Assassin

by Kali Altsoba

  Seventy thousand severed heads find their way to Pyotr, who’s as good as his word: skull racks arrive at the military elevator, then a pyramid of grins rises in the desert. It’s next to the abandoned prison that Takeshi used as a base camp for Truant mercs who carried out the Bad Camberg mission. That’s not an accident, since Naujock’s reward for taking Onur’s head to Pyotr is a lifetime’s worth of credits. Then he’s ordered to stack up all the incoming skulls, but to hold off on Onur’s head which will go on top of the pile, not in a place of honor but of shame. The empty stalag still clanks, as it has for years, with basic maintenance bots and scurrying desert rats, hiding behind cracked walls from the quick blue snakes that hunt them through small, secret holes. Naujock doesn’t know it, but the pile of human skulls he’s making outside has a smaller analogue of rat skulls piled in the darkest prison cells by generations of silent serpent assassins.

  ***

  On Genève, the fourth and latest governor is a general who was appointed to fix problems his three civilian predecessors could not, with no elevator yet rebuilt and the prewar tourist trades repressed and all infrastructure still badly in arrears. He’s a veteran of the original ground campaign on that forest world, once the pride of the United Planets of Krevo and a joy to millions of farfolk tourists who walked inside the Old Forests every year. The ground campaign on Genève was back before the Fourth Orion War began, during the first months of the Krevan War. Back when he believed in the justice of the Imperium cause. Back before he saw what Rikugun does on the occupied worlds it captured.

  A week after the coup fails he’s sure that his name has been blurted out to SAC by tortured Resisters, who are racked or broken on the wheel as if they’re heretics to some medieval church and must recant all sins before their flesh is purified and consumed by fire. He asks his adjutant to take him to a clearing in the far south, all the way down to Pilsudski Wood. It’s the place where he saw his first combat and lost the first troops under his command. Lost them to the vanity of the Houses of Oetkert-Shaka. Lost them to command incompetence by his immediate superior, General Johann Oetkert of 10th Armored Division. Lost them to the Ghost of the Woods. Lost good men to Jan Wysocki’s brilliant rearguard action, fought at the head of raggedy, running Madjenik Company. As he sees the ash clearing where he first lost men assigned to his command, he thinks: ‘Men die for the stupidest of reasons in war: for other men’s vanity. Ah well, when the fall is all that’s left a man, how one falls matters most of all.’

  “Down there please, pilot.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Very good, son. Now drop the last meter to ground level, and park.”

  “Park, sir? Here, sir? There’s nothing beyond this ash clearing but trees. You saw, sir, on the way down. Patches of ash and old burn like this one, and clumps where some old trees survived beside a silver pine lake or waterhole.”

  “It’s alright, son. Do as I say.”

  “Here we are, sir.”

  “Turn the engine and blowers off.”

  “Sir? That’s against all protocol…”

  “I want to listen to the wind and leaves.”

  “Err, yes sir. Engine and hover jets are off, sir.”

  “I think I’ll stretch my legs a bit, corporal. Wait here.”

  He walks slowly into the ashen yet peaceful woods, until he’s beyond the pilot’s sight or hearing. He wades down the middle of a sparkling stream until he comes to an arching root of an ancient redwood, canopy and branches burned off but the trunk still rooted and tall. He stands for a silent minute, feet in the slow water with what were once golden boughs above. He puts his pistol in his mouth and kills himself. He leaves no note or estate or family behind.

  ***

  It’s not normal for Rikugun and Kaigun officers to approve torture of their own kind and social class, but they do so after the coup attempt fails. They're prepared to torture fellow officers because they’re convinced that they’re acting against traitors. It’s impossible for them to believe that what they’re doing is wrong. They’ve been traveling down this road for years. They’re locked inside an ideology that convinces them they have a higher right to torture. Just as it has them convinced that they have a right to kill, or to rape farfolk girls or boys on occupied worlds in the same way they routinely rape slaves on their estates. They’re absolutely corrupted by absolute power over life and death. In love with their ranks and uniforms and themselves, they believe that whatever they do in this motherfucking war is right because it’s they who do it.

