Grabbed from behind, Kalico was lifted off her feet, jerked backward with enough force to snap her joints. Stunned, she watched as the tree smashed down in the space she’d just occupied. Then she was lowered, feet landing in the roots.

“Sorry, Supervisor.” Chin kept a hand wound in her shirt and cape. “Figured you’d rather be manhandled than end up lying under that thing.”

“Yeah, I guess I would. Thanks.”

“I say we call it,” Smith said, shifting like a dancer to keep his feet from getting entangled. “I know, ma’am. Valdez is down there, too. She’s a friend. But taking more chances? Do we want you dead down there with them?”

“No,” Kalico said wearily. “Turn me loose, Private. It’s just that I’ve been where they are: lost, people dying around me. And Talina and Dek came for me. We do that here. Doesn’t matter who it is. If there’s a chance, even a slim one, we don’t leave our people. You get that?”

As she plodded wearily back up the slope, she kept shooting her flashlight down into the growing gloom, searching among the swaying boles, the waving vines. The roots were still shifting and squirming, but the intensity was fading.

Chin and Smith were glancing uneasily at each other. Then Chin said, “Yeah, Supervisor. We get what you’re saying.”

Smith told her. “Sarge told us how it is with you people. Thought it was weird how Sarge kept calling you Kalico. Insisting you weren’t just a Supervisor. We thought maybe that was just an order coming down the chain of command: refer to the Supervisor in these terms. Or else. Like back in Solar System. Hell, for all we knew, Sarge was your lover or something.”

“Sarge?” Kalico asked, still shooting her flashlight beam down into the trees.

“That’s sort of what we call Private Muldare.” Chin was grinning behind his faceplate. “Didn’t matter that she was a private giving us orders, even Corporal Xing, he called her Sarge.”

“Sarge?” Kalico mused. “Briah would like that.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Chin made it sound suggestive.

“Private, spill it.”

“Pardon me, Supervisor, ma’am?”

Still searching the forest, she sighed. “People stay alive on Donovan by working together. Yeah, I’m a Board Supervisor, and you’re two marine privates. But out here, in the dark, we’re all the same. Three human beings praying that our friends are still alive. So, spill it.”

“Can a Board Supervisor promote a marine?” Chin asked.

Kalico flashed her light toward movement. Thought she saw something glint in the trees; she hesitated, sidestepping. There was so much movement. Especially where the freshly felled tree was thrashing and lashing with its branches. “I guess. I’d have to check my implants for the exact regs.”