Ben stood up, walked around to the side of his overstuffed chair and sat on one of the massive chair arms.
"Kip, your job is simple and it is yours for life. Let me get the negatives out of the way right now so I can dwell on the positives. Negative one; quitting gets you a voluntary mind wipe or death. Sorry. We can’t change that now." He stared at Kip for a reaction and was surprised that Kip stayed so calm.
"Ben, I would not be the tactician you claim if I had not figured that out several minutes ago. Go on," said Kip with a small smile.
Ben smiled at Kip’s statement. Before continuing, he thought, Kip might just be the right person.
"Negative two; your life will not be the same from this point forward." There was still no reaction from Kip.
"And negative three: the girl you have been dating on an off has two other lovers and a terminal but not contagious disease" In response to Kip’s sudden look, Ben added, "No, we had nothing to do with the disease. It is hereditary. She probably knows. She probably has around six months left at the most. I will give you the report when we are done. I am truly sorry."
Ben could read nothing from Kip’s sigh and slight head shake to the news about his occasional lover. He continued.
"And now let me hit the positives. Positive number one; you are about to be acclaimed publicly as a man who helped Eva save the Emperor’s life today. It seems he was captured in a kidnap attempt and held for a few hours in this building while you and Eva planned and carried out his rescue."
"Naturally, your Emperor will be extremely grateful, will overtly befriend you, will let the press know that you have joined Eva as one of the throne’s two most trusted friends, and will go out of his way to partner with you to insure your business success. That will explain away any visits or contacts either of you have with the Emperor. You are about to be a houseguest with an open invitation to drop by the palace at any time. There will be no secrets between any of the four of us. And we will not disclose that Eva and the Emperor have been intimate on several occasions." Ah, that got a raised eyebrow from Kip. It also got a small shrug from the Eva and a smile from the Emperor.
"Positive number two; you get to spend more money than most people can imagine exists. You will amass immense personal wealth. Positive number three; you will become perhaps the single most powerful businessperson in the Empire or the Association. Positive four; you will have all and any resources the Empire can provide to assure business and any clandestine operations you find necessary. And positive number five; you will become almost totally autonomous in your pursuit of the vision."
Ben took a quick drink of water and plowed on.
"You will brief the Emperor directly or through Eva or I. The how-to decisions are yours. Feel free to use us as a sounding board and expect lots of flak from us if you really botch it and refuse to fix it. The Emperor and throne must never be suspect of what is really going on. You are the commander and chief of the biggest secret covert operation in the Empire, and hopefully, the Association. You will probably want at least one high ranking military leader and a few politicians to be on alert to clear any obstacles for you as the Emperor’s closest friend. They will not get to know the vision or the strategy but will know that the Empire is depending on you for some special projects entrusted to you by the Emperor. They will be told that you are to be treated as the Emperor’s Personal Ambassador at Large. Just let me know what you need. We will clear the way."
"Since Eva has a legitimate job near the Emperor, we need a story that gives her cause to visit you at any time. I think we should let it be known that during your many visits to the palace the two of you became an item. If that is too dicey, perhaps you become the best of friends. Think about it."
The Emperor stood and spoke. "Thanks Ben. From this point on, we are going to have to be not only confidants but actual friends. We are going to work extremely close together. If no one else is around other than my personal staff, please address me and refer to me as Will. What do you think at this point, Kip? Ask any questions you like. You will get an honest answer."
"OK, Will. Please tell me about the vision in detail."
"Fair enough," replied Will with enthusiasm. The conversation between the four of them lasted another eight hours.
"Hey Major," quipped Zak to Major Dennis. "I thought that nobody gets more than an hour of the Emperor’s time. This guy Kip has even more physical control than Colonel Quan does. Do you think he is being recruited to run the Guard or something like that?"
