The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (52 page)

Dodds
rubbed the back of his head and looked on at the carnage in front
of him. What he had just seen was impossible: Estelle had shot the
invader four times, landing all the bullets in the torso. Yet a few
minutes later, the man was back on his feet as if nothing had
happened. He spotted one of the bullets that he believed had been
embedded in the man, now resting on the floor close to the
body.

Had the bullet missed? No, it couldn
’
t have. There had been blood, the
man had fallen. He had heard the cries of pain behind the mask. The
bullet he had picked up had also been sticky with blood and the
man
’
s suit had
been torn where the projectile had entered. Surely he
couldn
’
t have
imagined all of that.
And the
strength!
If it weren’t for the pain in
his lower back - he considered himself lucky he could still walk -
he might not have believed how far he had travelled with the throw,
either. He felt at his aching throat. It was painful to swallow. He
was certain that beneath the lining of the flight suit, there would
be some rather pronounced bruising.

“
That man was dead! Estelle shot him down! How the hell did he
get back up?!”

Whilst
Dodds was silently considering everything that had just happened,
Kelly was voicing her opinions aloud. Enrique made his way over to
reassure her, as she pointed at the still corpse of the solider
Chaz was plundering. She looked a little hysterical, as if her
worst fear of dead bodies had at last been realised.

“
Is he really dead now?” Kelly said.

“
He’s dead,” Enrique said.

“
Are you sure?
”

“
Yes, he is, calm down.”

“
How do you know
he
’
s not
going to get back up again?”

“
I don’t think he’ll be getting up after that.”

“
Yeah, but we thought that after Estelle put four damn bullets
into him…”

“
Are you okay, Enrique,” Dodds asked above Kelly’s ramblings,
as he stumbled forward.

“
Fine. Are you all right?”

He
looked in the direction of the two corpses on the floor by the
locker. “I meant what I said earlier: should bloody well have
stayed in bed.”

“
What was that all about?” Enrique wanted to know.

“
Don’t know. I’ve got about a hundred thousand questions, but
answers that I could count on one hand.” He realised his voice was
shaking. But then, so was everyone else’s. “Did that really just
happen?”

Enrique
nodded, an arm around Kelly, rubbing her back. Dodds left them to
it and made his way over to where the solider had fallen. He caught
a glimpse of what remained of the man’s head before turning away.
He spotted some more red-stained brass-coloured objects on the
floor. Two more bullets; that made three. He had no idea what might
have happened to the fourth. One hundred thousand and
one.

Chaz was
still removing things from the soldier. He had so far collected
what looked like four grenades and a fuel cell for the plasma
pistol. Other items were being tossed aside.

“
Chaz, where
’
s the card? Did you get it?”
Estelle asked through sharp intakes of breath.

Chaz
continued to search, ignoring her question.

“
Chaz?” Estelle asked again louder, rubbing at her
stomach.

“
What
?
” he roared, looking back at her,
anger and impatience clear in his eyes.

“
Do not speak to me that way, Lieutenant!” Estelle said, the
stress causing her own temper to flare. “Did you find the data
card?”

Chaz
tossed the capsule in her direction. She caught it and wiped the
remains of the blood away, revealing the contents. She caught
Dodds’ eye and held it up as if requiring a second opinion. He
nodded; he could see the small blue card within was marked with the
Confederation insignia.

“
Right, we’ve got what we came for,” she stated, and began to
secure it in her flight suit. “I think what it might be worth us
doing is trying to contact…”

“
What we
have
to do is get out of here
now
,” Chaz said,
snatching up the items he had removed from the
soldier
’
s body
and stuffing them into various compartments and pockets of his own
flight suit. “Enrique: how many more did you see?” he asked as he
set about retrieving the shotgun from where it lay under a
gurney.

“
Four, maybe five,” Enrique said.

Chaz swore, then looked around the morgue, his face becoming
quite grim. “Doesn
’
t look like there is any way out of here except for the way
we came in.” He glanced at the shotgun in his hand and then turned
back to the group, his eyes flickering over each of them. He then
turned back to Enrique. “Do you know how to use one of
these?”

“
Sure,” Enrique said. “I’ve done my fair share on the firing
range.”

Chaz
tossed the shotgun to him.

“
Magazine holds seven rounds, but it has a
low effective range, so anything over about twenty-five meters is
hardly going to be worth shooting at; especially if you
don
’
t have
a steady aim. Don
’
t waste it on pot-shots, it won
’
t do us any good. Only use it when
I tell you.”

The tone
in his voice let Dodds know this was far more than just a mere
suggestion. Enrique nodded as he began to familiarize himself with
the handling of the weapon, turning it over and bouncing it in his
hands to feel the weight. Dodds looked at Chaz in confusion. It
seemed that the big man knew a lot more than he was willing to let
on, but quite why, he didn’t know. His usual silent and steady
demeanour had abandoned him, and Dodds wondered if they were now
seeing his true colours.

Dodds
pointed at the body. “Chaz, that guy…”

“
Do you really want to stand around and talk about this now?”
Chaz said.

Dodds
didn’t.

“
Right, everyone ready?” Chaz asked, as he started off to
retrieve his equipment. “We’re not exactly going to have an easy
time getting out of here in one piece.”