  Pyotr knows this about them. Takeshi educated him. Together, they stroke military vanity until the officer corps orgasms into mass murder and thinks it’s love. Yet, not all are so mean of spirit, so shallow and crass. Many brave men continue to play for the Resistance despite the horrors done to their bodies and psyches in hidden regime torture rooms. Some assert that they alone in all their command zone were involved in the coup plot. They refuse to give up names of coconspirators, even with minds blasted by drugs and broken bones poking out of torn flesh. Even after far worse torments are done to body and spirit.

  “Why did you rebel?”

  “From my envy of Pyotr, my lust for power.”

  “Give him another beating!”

  “Now, tell us who helped you?”

  “No one. It was me, me alone.”

  “You lie! Who was your coms officer?”

  “I ran all the coms.”

  “Liar! How did you contact Onur?”

  “Directly, always in person. Whenever I went to Kestino.”

  “You filthy liar! We know you had bohr coms.”

  “No! Check the GGS headquarters logs or the vid cams from the Reserve Officer Club. That’s when we conspired. In person. Never by bohr sats. No one helped me do it. You saw how few men backed me when the fighting started.”

  “Take this useless dog back to his cell. Hose him down. No blanket, no food. Keep him cold. Leave the lights on bright, with lots of piped in noise. We’ll do this all over again tomorrow.”

  Others are more subtle, resisting the pain then giving up names of men they know are already dead, or caught and sure to die. Major Oscar Winter’s name comes up more often than any other. So often, some in Rikugun MI start to joke that Fidan Onur was never the Chief of GGS. Still, some frightened Provos turn on other Resisters. Some do it under interrogation, others look to preempt MI. A reserve general on Kagoshima arrests fellow plotters, then conducts a drumhead courts martial. He has them shot before they have a chance to identify him as their leader to arriving Kempeitai, to expose him as a longtime opponent of Pyotr. At least he lets them record farewell letters to their far off wives.

  “Just don’t say anything about me, or about politics or the Resistance. And hurry it up, will you? The quicker we do this filthy business the easier it will be on the younger men.” After their heads are boxed for shipment to Novaya Uda, he changes his mind and destroys the letters.

  ***

  Summary executions are funny things, especially when condemned and executioner know each other well, went to school together, fought and bled together, or are related by marriage. Men can say the damnedest things before they're shot by old friends, or when they shoot a friend.

  “Is there anything you want, before I carry out the sentence?”

  “No nothing. I crave nothing but death. Go ahead, Samuel.”

  “I regret no act of mine. Can you say the same about what you do here tonight, Pablo Gomez Gavilla?”

  “I don’t have to explain myself to you, Hernando Escobar. Shooting squad, fire!”

  “You betray your oath, brother! Down with the true traitor, Pyotr!”

  “I always knew you were a disloyal rat! Fire!”

  “Aim straight! I ask only that you spare my face, so that my wife may see me one last time. Shoot me in the chest, old friend.”

  “Do as he says. Three paces forward. I’ll shoot any man in the squad who misses his mark. Fire! Alright, well done.”

&nb
sp; “Ummm, major? You do know that our orders are to box up all the heads? His wife will never see him, sir.”

  “I know that. But he didn’t. Next!”

  “Say goodbye to my mother for me, Nikita.”

  “I will, when I see her on my next leave… Shoot!”

  “For the sake of decency, gentlemen: do not miss!”

  “It’s for the sake of decency that we shoot you, not hang you! Fire!”

  “If you also believed in Eternity, my brother, we could say farewell until we meet again, instead of just goodbye.”

  “Believe in whatever nonsense you want. I’m staying here. So, goodbye it is. Squad, fire!”

  “Long live the Sacred Imperium!”

  “Damn it, Zhang Yong! You still believe, even now? Fire!”

  “What’s wrong with you, my old friend? Please, don’t do this!”

  “Ready, fire! You missed! Give him a kill shot! Hurry, he’s crying.”

  “Hans, how can you do this thing? I’m married to your only sister!”

  “You did it Kuto, not me. Squad: ready, present, fire! Wait! Get that ring off his hand before you take his head and burn the body. Bring it to me.”