"Zak, I would say he is definitely being recruited. I have a hunch. Kip is probably the same Shadow of my brother Danny’s stories. He would never give a name. He swears he watched an officer-turned-Sergeant beat four hand-to-hand instructors in a fair NCO club contest in less than four minutes. Danny said he never broke a sweat. Something tells me that whatever he is being recruited for will be a much bigger deal than the Emperor’s Guard. In fact, my guess is that the Universe as we know it is about to change…a bunch!"
The Colonel weighed in with, "Denny my man, you may have just waxed prophetic. Yes, this is the guy that came up with all the close team tactics that all Shadows use today. I will confirm for you that he is the one that wiped the deck with four of the meanest instructors on planet at the time. I cannot remember seeing Eva this enthusiastic since she decided to bed Will. All this just smacks of turbulence and change. You realize who is going to get to get their ass exposed to said turbulence don’t you?"
Both Zak and Denny responded with smiles and a soft, "Hoorah." Neither had any illusions about living long enough to become bored or spend all the money the Emperor gifted them.
Chapter 6 – An Unlikely First Employee
Danny O’Malley attached himself to Kip when Kip was a Captain in the Teaman Empire Shadows. After his first mission with Kip, always managed assignments with Kip. Danny was a Senior Sergeant and was a young legend amongst Shadows. While he normally never used his political chips, he was unabashed in following Kip. At the time, he had drawn more hours of C&C (Covert and Combat) pay than any other Shadow. He could never quite fit all his medals on his dress tunic. Even after promotion to Sergeant Major, Danny never bragged or told war stories. That was good because of the strict security of most missions. Medals drew raised eyebrows and respect but rarely questions
When Kip gave up being an officer to go back to being a Sergeant in a team, Danny volunteered to go to the same unit as Battalion Sgt. Major. Shortly after he and Kip settled in and met all the non-coms in the battalion, Danny called a battalion NCO meeting.
His meeting, held in the meeting room of the NCO club, was remarkably short when one considered all the Mess Hall stories it created for years to follow.
He said, "Now that we have all met, let me tell you what I am doing here. You have all met Sgt. Minor Kipling David. Kip is here because he asked to be. I have served with him for a while now. He has some theories about small and large team tactics that he wants to prove. I only have an inkling of what they are. However, I do know Kip. I think he has his head screwed on right and is a bit brighter than any officer I ever met. I kept declining these extra rockers until I found out Kip was resigning his commission and taking a non-com slot in a team. Then I made some calls, and here I am. I will do what it takes to help this Regiment keep the number one performance rating in the Shadows."
"But that is not the whole of why I volunteered to come here. I also came to do anything I can to give Kip the best opportunity he can have to teach, apply, and prove his theories. The Battalion Commander and the Regimental Commander will give orders for everyone to clear a wide path to help him. That is nice but you and I know that means less than squat. If the NCOs in this room are not behind him, he will have a long row to hoe. I personally will do anything I can to help him. He is going to call for volunteers. I would like to see all the best, not the second best, and not just a couple of the best, end up on his team. It would delight me if some Sergeants or Sergeant Minors volunteered to temporaril
y take a diminished slot to help him make this work. I would consider that a big personal favor. I already volunteered to go in as a corporal before I got these extra rockers. However, the Colonel will not let anyone volunteer for a slot that is more than two pay-grades lower."
"I consider his project much more important than any single mission or task in front of the Shadows right now. I neither know nor care if the General Officers agree with me. I am shooting straight with you and know that saying it in front of this big of a group is politically stupid. You are all my brothers and sisters in arms. If I have to trust someone, I could not ask for a better group of people. I honestly believe that over the next year or so, Kip is going to help us find a better way to operate covertly and come home with more accomplished and fewer fatalities."
"Some of you are from this Regiment, but all of us are new to this reformed battalion. My salient mission is to see that we become the highest rated of the five-division battalion. I will do just that. Still, I took the job in order to help Kip. Some of you may decide that I am full of depleted gravitonics or that Kip is not the right person to get the job done. If you honestly feel that way and are not up for this adventure, let me help you find a better slot in another unit. No hard feelings. I see this as our shot at writing Shadow history. I will not ask anyone to play if they are against it. Questions?"