“
Lieutenant, what the hell!” Estelle
snapped, a furious expression on her face.
“Don
’
t
make me remind you who is in charge of this mission, Mr Koonan! I
am a
first
lieutenant, you are a
second
lieutenant; I am the wing commander of the
White Knights
and I
won
’
t have you
giving orders to my team whilst…”

Dodds
reached out and took a grip of her shoulder, prompting her to stop
talking.

“
Estelle, I really feel that right now we should be listening
to Chaz,” he said.

Estelle
glared back at Dodds before her eyes strayed to the body of the
dead soldier on the floor. She stood in silence for a time, looking
from Dodds, to Chaz, to the body. She then shrugged Dodds’ hand
from her shoulder.

“
Fine, we
’
ll follow your lead, Chaz,” she
said with reluctance. “For now. But once we get out of here, you
will have a lot of explaining to do.”

Chaz acknowledged her with a mere nod of his head before
the
Knights
retrieved their gear and made their way from the mortuary. On
the way out Chaz paused, and then turned around and walked back to
Barber’s gurney. He picked the linen sheet off the floor and spread
it back over her body, bending down to give her a kiss on the
forehead before covering her completely.

Dodds
studied him as he did all of this, but Chaz gave no explanation for
his actions; and neither did Dodds seek to ask.

XXIII

—
The Fate of an Empire —

T
he infirmary lay still and quiet,
and as Dodds continued his slow, crouched walk towards the main
door, he was confident that they were alone. At
Chaz
’
s request,
he and Enrique had sneaked forward, leading the group towards the
medical unit exit. Chaz had covered their backs, keeping Estelle
and Kelly with him. Dodds and Enrique moved to either side of the
door, signalling the all-clear to Chaz, who hurried forward with
the two women.

Dodds
noticed that the light on the control panel on this side of the
door was blinking on and off and guessed that the lock he had
engaged earlier was no longer in effect. Judging by what had just
happened in the morgue, it would not have stood up to anything more
than a shoulder barge from their attacker.

That
whole sequence was still quite vivid in his mind: had it really
happened? Were they all really here, crawling out of a morgue where
they had just cut open a dead woman and fought a man who had
somehow come back to life?

“
See anything?” Chaz asked Dodds and Enrique in a low
tone.

Dodds
rose and took a cautious peek out the circular infirmary door
windows. The central hall appeared a great deal darker than when
they had first arrived.

“
Nothing,” he said, choosing not to linger by the window any
longer than was necessary. “But it looks like a number of lights
have blown.”

“
No, the soldiers have shot them out,” Chaz
said with a shake of his head. “They do that so that it makes it
harder for their enemies to see where
they
’
re
going.”

Dodds
nodded, quite willing to accept just about anything the big man
told them. Questions could wait until later.

“
Take a step outside, carefully. Keep low
and don
’
t
make any noise.”

“
OK,”Dodds nodded. He pushed at the door, but found it almost
impossible to move, as if there was a lot of weight in front of it.
Enrique came to his aid and between them they managed to open the
door just wide enough for Dodds to squeeze through, the bulky
propulsion pack on his back making it more awkward than
normal.

As he
stepped out into the darkened main hall, his boot slid on
something. He looked down and saw he was standing in a pool of
blood. The mass that had been holding back the door was a rather
large woman, who had died as a result of multiple plasma wounds to
the torso. Her dead eyes gazed straight ahead into the rest of the
main hall. The hall was not as dark as Dodds had first thought and
as he followed her gaze he became aware of the fate of the
refugees. What he had first believed to be the random scatterings
of abandoned coats and luggage, were in fact dead bodies. Dozens of
them. Men, women and children lay all about the floor. If it were
not for the terrible wounds and the blood, Dodds might have thought
that they had all fallen victim to some mysterious plague. As the
hideous smell of burnt flesh started to fill his nostrils, Dodds
pulled himself back through the door.

“
What did you see?” Enrique asked in a low voice.

“
They
’
re all dead,” Dodds
said.

“
Who?”

“
The refugees.
They
’
ve
all been killed.”

“
Did you see any soldiers?” Chaz cut in.

“
No,” Dodds said.

Chaz
forced himself out the narrow gap to take a look for himself,
before returning back to the corridor and confirming that the hall
was clear of danger; though there was much evidence of the
slaughter that had taken place. At this point, Chaz concluded that
they would simply have to make a run for it.

He slipped through the door and then beckoned for the others
to follow, telling them to stay low and stay quiet. In a line,
headed up by Chaz, they walked as fast as they could in their
crouched positions, keeping the wall of desolate coffee shops and
other stores to their backs. The air was heavy with the stench of
burnt materials and flesh, and all five of the
Knights
did their best not to gag
and cough with every breath they took.

They
looked all about themselves as they moved, keeping an eye out for
any sudden appearance of the soldiers Enrique had mentioned. Glass
and plastics crunched loudly under their feet, as though wishing to
expose their position on purpose. They did not have all that far to
go to return to the airlock, but out in the open they would have
little hope of surprising their enemy, as they had done in the
morgue. And this time, they would be facing off against more than
one of them.

Halfway
to the airlock, the sound of running feet came from close
by.

“
Down! Get down!” Chaz hissed, waving a
hand to the floor. “Keep still and don
’
t move!” The group dropped to the
floor, lying on their stomachs among the dead, the propulsion packs
on their backs making it difficult to assume any other
position.