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Odds and Sods: As it ages, any large institution develops quiet filtering areas where less useful or odd-fitting pieces wash up, to be either sluiced out of the prospector&039;s pan or picked out for soanization, these pools are ed so that those in theinally useful

In a more sclerotic bureaucracy, those who find themselves in such filter pockets may moulder away quietly until retire on te a more comfortable barnacle shell for themselves

Sometimes, out of a ize the sluice

Fort Seng, just south of Evansville, Indiana, in the early days of what soon would be the Kentucky Free Alliance, was that sort of place Fort Seng was reravity It served as a swaanization, but for three

By designation, it was under control of Southern Coether federation of states resisting the Kurian Order called the United Free Republics The UFR encoion from Southern Missouri to Texas north of Houston, somewhat protected by the vastness and emptiness of the plains to the west and the Mississippi River to the east Southern Command&039;s operations in Kentucky have received all the attention a butt-cheek boil would on a patient in the ery

A fresh face and set of strategic outlooks in the for all of Southern Co conditions, training, and chains of command Martinez assumed overall command with a mandate from the newly elected president to prevent another in a series of expensive disasters that have dogged Southern Coh Texas at the birth of the UFR Martinez has put Southern Coies to consolidating what has already been won and giving his forces muchneeded time to refit and rest

Coraveyards for those who don&039;t toe the new line Fort Seng is one of them It&039;s too far away to be within his new, more defensible map of "chords and arcs" Withdrawal is not in the political cards, as the previous year&039;s trek across Kentucky in an attempt to establish a new freehold in the Appalachians was a partial success, ending with a victory outside Evansville that inspired ainst the Kurians With bodies of both Southern Co allies scattered across last-year&039;s battlefields, the United Free Republics aren&039;t yet ready to forget about the s embers of Operation Javelin that had lit a flame of revolt across Kentucky

For the city of Evansville, a modest industrial town lately pried fro is another sort of destination The city has survived a dreadful shakeout Kurian loyalists have fled elsewhere, and the factories and workshops fed by Ohio River traffic are short rawKentucky&039;s forces in the field Half the population has been reduced to survivalist fararden and parkland plots, fish hatcheries in polluted water diverted fro and the rest are undereed by the day So work around Fort Seng, where even that trickle of funds and supplies General Martinez allows his Kentucky garrison is enough to attract the desperate

Oddly enough, Southern Cohout the United Free Republics and only accepted by e rate for thy a digression for our purposes, but which boil down to "can&039;t buy jack in the here and now" is the coht even say this stretch of Kentucky is a last chance for a few in the Kurian Zone as well There are those who find escaping to Kentucky&039;s Jackson Purchase easier than the long trek to the United Free Republics or the dangerous run across the Great Lakes for the deep north woods outside the Kurian Windsor-Toronto-Montreal Belt They&039;re valuable citizens, if they h the military concentrations of the Nashville and Atlanta Kurians ensures that only the ent make it Once installed, they work hard to overco: near illiteracy, habits of blending in so as not to attract attention, and instinctive avoidance of authority figures

It&039;s also a destination for Quislings orry their record supporting the Kurians will be used against them Some are last-second "bolters" who&039;ve failed in some colossal er live with thes in the dreadful system Service with Southern Co for six years promises a new identity with an honorable rievous sins they wish to escape, forget, or expunge show up at Fort Seng, give their assumed name, take the oath, and are escorted to the showers and supply depots

A feho support the Kurian Order even wash up so a region of wellarmed neutrality and there are those ould have it return to that condition They would bring Kentucky back with tactics drawn frodoamester is the soonest winner" A hnut shop led the way He had quickly becohnuts were tasty, but because of his zeal and friendliness with all who crossed his path A few others have followed in his foot-steps, unar a doctor and a dentist and a couple of teachers who provide services for little or no charge but pay for their necessities in silver and gold Their offices are littered with Kurian tracts, their professional chatter full of careful probes and discreet offers Not quite enough have arrived so that there&039;s a "Kurian Quarter" in "Desperation Row" as the little strip outside Fort Seng is now called, but enough so that they too have a place in the re to this corner of Va, even for a few nights, the caed by the time he returned

