by Isaac Stone
Once again, he regretted leaving the sword behind, but it was a case of the right tool for the job. This time he decided to leave his rifle where it stood, since it would slow him down. He almost picked up another throwing knife, but decided on the short sword instead. It wasn’t quite as long as his battle sword, but wouldn’t slow him down in tight spots. He checked to make sure his pistol had enough ammunition and placed several loaded clips in the utility belt packs. The pistol slipped into its holster and the short sword went into its sleeve.
It was time to go eliminate the marines. They’d caused him enough trouble.
He slipped out the window of the room where he stayed and climbed down to the ground level. It was nighttime and he liked to work in these hours the best. The world was still and it made his targets easier to locate. He knew where the marines where, in the library with the woman he needed to capture. There might be some trouble with her, but nothing he couldn’t handle. So long as the pick-up ship understood she washis captive, everything should proceed according to plan.
He began to creep down the street toward the library.
Kushmanda felt something very wrong the moment Commander Sura finished her talk. She stood up and looked out the nearest window. They’d moved to the center of the library and tried to roll some mobile bookshelves around them to prevent any light from alerting a patrol. The only light they had was from a lantern on the table. The plan was to move to another building tomorrow morning and hit the Synarchist positions the next day. If they could continuously stay on the move, the Synarchists would be unable to know where or when the next attack would come. As for the Jacobite knight, they would deal with him the next time he appeared.
“I’ve got a cartridge with a white rose painted on it just for him,” Sura grumbled. The knight’s arrogance made her stomach churn.
“You’ve positioned Shardhula above us?” Kushmanda asked the commander. She walked over to her side to the table and looked at the guns piled up in the middle.
“Yes,” she affirmed. “The other trooper is downstairs watching the main doors. They’re not as high a profile as the ones in the ministry building, so he’ll have an easier time watching them.”
“I need this,” Kushmanda said to her and picked up the pistol she’d taken off the dead form of Krodha. She shoved it down her front.
“Nice try, sweetie,” Sura said to her as she and Tripada whipped out their side arms, “but it’s not loaded. Do you think I’d be so stupid as to keep a loaded gun out in the open?
“Which is why I kept this extra clip,” Kushmanda said as she took it out of her pocket and slipped it in it. “Both of you have the drop on me, but I think you would be better off to let me go and do what I must. That Jacobite knight is back and he’s almost at the building.”
Sura lowered her gun. “How do you know this?”
“I just know it.”
“Then get out there and take care of him. We’ll be here if he gives you any trouble. Tell Jargesh what you just told me when you go out there.” She returned her gun to its holster. Tripada did the same.
“Thank you, commander,” Kushmanda told her as she walked away. “Your confidence means a lot to me.” Seconds later, she’d vanished around the bookshelves.
“What do we do now?” Tripada said to her.
“We wait,” Sura responded. “If she’s right, we’ll hear gunshots soon enough. Then we go down and see if she needs help.”
“If she’s wrong?”
“Then it won’t matter what we do.”
She found the new man down at the street level watching for any intruders from the wrong direction. Kushmanda slid up behind him, almost causing him to drop his rifle when he was surprised. It was a full moon so there was plenty of light to see the streets.
“Why are you down here?” he asked. “And why do you have a gun?”
“Get back in the building,” she ordered him. “I don’t have time to explain, “but that Jacobite is almost here and he’ll kill you. Get back inside the library and guard the door from the inside. When you hear shots, make sure you drop to the floor. If I don’t kill him, he’ll come for all of you next.
“What about the Synners?”
“They’ll come too, but we’ll have some time. I need to take care of this knight! Go!”
She watched him back into the door and take up his position near the circulation desk.
Kushmanda turned to face the Jacobite knight. She’d felt his presence as she rounded the corner and stopped to watch. It was a good thing Jargesh took her advice because Sir Gerda already had his pistol out.
“Why don’t you make this easy on yourself and come with me?” he asked Kushmanda from the distance. “I think there is a way I can save you.”
Basepholon stopped and looked up from his prayers. Did he hear gunshots outside? If so, why? None of his men was supposed to be out fighting unless he was there. There weren’t even supposed to be patrols outside their perimeter. This wasn’t good at all.
He threw his cloak on and grabbed a pistol off the desk, making certain it had a spare clip inside it.
He was outside in seconds and almost ran into one of his regulars who’d been with him on many campaigns. “Where is that gunfire coming from?” he demanded from the man. “No one is supposed to be outside the perimeter!”
“It’s not one of ours, sir,” the man told him. “Must be one of the locals having fun.” He pointed in the direction of the library.
Of course. The assholes retreated to the nearest building they could defend. The place had to be swarming with those marines and refugees by now. He’d already picked out the men who were going back out with him in the morning, but it would take too long to get them up.
Then another thought hit him. The Jacobite knight, Sir Nagashi, the man he was so close to putting in the grave when that woman fired the gun at them, was out there. Basepholon slapped himself in the head. He’d come back to finish them off. Fine, he’d be preoccupied with the marines and people they guarded. A perfect opportunity to take care of him at the same time. In the morning, he’d come back with enough men to finish yesterday’s job.
