Falcone Strike by Christopher Nuttall

,” William said. “And war has a habit of washing away the little niceties. This asteroid is playing host to representatives of the enemy, men who are buying goods and signing up freighters to keep the war going. That makes it a legitimate target. Maybe they can’t spare the Marines to take and hold the asteroids long enough to evacuate them, but they can smash them into rubble with a missile attack. Hard luck to the captives, of course . . .”
    “Of course,” Scott echoed. “But the decision to join openly is not one I can make alone.”
    “I know,” William said.
    Scott waved to the waitress, whose breasts jiggled as she walked over to them. “I will be back here in an hour,” he said as he passed her a handful of untraceable bills. “Until then, I wish you to take care of my brother. Bill . . . could do with some rest and relaxation.”
    William shook his head firmly. “I’ll be right here,” he said. “I don’t need anything else.”
    “Are you sure?” Scott asked mockingly. “I don’t think you’ve been laid for years. Has everything gone rusty by now? ”
    “ No, thank you ,” William said sharply. He’d spent time and money in the Royal Navy’s brothels, but that was different. The girls were well paid, and troublemakers were ruthlessly evicted and, in some cases, charged with crimes. Here . . . he had a feeling he could beat the girl to death and no one would give a damn. “I’ll wait for you here.”
    “Very well,” Scott said. He gave the girl a slap on the rear that sent her scuttling off. “You do realize she’ll be punished for failing to attract you? ”
    William glared. “This place is a nightmare.”
    “It is the only place I can be truly free,” Scott countered. “I’ll be back with the data in an hour, Bill. Feel free to call the waitress if you want anything.”
    He strode off, not looking back. William shuddered, then looked down at the table and closed his eyes. What had happened, in the time since Scott had left their homeworld, to turn him into a monster? He would have agreed with his brother, once upon a time, that their homeworld had too many rules, but the bad rules didn’t actually mean that the good rules weren’t necessary. But then, Scott had always been a wild child. He’d chafed more against the rules than anyone else in the family.
    Once I have the data, I can go , he told himself, firmly. He hadn’t been told anything officially, but he had a fair idea of what the Commonwealth Intelligence Service (CIS) wanted the data for . By now, Lightning should be nearly ready to go back on active service. I can go back to the war .

CHAPTER FIVE
    Kat had managed to successfully avoid her father by the simple expedient of shutting herself up in her suite after her orders arrived, and reading through them carefully to determine precisely what resources had been assigned to Operation Knife. Lightning , it seemed, would be returning to active service within the week, but she was the only modern vessel assigned to the operation. Kat was mildly surprised the Admiralty hadn’t added Uncanny to the flotilla, although it made a certain kind of sense. The ship already had a reputation for bad luck and assigning it to an operation that required a great deal of good luck was asking for trouble.
    She ordered a shuttle for the morning, then went to bed and awoke feeling genuinely excited for the first time since she’d been unwillingly beached. Several messages had arrived in her in-box, including one from Davidson telling her that he’d been assigned to join her at the base, and a message from her father, ordering her to meet him for breakfast. Kat sighed, showered, and dressed herself in her uniform, then headed downstairs to the dining hall. Not entirely to her surprise, her father was the only person in the room.
    “I suspected they would find a way to penalize you until the whole matter went away,” he said as Kat sat down. “Taking you off active service