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"Unless?"
"You see reason".
"I can't see much in this mask", Valentine said, trying to work it off with his jaw muscles and his cheeks.
"I don't want you to identify this place to the Kurians. We're turning you over to them".
Valentine felt his pulse quicken. "What does 'seeing reason' involve?"
"Forgetting all this ever happened. Rejoining Delta Group. I'll put you in a position where you can fight the good fight. As you see it. You'll hardly even know the Action Groups exist. You can fight the old-fashioned way, the useless way, wading into the enemy with banner unfurled. I have need of skilled officers who can keep the Kurian forces busy. You might be of use with the Big Mouths. They've been destructive as they've grown in familiarity with the waterways around Seattle".
"Let me see your face".
Valentine sensed a mass shift behind him, heard curtains being drawn. The mask came off, and there was the real heart and soul and mind behind Pacific Command.
Adler wore the patient face of a teacher, calm as a death mask, just old enough to be fatherly, just young enough for a spark. He had sad mortician's eyes, but there was a power behind them. Valentine felt the loom of the Bears behind, though what he could accomplish shackled hand and foot...
Maybe worst of all, Valentine liked him on sight.
"What did Seattle do to you? You're laying waste to everything he owns".
"I served him. On a whim ... on a moment of appetite he destroyed my children".
"So now you're killing other people's children?"
"It's better than the alternative. A bullet ends the matter. Having your soul pulled apart, shred by shred,
memory by memory, every awful act laughed at, every joy mocked... no one deserves that".
"I've always thought one's soul belonged to God".
"Maybe. Nevertheless, they partake of the distilled experiences of a life. Sip by sip. Stand with me. Or I fear you'll find out".
"How do you know so much about it?"
"He made me watch. He relished every detail. All because of a careless thought against him".
"I am sorry", Valentine said.
"Then you'll rejoin our war?"
"Your war".
For the first time he looked exasperated. "Word games. Fine. My war".
"I pound on the door while your murderers slip through the window".
"Not how I would put it. May I promise you one more thing? When Seattle is destroyed, my war ends. I will retire, disappear, live quietly somewhere. Pacific Command may fight on or hang itself".
Valentine bowed his head. "You've been polite with me, so I won't tell you where you can stick your offer".
"Now it is my turn to feel sorry for you. As to my 'offer,' I doubt it would fit. My staff calls me all sorts of colorful names having to do with anal retentiveness".
They stared at each other.
Valentine broke first: "So we're both too phlegmatic to get angry. Just out of curiosity, what's with the heroism stuff? I missed the chance at a lecture".
"The Action Groups can't get everywhere. We regularly send propaganda deep into Seattle, along with certain painless, lethal pills, encouraging the populace to do the right thing. I understand you even flew some to a very difficult-to-reach area. With luck, many of them will be used. Their names will be added to the hero lists and read out in our broadcasts. I still have a friend or two west of here. But my time
