This mercenary business was strange, the Colonel thought.  The Colonel found himself perpetually forced to deal with situations that he didn't want to deal with, and handle people he didn't have a desire to handle.  Nevertheless, when the credits were dumped, he got to business.  He didn't have to like Maria.  He didn't have to sympathize with her.  But he was going to die protecting her.  He found some humor in that.<br/><br/>"We are sorry for your loss," he said with a snarl, gritting his teeth around his cigarra.   "Universe is a mean place."<br/><br/>He had said that to a lot of people.  He had said it to young men as they cradled their burnt guts.  He had said it to mothers who had just lost children.  He had said it to children who lost parents.  He wondered if he had ever meant it.  If he had ever sympathized.  He didn't know.  He didn't remember.  But he did remember that he hadn't been the first person to say it.  As far as he knew, his father was.  Husk was beyond the point of having father issues -- but his old man was a tough son of a bitch, and his old man was a tough son of a bitch, too.  Husk was genetically disposed to become a tough son of a bitch.  Husk didn't blame nobody.<br/><br/>"We don't care about why your jilted sugar daddy wants to frag you," he said.  He had heard her say that the man hadn't been her lover, but Husk didn't give a fuck.   "What I want to know is what his assets are and how deep he's willing to go into them to get to you."<br/><br/>It was the same old story, every damned time.  He usually couldn't understand the reasoning behind the jilted lover scenario.  Husk figured that anybody could go back to the steaming hot slut pond and pick another hot slut out -- but, if we are being objective here, Maria was<em>something else</em>.