War To The Knife (10 page)

As he ran towards the shuttle he heard the first cannon shot from the armored car. It was a curiously muffled blast, proving that Hansen had fired deep into the entrance tunnel rather than at the rock surrounding it. Six more shots followed, carefully spaced, showing that the Corporal was aiming each one and not firing blindly. A series of thunderous roars sounded from the entrance, and a choking cloud of rock dust erupted from it and rose into the air.

He skidded to a halt beside Tamsin where she waited at the shuttle’s rear ramp. “What’s up?”

“It’s Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley. He’s inside. He keeps asking me to kill him.”

He climbed the rear ramp, stepping over the body of a black-clad figure that sprawled halfway down it. Three more of them lay motionless on the floor of the shuttle, leaking blood and other body fluids. “Did you get them all without trouble?” he asked her.

“Sure. They left the rear ramp down, so we had clear shots at them all without even going inside. Only one managed to get to his feet, and as you can see he didn’t get far.”

Dave sank to one knee next to the stretcher to which Yardley was strapped. The man’s head had been shaved bald, presumably to accommodate the head cover the Bactrian Colonel had mentioned. His voice was hoarse, stumbling, his eyes wide and protruding, sweat beading his pale, lined, agonized face. “For God’s sake kill me before they come back!” he whispered. “Don’t let them take me again!”

“They won’t, Sir. I’m Captain Carson, Charlie Company, Niven’s Regiment. We didn’t expect to find you here, but now that we’ve got you back we’re not letting you go again. We’ve killed your torturers and that SS Colonel, as well as most every other Bactrian around here. You’re safe now, Sir.”

Tears sprang into the man’s eyes. “Then – then please kill me anyway! I betrayed you all, dammit!”

Dave touched his shoulder gently. “You did better than anyone had a right to expect of you, Sir. Hell, even the Bactrians admitted you’d held out much longer than they expected! None of us have anything but admiration for you. What’s more, we heard them talking about what they learned from you. We’ve already warned General Allred, and as we speak he’s arranging the evacuation of our bases. We’ll be long gone by the time the enemy arrives.”

“Oh, thank
God!”
The tears redoubled, and Yardley turned his head away as if ashamed of them. “I’m sorry, Captain… I – ”

“No need to apologize, Sir. Can you stand?” As he spoke Dave was undoing the straps holding Yardley to his stretcher and helping him to sit up.

“I – I’m not sure. They’ve been keeping me doped since we left Banka to prevent me getting combative, because I kicked one of the interrogators in the balls as they marched me to the shuttle.” Despite his weakness, he couldn’t hold back a faint grin.

Tamsin burst into unladylike laughter as she knelt beside Dave. “Good one, Sir! I hope you hurt the bastard. I’m Sergeant Tamsin Gray. I’ll help you stand, and if you need anything at all I’ll get it for you.”

“Did you search the dead Bactrians?” Dave asked her. “I want anything those interrogators had on them, and also their personal kit.” He looked back at the Colonel. “Sir, you said they drugged you. Did they bring any of those drugs with them?”

“Yes, both the torture drug and the sedative. They’re in that black briefcase.” He nodded to where it lay on a folded-down seat against the side of the shuttle.

Dave retrieved it and looked inside. It contained booklets that looked like instruction manuals, several vials of clear liquid, a dozen unused hypodermic syringes with needles, and a cloth cap that was clearly intended to fit over the entire skull. It had straps to tighten it around the head, and was lined with rows of electrodes. Two long leads ran from it, fitted with intricate, complex connectors.

He closed the case and handed it to Tamsin. “Guard this carefully. We’ve got that SS Colonel on record describing how they use these drugs. Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley can tell us how they affected him, and we’ve got samples of the drugs themselves and the neurocranial network. General Allred is sure to want to add everything to the evidence of Bactrian atrocities he’s been collecting.” He turned back to Yardley. “I’ll leave you in Sergeant Gray’s capable hands, Sir. I’ve got to sort out the enemy camp and decide what to do next.”

He ran back towards the camp, cursing under his breath at what the SS interrogators had done to an already badly wounded man. Their ruthlessness was notorious, even towards their own Army when it came to alleged breaches of security.

