Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (56 page)

“A bit more than a year ago, her older brother was killed in this very arena in single combat, conducted solely to provide practice for an expert fighter Sayed was preparing for a match with a fighter of another sheik. These people have endured tremendous abuse from their masters and, for all intent and purposes, their owners. We need to be wary of inflicting additional casual and unintended hurts to people that have already suffered so much.”

“Holy crap Chief. Tell her I’m sorry. I feel like shit.”

“Shandra, you and I spoke by Comtap so she didn’t hear you. I wanted us all to be reminded of why we came here, and to understand the scars this planet of victims may bear, and of who has inflicted the worst of those scars. Before this day is out, the punishments meted out may get difficult for some of us to accept, and I’ll understand if anyone wishes to be excused.

“I want each of us to take turns and engage in some of the Mind Taps of these sheiks as we question them, to remind us of why we came here. It isn’t just because of the four kids killed at Poldark, and not only as the result of a single sheik’s cruelty.”

As he’d been speaking by Comtap, he was walking around the lower level of the arena, crossing the pedestrian bridges over each of the side passages, walking with Akilah, his hand on her arm. Simultaneously sending her mental reassurances that she was safe.

By the time he reached the VIP pavilion, and passed through the normally guarded gate that kept the lower classes separated from the rich and powerful, the nineteen sheiks, their ranks having been increased by the two late arrivals, were furious and sullen. Sayed and Kadar saw only Haveram, but they knew there were unseen others present, wearing the concealing armor they had previously learned was used in the war with the Krall. The various sheiks had never been able to purchase a working set of this improved armor.

Sayed boldly stepped forward. “You did not just meet with some of the Kobani at Poldark; I know that you are one of them yourself. We saw how you moved in the arena. It was not as an ordinary man can move.” It sounded like an accusation, as if he somehow still held the power here.

“I told you we look like any of the other citizens of Human Space. Although, you sheiks have managed to maintain a monopoly on much of the Arabic bloodlines from Earth, via the isolation in which you keep yourselves. I wonder, after your rule ends, if your people will become more open to change and freedom?”

He smirked. “You cannot legally remove us from our lands, and titles. We know the laws of the Hub worlds, and the PU’s legal limitations. Everything will be the same after you leave here. I suspect you were sent by the Poldark Governor, who has had lingering resentment of us. He is a pawn of the Planetary Union witches.”

“Yep, I’m sure you think that. Too bad for you pricks that we Kobani don’t have to follow those rules, or comply with those limitations, and we were not sent by Poldark or the Planetary Union. They don’t have any control over us at all.”

“Haveram, a man like you and a few friends can’t dictate to our entire planet, not if we won’t let you. Our militias and defense forces will guarantee that you will not leave here alive unless you run for your lives now. To encourage you to do that promptly, we each have agreed to pay you a fee that you do not deserve, of a million Hub credits, to get off our planet. I can pay for us all now, and they will pay me back. If any harm comes to any of us, all of you are doomed to ugly fates.”

Haveram just looked at the man, and before he could even flinch, slapped him in the face and grabbed his right hand with his own and asked a question. “You say you have nineteen million Hub credits here in your palace?”

Sayed tried to free his right hand as his cheek reddened, but that proved impossible. “We did not agree to pay that much.”

“But you do have that much here, right? In a vault?”

He glanced at the other sheiks, knowing that they didn’t want to haggle for their safety over such small sums. “I may not have that much in credits, so you would have to accept some in Rials.”

“You have a vault in the palace. How do you open that?” Haveram kept nodding each time he asked questions, even before Sayed answered.

“I have a small vault in my study, where I sometimes conduct business.” He resigned himself to their looting that small safe, of its tens of millions in large sums of electronic currency on chips, and some fine jewels he kept there. It would cost him perhaps fifty million. A fraction of what he had in his main vault. Seeing an eyebrow raised and an amused expression in Haveram’s eyes, he added more to his story.

“Like all of us here, we keep the bulk of our ready cash funds in banks in Khartoum City.”

“Is that right? I’d think you would keep it here, say under your palace, with some secure means to keep an interloper from entering a larger vault and robbing you.”

