by Ward Wagher
“Some of them are better,” Dancey said. “Smith & Jones are too quirky.”
Franklin worked on his desktop some more. “Okay. I have the tactical map. Not a lot to work with here.”
“Right. Now you can see the kind of situation the Major is in.”
He looked over at Dancey. “Do you think he should pull out?”
“Margrave, I’m not qualified to make that decision.”
“But what about my parents?” Signe said.
Franklin nodded to the negative. “I cannot risk an entire team for two people. We may have a whole world of hurt coming down on top of us. I cannot throw away our assets needlessly. Sarge, tell your tactical to let Major Boodles know that if he feels it necessary to pull out, I will concur. Unless he is seeing something we’re not here, the tactical situation is atrocious.”
Dancey spoke into the comm, and then stood listening.
“Are we locked and loaded up top, Daff?” Franklin said.
“Yes, Franklin. We have a couple of hand-held SAMs set up, so we might get lucky.”
“I wouldn’t bet money on it at this point, but I still think it’s a good idea.”
“We have a battery manned up at the camp,” Dancey said, “plus the close-in defenses.”
It got quiet as they watched the situation.
Dancey spoke, “Margrave, Major Boodles said he will continue. He had his people blow the shuttle. He’s hoping the pirates will think everyone died on board.”
“The Major is a sneaky one,” Franklin said. “If he can achieve some kind of local surprise, he might get their knickers twisted.”
“Wait one,” Dancey said. “Okay, the grounded pirate shuttle has taken off.”
“Daphne,” Franklin said, “get topside. Gerry!” he yelled.
Blakely stuck his head in.
“Take Signe downstairs.”
“But I want to help.” Signe said.
“You know better than that. Go with the Seneschal. He’ll tell you what to do.”
“Tracking confirms they are headed this way,” Dancey said. “We’re going to salvo our birds after they get over the ridge and it’s too late to cross back over.”
“I hope they have a quick trigger. If the pirates fire as soon as they get over the mountains, we’ll have to react really fast.”
“Okay, one of the shuttles is heading for orbit. We’re tracking something cruiser sized up there. The other is still headed this way.”
“Suppressive fire, then,” Franklin said. “God, I hope they don’t have nukes.”
“It hardly matters,” Dancey said.
He picked up his comm. “Daphne, assuming we survive that long, I want to send up a curtain of lead when that shuttle comes overhead.”
He looked up at Dancey. “Sarge, let’s get topside. This isn’t helping us much now.”
“Right, Margrave.” She pulled her pistol and followed Franklin out of the room.
They were met in the courtyard by Carlysle Beddings, the butler. He was carrying a sniper’s rifle.
“I hope we don’t get to the point where we need that,” Franklin said.
Beddings smiled. “If they get within my sights, they’ll have an instant to regret it.”
Franklin bounded up to the allure and walked over to where he could see clearly the snow on the mountains to the west.
“They’ve cleared the mountains,” Dancey said, listening on her comm.
The sky over the mountains lit up.
“Okay they’ve launched two birds,” Dancey relayed.
There was a flash above the camp as a surface to air missile launched. It was followed in quick succession by three more.
"Was that everything you had?" Franklin said.
"Use’em or lose’em," Dancey said.
Things begin happening quickly. The sound of the SAMS taking off reached the village, and the castle seem to shake with the roar. There were individual flashes above the camp as the close in anti-air weapons fired. A solid stream of fire stormed across the sky followed by a large flash.
"They got one," Dancey said.
"Where's the other one?" Franklin yelled.
"Look alive everybody!" Dancey bellowed. "Here it comes. Open fire!"
The guards began firing their weapons as the other missile flew towards the castle. One of the shoulder launched SAMs shot away from the wall, then the other. Dancey pulled out her pistol and began firing, as did Franklin. There was another bright flash over the mountains.
"We got the shuttle!" she yelled.
The streak of fire arrowed in to the base of the castle and the world went white.
