by Grant, Peter
Jake said grimly, “Before the war Dave and Tamsin were planning on getting married. They gave up that idea when they realized that they no longer have a future to plan for. Sooner or later the Bactrians will kill them, together or separately. I wish they’d had the chance for a peaceful life together. I think they’d have made great partners and great parents, and I hold the Bactrians responsible for the grandchildren I’ll no longer get from them.”
Marvin stared at him for a moment, then shook his head slowly. “I don’t think I truly understood until now how… driven you all are,” he said very quietly. “It… it almost makes me feel ashamed. I’m here as a messenger, just doing a liaison job to establish my reputation as a private investigator and security consultant and earn money to expand my business. I’m much less committed to your cause than you are.”
Gloria grinned at him. “I have news for you. While you’re on Laredo you’re every bit as committed as we are, whether you like it or not. The Bactrians will kill you right along with us if they get half a chance.”
“Gee, thanks so much for reminding me of that!” They all laughed.
As they left the mess hall, General Allred signaled to Jake to hang back. He said quietly to him, “That parade the Bactrians are planning – did the Sergeant-Major know anything more?”
“No. He said he hadn’t heard anything about it at all until his new boss arrived. He’s apparently in a panic over how unready the garrison is to participate.”
“If they’re going to pull a lot of their troops out of garrisons to attend it, we may be able to take advantage of the situation. It’s a good thing we heard about it now, rather than later in the month, or we might not have had enough time to arrange a nasty surprise for them. Let’s try to find out more, and see whether it offers us any opportunities.”
March 3rd 2850 GSC
MATOPO HILLS
“There’s that noise again,” Tamsin said, puzzled. They listened to the faint tremor of sound. “It sounds a bit like the high-pitched whine of a stinger flying around a room, but there are none of them in these parts.”
“Are we sure all the Bactrians left after they blew up the base?” Dave asked.
“So Captain Tredegar said. He might have been wrong, though.”
“I guess – oh, shit! Freeze!”
She did as he commanded, both of them sitting dead still on the rocks inside the entrance to the transport cave. Beyond the bushes and loosely draped camouflage nets that hid them, a small flying ball suspended beneath two counter-rotating rotors appeared from behind a rock higher up the hill. It drifted down towards them, the whine from its electric power pack growing louder, and passed over the trees at the base of the hill before turning into the gully that led to the cave. It hovered nearby for a few moments, its sensor turret scanning in all directions, glinting in the mid-morning sunshine, then moved slowly away. There was no increase in speed or any other sign that it might have detected them.
Dave waited, holding his breath, until it was out of sight. He released the pressure in his lungs in an explosion of relief. “Whew! I thought we were goners for sure! Good thing it didn’t come close enough for its sensors to see us through the camo netting.”
“I damn nearly wet my trousers,” Tamsin admitted shakily. “Where did that come from?”
“Only one place it could have come from – the enemy,” he pointed out grimly. “That’s one of their standard small-unit hoversats. It only has an endurance of a couple of hours and it’s not very fast, so it must have been launched from somewhere nearby.”
“The main entrance to the base, you mean?”
“There was nothing and no-one nearby when we scanned it last night with our sensors during our approach,” he reminded her, frowning, “and from what Captain Tredegar said there’s no way they could be using the base themselves – they blew it up.”
“Then another enemy patrol must have arrived last night after we did. It’s the only possible explanation.”
“Yeah, and that means we’re caught between a rock and a hard place. We can’t get in through the tunnel – it’s completely blocked by the explosion Captain Tredegar set off – and we can’t leave this cave while we might be seen by that thing. We’re just going to have to wait out the day in here, then try to sneak out tonight on foot to reconnoiter the area.”
She clutched his hand in alarm. “Remember, those things have night sensors too!”
“Sure they do, but we have a few tricks of our own. I’ll be careful, I promise. Let’s go warn the others.”
~ ~ ~
As the sun sank beneath the horizon, Dave finished adjusting his equipment and turned to the two who were coming with him. Swiftly they double-checked one another, making sure that all metal items were covered or secured so they wouldn’t clink against each other, and that the thermally neutral battledress, ski masks, gloves and boots covered as much of their bodies as possible.
“Good enough,” he said softly when they’d finished. “They shouldn’t see us coming, even if one of those hoversats is prowling around. To be even more certain, we’re going to climb straight up the hillside for a couple of hundred meters. Every time we saw that hoversat today it was a hundred meters up the hillside or lower. If we get above it, its sensor turret won’t be able to look down on us. We’ll move around the hill above its patrol altitude and see what we can find.”
“Got it, Sir,” Sergeant Kane assured him cheerfully as he collapsed the parabolic microphone he was holding and fastened the now tube-like device onto his pack.
“What do we do if we’re spotted, Sir?” Corporal Hansen asked.
“We’ll split up and make it as hard for them to chase us as possible. Don’t come back here under any circumstances – lead them somewhere else. Don’t let them take you alive, whatever you do.” He transferred his gaze to the others. “If we’re not back by zero-four-hundred, you’re to leave in the airvans and get as far away as you can before dawn. Laager up under camouflage netting during the day, then head for base to warn the General that we won’t be coming back.”