This tiworiant caterpillar introduced to the area by the Kurian allies in 2022 Atop the worht of an old tractor-trailer driver andtrotted-Valentine idly calculated it at ninethe worm&039;s back in a fashion not dissi ships measured their speed-he could stretch out, sleep even, while the wor hook

The young worer Clan The Kentucky legworm raisers were the closest allies of Southern Command&039;s forces locally He&039;d travelled with theside them, saw victory and defeat beside theworm cavalry to support their allies at the base, with a few wore, and were training the fort&039;s garrison to handle a dozen more Southern Command&039;s forces, which up to the Javelin operation had been only on the receiving end of legwor fast-at least in Kentucky

Back across the Mississippi, any species that had "appeared" since 2022 was considered suspect at the very least

It was Colonel La of course She liked her ca in its place Valentine had never actually seen her pencil drawer, but he suspected all her leads were sharp and facing the sa, there was a new sign up at the vast New Universal Church relief tent:NO FOOD TODAY

SUPPLIES INTERCEPTED

Valentine had heard that once the sign claimed Southern Command had intercepted and confiscated their shipment A few of the Bears visited the tent, tore it down, and bounced the churchmen on an i that if Southern Co it

Since being bounced alh to see the Ohio River over the hills and trees, the missionaries had cut down on the specificity of their claireat noses for food

He disworm driver and Duvalier-a blanket-covered carbuncle on the mossy back of the woruardhouse stood at the gate now, along with an unun position They were positioned well to cover each other Valentine saw a couple of doughnuts resting on a sill, an easy reach through theof the guardhouse

"Cruuard

"Sorry, Major" The private brushed the cru on sentry duty We don&039;t want our friends across the highway thinking we&039;re slack" He forced a s at the guardhouse door He didn&039;t like this kind of petty officiousness, especially when he was riding into camp dirty, unshaven, and dressed in a collection of odds and ends that barely qualified as guerilla-wear But a quiet word and a glare or tere better than going to the man&039;s captain, who&039;d roll it downhill to a lieutenant or sergeant, and the poor kid would hear about it tonight or the next day, with all that added h the woods and to the fort proper, Valentine thanked the worm driver and checked off on a list of supplies he&039;d carry back to their Gunslinger allies He woke Duvalier and sent her to the showers, then walked up to the great house that served as Fort Seng&039;s iravel on the athletic field and so bleachers Baseball and basketball were the traditional sports of Southern Co around soccer balls outside and Ping-Pong indoors It had probably started because that was the only athletic gear at hand They&039;d added soht it closer to rugby or football Exciting stuff to watch, but Valentine hadn&039;t had the chance to dopractices yet

There were sorounds as well Tieant wanted to drill his platoon, he&039;d take them to "the field" or "the hill" There they&039;d crawl, run, walk, squat, and roll until he or she could sed that She preferred exercising the troops under her care by having theravel or lumber or rubble cleared away that week, well, the city of Evansville did

Valentine approved-for the most part He voiced a concern that Evansville had to look on their allies at Fort Seng as soldiers first, and a handy source of disciplined labor a long second Evansville had to organize itself, the day ht coone for a year

No new faces at headquarters Launs that watched over the river, so he reported to her acting adjutant, a for march across Kentucky last year She&039;d been proeant, Nilay Patel, was probably the best officer at Fort Seng Captain Ediyak had proven her worth since day one as a Southern Command recruit, and Valentine was pleased to see her under Lah the doorway, Valentine saw an unfa in La personnel files He had the hard, glitzy look of a headquarters type, like polished chrolasses but didn&039;t put theed there with one bow in his h the lenses Ediyak didn&039;t mention him so Valentine didn&039;t ask