# # #
Franklin Nyman pulled himself to his feet with a groan. He looked up to see Daphne sitting with her back to the outer wall. Alex was holding a rag to her forehead.
"Are you all right?" Franklin called. He could not hear himself speak. Apparently the others could not hear him either since they did not respond.
Franklin pushed himself up with his hands and slumped against the wall. He looked in the other direction. A section of wall was completely missing. There was an open space of about fifty feet before the wall continued again. He pulled himself to his feet and walked over to Alex and Daphne. Alex looked up at him and shrugged.
Franklin walked over to the corner where a set of stairs walked up the tower from below. He looked inside the doorway and saw that the entire stairwell had collapsed. He walked along the castle wall to the far corner where another stairwell was intact. He walked down to the courtyard.
Several bodies lay in the courtyard, where they had blown off of the allure. Franklin shook his head and walked over to the first. He reached down and touched the neck, checking for a pulse. He rolled the body over to see who it was. Carlyle Beddings' face looked peaceful in its repose, but he was very dead.
Franklin sighed and walked over to the next casualty. The Baltic regimental uniform was the only one in the castle at that time. Staring back at Franklin were the sightless eyes of Sergeant Sarah Dancey. Further on, he found the body of one of the guards crushed under stones from the wall. Alex Nesmith walked up to him.
"Daphne okay?" Franklin asked.
Nesmith held a hand to his ear. "What?"
"Is Daphne okay?" He yelled louder.
Comprehension dawned and Nesmith nodded. "I think she'll be fine," he yelled back.
"We need to get ourselves back together here," Franklin said. "If they land in the village, we're dead meat."
Both looked up as a couple of figures appeared in the opening of the wall. Harmon Eckert clambered through the rubble carrying a rifle and was followed by one of the villagers. He walked up to Franklin.
"I have a group of men lying below the river embankment in case we have visitors. You've got a mess up here, Margrave."
Franklin put a hand to his ear. “What?”
“I said you’ve got a mess up here, Margrave!” he yelled.
"Tell me about it. After we have figured out what those idiots in orbit are going to do, then we'll have to think about the castle. We have several dead here. How are things in the village?"
Eckert shrugged. "We have a lot of very frightened people, but no injuries."
"This will do wonders for the tourist trade."
chapter nine
By the next morning all the bodies had been recovered from the rubble. Franklin held a meeting in his office at the Keep.
“How are things in Cambridge, Martin?” Franklin said.
Boodles sat, leaning forward, on the sofa. “The Cambridge police have things under control. There is a lot of cleaning up to do.”
“What was the extent of the damage?”
“The Duke’s Guard was pretty much wiped out. I think there were maybe two survivors out of the twenty-five. The castle was burned, as were several of the buildings in the square. They blew the vaults at UBS and Feistner’s Bank. And, of course, they kidnapped the Prime Minister and his wife.”
“I’m amazed the Duk
e’s Guard didn’t break and run, considering what Guilietto put them through.”
Boodles shook his head. “They were not well trained by the old Duke, but they had become very loyal to the Prime Minister. They managed to whittle the pirates down quite a bit. Probably why they left so soon. Normally, a group like this settles in for a couple of days and picks the place clean.”
“How many of the pirates did they get?” Daphne asked.
“We estimated the pirate shuttle came in with about one-hundred. We counted twenty bodies. I don’t know how many they recovered. But it must have been a rude shock to them. In addition they lost the second shuttle.”
“How did your people fare, Major?” Alex Nesmith asked.
“No casualties on the team I took in,” Boodles said. “We, in fact, saw no action. We were just getting into place when they pulled out. No, our losses were all here.”
“I’m sorry about Sergeant Dancey,” Daphne said. “We all really liked her.”
Boodles shook his head. “Hers was our only death. Sarah worked for me for over twenty years. She was supremely competent, and also a marvelous human being.”