Tamsin looked rebellious, but he shook his head in silent warning as he looked firmly at her. She opened her mouth to speak, then sighed as her shoulders slumped. “I guess you’re right,” she admitted in a desolate tone. “I just hate the thought of having to leave you behind.”
“Not half as much as I hate it!” he assured her fervently, drawing shaky laughter from the others. “We’ll do our best to make it back; but remember, the General can’t afford to lose any more people than he absolutely has to. We’ve suffered enough casualties in recent months to be really hurting for trained soldiers. Let’s not make things worse than they already are!” He picked up his helmet with its attached night vision visor. “All right, people. As soon as it’s full dark we’ll move out.”
~ ~ ~
It took them more than two hours to make their way slowly and carefully around the mountainside, stepping cautiously from cover to cover, watching where they put their feet. Their multi-sensor night vision visors helped them to avoid most of the creatures of the evening, except for those that flew into them blindly. They batted them away as silently as possible.
As they drew nearer to the front part of the mountain where the base’s main entrance had been, they noticed a flickering light reflected off the trees and bushes at the foot of the slope. As they eased around a big rock, they saw a group of heavy vehicles laagered up in a circle around a blazing camp fire. A score of soldiers were sitting around, eating, drinking and talking, the low rumble of their voices barely audible at this distance.
Dave shook his head disapprovingly. “Staring into a big fire like that, they’ve all ruined their night vision,” he murmured.
“Good,” Corporal Hansen muttered emphatically. “Let’s hope they never get it back!”
Chuckling softly, they moved very carefully down the hillside to get closer. Dave called a halt in a group of boulders about a hundred and twenty meters above where t
he main entrance to the base had been, and about a hundred and forty from the fire. “We’ll set up here,” he whispered. “Stretch the camo net above us. Set up the parabolic microphone between those two rocks, and don’t forget to switch on the recorder. Let’s try to find out what they’re doing here.”
It took several minutes of cautious, agonizingly slow work to silently conceal themselves against observation by passing hoversats and set up the equipment. They linked their earpieces to the parabolic microphone’s receiver and settled down to listen.
Underlying all the talking at the fire was a constant low rumble, interspersed with sharper impacts and sounds, coming from inside the mountain. They could feel the vibrations through the rock even as they heard the sounds with their ears. A constant dusty plume was coming out of the old entrance to the base and being carried away by the evening breeze. The soldiers around the fire were talking desultorily about the usual topics – the lousy Army, food, the weather, the damned Army, the opposite sex, their families, and the bloody Army. They hushed as a radio operator stuck his head out of a truck festooned with aerials. He was wearing headphones. “The Colonel’s ten minutes out,” he called towards the fire. “He wants us to illuminate his landing area.”
“Got it,” a tall figure called from the entrance to a large tent pitched between two vehicles. “Landing party, let’s go!”
He led a group of four soldiers to a clear patch of ground about a hundred meters from the vehicles. They split up, and soon a strobe light began flashing brightly in the darkness. Adjusting their night vision visors, they could see it was at the tip of an infra-red beam shining horizontally along the ground. Seconds later another beam sprang to life at right angles to the first, making a plus sign with their intersection in the center of the clearing.
Far in the distance and high above the ground, a bright white light came on. Within a few moments the growing rumble of reaction thrusters began to make the air tremble. From out of the night sky a black-painted assault shuttle swept over the camp, circled the improvised landing area once, then touched down, rocking gently on its gel-filled tires. As its reaction thrusters stuttered into silence its rear ramp whined down and four black-clad Security Service troops ran down it, spreading out, aiming their weapons with fierce determination at every shadow in the darkness – including the soldiers. Through the parabolic microphone they heard the tall man’s softly-voiced exclamation of disgust as he strode towards them. “Bloody SS clowns! When are they going to figure out that combat outfits just laugh at them when they pretend to be heroes?” His voice was attenuated by the greater distance to the landing site, but could still be made out clearly.
Another tall, spare figure walked down the ramp, also in a black uniform, but with an ornate silver crown on his epaulettes. The first man snapped to attention and saluted stiffly. “Captain Amesha reports to Colonel Kujula as ordered, Sir!”
“Good evening, Captain.” The senior officer’s voice was dry, brittle. “Why are your engineers out here around the fire, instead of in the base digging?”
“Sir, half of my contingent is in the base digging. There’s no room for more of us to fit inside, due to the extent of the destruction and the need for space around our heavy machinery. We’ll relieve them at twenty-two, to let them sleep through the night. We’ll work until zero-six-hundred, when they’ll relieve us again.”
The Colonel seemed to relax slightly. “I see. Is the excavation progressing well?”
“Much faster than I expected, Sir. The troops who took this place weren’t combat engineers, so they weren’t experts at demolition. Their charges brought down a layer of rock from the roof and walls of the stronghold, but didn’t completely collapse the caves and tunnels. Our laser cutters and rubble removers are making short work of it. We’re already more than fifty meters inside, disposing of the debris in a largely intact side cavern. We should reach the Commanding Officer’s tunnel within a few hours if the information your prisoner provided is correct.”