  “Play the Ave Imperium for me, will you?”

  “There’s no time for that. Fire!”

  “Soldiers! You will take this terrible crime to your graves, all of you. Long live the Resistance!”

  “Shut the fuck up, general. You’re a disgrace. An honorless traitor! Fire!”

  “Fire again! That damned lieutenant jumped in front of the general. Finish him off! No, don’t shoot him in the head! We need that! In the chest, in the chest! OK, now execute his Provo general. Get on with it! OK, box all the heads and bring out the next five traitors!”

  “This is the end of the journey for me, but just the beginning for you. Think on what you do here. Think about your true oath. Think about what you owe to…”

  “Shoot! Gods, that sanctimonious ass never could shut up!”

  “May the gods bless all true Rikugun!

  “Fuck the gods, and all Provo traitors. Present, fire!”

  “Bring that hover over here. Turn on its lights so we can see who we’re shooting. Hurry up gunsō, I haven’t got all night. Ahh, so it’s you, Joachim!”

  “It is, Émile. Are you the one to do it?”

  “I’m so sorry, old friend. Fire!”

  “Finbar, why are you here with these treacherous men?”

  “Dear friend, why are you not here, standing with the only men of honor?”

  “I know that I must die, and I know what I’m dying for. Do you men know why you kill me? Be loyal and do your true duty!”

  “We do our duty now, by shooting you. Do yours: shut up and die!”

  “Down with tyrants!”

  “Down with Provo traitors, you mean. Shoot!”

  “Make it fast, will you. Some of these officers are just kids. We don’t want them crying in front of the men.”

  “Too late, sir. That lieutenant in the corner just pissed himself.”

  “Must you bind me this way? I’ve been a general for 50 years. I’m an old man. I have no power left to move my arms.”

  “Should’ve thought of that before you took up arms against Pyotr. Ha! Funny! Fire!”

  “You’ll regret doing this to fellow officers. You’ll regret your part in this tragedy.”

  “I’ll regret nothing. This revolt is low comedy, and your part in the farce is finished. Shoot!”

  “Don’t let it end like this, Nkrumah. Please tell them that I said something profound before I died.”

  “You, Pancho? They’d never believe it! Right, hang him.”

  “It is easy for me to die, shōi. It will be hard for you to live, after this.”

  “It’s not going to be hard at all. I never really liked you, captain.”

  “Amilcar, is that your voice I hear? They took my eyes in the fighting.”

  “Yes, Hamid. It’s me, brother. Forgive me, please, for now I must take your life.”

  “Shōsa Ramirez, allow me to give the ‘shoot’ order. It will be my last.”

  “Go ahead then, in memory of our time in battle together. You were my first commander, even if in the end you turned traitor.”

  “Men of the firing squad, you only do your duty. Feel no shame in this. Now, raise your rifles, take aim, and shoot true, for my heart! Fire!”

  “Gather his little things, will you? I’ll send them to his wife.”

  “Goodbye Kazuhiro, my old friend. I forgive you.”

  “Gone beyond, utterly beyond. Hail enlightenment. Fire!”

  On Huertgen, where the original Resistance cell was caught and eliminated long before the coup, Taishō August Beck leads an ineffectual armed revolt that lasts no more than an hour. After he’s arrested he asks a last favor of his captor, a bright young colonel who served under him for over ten years.

  “Please taisa, lend me your pistol so that I may end my own life.”

  “Why should I do that? Are you a coward, to so fear interrogation?”

  “I know that you have a young wife, and that you love her deeply. My wife has been at my side for over 40 years, though I’ve not seen her in two.”

  “So, what are you saying?”

  “Think on your own love and imagine how mine will grieve to learn that I’ve been tortured to my death. I ask this favor not for me, but for her.”

  “I’ve little time for sentimentality. Still, here it is. Get on with it.”

  ***

  The wheel of Resistance is broken, its hub and most of its spokes discovered and shattered. Generals, admirals, colonels, majors, and some senior civil service civilians as well, are caught. They refuse to talk and are executed, their wives thrown into prison beside them, children pulled from schools, whole extended families incarcerated in new regime consolidation camps. Or they do spill secrets, and the very same things happen anyway. Pyotr is far past any mercy.