"Yeah, Top (slang for Top Sergeant)," a giant of a man named Wasi spoke up. "Everybody has heard of you Top. I would bet my life with you any day you asked me. But, we came to this unit because it is going to the first one pulled for team tactics in hostile situations. We know that we are going to rack up C&C time. How do we know that Kip here is not some officer who decided to go hang out where the action is to have some stories to tell when he gets out? Top, I want to be in this unit and I sure would like to cooperate. My only problem is I never served with Kip or even heard of him. I cannot be the only one in the same boat here. Making this work sounds exciting to me. Getting myself killed for a want-to-be does not. Make me a believer tonight and I will volunteer to be a private on your team. How do we know Kip can operate?"
Danny smiled big and winked at Kip. "Bless you son. I never thought it would be this easy. If I recall, Sgt. Minor Wasi, you were a hand-to-hand instructor in your last rotation. I could warn you that I have gone up against Kip in the gym at least twenty times full tilt with only a light impact-suppressor field. I have never lasted over three minutes with him. I don’t know anyone else who has lasted over two. I also know that me blowing smoke about the only man in the Shadows that is OK’d to carry a CNT without a battery is not going to get the job done. After this little demonstration, I am buying the first three rounds of drinks. Wasi, you pick three other tough customers in this room that agree to some of this action. Sgt. Dennis, please go see the bartender and grab five impact-suppression units. Sgt. Doohoowi, please go get the medic. I am giving odds on Kip, so everybody start thinking wager. Ya’ll with doubts, get your money out."
"Top, you don’t think that Kip is going to survive even one minute against four Shadows that do at least an hour of one-on-one every day, do you?" ask Wasi.
"Well, Sgt. Minor, I would have thrown Kip in with five of ya’ll and got the odds better. It wouldn’t matter. I will win either way. The problem against five: Kip may not have the time to avoid really hurting one of you. Then the Colonel would officially find out and have to question my leadership techniques, ancestry, IQ and like that."
"Here is Sergeant Dennis with the impact-suppressors. Thanks Danny, help them get them on and let’s get to the dancing. Uh Kip, would you quit smiling? You’re going to scare away my gamblers. I will keep the rules simple. A person is out when someone scores a blow that would kill or seriously maim or incapacitate without the suppression field. If that happens to you, take yourself out of the fray. I trust everyone’s honesty, so you decide if a blow would have incapacitated you. Hey, I have some money here. How about this, I give two-to-one odds that none of them last more than five minutes with him?"
Later, Kip had to admit that if any one of the four had just a little more speed and better rapport with their symbiont community, he would have been in trouble. As it worked out, the bout was over quickly, just under three minutes. Kip reflected that his small team tactics would have allowed this group of four to defeat him handily.
Danny told Kip that this was the best tactical meeting of his military career. He won enough bets to pay for several rounds of drinks. That way, no one minded losing. More important, he won Kip’s project the whole-hearted and unanimous support from his NCOs. Wasi signed up in a slot for a Corporal the next morning sporting a smile, a black eye, and a hangover even his symbiont could not quickly fix. Those that watched Kip politely decimate four very good Shadows quickly made him a legend. While it is not true that he never broke a sweat, he managed to give all four of them a visible lump or two and managed to avoid getting any that showed.
After a whirlwind couple of years and a string of accomplished missions, Kip finally was satisfied. His tactics worked. They would carry on without him. He quietly resigned.
Over a year later, Shadow Master Sergeant Danny O’Malley walked into a pub in Taylorville, sauntered up to the bar and sat down on a stool next to Kip. He softly shook his head from side to side like he was watching a group of youngsters trying to be quiet.
Kip looked up from his coffee and the notes he was making on a real pad of paper. He stared at Danny a moment before saying anything. In typical Shadow fashion, his face gave away nothing.
"You know, Top, I do believe you have actually gotten a little less ugly and ornery-looking in the last year. Or maybe it just looks that way because it is so damned good to see you."