“No. That would be reckless.”

“A code phrase and retinal scan, with a hand print, would make it just as secure here, and certainly where you could protect it from your less than honest rivals on the planet.”

Sayed frowned, and looked nervous. “No. We have nothing to fear from one another, and the bank vaults are where we keep most of our funds.”

Haveram grinned, and said into the air, “Did you get that Sarge?” He’d been in an open Comtap link with the entire group as he Mind Tapped Sayed.

Flickering into sight, practically bedside Haveram, Sarge spoke via his suit speaker, as a startled Sayed tried to jump back, but was held by the iron grip on his right hand. “Yep, got it clearly, Chief. The big vault is right under the room where he put Billy boy. Oh, excuse me Sheik Shit Head, you met him as Arkedy Christoph, but he’s one of us. If you don’t mind, your eyeballs and palm print will go with me to open that vault. I assume you want to go with them.”

In a panic, Sayed said, “You do not have the secret spoken phrase. Besides, you have too little time before our cutters arrive. You need to take our fair first offer and flee before it is too late.” The other sheiks certainly wouldn’t compensate him for all of the lost contents of even his small safe, but he wanted them gone.

Sarge slapped the Sheik’s shoulder as he took control of the now highly concerned man and said, “Iftah Ya Simsim.”

He guffawed as he saw Sayed blanch. “Is that the cliché spoken phrase in Arabic you meant?
Open Sesame
in Standard? Really? I mean the damned captain of the Delta Dawn called himself Ali Baba, but apparently, all of you self-declared sheiks think you’re living the stories from One Thousand and One Nights. All you lack is the rest of the forty thieves. The smart ones.”

As he started pulling Sayed along, the man called to the head of his security forces. “Kadar, do something.”

“I will if I can my Sheik, but I must survive to do that. There are more hidden Kobani here.”

“Then you are as good as dead anyway,” came the promise from a despot that would certainly keep his word if he got the chance.

  Haveram shook his head. “I promise he won’t be able to deliver on that threat, Kadar. There is a sort of a people’s court coming for him, but you shouldn’t feel relieved. As his chief of security I suspect you have a great deal to answer for to the people around here as well.”

At that moment, Thad, who had been in contact with the four Kobani craft in orbit, shut off his stealth and flicked into sight up on the pavilion. Using his suit speakers, he called over to Haveram about their progress. One purpose of that was to reinforce to the captive sheiks that there indeed were other invisible Kobani present around them. Another was so they were able to hear his report, and understand they had no cutters coming to their rescue.

“Chief, the cutters are all disabled or destroyed. Five of them received warnings of the first ships we hit sitting on their pads, and they were airborne before we hit them with missiles. I think, if they have a shipyard here, the thirteen disabled ships can be repaired. Sayed’s cutter is unharmed, of course, since we boarded that one. None of the cutters of the three sheiks not invited here today show any sign of launching. We’ll stop those too if necessary.”

“And the yachts?” Haveram asked.

“Oh. Sorry, we have control of those too. I figured you would assume that, since they’re all parked here.”

“I should have, I guess. I’ve not been a part of as many combat actions as you guys have. Your people are efficient. I think we could use some more bodies here on the ground, however. After we question these other sheiks, we’ll likely need to take them home in their own yachts to empty each of their vaults, with more of our folks as escorts. We’ll need our people to Mind Tap their pilots and then fly their boats there.”

“Sure. I think we can leave minimal crews in orbit now, with no real threats left. They’ll be knocking out the orbital defense plasma cannons for another half hour or so, but we can use at least a hundred fifty more bodies down here, to split up and take out security forces at the other eighteen palaces. Like you said, they can travel in style on those space yachts.”

There was an impatient, but humbling request received on the common Comtap link. It was Bill Saber. “Hey, Chief, I’ve been patient, I missed all the arena fun, and now I heard you say the Sheik’s vault is right below where he locked me up. Sarge is on his way down with the perverted bastard, so how about my joining you? Before you all go home without my butt.”

“Oh, sorry Bill. Come on up here if you want, or follow Sarge down to the vault.”

