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Probably Tikka, wanting to finish what she started in the headquarters tent. He rose and was surprised to see Lieutenant Tiddle standing there, looking freshly shaved and combed.
"What is it, Tiddle?"
"Can we talk, sir? Like, off the record?"
"Come in."
Tiddle rubbed his nose, looking like he was desperate to jump on his motorbike and disappear in a fountain of dust. "Major Valentine, that story you heard about the Colonel and Colonel Jolla ain't quite what happened."
"Excuse me?"
"We lied to you, sir. We sort of agreed about it. There was a struggle over a gun, sure, but it was Colonel Bloom's. When the shells started falling and Colonel Jolla was just standing there and started talking about surrendering while watching it like it was a rainstorm and not doing anything, she took command. He put his hand on his pistol and told her she was guilty of mutiny. The next thing we knew, they were fighting. Then we heard the gun.
"She was the one who put the barrel under Jolly's chin. Awful sight. We took another bullet out of Jolly's gun and put it in Bloom's."
"Why are you changing your story ?"
"I-we all agreed, as we were treating Colonel Bloom, that whatever their fight was about, Colonel Jolla wasn't right in the head, ever since we lost the colonel. I remembered that story they taught in school about how the president wasn't giving any orders in 2022 and then he shot himself, and we decided that something like that was happening with Jolly."
Valentine decided Tiddle bore watching, in more ways than one.
"I'm still not sure why you're changing the story."
"Will this cause trouble for his family with line-of-duty death and all that."
"No. Let's leave it be," Valentine said. "Conscience clear now?"
"The lie's been bothering me, sir." He sighed, and is face relaxed into the more agreeable expression Valentine had seen here and there around the brigade.
In Southern Command, if a court found that a soldier had been killed while in the commission of a crime under either military or civilian laws, their death benefits were forfeit.
"Don't worry, Tiddle. You did the right thing. Both times."
"How can it be right both times?"
"Good question. Why don't you think about it for a while?"
Valentine decided to forget everything Tiddle had told him, if possible. Whatever Boom had or hadn't done, survival was their main concern now.
"Sir, if you don't mind me saying, there's one more thing that's worried me."
Trust established, Tiddle seemed intent on unburdening himself entirely. Valentine wondered if he was going to hear about Tiddle's loss of virginity to a cousin.
"Colonel Bloom, sir. She's been kind of distracted lately. Just like Colonel Jolla at the end.
Absent, only half listening."
Valentine bit off a "Are you sure?" Stupid question. He had to act.
"I'll talk to her. Thanks for expressing your doubts, Tiddle."
"Whatever's going on, nip it in the bud now, would you, sir? I don't want to be known as the com officer who's had two commanders shoot theirselves."
* * * *
"I'm not sure we should be in such a hurry to leave," Valentine said, trying to wash down a hunk of legworm jerky and sawdust at the next route-planning meeting.
"How's that now?" Bloom asked.
