by C H Gideon
“Because rumors have been spread that you are here to rid us of our Knights problem,” Jaer Pon replied. “They will do anything to protect themselves, and killing off-worlders does nothing to harm their status with the people.”
“I wonder how those rumors started?” Jiya mused, keeping her voice even.
To Reynolds’ surprise, she didn’t push any harder, leaving Reynolds to discuss the matter with the president.
“So, these Knights…” Reynolds let the subject hang for a moment before finishing his thought. “You know where we can find them, I presume?”
“I do indeed,” Jaer Pon answered, the barest flicker of a smile playing at his lips. “We have quite a bit of intel on them, although we are not well-equipped to do more than minimize their attempts at tearing our society apart from within.”
“So you want us to do it for you?” Reynolds asked matter-of-factly. “Kill their leader and shut the Knights down?”
“We would be indebted to you, Reynolds,” Jaer Pon replied.
“No, you will be indebted to the people of Krokus 1,” the AI corrected. “We’ll do this for them, for sufficient supplies, equipment, and credits to get them back on their feet. Are we agreed?”
Although the president looked as if he’d just bitten into a rancid lemon, he nodded.
“Yes, if you slay the leader of the Knights and bring her head to me, then we are agreed,” he said. “I will have Minister To Gul provide you with all the intelligence you need on the Knights, and I look forward to seeing you and your crew succeed.”
The president nodded and spun on his heel, leaving the room with an entourage of guards, Flor and Sergeant Gib following.
The vice president rose to her feet, wanting to come over and speak to Reynolds, but Minister To Gul ushered the crew out before she could make her way past her guards. They left before anyone could intercept them and provide an alternate version of reality.
The minister led them to a small room and left them to speak with a senior guard who had all the details they needed.
As soon as the intel had been passed on, they were sent on their way unceremoniously to get to work.
Out in the hall with just the crew around, Jiya turned to Reynolds. He could see the doubt and disgust in her eyes.
“Are we doing this…again?” she asked, not condemning but clarifying.
“Don’t think of it as being for the president. Think of it as us doing a good deed for the people of the planet.”
“And you believe that?”
“Not really,” Reynolds answered, “but it gives us an opportunity to further explore this planet and interact with its people to see if we can figure out what’s going on.”
“Or what’s not going on,” Geroux clarified.
Reynolds shrugged. “Either works, but there’s more to this situation than they’re letting on, and I am free to modify the arrangement if we can prove the president is lying.”
“You mean like President Weasel using us as his personal military force to clean up all the opposition to his rule?” Jiya asked. “There’s something wrong with that, Reynolds. Are we just going to buy into it?”
“The only thing we’re buying into is the opportunity to see what’s really going on,” the AI returned. “Right now, the Orau are clearly the bad guys here, even if they turn out to not be the only ones. They were subjugating the people of Krokus 1 and making their lives hell, not to mention bombarding the people of Krokus 4. As such, we’re on the side of right…so far.”
“I still feel as if we’re being manipulated,” Jiya complained.
“Me too,” Geroux added.
Ka’nak grunted and San Roche had nothing to say, shrugging when they looked in his direction.
“I’m not saying he isn’t trying to manipulate us, Jiya. To the contrary. I know he is, but there are partial truths that we are now free to explore. We know that the people in this system need our help,” Reynolds told her. “If that means we play bad cop to root out the even worse cops, I’m all for it.”
“I’m not sure what a cop is, but I get the gist of what you mean,” Jiya answered.
“Then you know we’re going into this with our eyes open,” Reynolds went on. “The Orau demonstrated that they deserved their fate, and if these guys are affiliated with them, then they too deserve what’s coming to them.”
After the crew left the compound, Reynolds gestured to the surrounding area.
As before, the war-torn aspects of it stood out plainly.
“Look at this place,” Reynolds told her. “These people need a break from the fight. If Jaer Pon is part of the problem, we’ll find that out. We’re obligated to look into it, at the very least.”
Jiya nodded. “I agree. I just don’t want us being used against the people. This guy is playing us. I just don’t know to what end.”
“Control? Power?” Ka’nak suggested. “These guys are all the same.”
“He’s not wrong,” Geroux agreed.
“Well then, we learn what we can while we track down this information,” Reynolds temporized. “If something comes up that we don’t agree with, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until that time, let’s chase these leads.”
The crew grunted their agreement and Reynolds started off again.
He was just as suspicious as the crew about Jaer Pon’s motives, but as Ka’nak suggested, it could simply be an effort on the president’s part to maintain his rule. The way he shut down the vice president spoke of him wanting to be in charge and remain there.
Maybe that was all it was.
If it wasn’t, Reynolds had no problem changing the deal by removing Jaer Pon from power.
Chapter Twenty
Ready to go after the Knights of Orau, the crew made their way through town, following the directions provided to them by the president’s people.
The intel had led them to a crappy corner of town, where Jiya could picture the bad guys hiding or lurking.
Or…the poor.