"Once you&039;re cleaned up, there are a couple new faces you need to meet," Ediyak said She always re eyed, delicate, and thin He knew the delicacy was only skin-deep She was as strong as any wo, just small boned from a youth on short rations Her family had been nobodies in the Kurian Deep South, so as a little girl she probably hadn&039;t seen a ha to the next

"Need, not want?" Valentine poured hilass of water from her office carafe-a nice piece of silver, the oldowner had collected-and sat down Ediyak knew hih to know that when he was off his feet protocols were relaxed and she could speak freely

"Depends We&039;ve had a couple more Bears come in That makes five this month, I believe These last tere busted out of their outfit for talking monkey about Martinez and his new &039;defensive stance&039; OrOne of the about your old unit, the Razorbacks"

Talkingfeces, to put it politely The Razorbacks were an ad hoc unit formed on the march into Texas, and had been disbanded a few years back after nearly being destroyed in the siege of Dallas

"I never say no to Bears Gaood with discipline proble built about sixty miles southeast of here, more or less"

"The colonel will need to hear about that"

Valentine nodded

"There&039;s also someone the Miskatonic sent Between us, I think Southern Coot shipped out here She claims you&039;re the only one that can appreciate her ideas"

Valentine noticed the e for the lasthis eyes

If headquarters wanted to spy, let the is woefully short of Southern Command&039;s Interior Utility Gray paint and individual field toilet paper packs

"A nut?"

Ediyak crinkled her nose and mouth into an expression half pucker, half smile "More like a zookeeper-well, you&039;ll just have to meet her She&039;s set up above the stables, so she can be near her little ot the desk"

"I&039;ll try and find her on my own"

"Ask for Victoria Pellwell Tall Hard to miss"

"Pellwell?"

"Victoria Pellwell"

"Sounds like a heroine in a Gothic ro father"

"Lots of eptHe&039;d touched his first woricultural Kurian Zone in Wisconsin

"Don&039;t forget the tin bathtub that the maid has to fill with a kettle" Valentine had baths on thedirty; personally, and professionally he didn&039;t like wandering headquarters looking like roadkill, so hebasement bathroom and sauna next to what had presumably once been an exercise room There he used one of the luxurious, multihead showers to soap his collection of Tennessee and Kentucky dirt off and changed into clean fatigues He handed his newly acquired boots to Bee for polishing

Bee was a "gray" Grog, arace of near-huence Or maybe they were as s and learning Grogs possessed good instincts for machinery and weapons, tools and plants and animals, but they fell apart when put in front of a sketch board where two-dimensional icons represented the solid objects they understood He&039;d known her previous companion, a stinky bounty hunter naerie years later She&039;d gained a few scars and lost vision in one eye serving hi

And the people around headquarters indulged her sweet tooth, affecting her digestion andworse She&039;d broken soes

He tried to ignore Bee snuffling over his dirty clothes as he reduced his facial hair to sink litter and coain, he stopped by his desk, glanced at his in-box and the lone red flag on the Alert Map and decided everything could wait He was curious about the new arrival at the stables

"Nothis time, Major?" asked a corporal with a tray of sandwiches and coffee on his way out

"Afraid not Caood"

"They&039;re for that spy Martinez sent That major fella"

"I don&039;t think we&039;re supposed to know about that," Valentine said, turning down the path to the stables

So, the new broo in Kentucky, Valentine thought Well, he&039;s welcome to it He won&039;t be able to coistical supplies Most of the ar to recruits were captured, the uniforood people of Kentucky were feeding the in were bullets and medical supplies

He took a deep breath and pretended to forget about the bad blood with General Martinez Ene Western Kentucky were his business, not vindictive old snapping turtles two big rivers away back at headquarters