  Takeshi warns Pyotr against using traditional military courts martials to try accused traitors and putschists, and especially warns against letting the military carry out more executions. “You can use this moment to suppress officer corps’ claims to independence, take away its traditional rights and privileges, especially the right to exclusive execution of its own. The officer corps feels so dishonored by the traitors found within that it will let you do it, let you weaken it.”

  “That has long been my wish, but how?”

  “Strip the mutineers of military rights. Try them in special courts. Remove the power of the military to punish its own officers. That way, you take down the arrogance of the whole officer corps. Hold the threat of dishonor over all their heads, even as you deal with the real traitors.”

  Pyotr agrees, and that no executed officer may be allowed a military funeral or be buried in a military grave. Those already summarily executed and buried in Rikugun or Kaigun cemeteries he orders dug up. Bodies are burned or dissolved in acid vats, their ashes or slurry scattered on the salt flats outside Novaya Uda or in desolate corners of offworld deserts, wherever they died under torture or at the hands of executioners. Only the heads are preserved.

  ***

  All accused putschists are to be tried in special military ‘Courts of Honor’ that Takeshi quickly sets up. His appointed judges are told to ignore basic law and traditional principles of justice, and to deliver fast convictions. It amuses him to be able to destroy the integrity of the judiciary and the military in a single act of manipulation that also undermines longterm support for Pyotr. An ectothermic viper slithers through the warmth of mass violence. His lidless eyes do not blink. His separate jaws unhinge. Deadly enzymes release. Takeshi devours very slowly, yet in time, he’ll digest all of Pyotr and maybe all the Imperium.

  One judge objects. “General Watanabe, many of these accused men are long serving and decorated officers. We must condemn them to death for treason, of course. But must we treat them like common criminals as they move along the sure
path to the gallows or the guillotine?” Those are the only methods allowed military convicted, with hanging reserved for cases where humiliation is the goal. Once again, it’s Takeshi who suggests the methods to Pyotr. He knows that if officers must be executed, military men always prefer the honor of being shot. He denies them honor in their leaving, making sure the officer corps thinks he carries out Pyotr’s explicit order.

  “Pyotr says that they are men without honor, that all are scum and degenerate criminals. Do you disagree with his known views? Do you think treason against their sovereign is honorable?”

  “Of course not, it’s just that…”

  “He expects you to impose the right sentence. And that you will expose their perversions and degeneracy during the trials. Do I make his will clear? If not, I can bring you before him on the Jade Throne, and you may tell him that you ask for mercy for the traitors who tried to kill him.” Takeshi’s look of promised career death or worse, at his hand or Pyotr’s word, brooks no misinterpretation.

  The change in the judge’s tone is swift and sure. “Forgive me. It shall be done.”

  “Of course it shall,” says another judge. “But how to do it? We are used to ruling according to principles of jurisprudence, however predetermined is the outcome of these show trials you want.”

  “Work toward the Leader, toward the express will of Pyotr. His will is now absolute law across the Imperium. Consider that your guiding legal principle.”

  “Of course, taishō.”

  “When you’re done, bring the death sentence scrolls directly to me.”

  “Again, it will be done as you say, general.” The obsequious Chief Justice is not a new man or a Pyotr man. Not a handpicked toady. He held the top post in the old courts system for years, under the Dowager. Yet he folds first. “Our guiding rule henceforth shall be ‘As Pyotr wills it.’ Will that serve?”

  “It shall. One more thing, issue arrest warrants for the families of all these men. I want the families of every man you condemn also to be convicted before the Honor Courts. Death or hard labor are to be the only sentences. You decide. You are the state’s arbiters of justice, after all.”

  It’s just too much for a small man in the back, a decent chap who’s worked hard all his life under the handicap of a second rate intellect, and is thus naïve enough to actually believe that his career is a moral one and Imperium law serves some aspiration to justice. He blurts it out before he can stop himself, stop and save his life and family from an utterance of fatal, impolitic words.