She scoffed as she surveyed the area from her position hunkered atop a ramshackle building that swayed with nearly every gust of artificial wind.
Geroux, Ka’nak, and Reynolds were there with her. They’d sent San Roche back to the shuttle since he’d turned out to be a solid backup, what Reynolds called “the cavalry.”
The Telluride seemed content to do whatever was asked of him, and Jiya knew she’d have to break him of that eventually. He would have to let go of the slave mentality he’d brought with him from Grindlevik 3.
It was one thing to serve a crew and be a part of a team, but they didn’t need a yes person. They needed a partner and a team member, someone they could count on to stand firm and hold his ground. She needed to make sure he was thinking as a free crewman and not a slave blindly following orders.
She knew he and L’Eliana would make great additions to the crew. They just needed a little seasoning.
Jiya suspected she’d get a little bit more herself by going after the Knights.
People traipsed about in the streets below now and again, but few had passed the building in which Jaer Pon’s people had indicated the Knights made their headquarters.
Seeing the old, broken-down building brought back her distrust of the president.
Set at the very edge of the energy field that separated the town from the vastness of the ocean, she couldn’t see how the place could contain more than a couple dozen people, let alone enough to challenge all the guards she’d seen the president sporting.
Jiya figured a brick thrown hard enough at the place would collapse it. In fact, the building looked so precarious that Jiya began to wonder if the president wanted them to go inside, figuring it would fall on their heads and remove them without him having to do anything.
“This must be Jaer Pon’s vacation home,” Ka’nak joked, staring at the ramshackle hulk. “I wonder if there’s a pool.”
“Yeah,” Jiya replied. “It’s about twenty paces that way.” She point
ed at the wall of energy that kept the ocean from crashing in and wiping the town away.
“Beachfront property,” Ka’nak muttered. “Nice.”
“Dump a pound of sand at the back door, and that’s exactly what you’d have,” Reynolds told him.
Jiya could tell the AI wasn’t feeling any better about the mission than she was, although he’d done his best to motivate her for it.
Then again, that was his job.
Yet, at the end of the day, she felt used, and she was pretty damn sure that kicking in the door of this place and rousting its occupants wasn’t going to make her feel any better about what they were doing or for whom.
“You sure this is the right address?” Geroux asked. She glanced at the computer on her wrist, examining the screen. “I’m not seeing anything but the barest source of electricity running through the place. If this is some supervillain’s hideout, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
“The Orau weren’t exactly sophisticated, but these guys look like bargain-basement bad guys,” Jiya said.
“This is the location,” Reynolds confirmed. “They’re supposed to be keeping a low profile.”
“Doesn’t get much lower than this,” Ka’nak confirmed, “Except, of course, for the whole part about us being led right to the front door and all.”
Jiya held her tongue and tried to appear sympathetic, but Reynolds gave her a look, telling her that he understood the group’s argument and nothing was going to change.
She smiled and nodded, acquiescing. The captain’s decision was final, and it was her job to see it carried out.
“What do you need us to do?” she asked, continuing when he didn’t answer quickly enough, “Since we didn’t get solid numbers on how many of the Knights are here normally, how do you want to do this?”
“I’m thinking—”
“About time you people got back,” Maddox’s voice cut across the comm, interrupting them. “I figured you’d left the system and forgot me.”
“We would never do that,” Ka’nak assured him, tapping the comm implant in the side of his head while mouthing, “Who’s this?”
“Good to hear from you, General.” Reynolds ignored the Melowi warrior. “Been a little busy since we returned,” he said by way of explanation for them forgetting to contact the one they’d left behind. Jiya’s mouth fell open in shock.
They had forgotten. Every last one of them, even the AI with the impeccable memory.
“Understand,” Maddox came back skeptically. “Been a little busy myself. I’ve got a story to tell, one that starts with, ‘No shit, there I was…’ but I’ll skip to the juicy bits.”
Reynolds stiffened, curiosity obvious in his expression. “What’s going on?”
“Well, I witnessed an attempt on our lives, although that didn’t work out too well for our would-be assassins.”
“So I heard,” Reynolds replied. “Go on.”
“I followed a couple of the survivors from the compound and managed to collect one of them alive. He and I have spent a little while together already, but he’s not very talkative. Of course, that probably has something to do with him still being unconscious and all, but I’ve learned that whoever wants us dead is called Phraim-’Eh. There’s also some master who wasn’t named, so we’re apparently looking at more than one person.”
Reynolds froze. Phraim-’Eh. It was not a name that would randomly appear. That was one of the Kurtherian clans.
“Where are you?” Reynolds asked, excitement in his voice. “I need to see this hostage of yours.”
The general gave his location and Reynolds cut the link, promising to be right there. He hopped to his feet.
“Change of plan,” he started.
Jiya caught him by the arm before he could take off. “You want us to go too?”
Reynolds shook his head.
“No, go forward with the mission,” he told her. “Observe before you act. Find someone to talk to before you breach the building. See what you can learn from the people inside, but do your best not to hurt anyone.”