“I’ll be back in a few hours,” he told the trooper. “I have some work that needs done right.” He stomped off in the humid night as his form vanished in the darkness of the abandoned city.
After the gunfire began in earnest, Commander Sura turned to Tripada and picked up a second pistol from the table. ”We need to get out there and help her. I’d hoped it would be over soon, but this thing could go on all night. You go and tell Shardhula to come down and join us.” She shoved the gun in her belt and left the conference table.
Tripada looked down at the table. “At least she left one for me,” she grumbled while popping a clip inside the only pistol on the table. He headed upstairs to find the marine with the lantern.
Commander Sura emerged on the street from the main entrance to the library to find it empty. Jargesh was still inside the library and told her about his encounter with Kushmanda. She could hear the sounds of guns, but it was difficult to tell where they originated. With her pistol cocked, she slid down the side of the building and looked in both directions. The surface of the library was rough, as it was covered in some kind of stippled masonry. She felt her way to the corner and peered around. In the distance, she could see the flash of muzzles. They came from two separate locations, so both combatants were still in the game. She stood there and tried to figure out what to do next.
Basepholon stopped when he saw the woman walk out of the library and slide down to the left corner of a building. She couldn’t see him in the darkness because he was behind a trash container. It was big enough for him to hide behind; but the plastic dumpster wouldn’t stop any bullets if she saw him. Only one thing to do right now.
He took aim at the commander and fired.
The bullet came close to her, but failed to hit Sura. The light was too dim and the distance too far for the shot to find its target. Instead
, it struck the wall right above Sura and ricocheted off into the street. However, it ripped a piece of masonry loose in the process. One masonry shard struck her right eye.
The commander fell to the ground with her hand on the damaged eye. The pain was intense band she could see nothing out of the eye.
Basepholon watched her fall and smiled.
Good, now for the rest of them.
The gun battle between Kushmanda and Sir Nagashi continued a block away. She fired from around the corner of a building; he did the same from half a block away. The only damage they’d done to each other was shown in the masonry that was blasted free from the buildings. Chunks from each wall covered the ground and the air smelt of burnt stone and gun smoke.
He’s good, Kushmanda thought,but cocky. All she needed to do was play to his arrogance and get him to make a slip.
She’s good, Nagashi thought to himself,but confused.She doesn’t know why she’s doing this. All he needed to do was get her to act on her fear and he could kill her. Such a waste, if she really was some kind of advanced being, but he had no choice.
“We can do this all day,” he yelled out at her. “Or you can surrender and let me take you back to my world. I give you my word of honor no harm will come to you so long as you are under my care.”
“And what about the people in that building behind me,” she yelled back. ”Is your word of honor going to do them any good?” She waited for his response while she slipped another clip in the gun. She had a few more, but not enough to waste them.
“It’s regrettable,” he yelled back. “But you must realize they are expendable.”
“Then I guess your word has no honor!”
Sir Nagashi gripped his gun and checked to make sure the falchion was in place. He’d had enough. Advanced being or not, he was sick and tired of the woman barely out of her teens who’d made a fool of him. Time to quit playing with her.
He slipped out of the corner with his gun pointed straight in the direction where she’d called to him. The first bullet might not get her, but the second or third would.
However, the moment he stepped out, Kushmanda appeared and shot Sir Nagashi right in the chest. The bullet had enough impact to punch right through his armor, spin through his left kidney, and exit through the other side.
How could she slip up on me? He thought while staggering back. She brought the gun up a second time, but he managed to hurl his falchion at her. If he’d been at full capacity, it would have cleaved her head open. Kushmanda deflected it with her pistol and the big blade fell to the ground.
Kushmanda saw him vanish into an alley. She was about to follow him into it when there was a gunshot behind her at the library. This needed her attention right away.
Kushmanda ran up to the library main entrance just in time to see Basepholon run inside it. She saw the commander on the ground and ran to her.
Her face was full of blood, but she was conscious. The eye couldn’t be saved, but at least the commander was still alive. She needed to do something to stop the bleeding, but the proconsul was inside the library. He would kill the others if she didn’t stop him.
“Leave me alone!” Commander Sura snapped at her as she propped herself up. “You need to go take care of the bastard that shot me! Where is my gun?” She’d dropped it when she fell.
“You weren’t hit in the eye with a bullet,” Kushmanda told her. “It was a ricochet off the wall.” She shoved the gun into Sura’s hand.
“Kill him just the same!” Sura growled.
“I intend to do that.” Kushmanda said to her as she ran to the entrance.
Kushmanda ran inside to see Basepholon down behind the circulation counter as Shardhula and Tripada rained bullets down on him. What little light there was came from a lantern on some steps to the next level. She located Jargesh on the floor. Basepholon had surprised him when he ran into the building and the man didn’t have the opportunity to bring his gun around in time.