He took a deeper breath when he saw the wo table outside the stable feed-room door Victoria Pellwell stood at least six three She was one of the tallest worain, corn, and nuts out of assorted livestock feed sacks, filling a flour barrel Her civilian attire was rather striking-sun-faded red deni boots, hair bound up in a yellow handkerchief

"Victoria Pellwell of the Miskatonic, I presume," Valentine said

She set down her scoop "David Valentine As I live and breathe"

Valentine was tall hi dead level, or perhaps a little up, into her eyes as they shook hands Vigorously Valentine felt as though his hand was attached to a pu she&039;d relinquish his hand before shaking it out, "but not as pleased as you are, it seems Can&039;t account for it"

She was no beauty She had an upturned nose and her steady, rarely blinking eyes were set at an al face you didn&039;t loriously white; he hadn&039;t seen such teeth on a wo obstetrician in Xanadu

She freed his hand Valentine fought the ie his knuckles "Your papers are practically an archive all by theood eye for detail and you&039;ve met a rare level of exomorphs"

"The Miskatonic has been helpful to row suspicious of people eager to praise hi They usually wanted so we&039;ll be evenover her small barrel as she turned and put her hand up to her ht the barrel and righted it before she could whistle, or quack, or whatever the finger in hersound with her finger against tight-stretched cheek and stamped her foot

A train of little brown creatures, nose to stumpy naked tail, trotted out of the stable They had powerful rear legs and sits The first stuck its snout in the air and sniffed the feed

Ratbits

He&039;d seen them in the wild, if "wild" applied to a creature at least as bright as a hu pace, bouncing along as though on springs Their front paere gifted with opposable fingers and thu; in their faces were sharp teeth capable of chewing through all , sensitive ears shifted this way and that Though their faces were unlike either rats or rabbits, the eyes were set forward in the face rather in the manner of a weasel or raccoon

Valentine had last encountered them in the Texas hill country They were an experiment by the Kurian Order in a vast establishment called "the Ranch" The Ranch was in ruins by the time Valentine crossed it, abandoned to the ratbits, oversized rattlers the Kurians had developed to wipe out the ratbits, and other unpleasant fauna cooked up by the Kurian genetic tinkerers

The Kurians had been looking for soeable, than humans The experiment had produced the ratbits, who turned out to be so successfully enhanced in intelligence and social inclination they launched a revolt, since they were nobred to be eaten than humans

When Valentine hadthat led to violence Their squeaks and chirps were unintelligible to hu out words with Scrabble tiles, working the tiles with the quick-handed facility of a blackjack dealer

This group looked a little better groomed than those he&039;d seen in Texas They smelled faintly of pine chips One had patchy-colored fur, and another had nearly black stripes running down its pewter-colored back The others were in shades of brown to gray, with aup their ears

"Are these from Texas?" Valentine asked

"I o," she said "I was a junior member of the Miskatonic teaed from the experimental station"

"The Ranch," Valentine said

"The Ranch is an urban legend," she said "Well, that there&039;s one, and the Kurians do all their experi Manhattan Project If it exists, it&039;s probably back on Kur, where they can all keep an eye on each other and what&039;s being developed The station in the Texas Hill Country is where they were experi with ratbits to test them in real Earth-wild conditions"

Valentine took a knee, and offered a finger Each ratbit came up and first sniffed, then touched it in turn They yeeked to each other "What are you doing with them here?"

"I&039;m on Southern Command&039;s rolls as a civilian consultant Fory, if you want the full resus," Valentine said

The word Grog applied to pretty ht over froh it was more precisely applied to the apelike bipeds of Bee&039;s variety Valentine didn&039;t mind the inexactitude You could tell froeneral or specific sense He was part "Indian," to nitives were my specialty I&039;m more of a blackboard and bookshelf type than a bush researcher Hadmy field experience slot filled when I fell in love with your ratbits, Valentine"

Valentine didn&039;t know much about the intellectual hierarchies of the Miskatonic, he knew interns were at the bottom and department chairs at the top, but where an associate came in between the two he couldn&039;t say

"They&039;re hardly mine," Valentine said

"You had the first description of theorodent Valentine, they&039;re labeled, in the latest edition of the Guide Do you know scientific classification?"