He said nothing else, running to the location Maddox had given him.
“So, here we are again,” Ka’nak said with a grin. “I say we go knock some heads together.”
Jiya sighed. “You heard him. Gather more info before going in,” she told the warrior. “We’re not going to hurt anyone, not until we’re sure who’s on whose side.”
“If these guys attack us when we go down there we’ll know whose side they’re on,” Ka’nak explained.
“You mean after we randomly kick in their door and raid their home?” Geroux asked.
“Exactly,” Ka’nak agreed. “Now you’re thinking like a warrior.”
Jiya chuckled. “How about we knock on the door and go from there, no kicking it or asses until we figure things out.”
“We might as well bring flowers while we’re at it,” the Melowi complained. “Maybe some cookies.”
“Neither’s a bad idea,” Geroux agreed, grinning. “Starts this off on the right foot, I think. Only enemies would attack someone carrying cookies or flowers.”
Ka’nak groaned. “I should have gone with the AI. At least he’s going to throw down.”
“The day’s still young, Ka’nak,” Jiya told him. “Plenty of time left to bust heads.”
He sighed. “You’re the boss.”
“I am, and I’ll do my best to carry out Reynolds’ orders,” Jiya confirmed, stretching to work out the kinks before she and the crew headed downstairs on their way to the house.
As much as she hoped there’d be a roadmap to a conspiracy posted on the door of the Knights’ building, she knew there wouldn’t be. There would be misinformation, confusion, redirection, running, yelling, and it would probably end in a fight.
Didn’t it always?
With that thought in her head, they continued down the path that she saw had only one conclusion.
Once outside, they surveyed the scene and started across the road when they were sure there was no one to witness their approach.
Geroux had already assessed that there were no cameras nearby and there was nothing that constituted a sophisticated alarm or security system on the building. Technology was nonexistent.
Worst evil lair ever. Or the best. Jiya couldn’t decide which.
Up close, it was precisely what it looked like: a ruin amidst more ruins.
This part of town had been bombed out by the Orau and largely abandoned, which made its choice as the Knights’ hideout even more suspect to her.
There was no hiding out here, no fading into a crowd and losing tails. No, it was block after block of dilapidated buildings with so little foot traffic that the presence of anyone on the streets made them stand out.
Like they did as they crossed into the shadows of the building and eased against the wall.
“I don’t like this,” Geroux mumbled.
Neither did Jiya, but what choice did they have?
She acknowledged her friend’s feelings with a shallow nod and moved to the door. She didn’t even need to check if it was locked.
It swung open with a creak as she neared it, the uneven flooring popping it open with her weight.
“That’s not ominous at all,” Geroux complained.
Jiya motioned for Ka’nak to go first.
He grinned and started in.
“No head-busting,” she reminded. “Not unless it’s necessary.”
“It’s always necessary,” he said as he slipped inside.
Jiya grunted and followed, Geroux at her side. The smell of mildew and salt struck them almost immediately.
Geroux wrinkled her nose at the stench and Jiya breathed through her mouth to keep from inhaling too much.
“Smells like the ocean is reclaiming lost territory,” Ka’nak whispered as they moved deeper into the apparently empty house.
Jiya had to agree. Although her experience with oceans was minimal, she recognized the smell from her chi
ldhood. She had wondered at the time why in the hell people wanted to hang out somewhere that stank of dead fish and dirty water.
That had been the last time her mother had taken her to see the ocean.
She sighed at the memory, pushing it aside as the crew crept farther into the rundown house, the smell leading the way.
“It’s this way,” Ka’nak said, pointing down a flight of rickety stairs.
He started down without a word, stepping wide and planting his feet at the edges of the steps, making sure to put his weight where the supports were the strongest.
Jiya followed his example and pointed to make sure Geroux did, too.
The stairs creaked even with the precautions, but they held despite Jiya’s expectation that they would collapse.
They turned out to be stronger than they looked.
At the bottom, Jiya heard a pair of muffled voices, and Ka’nak raised a closed fist to bring them to a halt. Jiya eased closer to listen as the voices carried on without interruption.
“You’re certain of this?” one asked, that of a female.
“We’ve been given little choice, Val,” a male replied, his voice raspy and deep.
“That doesn’t make it right, Ko,” the female argued.
“Maybe not, but our back’s against the wall,” the male returned. “Jaer Pon has made sure of that.”
Jiya stiffened, hearing the president’s name. She inched forward, desperate to hear something that might exonerate or convict the pair of speakers; something she could use to base her decision on as to whether to act.
“We can’t have these off-worlders tearing apart everything we’ve worked for,” the male went on.
“Who says they will?” the female asked.
“You saw what happened at the compound,” the male fired back. “There’s no way—”
“I think you’ve heard just about enough,” a different voice said, the sound of a weapon being charged emphasizing the cold touch of the barrel on Jiya’s temple.
She froze, her eyes darting sideways. The person who held her at gunpoint wasn’t alone.
Five people stood beside him, each with a pistol pointed at the crew. Locals, she realized immediately.