“Yea. See, that’s my problem. After hearing that the fit hit the shan at the arena, I knew I didn’t need to play act anymore to keep the Sheik fooled. So I broke free of my wrist shackles and tried to get out. The damn heavy window bars are welded to a steel frame, which surrounds the whole room, floors, walls and ceiling. I broke out the plazsteel window glass, and kicked at the door through its locked bars, but I haven’t managed to get out yet because I can’t bend the damn bars or pull them off the walls.”

Haveram smiled. “Oh, then you’re asking for some help to escape, is that it? I’m sure Sarge, when he’s done examining the vault, or sometime later today will have time to stop by to help you.”

“No! At least I want to go on one of the trips to the other palaces. To carry away some of the loot they have.”

“Loot? We won’t let
them
keep it, but it isn’t
ours
to keep either. We aren’t thieves, although I doubt they’ll agree. Anyway, I was teasing about letting you sit there longer. Sarge will let you out. As you recall, I told you that slavers might have a way to lock up even a Kobani where we couldn’t escape.”

“Right, I remember.” He sounded minimally more humbled.

The process of Mind Tapping the other sheiks took another hour, and more Kobani arrived, having to fight and kill or capture more of Sayed’s off duty security thugs as they traveled from the landing pad, as news spread of the invaders. Palace servants were told to return to the nearby villages, where their families lived. Those housing areas were all built well out of sight of the Palace grounds, to preclude the lord and master from having to see them live in their squalor and dirt.

The messengers were told to announce that the rule of the Sheiks was ending, and that a court of judgement for the sheiks and some of their heirs, was to be held at the arena, with the people to be a party to the judging.

Sarge returned with Sayed, and Bill was red faced and fuming, walking behind them.

Haveram asked, “The vault’s full of treasure, I presume?”

“Hell yes. Organized stacks of gold bullion, trays full of sorted gemstones, currency chips in drawers labeled with amounts from thousands of Hub credits or Rials, to many millions. Art work too, like paintings and sculptures. I’ll bet some of that can be traced back to thefts. Hell, we don’t have the expertise to evaluate that stuff, or investigate theft and money laundering. There are electronic records of centuries of transactions, which the Sheik was kind enough to accidentally
think
of the access code.” Sarge was bewildered and shaking his head.

“The PU, or some established government authority really needs to be involved, since they have the bureaucracy, and art and financial experts to examine what we’re finding. But I don't think they want to be involved with something we Kobani initiated. There needs to be some sort of rebuilding of a government here, once these petty dictatorships are ended. Who can run this place? Corruption is so rampant here that I wouldn’t trust any human on this planet to try to straighten it all out.”

Haveram was finally having what he’d started here settle on his shoulders. He had only wanted to catch the villains that kidnapped and killed children. He decided to talk about something else for the moment. “Bill, you seem kind of strained. You got out of that box, so what’s eating you now?”

“I mind tapped that scum bag as I asked him what he’d intended to do with me. It’s vile and evil beyond what I’m willing even to describe. He’s done it many times in his life, to dozens of much younger boys. None of them are alive to say it for themselves.”

Haveram was taken aback by the vehemence Saber exuded. “He actually admitted and told you about this?”

Saber’s face assumed a look of revulsion, and he made a pushing away gesture towards Sayed. “Of course not, but when asked, he found such pleasure in the acts he’s committed that he couldn’t stop thinking about them. It was worse than a Tap of a Krall’s mind, since at least they weren’t human, and you didn’t expect them to show any human decency or sympathy for those they tortured and killed. A Krall never felt a sexual attraction for their victims as they mutilated and tortured them. The best I can say about this pig of a human being is that he didn’t eat his victims alive.” Saber shuddered, and Haveram let him continue when the emotional content, sensed through Comtap, clearly revealed the young man had more he needed to express.

“He sold many young girls to a number of these other lowlife sheiks, and he occasionally witnessed equally terrible things done to them as they were used and mutilated. I can’t tolerate another Mind Tap with a perverted monster like this one, but their guilt needs to be conveyed to whoever judges them. I have already decided what my judgement would be for this despicable creature, but I don't think it should be administered by me. I’m biased, because I have seen in his mind what his sick fantasy had in store for that Christoph boy, wearing my face.