human
I see by your face that you had never thought of that, Cal said.
gpt
Then what is she doing up here?
human
I don't know. I realized she was ahead of me about a mile back. As to what she is doing, maybe she got tired of all that down there too, and decided to come up here and live in the mountains?
gpt
A woman in this wilderness?
human
Some women have delusions that they can return to the primitive and make a go of it.
gpt
And maybe she had some other idea,
human
Knowing this may be important to us,
gpt
Then we had better go ask her,
human
You want to ask her?
gpt
Sure.
human
Okay, you do the asking. I'll listen. And don't get any funny ideas. His finger curled around the trigger of the gun.
gpt
Remember, that if a patrol should come looking for a deserter, they would only be going to shoot him. I would be doing them a favor if I shot him in advance.
human
I covered my tracks, Zen said.
gpt
Nobody will be looking for me.
human
How did you do it?
gpt
I traded dog tags with a hunk of meat that had once been a GI. There wasn't enough left of him to tell for sure what he was. The burial detail will clip my tags from his body and another colonel will be listed as killed in action. The GI will be listed as missing.
human
That was smart,