Part 736: Let's Read Close Quarters - Part 4
Chapter 13Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
2 September 3056
Weve been on the same day for three chapters and its been six days since the Caballeros landed on Hachiman. The Caballeros have already convinced the owner of the bar they took over to rename it from the Permissible Repose to the Sagebrush. Cassie and Kali get hit on by Cowboy, who has two black eyes and a broken nose thanks to Cassie.
Kali asks Cassie why she hates her, Cassie says she doesnt and Kali calls bullshit. Kalis about four years older than Cassie, which puts her at 29 although thats never explicitly stated. Cassie is terrified at an existential level because Kali actually seems to like her (and Cassie likes her back), which is completely at odds with the façade shes put up in the nine years shes been with the 17th Recon Regiments. Deep down Cassie is convinced that she cant have friends because her friends always
Annie Sue Avengin Annie Hurd gets mentioned again, which leads the conversations back to teddy bears.
That is why Teddy Bears are a theme. They are an emotional safety net in a cold and uncaring universe, and Cassie hasnt had one since she was three.
This is about the point where the 9th Ghost Regiment barges in. Cowboy immediately picks a fight, gets punched in the gut, then punches Buntaro Mayne into the jukebox. Cassie makes no move to help, so long as the violence stays friendly (aka nonlethal), but she doesnt exactly need to since Lainies next in the room and orders her ghosts to stand down. It amuses me that Kali is described as tall when shes 56.
Cassie introduces Lainie by name and rank, because the Ghosts are sporting their unit patch and Cassie has had six days to do her homework. Buntaro Mayne and Cowboy bond over trying to crush each others fingers, pushing Cowboys friend count to a whopping four (this wont last).
Lainie is only a Tai-sa, a Colonel, the Combines rank for a Battalion Commander, because the DCMS hard-liners would be scandalized if a Yakuza were promoted to general. Not much else happens, but this chapter establishes that the Ghosts are pretty good people who get along with the Caballeros. They bond over their mutual hatred of the Clans.
Chapter 14
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
3 September 3056
One day later. A lot of BattleTech novels have week or sometimes even month long jumps between chapters, but its important to stress that everything in Close Quarters happens on a very compressed timescale. The final chapter of the novel happens on 2 November 3056. Its easy to see that the Caballeros are not going to have the time for adequate preparations before shit hits the fan. Especially compared to the likes of Ideal War, which starts in May 3054 and ends in March 3055. The average BattleTech novel usually spans six months to a year, the Caballeros are covering the same ground in two.
Anyway, Lainies been called in for a meeting with her Oyabun, who is an asshole. He hates the reforms Theodore Kurita has made to Draconis Combine society, this will be a running theme in the Caballeros novels.
Lainies Oyabun wants to know what she thinks of the 17th, and takes her casual theyre foreigners as dismissive. He views Uncle Chandy hiring the 17th as a disgrace, and Lainie suggests its simply a move to inflate Chandys ego. Thinking of the Caballeros, Lainie immediately starts thinking of KaliCassie had no real impact, she marked Kali as the more capable (and more dangerous) of the pair. Lainie is not wrong.
Lainies Oyabun begins a tirade against Chandrasekhar Kurita, because of the latest scandal.
I find this funny as hell, considering this is a problem in modern day Japan.
The book casually uses eta for the Combines nonproductive caste, of which the Yakuza are suggested to be a part, and this is one of the things about the trilogy I dont like. Its born from several misunderstandings caused by a Samurai novel from the 80s, whose title I cant for the life of me remember. Eta is not a term to use casually, and it irritates me the same way using rape victim for easy pathos does. The Oyabun suggests theyre part of a plot to kill Chandrasekhar Kurita, because OpSec doesnt matter when you have an opportunity to gloat in front of an underling.
Meanwhile, Cassie has gone undercover as a penniless street urchin, and tricks a Yakuza into getting her a job at a club.
Chapter 15
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
4 September 3056
Cassie is working in a bar frequented by the Yakuza, after tricking a mid-level Yakuza into vouching for her by pretending to be Mitsuko, a potato from a Combine backwater. She owes him a debt, which she repays with a very fancy and expensive pen she stole from one of his bosses instead of paying with sex as hed been expecting. This makes the Yakuza mark she tricked angry, so Cassie turns him in to the person she originally stole the pen from.
Cassie also notes that if her mark tries to lay a trap for her shell kill him, but thats par for the course for Cassie. Deadly violence is always her first (and only) resort.
Afterwards, Cassie patrols the spaceport, trapping pickpockets so she can pay them to be informants, and casually murdering a pimp to take over his stable of prostitutes so she can use them to gather information for her as well. According to the prostitutes theres some tough customers coming through, the kind who dont speak much and dont pay money to fuck prostitutes. They dont know what that means, and neither does Cassie, but spoilers: theyre ISF.
Chapter 16
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
5 September 3056
Kali is amused that Cassie has murdered a pimp and taken over a stable of prostitutes, but cautions that Don Carlos wife would not approve. Cassie is paying the money the prostitutes are making her into the regiments Injuries & Disabilities poolthe 17th has single-payer healthcare.
They discuss the 17ths situation and Cassie reveals her plan to find someone who knows a guy who knows a guy who has information she wants. They also discuss Uncle Chandy, and Cassie displays her first genuine human emotion:
Kali then discusses the dead pimp, and Cassie says she had no choice (which is Bullshit). Kali calls her on that, because she knows Close Quarters Cassie Suthor doesnt have a stun setting. Cassie tries to deflect her by saying the murder was done for the sake of the regiment.
And this is what Im referring to when I say that Cassie is a fundamentally flawed and broken human being. They bump into Archie Weston on the way out but Kali can tell Cassie is trying to dodge him and covers for them. Cassie admits Archie bothers him (because hes an obvious spy), but theyre startled by distant fireworks. We then get the best line in the novel.
They return to the barracks and Kali surprises Cassie with a Teddy Bear. Ive pulled a lot of quotes out of this chapter, but its fairly dense even if its not entirely subtle.
Cassie Suthorn, killer of BattleMechs. So utterly and completely destroyed by a teddy bear (an object that should be meaningless to her) that she spends the next several hours contemplating destroying a stuffed animal with her Kris. Because Cassies only resort to external stimuli is violence.
Cassie suffers a complete emotional breakdown over being gifted a stuffed animal.