Cadet 3 by Commander James Bondage Page A

have a good time,” he said.
He signaled to his men to move the barricade aside for them, and
slapped the car to urge them on.
    “So that’s the line they’re taking,” Jodie
said after they cleared the bridge. “I was replaced by a ChiCom
imposter. It sounds like something from a bad thriller. Who’s going
to believe anything so nonsensical?”
    “The only other choice would be to try
convincing the Army you’re a traitor, and that would be an even
harder sell, is my guess,” Merry suggested. “Do you think that
Corporal back there would believe you had sold out to the
Reds?”
    “I think you put your finger on it, sis,”
Robin agreed. “Now, I don’t believe they ever intended to bring
Jodie to trial. The charges were just an excuse to get her into
custody, and after that…”
    “After that,” Jodie finished grimly. “I would
be taken down into to a nice, quiet basement somewhere, and I would
never come out again. If the admirals turn out to be behind this,
they are in for a serious housecleaning over at the Navy Department
after I take over. Somebod y is going to pay for this… in
blood.”
     

Chapter Four: Party
     
    There were no roadblocks or security checks
after they left Washington and no other cause for delay, so they
drove west for three uninterrupted hours on the Virginia Turnpike,
not stopping until they exited at Front Royal. From there, they
went south, going from the four-lane Federal Highway to two-lane
state roads, to still smaller county roads, until at last they were
bumping down a dirt lane so heavily rutted that the maximum speed
was no more than thirty miles an hour.
    “It’s unspoiled, I’ll say that for it,” Jodie
remarked when the vehicle came to a stop at a gate which barred
further progress on the dirt road they were following through the
middle of nowhere. They had been seeing fewer and fewer signs of
human habitation over the last two hours. Now they were in a
thickly forested valley that appeared to be unchanged since the
days when the only inhabitants of Virginia were deerskin-clad
Native Americans. “This road must be almost useless after a heavy
rain. How does anybody get in or out in bad weather?”
    “This isn’t the main road,” Murphy explained.
“It’s an old logging road that cuts through the National Forest and
comes up behind the cabin. It’ll give us a chance to see if anybody
is waiting for us up by the front door before they see us. I’ll
just jump out and open the gate. Kate, drive through and I’ll close
the gate behind you.”
    “Very clever,” Kate muttered, shifting over
to the driver’s seat, “but what if they’re waiting for us on this road?”
    After it passed through the gate, the road
became narrower and ever rougher as it snaked its way to a higher
elevation. Murphy pulled off the road, which by now was really not
much more than a trail, into a thick patch of undergrowth. “The
cabin is just around that bend. I want to go ahead on foot to take
a look.”
    “I’ll go with you,” said Kate. “Let’s take
something along in case the party gets unfriendly.” She jumped out,
went around to open the rear gate, reached under the seat and slid
out a green metal box. Inside were several deadly looking black
machine pistols. She handed one to Murphy, then tossed him a pair
of full magazines. She slid one into her weapon, locked it in place
with a click , and then stuffed two more into the hip pouches
of her pants. They moved silently off into the lengthening shadows
of the late afternoon, and soon disappeared in the thick stands of
white pine and spruce.
    The remainder of the group sat staring in
silence in the direction Kate and Murphy had gone.
    The first to speak was Jodie. “I think I’ll
into change into something a little more practical while we’re
waiting.” She rooted through a duffel bag and dug out a set of
camouflage fatigues and boots, then stripped off the colorful silk
blouse and embroidered jeans she had been