“Oh, it’s correct, Captain, be in no doubt about that. See for yourself.” He gestured back into the interior of his assault shuttle. The other officer looked, and his face contorted in… is that disgust? Dave wondered to himself.
The man bit back a muffled exclamation, clearly afraid of saying the wrong thing. He settled for “What did you do to him, Sir? He looks like death warmed up!”
“That’s not a bad description. Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley was the rebel Commanding Officer here. He was badly wounded in the initial assault and collapsed. It was thought he was dead, but some of our medics found him still breathing and recognized from his insignia that I’d want him kept that way. They flew him straight to hospital in Tapuria in an assault shuttle, and he was dragged back from the brink of death over the next few weeks. Four days ago he was finally fit enough for my interrogators to take over. Have you ever seen them at work, Captain?”
“Ah… no, Sir.” Now Dave was sure of it – that really was thinly veiled disgust on his face. It was the expression of a man with at least some standards when confronted with the unspeakable.
“They start by injecting a special drug in a quantity carefully metered according to the subject’s gender and body mass. It has the effect of stimulating every nerve ending, making them exquisitely sensitive. While they’re waiting for it to take effect they fit the subject with a head cover containing a neurocranial network, designed to administer direct stimulation to the pain and pleasure centers of the brain. When the drug has taken effect they begin alternately pleasuring and hurting him. His chemically enhanced nervous system magnifies the signals enormously, and they’re amplified again by the neurocranial network. They’re absolutely unbearable. Nobody can resist for more than twenty-four hours in my experience, and then only the toughest and most determined of men. Most crack within four to six hours. Despite his injuries and weakened condition, he took eleven hours to break and begin to talk – a remarkable performance under the circumstances.”
“I see, Sir,” the Captain said slowly. “I presume he provided the information that led you to order us here?”
“He did, and I brought him along in case he can provide more while we’re here. It seems the rebels have distributed what they laughably call ‘evidence’ of some of our anti-terrorist actions among several of their bases. He was the custodian of one package of it. We know where he hid it in his office, and I’m here to get it. While we’re doing that, the Military Governor is preparing assaults on their other three major bases – Yardley knew them all, and now we know them too. We’re conducting reconnaissance to gather more information, and we’ll hit them all simultaneously in five days. With any luck, we’ll break the back of the Resistance forever.”
“That’s good news,” the other said feelingly. “No matter how the information was obtained, we need to finish this thing. Since we invaded they’ve cost us over fifteen thousand dead and twice that many injured, many of them maimed for life – and heaven only knows the cost in equipment and military expenditure! The sooner we finish the war, the sooner we can all go home.”
“I appreciate your desire to return to Bactria, Captain, but we’ll need a sizeable garrison here for the foreseeable future,” the Colonel reproved him. “None of us can be sure when our services will no longer be required on Laredo.”
“Yes, of course, Sir.”
“You brought a senior officer’s accommodation van for me?”
“Yes, Sir. If you wish, I’ll escort you there now.”
“Very well. I’ll have my own guards with me during the night, of course. Two will be on watch outside my quarters at all times. My interrogators and the shuttle crew will stay here with the prisoner.” As he spoke, he motioned to the armed men who’d preceded him down the ramp. One ran back up it and emerged again holding a suitcase.
“As you wish, Sir.”
“There’s no sign of any enemies in the vicinity?”
“No, Sir. We’ve had hoversats out all day sweeping the ar
ea, and none of them have picked up a thing. It looks like any of the rebels who survived the destruction of their base have long gone.”
“Good. We’ll be able to sleep in peace then.”
Dave watched them make their way back to the fire, his mind whirling with shock and disbelief. Beside him Sergeant Kane murmured, “What do we do now, Sir?”
“You got all that on the recorder?”
“I sure did.”
“Good. Let’s head back to the cave very carefully so they don’t hear us. We’ve got to get this news to General Allred at once, if not sooner! After that, we’ve got plans to make.”
~ ~ ~
Tamsin oriented the satellite dish along the bearing Dave had given her. She adjusted it carefully, and nodded as a tone began to warble in her earphones. “The dish is aligned,” she told him as she locked it into position on its tripod.
“Great!” He consulted his watch. “It’s almost time. Mac’s people are supposed to listen out on the emergency channel from 11:45 until noon and 23:45 until midnight. Let’s see if they’re awake.”
“They’d better be!”
“I trust Mac. He was our satellite comms supervisor before the invasion, after all. He always said the Bactrians were fools to simply leave our own satellites in orbit and use them, rather than replace them with their own, because they’d never be able to figure out all the back doors we’d built into them unless they physically examined them.”
“Hey, at a time like this I’ll take all the back doors we can get!”
Grinning at her rejoinder, he connected his comm unit to the dish and raised it to his lips. “BOLUS calling TANTO, emergency, over.” He waited for a few moments, then repeated the call.
An answering carrier wave crackled in their earpieces. “TANTO to BOLUS, authenticate Papa X-Ray Tango, over.”