“Look at this, Sir!” Sergeant Kane greeted him enthusiastically, dropping something into his palm. Dave peered closely at it. It was a flitterbug, three small pipes – barrels for the microdarts it fired – emerging below a vid lens in its ‘head’, its gossamer-thin synthetic wings folded against its plastic body.

“It’s bigger than those I’ve seen before,” he observed. “They had only two barrels.”

“Yes, Sir. I think this is one of their new assault bugs, the ones that overwhelmed us. There are four cases of them in that transporter, crawling nanobugs as well as flitterbugs, along with consoles to program them. There’s also a case of these, Sir.” He held out a small box with a belt clip and red and green diodes on its top surface. “From what’s written on the inside of the lid, I think they’re some sort of identification module. If you’re wearing one, those bugs will recognize you as a friend and not attack you.”

“Well done, Sergeant! These are just what Mac and his tech specialists need. They can analyze them back at base and come up with countermeasures.”

“But will they have base facilities any more, Sir? I mean, won’t they be evacuating along with everyone else?”

“I’m sure they will, but Mac will come up with something. He always does. What else have you found?”

“The communications truck has listings of all their current channels, plus callsigns, authentications and crypto key settings for this month, Sir. Also, that SS Colonel you shot had a lot of files in his suitcase plus a couple of high-level military passes in his wallet.”

“More fodder for Mac and his boys. We’ll take everything like that back with us.”

Kane frowned dubiously. “If you want it all, Sir, we’re going to be hellish overloaded in those airvans.”

“We’ve got ourselves an assault shuttle now. Tamsin can fly it; she’s piloted a captured shuttle before. We’ll leave our airvans somewhere the Bactrians are unlikely to find them – we can always come back for them with a couple more pilots – and go back in the shuttle. It has much greater cargo and passenger capacity than an airvan, and it’s a hell of a lot faster, too. We’ll take only a few hours to get home again.”

The Sergeant grinned enthusiastically. “That works for me, Sir. I’ll start everyone gathering booty to load up.”

“Good. Rip out anything interesting from the comm truck while you’re at it, particularly crypto gear. Search all the bodies and their kit, and confiscate weapons, ammunition, currency and so on – all the usual stuff. Lay out the bodies in rows next to the fire, including those from the shuttle and the sentry Corporal Hansen and I dealt with first. He’ll take you to her body. I’m going to call base and request further instructions.”

He set up the satellite antenna himself this time, since Tamsin was busy with Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley. He lined it up carefully, listened for the warbling tone of the carrier beam, and attached his comm unit.

“BOLUS to TANTO, over.”

A brief pause, then, “TANTO to BOLUS, authenticate Echo Lima Alpha, over.”

He entered the characters and read off the reply. “BOLUS to TANTO, authenticating Mike Quebec Kilo, over.”

“TANTO to BOLUS, authenticated, go ahead, over.”

“BOLUS to TANTO. I need to speak with Romeo Six actual, please. Over.”

“TANTO to BOLUS, can you wait five to ten? Over.”

“BOLUS to TANTO, understand five to ten. Standing by.”

He waited impatiently, fuming at the delay while the operators summoned Brigadier-General Allred to the communications center. At last he heard the familiar voice. “TANTO to BOLUS, this is Romeo Six actual, over.”

“BOLUS to TANTO, thank you, Sir.” He explained as briefly as possible what they’d done. “Request permission to return in the captured shuttle, Sir. We can move it to a safer place and camouflage it during daylight hours, then fly all the way back tonight. Our airvans can be left in a secure position under camouflage for later collection. Over.”

“TANTO to BOLUS, well done! Very well done indeed! Yes, come back in the shuttle, but send one aircar back as well – we need all the transport we can get for evacuations. Conceal the other for collection later. Don’t come back to base. We’re already in the process of evacuating. Are you recording? Over.”

“BOLUS to TANTO, yes, Sir, I’m recording. Over.”

“TANTO to BOLUS. Here are a set of co-ordinates, all BASE plus seven. Proceed to that destination and announce yourselves on our usual approach channel as you get close.” The General read off a set of figures, then repeated them. “You’ll find others already there, and I’ll have a medical team standing by for Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley. Over.”

“BOLUS to TANTO, understood, over.”

“TANTO to BOLUS, very well. Please convey my personal thanks and congratulations to your team. Romeo Six actual out.”