Basepholon heard her enter the library and leaped over the desk. He went behind some bookshelves.
“Hold your fire!” Kushmanda yelled to the men up on the mezzanine, “He’s under you behind some book cases! I’ll take care of him!” She followed Basepholon back into the library.
Basepholon was at the dead end of a section when he heard her call out to the men above. Like hell would he let some tiny female take him out. Besides, he needed her. He’d show her how a real man could be once she was in chains. He might have to wound her, but she’d leave with him today. He held his gun out and walked to the end of the rack of books. When he reached the end, he stopped his massive form and peered out. Nothing. Basepholon stepped out in search of his quarry.
At which point Kushmanda shot him in the thigh from across the room. He was out of range by the time she fired a second time. Her gun clicked on empty the third time she pulled the trigger.
As Basepholon crashed through a display window and into the street, all he could think about was how she’d located him. His body armor under his robes kept him from dying, but the bullet impact crushed his hip. He was grateful for the money he’d spent on the latest and armor design.
Chapter 12
Sir Nagashi managed to get his armor off and had his medical kit out the moment he was back in the laboratory. One of the reasons he’d chosen the laboratory was that it was used by the health ministry to carry out pharmaceutical evaluations. They maintained it as a clean room and it would come in handy if he took a bullet hit. Like right now.
He unstrapped the chest harness and let hit fall to the floor. He’d lost a lot of blood, but there was a way to get it back in him. Right now, he had to stop the bleeding. Nagashi crawled to his emergency kit on the shelf as he avoided slipping on his own blood. He pulled out a pain killer patch from the pack and slapped it on the bare spot on his arm. Next, he found a chair to sit down in while the medicine did the job. He could stitch up his wound after he cauterized the blood flow. Once he’d managed to get the rest of his armor removed, he rested a few minutes.
I never expected that, he thought to himself as he went to work on the bullet wound.At least it went right through me.
Now he had to eliminate the rest of the marines and that damn woman too. This was a matter of his standing as a knight. If anyone ever learned he’d allowed some girl barely out of her teens to do this to him, he’d be embarrassed for the rest of his life. If he eliminated all of them, it would be possible to spin it as a bullet hit from one of the marines. But only if he’d left them all dead.
He would have to take care of the most of those Synarchists as well. Not all of them, the proconsul and at least another ten would impress his king. He could spend a few days in a monastery hospital before going back out on campaign.
So much for his own ambitions and dreams. He wasn’t that old for a knight and would find glory other ways. At the same time, he couldn’t forget that youthful woman who’d snuck up on him. She’d surprised him when he stepped out of his hiding place. She had to be no more than three feet away when she shot him. How could this have happened?
He looked at the blood-soaked wound on both sides. This one was deep. He took out a knife, lit a torch, and proceeded to heat up the blade.
Chapter 13
“Please hold still, commander,” Kushmanda told Sura. “I need to finish working on the area if you want to save the eye.” She worked best as she good with the medical tools they had available.
Commander Sura lay back on a chair while Tripada held a lantern up for Kushmanda to work. The young woman cleaned up the injury and did her best to remove the fragments of the shards that the bullet had blasted into her eye. She wasn’t sure if the eye could be saved. When Kushmanda first had the commander to sit back, she didn’t think it was salvageable. But now she had spent time working on it, she felt it could be treated. She didn’t have the resources to fix the eye, but she could prevent it from becoming much worse.
“I thought you said that damn eye was gone,” the com
mander snapped from beneath her. She was supposed to stay still, but the pain was too great, even with the local drugs.
“I think we can save it,” Kushmanda said to her. Her black hair was tied up on her head, as she needed to keep it out of the way to work. The commander had short hair to fit under a helmet.
She removed most of the blood with an absorbent cloth taken from the medical kit. The area around the eye was damaged, but she could clean that part without much trouble. The eyeball itself was red from the bleeding. Now that the blood flow stopped, she decided to tape a cloth in place and cover it with a patch. She found an eye patch from the supplies and looped it over the commander’s head.
Kushmanda brought a mirror she found over to let the commander have a look at her face. “I never did look that good,” she grumbled. “Maybe the patch is an improvement. I look like adacoit from the desert. Still hurts.”
“It will for a long time,” Kushmanda told her. “When we get out of here, you can get it treated better. I’ve done all I can do.” She began to put the medical tools she’d used back in the case.
Her feet hurt and she wanted to sit down. When Kushmanda was found, all she had on was a light dress. They’d found a some spare clothes for her to wear out of a clothing store, but no one could locate a better pair of shoes for her. She still had the same leather sandals on they found on her.
Chapter 14
Basepholon was furious.
He seethed inside the vault around the corner from the library he’d found inside the abandoned bank. It was a huge bank with plenty of security at one time, but all of that vanished during the evacuation. The front entrance was destroyed by some kind of bomb when everyone left. This made it easy to get inside. The vault was empty and left open. Likely, the bankers hauled all the funds out during the evacuation and left the door to the vault open because they wanted everyone to understand there was nothing inside to steal.