The Last Paladin

by Ward Wagher

  “Do you have a way of getting the details to me?” he asked.

  “I can,” came the reply.

  A moment later, he saw the indicator that something new had arrived in his inbox. He reached into the three-dimensional display and touched the item to open it. He studied it for a few moments.

  “I need to get this to Arlen and Chaim. You said something about knowing the source of the leak?”

  “I told you last night.”

  RWB waited a few moments in growing frustration. “I cannot remember what you told me. Who is it?”

  Once again the answer vastly surprised him.

  § § §

  “Do we have our little bird on ice?” RWB asked.

  Chaim Lewis shook his head. “We do. I am as surprised about this as you.”

  “To have someone in Wilton House passing information to the Arabians is not something I would have considered,” Arlen Senter said.

  “It is more pure carelessness than anything,” Jones said. “We do not watch our people to any great extent.”

  RWB looked around his office and out the window as the afternoon shadows fell across the city. He still felt shock and surprise at the events of the recent days. Lewis and Senter occupied the chairs across from the Paladin’s desk. Jones leaned against the wall with his arms folded and looked out the window.

  “I do not believe we should have to watch our own people,” he said. “But this makes me doubt the efficacy of that statement. It was carelessness on the one hand, but treason on the other, pure and simple.”

  “How do you want to handle it?” Senter asked.

  “Cut off my right arm?” RWB asked. “I do not know. I am open to suggestion.”

  “There is not much question in my mind on dealing with the traitor,” Lewis said.

  “That is not what concerns me,” RWB commented. He pointed to Jones. “What do you think, Sing?”

  “I think, Paladin, that this is above my paygrade. On the other hand, you cannot afford to let it pass.”

  RWB pointed to Senter. “Arlen, you have said little. What are your thoughts?”

  “To be honest, I am forced to think about my own shortcomings. I should have spotted this.”

  The Paladin bit his lower lip. “I suppose we need to have a discussion about that.”

  “You can have my resignation at any time, Paladin.”

  “I know, and I appreciate your honesty. But you are doing a decent job, otherwise, and you seem to learn from your mistakes. But what about the individual in question?”

  “For a lot of reasons, he has got to go,” Senter said. “And we all know what I am talking about.”

  “Chaim?” RWB asked.

  “I agree with Arlen.”

  The Paladin thought for a few moments and then pushed a button on his display. “Holden, could you come in for a minute?”

  A moment later, Holden Palmer was in the room. “Yes, Paladin?”

  “I thought you should know that we have caught a traitor in our midst.”

  “What a terrible thing to happen,” Palmer exclaimed. “But I am delighted we have caught the malefactor. Who is it, if I may ask?”

  “It was Glacie Hitchcock,” RWB said quietly.

  Palmer turned pale. “Oh my.” He shook his head and swayed on his feet. “That is terrible. She was in the employ of the Arabians.”

  “So, we understand,” the Paladin replied. “And we have another problem,”

  Palmer looked down at the floor. “I confided in her,” he said quietly. “She was a member of my staff. I trusted her.”

  “It was not just that you confided in her, Holden,” the Paladin said. “You made her privy to highly confidential information. Because of that, many people have died.”

  “I realize that, Sir. This is terrible.”

  “Holden,” RWB said, “I know your intentions were good, but I cannot condone your actions.”

  “I understand, Paladin, I would not condone it either. I am very sorry.”

  “I need your resignation,” RWB said. “Effective immediately.”

  “What?” he exclaimed. “That is a bit extreme of a reaction, is it not? I have served here for thirty years.”

  “I suppose if you do not understand this, I will not be able to explain it,” RWB said. “Mr. Jones will help you gather your things”

  Jones walked over to where Palmer stood and put his hand on his shoulder. “Come along, Mr. Palmer.”

  The unresisting secretary numbly followed Jones from the room. When the door slid shut, the three men looked at each other.

  “This is going to hurt,” RWB said.

  “I believe you will be better off without him,” Senter replied.

  “Oh, no doubt. But I have no idea how to go about replacing him. If there was one traitor in his organization, there could well be more.”

  “Might I ask, RWB, how you figured this out?” Lewis asked.

  The Paladin laid a finger along his nose and grinned. “I am sure you are most curious. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you about it right now. But I will say it was fortunate that Glacie confessed. She saved us all a lot of trouble.”

  Senter raised a finger.

  “Yes, Arlen?”

  “Leonard Cord or Ellen Dwyer could manage the job, I think.”

  “I think Leonard’s too important in Infrastructure. What do you think, Chaim?”

  “Ellen could do it. Arlen would be a good choice, too.”

  RWB shook his head. “I need Arlen where he is, right now. We are starting to unravel some threads. I do not think it would be a good time to transition domestic security.”

  “True,” Lewis conceded. “But Arlen knows the inner workings of the government better.”

  “I really do not want to be your secretary, RWB, no offense,” Senter stated. “I believe I do much better in the shadows. As it is, a lot of people do not know who I am. I would like to keep it that way.”

