“It’s worth it, father,” Julian said. “If we can win the war in one fell swoop, we won’t have to worry about anything else ever again. The Imperial Navy will be helpless to intervene; the Marines will either be wiped out or isolated on Castle Rock and the Council will be destroyed. The war will end.”
“Assuming that we pull it all off,” Rufus warned. “The problem with any kind of battle plan is that it never survives first contact with the enemy. If I was in their place, I’d be taking a good hard look at anything coming into the city and if they find just one of the transports, the entire plan will become exposed. Their sweep through the Civil Guard may have removed most of the Council’s placemen, but it also wiped out most of our sources. We may no longer be able to bribe our way out of trouble.”
“Fancy that,” Julian said. His voice was faintly mocking. “A Civil Guardsman who didn't take a bribe.”
“Give them a few more weeks of hard training and they’ll be able to add an extra three thousand men to the enemy ranks,” Rufus snapped. “Give them a few months and they’ll probably be able to deploy upwards of twenty thousand men. There are plenty of unemployed young men in Camelot they could bring into the Civil Guard or the Army of Avalon, if they started to pay them in cash.”
“Or perhaps they’ll just start conscripting people,” Gaby added. Rufus was right; Operation Headshot was a risk, but it was one they had to take. Given a few months, the odds would swing badly against the Crackers and the war would be on the verge of being lost. She glanced down at her timepiece and scowled. “Operation Headshot will be launched six days from now.”
“And God help us all,” Julian said. “With your permission, then, I will start making my way to Camelot. You’re going to need our support.”
Gaby nodded tiredly. Operation Headshot had one major weakness; it required her to be in the city, rather than lurking somewhere on the outskirts while others did the hard work. Rufus had urged her to let someone else take the risks, but the legend demanded that a descendent of Peter Cracker stood up to claim the reins of government. The irony was almost overwhelming. Peter Cracker had never sought power for himself either.
“Of course,” she said, tiredly. There was no point in explaining that she would rather not have had Julian’s support, or rather his protection. “Start diversifying our assets. If everything goes wrong, we don't want to give the Marines a chance to dismantle the entire cell.”
“I’ll see to it,” Rufus said. “You go get some sleep. You’re going to need it.”
***
“We got him, sir,” Gwen said. “He was feeling very cooperative.”
“Oh he was, was he?” Edward asked. “How much did you have to beat him to get him to talk?”
“We showed him the videos and told him that if he refused to cooperate, we’d dump him in the main jail after showing the inmates the video and promising to pardon the man who brought us his head,” Gwen said, darkly. “It worked. He couldn't wait to tell us everything he knew.”
“It was worse than we thought,” Kitty added. “It turns out that the Wilhelm Family has several allies we didn't know about.”
“If we know about them now,” Edward warned. “Are you sure that he was telling the truth?”
“We hooked him up to a lie detector once we had finished scaring the shit out of the fat bastard,” Gwen said. “He was telling the truth as he knew it. It wasn't very reassuring.”
Edward skimmed the transcript, shaking his head. Lucas Trent hadn’t known the half of it He hadn't known about the private army Carola Wilhelm had been building up, or about the plan to replace the Governor and Major Grosskopf through assassination, or about the plan to start firebombing Cracker villages to exterminate the threat once and for all, or about the indentured servitude...
“A thoroughly sick woman,” he concluded, finally. He looked up at Kitty. “We have the proof we need to move and move now, before she can launch any of these crazy plans.”
“It looks that way,” Kitty agreed. “I suggest striking now, without bothering to consult with anyone else. Your Marines can take her mansion and...”
“No,” Edward said. A single platoon of Marines, all that he had on hand without recalling one of the units from the outlying villages, wouldn't be enough. Besides, it wasn't the Marines who had the strongest reason to go after the Council. “I want you to take this directly to Major Grosskopf and tell him to move, now, before they realise that something has gone badly wrong. The Civil Guard’s Alpha Company can take the lead on this one.”
“Yes, sir,” Kitty said. If she was surprised at his decision, she didn't show it. “I’ll tell him personally.”
“Gwen” – he was on the verge of saying that he would go in person, but she would never have allowed it – “take the QRF and hold them” – he glanced over the street map of Camelot – “here. If the Civil Guard runs into trouble, you are cleared to use any means necessary to assist them, but remember we want as many of them alive as possible.”
“Sir,” Kitty said, slowly, “do we really want to take them alive?”
“Yes,” Edward said, flatly. An idea had started to flicker into existence at the back of his mind. “We have a Council problem and a Cracker problem. With luck, solving one problem will help us to solve the other.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Empire’s laws were originally intended to be blind, to serve all without fear or favour. It didn't last. The rich and powerful could manipulate the law to their own ends, destroying the faith in the law that the law needed – must have – to survive.
