Cos I've got to tell you, Sask, I'm having a pretty shitty day and it's not even nine a.m. yet.'
'I saw Sholt outside. He's back.'
Harker went still.
'And unless a bird did something on his shoulder, he's wearing an extra pip.'
Harker closed his eyes. Sholt's pinched, sly face came into his memory.
'And,' Saskia began, then stopped, clearly uncomfortable. Harker opened his eyes.
She was wincing.
'What?' he said heavily.
'I spoke to Lieutenant-Colonel Green. Sholt's been transferred to the 75th. It's already gone ahead, Wheeler approved it.'
Cold hate and revulsion churned in Harker's gut. 'Wheeler? What the hell was she thinking?'
'I don't know, Will.' She looked genuinely upset. 'I'll try and get him shunted back out again'
'Preferably into the river,' Harker said viciously.
'but I don't know if I'll have any luck.'
'And this time, I ain't diving in to the rescue. Sask, what the hell? It's your damn regiment!'
More to the point, it was his damn regiment.
'Yes, I know,' she said. 'She went over my head, she can do that, she's the General. And I'll do what I can, but I've got more important things to worry about than checking every single officer coming in when I'm losing dozens every day.'
'I know,' Harker said through gritted teeth, 'but this is Sholt we're talking about. You put him in my company, you can have my resignation tomorrow.' The horrifying thought occurred to him that she just might. 'Sask,' he said. 'Do not put him in my company.'
'I won't,' she assured him. 'He hasn't been assigned to a company yet, that's what he's here for. But you do need a captain.'
'Promote Charlie.'
Saskia sighed heavily. 'I can't just'
'She's up for it anyway. Been doing Smith's job for ages.'
'Don't tell me what to do,' Saskia said, steel in her eyes.
'Do something, Sask,' he said, and he didn't care that by now the whole mess was listening to him fight with his CO. 'Because I swear, if that man comes near me or any of my men, I'll bloody kill him.'
Saskia raised her hands. 'Calm down, Harker. I'll do what I can. Go and see this Carpenter woman, will you, and stop thinking about Sholt.'
She left, and Harker glared at the rest of the mess, daring any of them to make a comment.
Every single officer looked away. Harker looked up at the clock and watched the minute hand thud into place. Nine o'clock, and his day had already gone to hell.
Chapter Four.
Also unhappy with the way the world was turning, Eve woke up to find herself still in the sickly yellow hospital ward, her ankle throbbing and her stomach growling. A nurse wearing a starched hat and an apron with a red cross on it appeared with a lap tray bearing a steaming bowl of slop that might have been porridge.
She refused to answer any questions Eve directed at her, including why she was dressed like an extra from Oh! What A Lovely War.
Finally, yesterday's doctor with the cartoon mouth appeared, clipboard in hand.
'How are you feeling?'
'Pissed off,' Eve said.
He continued to consult his chart. 'Any pain in your ankle?'
'Yes, but it's not as annoying as the pain in the arse standing in front of me.'
'Any nausea?'
Eve glared at him, irritated that he wasn't responding. 'No.'
'Do you think you can walk?'
'I don't know. But without any clothes, I'm not about to ' she broke off as the doctor held up a bundle she recognised as yesterday's clothes. 'Oh God, I love you.'
He grinned, the first reaction he'd given her. 'Sure, that's what they all say. There's a shower,' he pointed to a door on the far side of the room, 'or if you don't think you can stand, I'll get one of the nurses to give you a sponge bath.'
'I think I can manage,' Eve said in horror. 'Is there any shampoo?' she asked hopefully, tugging at the strawlike mop that had once been her hair.
'Of a sort,' he said, and Eve nearly swooned.
The shower was rudimentary, and gave her flashbacks to school changing-rooms, and the shampoo was little more than a large bottle of liquid soap, but she felt immeasurably better for having scrubbed the river dirt away. Drying her hair with a threadbare towel, she got dressed in her own clothes, which mercifully had been cleaned, if not ironed, and hobbled out to have her ankle rebound in bandages.
'I'm sorry,' she said as she went back into the ward, where the doctor was talking to someone whose back was to Eve, 'I don't think I know your name, Doctor ...?'
'Haran,' the doctor said, smiling that cartoon smile.