Kip slid off the bar stool with a big smile and gave Danny the first hug he could ever recall getting from a man. No one else would have dared, not even his wimpy brother. However, from Kip, he did not even think about it.
"So," said Kip when the embrace finally ended, "what brings you to Taylorville and forces you to wear civilian clothes?"
Typical of Danny when he talked to Kip, he answered the question and the implied questions. "I am wearing civvies because that is what civilians wear. Here because I want to go to work for you. I don’t need any money. I have more retirement income than I need. The Shadows got a little dull without you. Whatever you are up to, I’ve got your back."
Kip affectionately used Danny’s team name, Topa. "Hey Topa, I’m just a business man now. I buy small, labor-intensive, failing businesses, I fix them, and I run them until I can develop the people in the inner city to run them without me. I make a little money and I invest it back into the community, usually into rental properties. No magic there; it is easy to turn a small business that has existing customers into a profit maker if you do a few basic things. I move them out of the expensive real estate to the inner city as soon as possible. I don’t take much of a salary since my retirement pay tides me over. I pay myself the same as our lowest paid person. For most positions, I hire unemployed people based on character rather than education or experience."
"The slums? You are going back to your roots. Hey, it's another worthy cause. No way do I believe that it will stop there, but it doesn’t matter. I am happy –damned-Skippy to be here. I’m in."
"To do what, Topa? Don’t get me wrong, I am flattered and I love ya. But I have been a one-man show since I went civilian last year. For the current business I am trying to buy, I three banks turned me down so far. I have a meeting at GalTrust bank next week, but I am not sure what it is all about. I have no illusions that they will want to finance my current adventure. I am sure I could use some help but I’m not sure what I would have you do right now."
"I do. I thought about it on the way. I have no family except my wealthy and worthless brother and his wife. He does not count much but she is fair dinkum with me. It seems that I have all the time in the world. As of now, you have a driver, personal secretary, aide, bodyguard, chief of staff and handyman.
When you think of something else I can do for you, I’ll do that too."
Kip thought about it for a moment. Nowhere in life would he find a more all-around competent person that could wear as many hats as he had watched Danny wear. Danny would be underemployed and bored for a while. Hell Pilgrim, Danny is a big boy. If he wants to ride a while bareback, why not?
His relationship with O’Malley over the years transcended mere friendship and professional respect. Therefore, he could never ask Danny to assume so subordinate a role. On the other hand, why not? After all, it was Danny’s idea. A guy he could trust at his back would feel real good when he was in fresh territory in this city.
Gangs were more organized and better equipped these days and one was trying to work a protection scam on the restaurant he recently bought. Deep down inside he knew beyond doubt that God gave him the tools to mold both life and opportunities to his need. He lived by the motto, "if it is to be, it is up to me." Still, he could not help but think that God somehow may occasionally help to nudge a few pieces into place. It would also help to have a sparring partner of Danny’s caliber. Since he dived into small team tactics with Danny, his relationship to his Symbiont (who thought of itself as CLYX) continued to grow stronger. They were having sub-vocal conversations almost every day now. Since Danny continued to get faster and offer more challenge each time they sparred, Kip suspected that Danny was developing a stronger relationship with his Symbiont as well.
"Danny, you are hired. I can’t pay much but my house will hold us both nicely, the food’s on me, and when I make money, you make money. We will both have to keep to a high exercise schedule. The inner city is not quite as tame as you might think. In fact, I am sitting here waiting for a gang’s introduction visit. It seems the Death Merchants want to expand into this territory and are starting to fund their expansion by extorting a little protection money from the local businesses. They sent a couple of their dimmer soldiers over yesterday. My standing orders to my managers and bartenders are to be cooperative and to arrange a meeting with me who ‘would almost surely be willing to buy protection from such a renowned group. And would you please have someone come along that can negotiate a long-term agreement.’ That meeting is in about ten minutes. They will probably bring several shooters to put fear into the owner. If you want to play, I think maybe we can work a Buford on them."
GalTech and the Shadow Warriors: Growth of a Star Empire Page 7
