by David Gunn
This is getting interesting.
‘Keep me covered.’
Anton nods.
Reaching behind him, he produces a hunting rifle. Makes me wonder if he always keeps one by the palazzo door, or if he knew something like this might happen.
Racing towards the Wolf’s vehicle, I roll myself over its hood and land on the far side, just as Vijay’s messenger skids to a halt. The man thinks I’m his enemy. Reasonable guess. He’s already reaching for a side arm.
‘Behind you,’ I say.
Contempt shows in his eyes. You expect me to—?
And then he hears the whine of a police bike and turns. He’s too late. As the new bike makes a skid turn, its rider flicks a sling and something shatters the messenger’s helmet.
A steel ball bearing.
Simple, cheap, and, flung from a bike, horribly effective.
The U/Free, those guardians of decency and keepers of the peace between lesser races, like us, have weapons that can turn you to dust. Or cook you from the inside out. Bombs that suck oxygen from the air and leave whole armies choking to death with every breath.
But most people on this edge of the spiral arm get knifed, hit over the head, or shot with a simple projectile. Our glorious leader is determined to win his war against the metalheads.
He’s not keen on it costing a lot.
Look at the state of that gyrobike for a start. What I’m trying to say is, local police and militia come cheap. They exist to give the rest of us bodies to pile up and walk over. And splitting people’s skulls with ball bearings comes cheaper than sucking oxygen out of the atmosphere.
‘Back away,’ the officer tells me.
‘Fuckwit,’ the SIG says. ‘Does he look like—?’
It doesn’t bother to finish. Because, by then, I’ve reached the man.
Kicking out his single wheel, I hear cold cast steel shatter. We’re too close for his sling to be of use and his bike’s already falling. So I make do with punching him. His visor shatters like the wheel.
When I kick him in the gut, someone in the crowd yells in outrage. No one’s told him about Anton’s keep-the-noise-down rule obviously.
The bike’s still whining. Only now it’s on its side. Should have broken the man and kept the bike, I realize. Still, there’s always the next bike or the one after that.
My SIG-37 clears a path through the crowd.
It does this with much whirring, flashing of little lights and a running commentary on the parentage, dress sense and body odour of the people around me. And it rotates clips at least four times just for the hell of it. Telling me loudly what each one contains.
‘Hollow-point, explosive, incendiary, flechette.’
An idiot tries to grab the SIG from my hand. Slamming its handle into one side of his face breaks his jaw, so I smash the other side to keep things even and step over him.
The crowd stays back.
Reaching the entrance to the square, I tie one end of Anton’s monofilament to the window bars of a house and fix the other to a window opposite.
‘Show time,’ the SIG says.
‘Yeah.’
‘You just going to stand there?’
‘Yep.’ Let’s give these bastards something to aim at.
As a bike races up the main street, its rider sees I’m holding a gun. He can’t work out why I don’t raise it. He’s still gunning his accelerator and scrabbling for the shotgun in a holster hung from his tank when he discovers the answer.
Taking him across the throat, the wire hangs him there for a second and then drops him in a bloody heap. Blood pisses into the dirt. A new mouth gapes where his neck used to be.
The rider behind drops his machine rather than hit the wire. It’s a good choice but a bad landing. His spine snaps when the bike flips and comes down on top of him. He’s screaming with fear rather than pain. I doubt he’s got much feeling in his arms or legs.
‘Sven . . .’
Yeah, I know.
Although since when did the SIG get fussy about such things?
Stamping across to the man, I put a bullet through his head. Hollow-point. Seems a pity to waste anything fancier.
That leaves another two bikes.
Time to take this fight outside the square.
At least that’s what I’m thinking as I go back to take Vijay’s message from his dead messenger. Before someone in the crowd has that bright idea for himself. Only Vijay’s messenger isn’t dead.
That complicates things.
Grabbing his collar, I drag him across the dirt towards the palazzo door. Since General Luc shows no signs of moving his vehicle, I toss my burden onto its hood, and vault over it myself, dragging him after me.