'And it's Captain Haran, actually,' said the other guy, turning, and it was Will.
'Captain,' Eve said, nodding, smiling at Will, feeling better for just seeing him. A friend. Someone who was nice to her. He smiled back, but he looked tense. 'I see you were allowed out,' she said.
'I don't have a dodgy ankle,' he said. 'How is it, by the way?'
'Oh, it's fine. Well, not fine, but you know.'
Any minute now, you're going to start blushing, Eve thought. He wasn't even that good-looking. Clearly, things had got even worse than she'd realised.
How long had it been since she'd even flirted with someone?
'Major Harker wants to see you,' Captain Haran said, as Eve perched on the edge of the bed to have her ankle restrapped.
'Does he, now?'
'Yes. But his office is on the other side of the courtyard, and up some steps. Do you think you can manage it?'
Eve flexed her ankle, and winced. Wordlessly, Will fetched a pair of wooden crutches.
'You guys really need to modernise,' Eve said, but she took the crutches and made a few experimental hops. 'So, what's this Harker guy like? Do you know what he wants?'
Will and the doctor looked at each other. 'He wants to talk to you,' the doctor repeated.
'Wants to know why you were flying over the Thames with that parachute thingy,' Will supplied.
'I told you, it was a TV thing.'
'Why,' Will sounded uninterested, 'were you on TV?'
Eve chewed her lip, thumping the wooden crutches on the lino floor. 'Uh,' she said. 'I ... Okay, remember I said I was in a band? Well, they used to be kind of famous. I ... used to be kind of famous.'
This elicited no reaction. Eve wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
'Thought you said you were a temp,' Will said. 'Other people's lives.'
'Yes,' Eve said shortly. 'I had a disagreement with the taxman.'
'What kind of disagreement?' Will asked.
'You're not very curious, are you?' she snapped. 'The kind where he said I hadn't paid any taxes and I said I had, and then we both discovered my accountant had been scamming me.'
'Not your fault, surely?' Captain Haran said.
'Nope,' Eve agreed, testing her weight on the crutches, 'but the thing about the taxman is, if your money isn't paid, it's you they come after. Even if it's someone else's fault. So now I live in a tiny bed sit with damp on the walls in a building that looks like Cell Block H, and pay pretty much everything I earn straight to those lovely people at the Inland Revenue.'
There was a short silence.
'Anyway. Maybe I'll sue the TV company,' Eve said with a lightness she didn't feel. She was good at pretending it didn't bother her any more.
'If you're paying all your money to the taxman, how will you afford a lawyer?' Will said.
'Well, I'll ...' Eve shrugged, taking an experimental step. 'I'll complain really loudly.'
Will smiled at that, not a proper grin but something more genuine than she'd seen from him so far, and some of the dark cloud that had settled over her when she'd brought up the taxman lifted. She followed him out of the ward and down a broad corridor, where a couple of nurses in their ludicrous starched caps were talking over a clipboard. They broke off, watching Eve hop after Will.
'Don't see many civilians in here,' he explained, and she nodded. He led her out into the cool sunshine, down a set of steps that had a ramp laid over them. At the bottom of the ramp, a soldier in a wheelchair was smoking a cigarette and flirting with a couple of girls in khaki. He had, Eve was horrified to note, no right arm.
'Marley.' Will slowed down to greet him. 'How's it going?'
Marley grinned. He had a vicious scar on his face that skimmed one eye, making the lid droop. 'Can't complain, sir.'
'Can't salute, either,' Will noted. 'Suppose that means you're off?'
'Nah, I'm gonna teach.' Marley grinned at the two girls. 'Off to Basic Training. I can still run drills with one arm, can't I?'
'Don't see why not,' Will said. He clapped Marley on the back. 'Take care.'
'Yessir,' Marley said, and went back to flirting with the two young recruits.
'Will,' Eve said as she hopped after him, 'what rank are you?' The epaulettes where she might have looked for insignia on his greatcoat were torn, but even if they hadn't been, Eve would have been none the wiser. All she could remember were stripes for sergeant, and he didn't have any of those. But did that mean he was of a higher rank, or lower?
He raised his eyebrows. 'Why's that important?'
'It isn't. It's just, he called you sir.'