by Brent Reilly
CHAPTER 26
Much to everyone's relief, the threat of civil war passed as quickly as it came. One night England went to sleep with a queen, then woke up with a king. Billy wanted to contrast the bad old queen with the good new king, so he practically emptied Global Bank vaults in France and Spain to boost the English economy. He loaned a thousand gold tons to his grandfather to build infrastructure, schools, and hospitals and ordered Global Bank to buy good land. With more money than he knew what to do with in the Americas, Billy arranged for a ship in the Atlantic to bring a mixture of gold, silver, and bronze coins to Global Bank in England.
But the prospect of fame scared Billy like influenza. This forced him to order everyone to delete all images of him. Billy survived through anonymity -- the distribution of his image could jolt Genghis Khan into discovering that the Boy Wonder didn't die in Peking after all.
Billy needed to disappear. Once again, he had to become someone else. Ironically, fame forced him to flee the country like his parents. Except this time he flew with his uncle Richard to Dublin to get his wands, then find the new division of American marathoners. The first division was still in Siberia playing cat and mouse with half a million Mongols.
They found their camp easily enough, but he only counted seven battalions. Most crowded around an air field to watch an American football game -- where teams score by moving a ball past their opponents. Billy saw a player levitate the ball to a teammate a few hundred meters above him, who promptly passed it in an arc to a receiver diving steeply. She caught it with her wand before it hit the ground and raced passed the defenders to score a touchdown.
They told him the division commander was the big guy in the dueling area. Billy and Richard signaled a greeting, then landed far enough away to appear non-threatening. Billy recognized him at once.
“Tiny! It’s me, Shorty.”
“Shorty? Nice suit! Are you sure it’s red enough? You going to a dance later?”
“Willy died, so I’m your employer now.”
The huge Indian broke into tears before his commanders. This was a quad so tough that ten thousand marathoners chose him as their leader.
“The bastards got Willy? How?”
“Queen Margaret assassinated him, so I killed her and those responsible. England now has a new king.”
“The English got Willy? Why?”
“They thought this division was coming to overthrow them.”
All the battalion commanders came from the first division, so Billy knew these guys. Or thought he did. The news melted them like butter. Tiny unsteadily sank to the ground.
“How many times did Willy save us?” one of them wailed.
“The man could read Genghis Khan like a map.”
“Best guy I’ve ever known.”
“Saved the lives of every American. Genghis would’ve exterminated the entire continent, for sure.”
“I can’t believe the Baron’s gone.”
“He was a giant,” Tiny agreed.
Billy had no idea. Well, he knew the troops liked his father, but he didn’t know they loved him. This was more than hero worship.
“Were you two together long?” Tiny asked Billy.
It took a long moment to understand what he meant. Because they slept next to each other and neither slept with women, the troops assumed they were gay.
“Willy was my father.”
They reacted like he lit up a room. Some laughed while others apologized. It all made sense now.
“Your father was a dad to all of us.”
“The Mongols cannot know that Willy is dead, so I’ll be the Baron from now on. You must convince the new guys that I’m the old Baron.” Billy waved to his uncle. “This guy represents Global Bank. Anyone who doesn’t already have an account needs to sign up to get paid. I’ve brought some great wands for you all to fight over.”
Excited now, Tiny shrieked his wand to call a leadership meeting. Unit commanders soon crowded around them. “This is the Baron. Protect him as if the lives of every American depend on it.”
Everyone cheered and wanted to shake his hand. Rather than be crushed by their affection, Billy dumped the wands before them.
“You only get one set, and you must donate your worst backup set to the group. I have a simple rule: the stronger quad gets the better wand, so if two or more fliers contest a set, he or she who can extend flame longer gets them.”
Instead of giving the strongest wands to the weakest marathoners, Billy preferred to give them to the strongest fliers since they’d have the most dangerous missions.
Billy and Richard left to get something to eat since the marathoners would not pay attention to anything else until they settled who got which wands. When they returned in the morning, the troops gave him a standing ovation. Another battalion had landed, so he introduced himself by doing his infamous scream and fire dance. Richard, who had never seen it in person, turn ghostly white.
“You should see the Mongols’ reaction!” Tiny joked to much laughter. “Shorty, you should know that American Jack tried to steal some of us. We already signed our contracts, but the next class may graduate next year, so you may want to hire them now before Jack recruits them for his invasion thing.”
“What could he possibly be invading?”
“Africa.”
Billy laughed. “Africa? With a few thousand marathoners?”
Tiny shook his head. “He’s been planning this for years. They say a million quads and their families are willing to move there to deny African resources to the Mongols. Gold, diamonds, lumber -- the Khan is stripping the place. Jack wants to take their operations to bankrupt the Empire.”
And to get filthy rich himself.
“I’ll get the next class of marathoners signed up. I need them too badly to let a buffoon like Jack take them from me. When will the other battalions get here? I have a busy campaign planned.”
“They should arrive within the week. A storm held them up. You’re taller than I remember. If you’re gonna lead us, you may want a better name than Shorty.”
Billy looked at his beautiful red suit and decided on something more impressive. "Call me the Red Baron."
“No offense, boss, but you look like the gay baron.”
Even Billy laughed at that.
"Aren't you gonna take your helmet off?" one of the prettier ladies asked. Almost half of the marathoners were women because, being lighter, they could fly farther.
Naturally he couldn't show his twelve-year old face. Who’d follow a kid into battle?
"I can't. It's even more scarred than the rest of me. My face has been burned too many times to heal properly. If I show my face, I'll never get laid."
Tiny clapped him on the back, vouching for him. "Not to worry. Guys your size don't get laid anyways.”
“That’s too bad because I’m willing to pay a ton of gold to marathoners who have my children.” The ladies knocked Tiny aside like he was some damn kid. They took off their helmets and frantically fixed their hair. Billy hovered above them and amplified his voice. “Honestly, I don’t care about looks, bloodlines, or personality. But you must swear to follow me until we win the war, and raise our kids to do the same. Agreed?”
Having the Baron’s children would give them a special status back home. The money was so his kids didn’t grow up poor.
“Are we going to France?" Tiny asked before the women started undressing the Baron.
“I want you to set up on top of the Pyrenees Mountain Range between Spain and France. Build defendable mountaintop bunkers and gather supplies, but wait for me before you start raiding. Avoid locals and stay hidden.
“We’ll keep the same operational doctrine: avoid engaging superior enemy forces and unfavorable circumstances -- just fly away. If you can fly higher, faster, and farther, then you should be able to strike them with relative impunity. Combine your strength to destroy any special units looking for you.
If more than a few of you are getting killed, then your commander is doing something wrong. I respect that every squad elects their leader, and all ten squad leaders elect a company leader, and all ten company leaders choose the battalion leader, but any commander losing too many troops must be replaced.
"I want you to cripple their air force, rob their banks and businesses, and pound their ground troops, equipment, and supply lines. Like before, you get half of what you take, and I get the other half to fund the war. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
“Not after all the wealth you helped us take the last few years.”
Good. Now to find his mother's gay uncle.