Debro stands next to Anton. ‘Help me get him inside,’ she says.
I look at her.
‘Please.’
Give me the Aux and a real battle any day. If there’s ground to take, we’ll take it. If we can, we’ll keep it. If we can’t, we’re happy to die trying.
That’s what we do. In the silence that follows – if silence follows, if we’re lucky enough to be alive to say prayers – we’ll say the soldier’s prayer over our oppos. Sleep well and a better life next time.
Walking away from a fight doesn’t sit easy.
Even if it’s Debro who asks.
I’m in a filthy temper when Aptitude finds me on a balcony, scowling at the smudges of smoke that drift from the distant rift. In front of me is the SIG-37, field-stripped to its chassis, barrel, clips, slide and springs. I’ve got the bloody gun on silent, so it doesn’t bitch about me pulling its chip.
‘Sorry,’ Aptitude says. ‘Didn’t mean to interrupt.’
Fifty seconds later the SIG’s reassembled and swearing hard enough to make Aptitude blush. Unless that’s about something else. She’s dressed in a robe that makes her look taller than she is. And it does nothing to hide her hips or the swell of her breasts.
‘Sven,’ she says, ‘you’re staring.’
‘I don’t belong here.’
‘You know—’ She fumbles to catch her sentence. ‘I mean, I know you don’t really feel at home here. So I’m wondering . . .’ This time her words do fade away.
‘Why I’m here?’
‘Yes.’
‘Might as well waste my leave here as anywhere.’
Aptitude turns to hide the hurt in her eyes. And then she swings back and her chin goes up and she opens her mouth . . . And halts, when she sees me grinning.
‘That’s better,’ I say.
Guess my grin gets wider. Because she spins on her heel.
‘Aptitude . . .’
She hesitates in the doorway.
‘Does your mother know that I shot your husband and burnt his house? That I was supposed to kill you?’
‘But you didn’t,’ says Aptitude, ‘did you?’
No, I simply disobeyed a general’s orders, slaughtered half the guests at a wedding party, kidnapped the bride and hid her in a brothel. Paying good money to make sure she worked behind the bar and not on her back. Of course, I stole the money from the guests at the party in the first place.
So it wasn’t that big a deal.
Only I still haven’t got round to telling Anton or Debro.
They think I hunted down their daughter out of the goodness of my heart and hid her away. Sometime or other they’re going to start putting facts together and work out what really happened.
‘I think you need to tell them,’ Aptitude says.
‘No,’ I say. ‘You do.’
‘It wasn’t as if I liked Senator Thomassi anyway,’ she says, then flushes at my smile. ‘You know what I mean.’
She’s right, I do.
Part of my problem is I’m not cut out for families. I don’t remember my parents. The woman who took me in, and told everyone I was her brother, was slaughtered by Lieutenant Bonafont, the closest thing to a father I’ve ever had.
See what I mean?
Never met a family th
at wasn’t more trouble than it was worth.
In a moment, Aptitude is going to drop the politeness she’s using to hold herself upright, and ask me the question that made her come to find me. I know what it is. Just as I know the answer she wants is not one I’ll give.
‘Dad wondered if you’d come upstairs.’
Obviously enough, that’s not the question.
We climb in silence. There are elevators on every floor of the compound. Brass-framed and panelled in dark wood. Never seen anyone use them. At the door of the roof terrace, I stop to let her catch up.
She’s ready with her question.
‘He didn’t mean it, did he? General Luc. When he said that about—’
‘Yes,’ I say, ‘he did.’
She turns away and I grab her wrist.
That’s how Debro finds us. So I guess she heard me on the stairs. For once, I ignore her. There are things I need to say. ‘Doesn’t mean I’m going to let it happen,’ I tell Aptitude.
She has tears in her eyes.
Putting my fist to my heart, I promise to protect Vijay Jaxx from General Luc. This oath will bind me until I die. When I look up, Debro’s staring. She’s remembering the vow I made on Paradise to protect her daughter.