"Never figured being in a book," Valentine said, hoping he wasn&039;t blushing in pleasure His face felt warm So, his name would be remembered for a acies He could have been quietly hung as a war criain Pellwell picked up the patchy-colored one and stood, so housecat "You discovered and described thereat help in the war"

The ratbits left on the ground whistled for attention andnoises at the one on her shoulder It wrinkled its nose at its companions

"So these are-allies?"

"Of course," she said, pouring out a scoopful of her mix

"That ratbit trail mix?"

"So Don&039;t need h I&039;ve noticed that if they don&039;t have drinking water, what little urine they do produce-pfew!"

Ratbits re their paws to pick and discard Pellwell clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and the ratbits all nodded an affirmative

"You can speak to them?" Valentine asked

"A few basic words I think they&039;re exaggerating soin ratbit for hu the through mazes in a lab?"

"They&039;ve done all that already, both in Texas and at the lab in Pine Bluff I want to make practical use of their abilities under real field conditions I&039;ve an idea they could be of great help Like dogs, only better"

"Plenty of opportunities for that in South Texas, I&039;d think"

She scowled "Southern Coh the door Ratbits are ideal for reconnaissance, surveillance, sabotage, they&039;re even daet electronic spares or medicines or whatnot that aren&039;t easily accessible I kept quoting your report, and your suggestions that they ht be useful"

"At headquarters? I&039;athered Honestly, I was expecting you to be a gilt-edged bastard &039;Let Valentine deal with the-lover&039; they told s But neverwas, and decided I should look you up Headquarters gave otout your way I brought five I&039;d trained as a proof of concept"

We&039;re collecting quite a ht

"Please tell me I haven&039;t wasted my time," she said

A visionary Well, he&039;d been faultedan ideal rather than ive Brother Mark sos when Valentine wouldone of Gaames

"You want a chance to prove your concept? Get hard operational data?" Valentine asked, already bubbling with ideas An anienceIt was her turn to blush "Of course" Oh, God, what had they said about him at headquarters

"When you say reconnaissance, what do you mean? What do you think their capabilities are?"

She gathered her thoughts "Well, you can&039;t just send them out and have them report what they see They need specifics They can count and identify sos How "

"Map reading?" Valentine asked

The teeth reduced their wattage "Still working on that You have to get them pretty near their objective Surely you can see the potential"

So young So eager So bright

He hoped he wouldn&039;t have to bury her, the way he had Rand His shy intelligence, those remarkable teeth Of course, if she really were that s that co to come up with a neay to beat the Kurians

"You ever been in the KZ?"

"Kurian Zone? Not really Only the trip to Texas I did h, with the Gray Ones"

Valentine felt a pang His old friend Ahn-Kha had taught hiy Apparently it had made it into the scientific vocabulary

"We&039;re going out on a task in a couple days," Valentine said "Lives will be at risk We could certainly use you, but I want to see your tea with our men So let&039;s try a test If they do well, we&039;ll bring you along for a real test under operational conditions"

"Thank you, Major Valentine"

"Most people calltossed back and forth Especially friends"

"I&039;d like that," she said, extending her hand

Valentine hoped he didn&039;t hesitate tooto another socket-rattling pu of his arm

"Thank you for the opportunity," she said

Valentine needed time to think and plan and asse would be the best thing to ever happen to Miss Pellwell She&039;d either be shocked into returning to her Miskatonic digs with renewed hopes of that chair, or she&039;d blosso machine

Valentine had time for only a brief word or tith Colonel Lambert about what he&039;d discovered before he was thrust back into the affairs of training the battalion and i

He learned a littlean after-dinner cards, charades, and chess session at headquarters