As he folded up the satellite dish, Dave suddenly grinned. He’d just thought of another destructive task for Corporal Hansen and his new toy – and, for that matter, for Tamsin and the assault shuttle as well. When they’d finished, Tamsin could blast the armored car into scrap metal using the shuttle’s plasma cannon. One way or another the Bactrians weren’t going to get anything back from this patrol. It would be a small down payment on what they owed for their destruction of the base inside the mountain and the deaths of so many of its defenders.

March 5th 2850 GSC

LAGUNA PENINSULA

As the assault shuttle settled onto its undercarriage, Tamsin cut the reaction thrusters. Their flickering exhaust died away along with their stuttering roar, allowing the pre-dawn darkness to overwhelm the clearing once more. She retracted them into their housings and switched to the electric motors driving each wheel, following signals from the ground control utility vehicle as it led her out of the graveled clearing down a short road cut through the trees. It led to a roughly square opening in the cliff face ahead of them. Once inside the guide vehicle switched on its headlamps, showing a tunnel leading around a curve. The huge shuttle was a tight fit within its confines, but whoever had cut it had made allowances for such large vehicles and left just enough space for it to pass. The tunnel straightened and led through a double blackout curtain, drawn aside for their passage, into a huge natural cavern, its uneven walls rising out of sight above the glare of lights lining them. Several other vehicles were already inside. Soldiers were unloading boxes, crates and personal kit from them and stacking it along one wall.

Tamsin followed the signals of a man who jumped out of the ground control vehicle and directed her to park close against the opposite wall. As soon as he crossed his lighted wands, she cut the power and lowered the rear ramp. “We’re here, people,” she announced, turning to look back at the others sitting in pull-down seats along the bulkheads. Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley lay on his stretcher, head propped up by pillows, while next to him a huge pile of captured equipment secured beneath cargo nets filled the central load area.

Dave released his harness and stood up, looking at Yardley. “Let’s get you out first, Sir, then we’ll start unloading all this stuff.”

As they carried his stretcher down the ramp, four medics hurried to meet them. “Are you Lieutenant-Colonel Yardley, Sir?” the leader asked, looking down at the recumbent man.

“Yes, I am.”

His face broke into a broad smile. “Welcome back from the dead, Sir! We thought you’d been killed in the early stages of the Bactrian assault on your base.”

“I wish I had been,” Yardley said fervently. “It would have saved everyone a whole lot of trouble, and me a whole lot of pain!”

“Now, now, Sir, none of that. Thanks to you holding out long enough to make sure Captain Carson overheard the enemy’s plans, we’ve all been warned in time to get away before they assault our other bases. They’ll find only empty caves and tunnels waiting for them.”

“That’s good to hear.” Yardley looked at Dave. “Thanks again for bringing me to safety, Captain.”

“All part of the service, Sir.”

Dave saluted smartly as they carried him away, then grinned as he saw his father approaching. He hugged him, and they exchanged affectionate backslaps.

“You did real well, Dave. That was one hell of an operation!”

“Thanks, Dad. I couldn’t have done it without everyone bringing their part.” He gestured to the team behind him.

Jake grinned at them all. “I know that. Thank you, everyone, and well done.”

Dave lowered his voice. “I need to talk to you privately. It’s very urgent.” He raised his voice as he turned to the others. “Please unload everything and stack it over there behind the shuttle – we’ll figure out later where it’ll be stored. I’ve got to brief Lieutenant-Colonel Carson about something, then I’ll come back and help you.”

He ran back up the ramp and emerged with a black suitcase. Jake led him in front of the shuttle where they wouldn’t be overheard.

“What is it?”

“This suitcase belonged to that Security Service Colonel I killed. He had a lot of files in it. One of them refers to a big parade that’s to be held in Banka on the last day of the month.”

“Yes, we’ve already heard a little about it from Sergeant-Major Garnati in Caristo.”

“Did he tell you who’s coming and why it’s being held?”

Jake frowned. “No, all he knew was that it was planned.”

“Brace yourself. The Satrap’s coming in person, and bringing the Crown Prince with him. He’s going to officially terminate the Military Governorship of Laredo and install his son as the first civilian Governor.”

Jake’s jaw dropped as he stared at his son. “You’re kidding me!”