It’s a Legion vow. Not made lightly.
Life in the Legion was simpler. You protect your own. And everyone wears uniform so you know who they are.
‘Catch,’ Anton says. Something arcs through the air and drops into my hand. The bottle is cold enough to have water dribbling down its side. ‘You look like a man who needs a beer.’
He smiles as I drain the bottle in one go.
Catching my empty, he tosses me another. This one takes two gulps. Debro and Aptitude look at each other. Beers gone, I notice there’s a fourth person on the terrace. Seeing me, she tries to stand.
Debro catches her before she hits the tiles.
A few seconds later, the trooper’s back in her chair and Debro’s glaring as if this is somehow my fault.
‘Tell her to stand easy,’ Anton mutters.
Her name is Leona. She’s a sergeant in the militia.
What I think is a sticky finish to her outrider jacket is droplets of oil from the smoke drifting over the rift. She came the long way round so as not to be seen. She says her mistake was radioing for permission to enter Debro’s estate. Someone in the local police obviously owns a band scanner.
She’s wrong, of course. The mistake isn’t hers.
Aptitude looks guilty.
‘Sorry, sir,’ Leona says.
I tell her it doesn’t matter.
Fair hair, slightly round face. She’s got that floppy fringe some NCOs wear to look more like officers. And she’s compact, rather than small. With a gaze that falters, before making itself hold mine.
Green, with splinters of slate. Her eyes are unusual enough to make me look again. And there’s enough bulk to her shoulders to say she works out.
The sergeant looks like she might be useful in a fight.
I file that information for later.
‘Sir,’ she says. ‘I have a delivery for you.’
‘From the general?’
When talking to anyone from Farlight there’s only one general. Indigo Jaxx, newly created duke of that city.
‘From his son, sir.’
My parcel is the size of a small bomb. Seeing me scowl, Debro takes the envelope from my fingers.
‘It’s OK,’ I say. ‘I can read.’
She looks slightly surprised. ‘So what . . .?’
Then she gets it. Raising her eyebrows, she passes the envelope to Anton, who nods approvingly.
‘Clever,’ he says.
The address looks odd because Vijay uses a machine that strikes one letter after another onto the label.
‘No trail,’ Debro says. ‘No electronic traces.’
Anton nods. After a second, it occurs to me he’s asking about the note inside. So I hand him Colonel Vijay’s message.
‘Want to take a guess who’d like you dead?’
I shrug. ‘Could be the Enlightened. I killed one of their generals, and blew up his mother ship. Could be the U/Free. Ms Osamu didn’t like how things worked out between us. And then, of course . . .’
Shouldn’t be saying this.
Not sure I care.
‘. . . there’s always Jaxx. Less public to have me murdered than fix a court martial or send me somewhere dangerous.’
Debro’s laugh sounds strained.
‘Only you could have all three sides wanting to kill you at once.’
All three . . . I run that again. Never thought of the U/Free as a side before. They’re the observers. Strictly neutral. God knows, they tell us often enough.
‘Sven? You OK?’
‘Neurons firing,’ the SIG tells Aptitude. ‘Blood vessels tightening. He’s thinking. Can’t you tell?’
My parcel is wrapped with tamper tape and sealed. It has a military frank mark, but no return address and feels heavy enough to contain a fistful of shrapnel if that is what someone has in mind. ‘Just taking this outside.’
Anton has the sense to nod.
No trigger and no shrapnel wrapped round an explosive core. The SIG told me it was safe. All the same . . .
One end has a black glass cap. The other a quick-release carabiner clasp. So it can be clipped to a belt. Pointing the cap at a bush, I push what looks like a trigger button. Nothing happens.
So I push again.
When that doesn’t work, I decide Vijay’s present is broken. I’m heading back to the roof terrace when the handle suddenly drags, and then comes free. A smoking gash scars the stair wall behind me.
A prod at the wall creates a smouldering hole. I make another before deciding Debro won’t thank me for messing with her plaster. But the temptation is strong, and the wooden rail looks old and in need of replacing anyway.
