Adams had been hanging out ever since. The Keldara were great people, the scenery was awesome, the living conditions, given that there were three hookers in-house, were great and the beer was fucking awesome.

He acted as the Kildar’s field second and had been at his side for several hairy ops. But it wasn’t the ops, directly, that had led to this fuck-up. Just one fucking casualty. You’d think a big guy could get over one fucking casualty, no matter how good a piece of ass it had been.

“I don’t think that would help,” Colonel David Nielson said dryly.

The colonel was a former infantry and civil affairs officer, Ranger tabbed, airborne qualified and once an instructor at the War College. The only professional officer in the group, he acted as the Kildar’s chief of staff. Short, with black hair going gray and green eyes that worked remarkably well on the ladies, he was about ready to go for the master chief’s suggestion.

“It’d help me,” Adams argued. “I’m about sick of his pouting.”

“The Kildar is soul damaged,” Father Kulcyanov said wheezily. The oldest remaining Father, Kulcyanov was a veteran of WWII, in the Red Army. He’d been in every major campaign, to include Stalingrad, and had so many medals he kept them in a very large box. In addition, he acted as the Keldara’s high priest. Given that that position had to be held by a warrior, it made sense. “It has happened before.”

“I hate to say this, but I have to question this whole Rite thing,” Captain Kacey Bathlick said. One of the pilots recently hired to support the Keldara, she knew she was the most junior member of the group, at least in experience. But not only had she proven her merits on the last mission, she wasn’t the sort to just keep her mouth shut. And, hell, Gretchen had been her crew-chief. She was pissed about her getting blown away but she wasn’t sitting crying in her fucking room! She’d just sent the Chechens who did it to meet Allah. Blasted the hell out of them, actually. “I mean, I get the whole point and the history. But fraternization is never a good idea.”