- Professor Leo Caesius, The Waning Years of Empire (banned).
Tam Howard checked the guest’s ID card, confirmed it against the list of people Carola Wilhelm had invited to her latest party and waved her in. The young lady gave him a wink that would have gotten a less well-connected woman arrested and headed through the gates, leaving Tam shaking his head. Most of the population of Camelot was remaining inside, fearing that the Crackers would soon bring the war to Camelot itself, but Carola Wilhelm had decided to throw a party instead. Everyone who was anyone in society was going to be there.
“Nice piece of ass,” one of the other guards observed. He was new, having quit the Civil Guard only a week ago following an unexplained discrepancy in the regimental accounts. He’d been luckier than he deserved and Tam had made a mental note to keep an eye on him. A thief couldn’t be trusted too much. “Do they sometimes come on to you?”
”Our job is keeping the mansion safe,” Tam reminded him, sharply. “Playing with the guests is not allowed, particularly not when we’re on duty. Concentrate on your job and visit a whore later if you feel blue-balled.”
“Jesus, mate,” the other guard said. “I was only kidding.”
Tam shrugged. Carola Wilhelm had hired over a hundred guards to protect her family home, ensuring that they were armed to the teeth with barely-legal weapons. Tam, himself a former member of the Civil Guard, rather enjoyed some of the perks of the job, even though his wished that his mistress was less sociable. Her parties provided too many opportunities for someone to get inside and hurt her, or one of the guests. It didn’t help that her guests were generally wealthy and well-connected and – of course – objected strongly to the suggestion that they might be under suspicion of anything. He wasn't allowed to search their bags, or even run them through a basic security scanner, which meant that they could bring anything inside the building. One of them could easily be carrying a bomb.
It wasn't the same for the servants, thankfully, even though it made the guards unpopular. Tam had ordered regular searches of their property and strip-searched any servant who left the mansion, if only for a few hours. Sometimes the searches yielded drugs or other surprises; more often, they revealed nothing, but an irate servant. Tam knew, better than the others, that they had to remain in their mistress’s favour. Without her, they would be on the streets and starving. The others who might hire bodyguards wouldn’t want them.
<
br /> A Civil Guard van drove past as another guest arrived, the newcomer from Earth. She was a horse-faced woman, without connections to Avalon’s aristocracy, but Carola Wilhelm had ordered that Fiona Caesius be given all the courtesies that she offered to her friends and family. Tam felt a moment of pity for the woman’s husband as he checked her ID, and then waved her through. Another Civil Guard van drove past and he frowned, puzzled. Was there something happening in their area? He was tempted to call his mistress and ask, but she would be busy and wouldn’t like the interruption…
He blinked as a third van appeared and parked in front of the walls. A moment later, armed soldiers began jumping out, fanning out into a protective wall and lifting live weapons. Tam reached for the emergency button and held his finger over it, hearing alarm bells sounding off in his head. Something was very badly wrong. A final figure jumped out of the truck, protected by a cordon of armed soldiers, and he felt his insides turn to ice. It hadn’t been that long since Major George Grosskopf had dismissed him from the service.
“Sir,” he said, as the Major strode up to him. Bluster was the only option. The guards were outnumbered and badly outgunned. “I’m afraid that I cannot let you into the building. You’re not on the guest list.”
Grosskopf’s face stretched into something that even a charitable man would have found it hard to call a smile. “I’m afraid that you’re under the wrong impression,” he said, mockingly. “We are here with a warrant for the arrest of Carola Wilhelm, Markus Wilhelm and over fifty other people, all of whom are attending this party. I strongly advise you to offer no resistance.”
Tam stared at him. He wasn’t bluffing, he knew. “This building is protected by Council authority,” he blustered. Carola wouldn’t thank him for just letting them in without a fight, yet there was no way to stop them, or even to slow them down. “You cannot come in without direct permission from the Governor.”
“Which we have,” Grosskopf assured him pleasantly. He looked over at the other four guards, who were standing there unsure of what to do. Their hands were on their weapons, but they hadn’t lifted them, thankfully. Grosskopf’s men would wipe them out before they could fire a single shot. “Put down your weapons and place your hands on your head.”
“Yes, sir,” Tam said, bitterly. If nothing else, he could prevent a slaughter. “We surrender.”
Two burly soldiers grabbed him, secured his hands with a plastic tie and left him on the ground, waiting to be picked up. “Stay there,” Grosskopf ordered, dryly. Tam would have sworn at him if he dared. “We’ll be back for you soon.”