“I don’t know how you can deal with it,” Daphne said. “Losing people you have worked closely with for so long.”
“Some mercenary companies get philosophical about it. The officers cultivate a sense of detachment. The Colonel and I have never been able to do that. These are our people and we grieve for each loss. But, in this business you lose a few.”
“Well, we lost Beddings,” Franklin said. “He was always so quiet you almost never knew he was there. But, he was still very good at what he did.”
“I'm sorry for your loss too, Franklin,” Boodles said.
“Riggs has suggested a single funeral in Montora. I don't know what they'll do in Cambridge.”
“That sounds fine to me, Franklin.”
“Any problems up at the base?” Franklin asked.
“We had some minor injuries up at the base from shrapnel. The missile was close when they picked it off. No, the heaviest damage was here at the castle.”
“We were lucky the missile detonated before impact,” Franklin said. “If it had gone into the foundation first, it might have taken out the whole complex.”
“There are a lot of lessons we will need to take from this,” Boodles said. “I don’t want to lose people unnecessarily in the future.”
“This drives home the importance of getting a Ducal military in place,” Franklin said. “I don’t think this group of pirates will be back again. I would be very surprised if they even pulled out enough loot to cover the cost of the shuttle they lost.”
“We slapped them pretty hard,” Boodles said, “or rather, the Duke’s Guard did.”
Franklin pondered. “In fact I am surprised they came in the first place. I would think there was enough Navy traffic in the area to deter them. I hope they spread the word around. Any ideas on who they might have been?”
“We got signatures on the shuttles and their cruiser. The fact it was a cruiser worries me. That's a big ship for a pirate. I wonder if he might have been a privateer or a commerce raider. I can't imagine a freelance pirate picking up that kind of hardware.”
“But who would fund something like that?” Daphne asked.
“A good question, Ms. Locke,” Boodles said. “The logical answer would be the Centaurans, but this is a bit far afield even for them. There are plenty of troubled waters where they can fish closer to where they live.”
“I wonder if they had inside knowledge about Hepplewhite.” Daphne said.
“The inside knowledge angle is interesting,” Franklin said. “I wonder how we would investigate it. Hai Ciera is the only person I know who has abilities in that area, and he’s not here. ”
“I can ask around,” Daphne said.
“No, Daff,” Franklin said. “I need you on the clean up.”
“If I could find out who was feeding information, we might be able to track the pirates down.”
“It’s probably a faint hope we’d run across them again, though,” Boodles said. “And if there was true insider knowledge, they would've known a raid here would not be worth the take.”
“What are we going to do about the Prime Minister?” Blakely said.
Franklin looked around the room. “Suggestions anyone? We haven’t received a ransom demand.”
“Where is Signe, by the way?” Daphne asked.
“She demanded a ride back to Cambridge,” Franklin said. “I sent her with a couple of Martin's people in the aircar. And she wants us to go after them too, naturally.”
“I think we should,” Daphne said.
“With what?” Franklin said. “And where?”
“We’ve got that destroyer coming in.”
“It’ll take us six months to get the thing in shape for operations,” Franklin said. “If we’re lucky.”
”Surely not.”
“Plus I wouldn't want to take a destroyer into action against a cruiser.”
“Figure at least six months,” Boodles said. “We can't really expect the navy to turn over a brand new ship. You’ll have to refurbish the thing, arm it and then figure out how to crew it. And that’s not even talking about training time.”
“Does the Baltic Regiment have any warships, Major?” Nesmith asked.
Boodles laughed. “No, Alex, and I don’t mean to laugh at you. Other than our transport, we couldn’t afford to support any starships. I don’t know if you’ve heard the definition of a starship?”
Nesmith shook his head.
“It’s a hole in space you pour money into.”
Everyone chuckled.
“What’s the difference between a starship and a black hole?” Franklin asked.
Everyone looked expectantly at him.
“The crewing requirements of a black hole are lower.”
Nobody laughed. Daphne rolled her eyes.