My first blow severs it. My second sends a section clattering down the stairs.
There are three controls on the sabre’s handle.
A silver button turns the blade on. A wheel adjusts for colour and visibility. A smaller wheel below that produces a low humming.
‘You’re grinning,’ Anton says.
Yeah, quite possibly. I have a laser dagger that’s saved my life. But this, I didn’t even know laser blades this big existed. If I’d had one when I met the ferox I’d probably still have both arms.
Anton sees the handle hanging from my belt.
As if by telepathy, Debro looks where he’s looking. Her face drops. ‘That’s your present from Vijay?’
‘Smart, isn’t it?’
‘You realize it’s illegal?’
My grin must widen, because she sighs.
Neither Debro nor Anton is paying attention to Aptitude. She’s standing at the edge of the terrace, blushing deeply, rereading a letter in her hand for what is obviously the fifth or sixth time.
‘Printed on that machine?’ I ask Anton.
‘The envelope certainly was.’
Could be Colonel Vijay’s careful by nature. Could be his father’s spies intercept his messages. General Jaxx is capable of that. There’s another option, of course. The Colonel’s trying to avoid the attention of our glorious leader.
OctoV, the glorious and undefeated.
Makes me wonder why.
That thought vanishes when knocking begins at the front door. Someone wants our attention. Wants it badly, by the sound of it. Anton and I are halfway down the stairs when the knocking is replaced by the sound of a sledgehammer.
Chapter 8
THE MEN CROWDING DEBRO’S STEPS WEAR RAGS. THEY HAVE the faces of those who fight the land for food and lose. Their hair is lank, their scowls weathered to the roughness of new leather. Dirt pocks their skin like powder burn.
I grew up around people like these.
That was on another planet.
General Luc’s scout car is now parked across the square, its gull-wing doors wide open. The Wolf is lean
ing against the hood, looking amused. He smokes a cigar with a lazy arrogance that probably took years to achieve.
Unless he was born with it.
‘Lock Wildeside down,’ Anton says.
Not sure what took him so long.
As steel bars fall into place behind us, blocking all access to the compound, the man holding the sledgehammer steps back. Maybe he wasn’t expecting someone holding a gun to answer the door.
‘What?’ I demand.
He mutters something.
Just not loud enough to be heard.
So I start shutting the door and his scowl gets darker.
A man raises an ancient rifle. A few brandish cheap cavalry swords, stamped from sheet metal and sharpened on a wheel. Only one man worries me, and even he doesn’t worry me that much. He holds a distress pistol.
When he raises it, I can see the orange point of a flare.
‘Lower your weapon,’ Anton tells him.
The man doesn’t. ‘Give us the heretic.’
‘The what?’
‘We know he’s a doubter.’
It’s a long time since I’ve heard that word in public. I’ve known troopers who believed life was once simpler, that there was only one kind of human. Personally, I believe there are as many types of human as there are star systems.
I’m just not sure why it matters.
‘Who said he was a doubter?’ Anton demands.
‘They did.’ The man jerks his thumb towards the village police, who are watching from a distance. Behind them, the Wolf lights another cigar.
He smiles when he sees me notice.
‘Look . . .’ Anton says.
Wrong approach. He shouldn’t be arguing. He should be telling that man to lower his pistol or die. Situations like this need to be kept simple.
‘You have to give him up.’
‘Why?’
Gesturing at his companions, the man makes them stand back so we can see the three silent gyrobikes and two dead riders lying in the dirt.
‘See,’ he says. ‘That’s a crime.’
When Anton opens his mouth to reply it occurs to me that it’s time to end this conversation. ‘The messenger didn’t kill them. I did.’
The man looks at me.
‘And I’ll kill you if you don’t lower that pistol.’
‘Dangerous words.’
General Luc is flanked by his ADC and his driver. Both wear full combat gear, with their visors down. Maybe the Wolf thinks he’s bullet-proof. Our eyes lock, and he doesn’t like it when I grin.