  RWB swung back and forth in his chair as he considered things. Then he placed his hands on the desk. “Very well. Arlen, can you ask Ellen to come to my office?”

  “I shall be delighted to do so.”

  Lewis chuckled. “You sound relieved, Arlen.”

  Senter laughed softly. “You have no idea, Chaim.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  “I thought maybe you could tell me about our adversaries,” RWB stated as he began his conversation with Josiah.

  “Perhaps we could also talk about your interactions with the Bible as well.”

  RWB wasn’t sure who Josiah really was, or where he lived. It seemed that the mysterious caller had been the source of inside information used by his father over the years, and that source was astonishingly accurate. Still, the man had a stilted quality about him that was a bit strange.

  “I am always happy to talk about the Bible. I find it fascinating. But tonight, I want to focus on business. It is important that we discourage the Arabians from sending these teams in to kill people.”

  “The Bible is very important to your personal business, RWB,” Josiah argued. “We should discuss that.”

  The Paladin found himself growing impatient. Josiah’s single-mindedness could be frustrating. Over the course of several conversations, RWB’s caller would slide into a well-worn topic and refuse to be dislodged.

  “Listen, Josiah,” RWB decided to try a different approach. “I promise you we will talk about the Bible. But first, we must explore this problem that we are facing in the Palatinate. My government is waiting for me to present a plan, and I need your help. I really do not know what I am doing.”

  “I suppose we can do that,” Josiah replied.

  Although the voice was almost toneless at times, RWB thought he detected a sniff or something that indicated Josiah was humoring him.

  “You are not being patronizing again, are you?” the Paladin asked.

  “Of course not, RWB,” Josiah sounded insulted. “I merely want to help you set your priorities.”

&n
bsp; “I understand,” RWB rolled his tongue around in his cheek.

  Then he wondered if Josiah had access to the video pickups in his apartment. It was uncanny how the caller seemed to read him. He gazed out the window at the nighttime city and marveled at the tapestry of lights that formed a wreath around the ceramacrete monoliths. Nevertheless, Josiah was his sole window into what had been happening over the past months and he wanted to do nothing that would push him away.

  “The Caliph is convinced that he has been tasked with killing the godless infidels and providing a rigorous discipline to the remaining people on Earth.”

  “I thought he was called The Grand Mufti,” RWB commented.

  “That is what many people outside of Arabia call him. In his land, he is the Caliph.”

  “And he wants to convert everyone in the world to his religion at gunpoint, then?”

  “That is true. He believes that if he can make everyone obeisant to Allah, then they become one of the people, regardless of their internal thoughts. They believe the faith and the government are one entity, and this is Allah’s Earthly kingdom.”

  “What can we do to convince him otherwise?” RWB asked.

  “The answer to that question is unknown,” Josiah replied. “To a certain extent, it mirrors the beliefs of many radical religions. The Harmonites have been fighting a vicious sectarian war with a radical faction of their religion and it seems that they are not convinced otherwise from their beliefs until they are dead.”

  “So, the only way to fix this problem is to send the Caliph on to Allah?”

  Josiah gave a warm chuckle. “That is true, although a bit simplistic. The Arabians reinforce their beliefs by teaching the glories of martyrdom for Allah.”

  “Is that not like the Christians dying for their faith?”

  “The analogy does not fit. For Christians, martyrdom is generally a last resort. For the Arabians, it is often first. The teams that the Caliph has been sending expect to die and since they are fighting directly for their faith, ipso facto they are martyrs.”

  “Does everyone in Arabia believe that?”

  “By no means,” Josiah said pedantically. “A plurality, perhaps even a majority find this abhorrent. But the political power rests in the hands of the radicals. Anyone who questions the ascendant power is treated as an infidel, regardless of his beliefs.”

  “So, the answer is that we bottle them up?”

  “Yes.”

  RWB thought about Josiah’s simple answer and pondered the difficulty of implementing something like that. While the Palatinate and the UK, in particular, were of one mind in dealing with Arabia, the other nation-states on Earth ranged from neutrality to actively trading with the nation.

  “Pop always seemed to figure out a way to neutralize Arabia in a very quiet way. Did you have something to do with that?”

  “We were able to fashion some solutions that confined the Arabians within their borders, yes,” Josiah replied.

  “And they worked well,” RWB stated.

  “For a time,” Josiah added. “We have been able to contain them repeatedly as they came up with new schemes. And it was a fairly constant exercise your father undertook to outthink them.”

  “I see. Do you have any suggestions for me right now?” RWB asked.

  “All of the teams, except one arrived through the port of Charleston in the Carolina Free State. Some large sums of money have flowed from Arabia into the hands of Warren O’Bleck.”

  “So, we can surmise that Warren is funding his lifestyle from the Arabians. Does his daddy know about this?”

  “There have been no comm conversations between the father and the son that have alluded to this,” Josiah said.

  “We can come back to this in a minute,” RWB said. “What about the exception?”

  “One group came in through the port of Boston. Either someone at the port authority accepted a large bribe, or the Quebecois simply missed it. They have consistently refused passage in the past.”

  “Do you have evidence either way?”