“It was the best I could come up with on short notice, okay?” Franklin said.
“So what are we going to do about the Foxworths?” Daphne said.
“I don’t know,” Franklin said. “I need to talk to the Earl and get his thoughts. We also need to get a dispatch out to Carlo Roma. I am very concerned about the Prime Minister, but our first tasks are to get things back in order here. Martin has to replace an assault shuttle and I’m pretty sure whose desk the bill for that will land on.”
Boodles grinned. “I’m glad we won’t be having that particular argument.”
“I’ve heard the stories from my dad. In fact I’m going to have to draft a dispatch for him. I don’t know how much an assault shuttle costs, but I’ll bet I don’t have the cash for it.”
“We ought to bill the Navy for it,” Daphne said. “The Regiment was using it to defend the whole planet. I mean, they’re supposed to be covering the high orbitals for us.”
Franklin looked at Boodles. “Do you think we could swing that with Krause?”
“If we don’t ask, we won’t know.”
“Okay,” Franklin said, “let’s do this. Martin, if you would, please draft the invoice to the Navy for the shuttle. You and I can go to the mat with the Admiral over it. If push comes to shove, I’ll figure out a way to pay for it. But let’s do our best to squeeze that one out of Krause.”
“He won’t like it,” Boodles said.
“No skin off my nose,” Daphne said. “Like everybody else is saying, if we don’t stand up for ourselves here on Hepplewhite, there’s no one else to do it for us. It’s clear the Navy is not going to be any help.”
“Okay,” Franklin said, “Let’s talk about the rebuilding effort.”
One of the guards looked in the door.
“Yes?” Franklin said.
“Margrave, a comm message. The destroyer MML Canopus has arrived in orbit.
# # #
The follow-up meeting was at the Cambridge Arms Hotel in Cambridge. Franklin attended, along with Boodles. The Earl Paravel brought his
seneschal. The ducal government was in tatters after the pirate raid, and was represented by Fenton Aldersgate, the Mayor of Cambridge. Louie sat in the meeting and represented… the Woogie contingent, which was made up of Louie.
“It’s clear we cannot continue this way,” Joe Wilson, the Earl Paravel, said. “I’m the fortunate one in not having suffered loss, but they could just as easily have sacked Castle Paravel. Not that it matters. One way or the other, we’re in trouble.”
“Without question,” Aldersgate said. “What have we got to attract tourists? A burned castle in Cambridge and a pile of rubble in Montora.”
“Not tourist, no money,” Louie said. “No money and cannot protect tourists. A viscous circle.”
“Vicious,” Franklin corrected.
“That too,” the Woogie agreed. “It is a circular reason.”
“Er… right,” Aldersgate said. Wilson had his elbow on the table and hid his mouth behind his hand. His eyes were laughing.
“So do we take some kind of action, or just sit here having a pity party?” Franklin said.
“No parties,” Louie said. “The Woogie done with parties.”
“How about a Strawberry Sling?” Franklin couldn’t resist.
“No more Strawberry Sling,” Louie said. “Put the Woogie off course.”
Wilson gave Franklin a an amused look. Aldersgate looked as though he was trying not to laugh.
“Don’t worry, Louie. I’ll keep you away from things you should not drink.”
“Much thanks. Now about the circular reasons. How do we resolve?”
“Our destroyer arrived this morning,” Franklin said. “That’s a start. I’m expecting the skipper down here anytime to make delivery.”
“And the Prime Minister is not here to accept it.” Wilson said.
Franklin look over at Aldersgate. “Did Foxworth officially make you his deputy, or did you just draw short straw this morning?”
The mayor looked uncomfortable. “Other than being the senior governing office in Cambridge right now, my presence is pretty unofficial. I suppose Signe Foxworth could represent the Duke, by default.”
Franklin stretched his neck to work out a kink. “That would be plausible, but I don't know if she would have credibility with the duke or with the people. I'm surprised she's not here, though.”