***
George took one last look at the ex-Guardsman and led the way into the mansion’s grounds. Alpha Company might still be understrength, but he’d drawn reliable men from two lesser units and led almost a full company upwards towards the house. He’d only seen it twice before, back when Carola Wilhelm had tried to bribe him into supporting her ambitions, and it never failed to impress him. The Council had been able to get almost anything they wanted and Carola had wanted a mansion that didn’t leave anyone in doubt about her importance. The massive stone building was testament enough to her wealth and power, built on the bones of men and women who had died indebted to her. George had seriously considered simply attacking the complex with helicopters and blowing the building into burning debris, but that wouldn’t have been as satisfying as taking her into custody permanently.
He checked his radio as other teams swarmed through the other two gates. The guards had offered no resistance, thankfully, for he would have had them killed if necessary. Most of them were little more than traitors to the Civil Guard; men who had joined, accepted training and then left for richer fields elsewhere. They were effectively compliant in her crimes. A handful of guests, roaming on the lawn, stared up at the advancing Guardsmen, but before they could react they were grabbed, tied and left there for later. A happy couple necking on the grass had no idea that they were in trouble until it was far too late. George snorted when he saw them and carried on.
The noise of men and women having fun could be heard as they rounded the mansion and headed down towards the pool. At least a hundred men and women were there, swimming in the water or chatting endlessly about nothing as they watched the younger ones frolicking in the pool. George felt sick when he realised that all of the wealth and luxury on display had been extracted from people who hadn’t been able to resist, rather than something the wealthy had earned for themselves. There were young girls in skimpy bathing costumes and boys already tending to fat and arrogance. They had no idea just how fragile their power actually was.
George lifted his gun and fired a single shot into the air. Silence fell, a silence that deepened when the guests looked around and saw the soldiers standing there. A handful of women fainted in shock and several others started to inch back, like sheep suddenly terrified of the wolves in their midst. The party had suddenly come to an end. The music, performed by live musicians, had come to a halt. The musicians were as scared as anyone else.
“This building is now under the control of the Civil Guard,” George said, into the silence. “Until we can sort out the guilty from the innocent, we are going to place everyone in the building under arrest. Any attempt to resist will be met with as much force as necessary to terminate the resistance. Stand up, get out of the pool and put your hands on your head – and wait. We will deal with you all in a moment.”
“You cannot do this,” one of the young men burst out. George recognised him from the reports he’d seen, a young scion of a wealthy family with a taste for rape and sexual humiliation. He should have been spending twenty years at hard labour; he would have been spending them if his family hadn’t intervened and forced his release. He hadn’t learned anything from the experience. “This place is…”
“Under my control,” George said, unable to keep a hint of amusement from his voice. They’d all once been the Lords of Creation. Now they were terrified sheep. “I won’t warn you again, Sean. Put your hands on your head and surrender peacefully.”
Sean leapt at him, hands outstretched as if he intended to strange George personally. One of the soldiers stepped forward, but George waved him back, stepping out of Sean’s way and pistol-whipping him right across the mouth. Blood and teeth went flying as the young man collapsed to the ground, whimpering. No one had ever taught him discipline; no one had ever taught him the difference between right and wrong. George watched him gasping on the ground and felt nothing, not even pity or disgust as blood pooled on the ground. Sean’s life had been ruined a long time before George had come to Avalon.
He looked up and swept his gaze across the crowd. “Is there anyone else who feels like having a go at us?”
There was no one. The soldiers moved from person to person, tying their hands and leaving them sitting on the ground, after carefully separating the women from the men. George watched as they patted down their captives, removing anything that could be used as a weapon, wondering where the real prize was. Carola Wilhelm was not among the prisoners. If she had escaped…but even if she did, where could she go?
“Detail four men to watch the prisoners,” he ordered, tartly. They hadn’t searched the house yet. “The rest of you, get into that mansion and search it from end to end.”
***
Carola had been lucky. She’d been wrapped up in a meeting with one of her fellow Councillors – discussing the relief package the Council would be offering to farmers caught up in the midst of the fighting – when the raid began. An alert had been flashed to her at once, but by then it was already too late to escape. The surveillance bugs she’d scattered around the walls confirmed that the Civil Guard had blocked all of the exits.
Part of her wanted to scream at the sheer unfairness of the universe – allowing it to happen when she was so close to success – but she knew from long experience that that wouldn’t change anything. The soldiers were already cuffing her guests – she smiled inwardly when Sean was knocked to the ground,
for she’d never liked the young pup – and it wouldn’t be long before they started to search her house. She keyed her personal terminal and brought up an option she’d never dreamed she would need, ordering the house mainframe – years in advance of anything like it on the planet – to wipe all of the sensitive files and then self-destruct. Whatever they’d found that had emboldened them to raid the house of a Councillor, they wouldn’t find the evidence they needed to have her interrogated under truth drugs. They wouldn’t be able to prove anything.
The Empire’s Corps: Book 01 - The Empire's Corps Page 49