  “No.”

  One reason RWB enjoyed his conversations with Josiah was because of the cyberint’s refusal to elaborate on simple answers if he had no further information. The Paladin found it refreshing after the usual palaver that he endured in the government offices.

  “So, Warren O’Bleck is our pinch point, right?”

  “That is true,” Josiah agreed. “There may be several approaches to the problem, although your father was much better at fashioning solutions than I was.”

  RWB suddenly grinned evilly. “I can take care of the first problem, I think. Is it possible to have Warren O’Bleck’s bank statements appear in his daddy’s inbox?”

  “When would you like this to occur?” Josiah quickly asked.

  “There is no time like the present,” RWB laughed. “If you can make it happen, I would be in your debt.”

  “You owe me nothing,” Josiah said, “however you can consider the request accomplished.”

  “Just like that?”

  “I can sometimes work quickly.”

  RWB thought for a few moments. “Who are you anyway?”

  “I am Josiah. I am a friend and a helper.”

  “And a little bit spooky.”

  “Oh, no,” Josiah replied with his distinctly warm chuckle, “I am not the least bit spooky. I am merely very good at what I do.”

  § § §

  “The Boss seems to be in a good mood today, Chief,” Lesa Carper commented.

  She was sitting at the control board in the Security Operations Center. Singman Jones sat on the edge of the workspace nursing a cup of coffee.

  “I hope he is snapping out of his funk,” Jones replied. “I expect he will have good days and bad days. But this is encouraging.”

  “I hope to never see him like we did the other night. I was convinced he had decided to end it all. I am still not sure that he did not mean it.”

  “Whatever the case, Lesa, you saved his life. Again. I truly wish you would not make a habit of this.”

  “Believe me, Boss, that is a habit I seriously want to avoid. I am still sore from where I hit the edge of the parapet when I grabbed him. I really thought he was gone. Scared the fire out of me, Chief.”

  “If I have not told you before, Lesa, that was above and beyond the call of duty. I saw you take that flying leap, I thought you were going over the edge, too. I think my heart stopped beating for a moment.”

  “The thought of going over the edge crossed my mind after I pulled him back. I was not able to stand up for a minute.”

  “We just need to keep him away from roofs for a while.”

  “I will do my best, Boss,” Lesa exclaimed.

  “One other thing while I am here,” he continued. “We think there are at least three more Arabian teams in the Palatinate. RWB told Arlen and me this morning that he thinks he has the pipeline stopped.”

  “How did he do that?” she asked.

  “He would not say. He got very mysterious. He may now be plugged into the source his father had. If so, that will be a fantastic advantage for us. I think the Grand Mufti tries all the time to slip teams in, and when Ryan Baughman was the Paladin, they never got through. Not once. It was unerring.”

  “I can hope that was the case,” she mused. “But that still leaves us with a problem.”

  “Whoever they are, they are smart enough to stay off the grid. We have not been able to localize any of them. On the other hand, we are starting to understand how they move about and may be able to recognize them earlier.”

  “Is it true that Glacie Hitchcock was feeding them information?” Carper asked.

  “Where did you hear that?”

  “It is all over the building.”

  “That is unfortunate,” Jones sighed. “I hoped to keep that quiet. But, yes, it is true.”

  “What could she have been thinking?”

  “Two reasons,” he said. “First, she was a secret believer and thin
ks it is her duty to kill infidels. Secondly, she is in love with the Paladin and feels jilted.”

  “Jilted? Glacie?” Lesa looked surprised. “Pardon me, Boss, but that Scout girl was the only person the Paladin ever looked twice at. Everyone else was just a convenience. That is why I stayed out of arm’s reach of the Paladin.”

  “And you were wise, Lesa. Do you notice he has not had a single fling with anyone since the girl died?”

  “Has he turned over a new leaf, Boss?”

  Jones grinned. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  “Do you want to explain why you are accepting money from the Arabians?” Tomas O’Bleck asked with a menacing undertone.

  “What are you talking about, Daddy?” Warren O’Bleck whined. “Why would I do something like that?”

  “That is what I am asking you? Why would you do such a thing?”

  “Come on, Daddy, you know I would never do anything like that.”

  “No? Then perhaps you can tell me about this.”

  The older man stood and walked from behind his desk. He slapped a sheaf of plasticine printouts in Warren’s lap.

  “These are statements from your bank account. It covers the past six months. One-hundred thousand Solarans each month from the Bank of Beirut. I think you need to tell me what is going on. I gave you plenty of money to live on. How could you do this?”

  The younger man turned pale. He tried to act indignant. “Where did you get my private account information?”

  “These statements landed in my inbox.” Tomas was working himself into a rage. “If I received them, then they are not very private, are they? What do you suppose might happen if these statements landed in the Paladin’s lap? What would he think?”

  “I do not know how that money got there,” Warren stammered.

  “And you let it accumulate for six months. Do not take me for a fool, boy! If you were that concerned about it, you would have been talking to me or the security people. What were you doing?”

  “Nothing important, Daddy, and if I thought you really needed to know about it, I would have told you.”