by Vance Huxley
“Calm down, don’t be a Funt, Elli.” Siflis smiled innocently as the Corp turned towards him. “I kicked a knife under the door and drove one in at the top as wedges. It’s solid.”
* * *
Bobby almost shot her. Two doors ahead a tousled head came out of a doorway, looking towards the stairway and the banging beyond. Instead he accelerated and even as she turned towards him, Bobby had her! She went back into the room with a hand round her throat and two more men came through the door with blades ready, but the apartment seemed empty. A quick check of the shower room and bedroom and one of the men gestured to her with a knife.
“No. Because our friend here is going to relock her door for us.” Bobby looked into the shocked brown eyes. “Without screaming. Aren’t you?” Her head tried to nod so Bobby let it. “Shhh. No noise.” He turned to the men. “Everyone in here, as fast as possible but silent. I want Ellis.”
Ellis came round the door and his eyes widened. Bobby didn’t wait for a comment. “Six men, three doors down. Break the lock, kill anyone in there, ransack the room, pull out the bars and unfasten the windows. Do not open them. If you’re quick, you’ll get back before this door’s locked.” Ellis’s mouth opened.
“Four doors down.” Everyone looked at the woman. “Empty. Quieter.” She probably didn’t want her neighbours killed but still had a good point.
Bobby looked back at Ellis, “Four doors down. Move or die!” The corporal moved, collecting men. The rest crammed into the flat and tried to spread out but there wasn’t space. “Absolute silence. They’ll break an outside door soon since nobody’s answering.” Bobby looked back at the woman and put the pistol away. “You can override the lockdown?”
“A boyfriend did it, a long time ago. So we could, well.” She looked away.
“If you want to live, when the last man’s in, you lock the door. Then when the searchers have gone, unlock it and we’ll leave.”
Her answer wasn’t defiant, just resigned. “You’ll kill me anyway.”
“We’ll tie you up, and gag you so it takes about an hour to chew through. By then it won’t matter.” Though killing her would be a lot simpler. Right now Bobby worried more about Ellis. If the Funt took too long Bobby would lock the door and let the seven men fight and die in the corridor, but he didn’t want to lose seven men.
Splintering noises sounded from the main door down the corridor as the last Trooper almost shut the broken door four down and legged it to join the rest. “Done, Sarge.”
“Now lock this place down.” The young woman produced a keycard from her dressing gown pocket and drew it across the inside of the lock. Not through the reader, but the lock buzzed and the red light came on. Bobby turned the room light off and they all waited in the faint glow of one remaining street lamp outside.
Shouting echoed out in the corridor now, and fists thumping on doors. A voice down the corridor spoke up. “They’re not in here, it’s all locked down.”
“Check the doors.”
A minute or so later. “This door’s broken!” Muffled shouting and crashing followed and soon afterwards voices outside were denying having missed anything. Fists banged on other doors now and questions were being shouted.
“Check the other doors. Ask who’s in there.”
Bobby pulled his bayonet, putting it close to the woman’s neck. “Answer, and make it good. If you don’t, you’ll die first.” He moved the blade away a little until she nodded, jerkily. Moments later a fist banged on the door.
“Open up.”
“It’s locked down.” She sounded frightened, but that wouldn’t raise any alarms under the circumstances.
“Who else is in there?”
“Nobody.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“Some people came past going towards the stairs and there was some banging. What’s happening?” Bobby smiled reassuringly, then hoped he looked reassuring when she flinched.
“Some Doggies running for their lives. We’ll find them.” The voices moved away and the commanding one sounded again.
“You three, check up the stairs but I reckon they’ve gone. With luck they’ll reach the armour, then when they go home we’ll get the lot.” General laughter followed that, then died away. Voices and footsteps moved down the corridor and silence fell.
* * *
Bobby put a finger to his lips as several started to speak. He pointed to the radio, then to the shower and toilet cubicle and to himself. Bobby crammed himself in there and shut the sliding door, not easy with his Trooper gear on. He used the radio to contact the armour. “Bobby B.”
“About time. Did you get one? A prisoner?” Typical dick, didn’t care about how many might have been lost.
Bobby took a deep breath and kept it polite. He needed the transport. “Don’t head straight home. That’s definite. Ten minutes and we may have a better source.”
“Ten minutes? Why so long?” A short pause followed. “And sergeant still means you call me sir.”
“Yes sluur.” Bobby smiled to himself. “The main group have missed us but three were left to check around. In about ten minutes they’ll walk right into our hands and then we’ll have a chat. The ones outside were shouting about catching us and the armour on your way back.”
“Well done sergeant. They tried to rush us here, but that didn’t work and you were at least partly right. There were plebs throwing petrol bombs from the buildings but we’re too far away.” The voice chuckled. “Lights them up nicely though.” He paused, then sighed. “We’ll wait here for one hour as fair return for the info on the mines. Then we will break out because I don’t want to give the Plebs too long to think.”
“Thank you sir.” That deserved a real sir. “If we don’t make it by then, it won’t matter. Must go. Noises.” Bobby turned the radio off. Someone had started arguing inside the flat and those were Hood’s deep tones. Bobby took out his silenced pistol before carefully easing the door open a little.
Ellis had the woman backed up against the wall with her dressing gown open at the top, and had hold of her breast. He wasn’t doing any more because Hood had jammed his big rifle into Ellis’s spine. Hood still looked sheet white but the rifle stayed rock steady. Hood spoke again. “No.”
“Why not? The sarge will.” Ellis drew a thumb across his throat while two other men started to move behind Hood. “Seems a waste.”
“He said no.” One of the moving men stopped suddenly as Siflis spoke from right behind him. Another man stirred, but a stage cough caught everyone’s attention. Then everyone stood very still. Bells had used the Kraut in the breakout so they all knew what it was and these men also thought Bells crazy enough to pull the trigger. They didn’t know if the ammo would go through a Trooper jacket at this range. It would, just, and might cause flesh wounds, but Bells would aim at their faces anyway.
Ellis still wasn’t backing down so Bobby coughed as well. He crooked a finger at Ellis. The Corporal came over, pale-faced because Bobby kept the pistol on him all the way. When he came near enough for whispering, Bobby spoke. “Why shouldn’t I kill you, Ellis?”
“But she’s only a Pleb.”
“A Pleb who saved our lives.” Bobby made a snap decision, probably because he didn’t like Ellis. “She lives. Now you pass a message to your crew, or Siflis will pass it.” Ellis glanced at Siflis and flinched from the evil smile. “If any of them breath hard on the woman, or in the direction of my squad, you all bleed.” Bobby smiled and he got this expression right because Ellis flinched again. “What happens?”
“We all bleed.”
“Now piss off and tell them.” Bobby kept half an eye on the Corp as he headed over towards Hood. The first couple the Corp spoke to gave Siflis a startled glance so the message went home.
“Cover up.” The woman pulled her clothes together. Bobby looked at Hood. “You look rough. Go in there and lie on the bed.” He looked back at the woman. “You go as well.” She shrank into herself a bit. “No, eedjit, not t
o get in the bed with him. He’s the one that stopped them and anyway pooching is the last thing on Hood’s mind. Get him a drink and see if you can do anything with his leg? Pad it or something so he doesn’t bang it about as much.” She nodded. “What’s your name?”
“Margaret.”
“We’ll be here for a little while Margaret, then we’ll sod off and leave you.” This time he meant it.
Margaret seemed to believe Bobby this time. “Take me with you.”
“What?”
“I told them a lie, those others. If only one person hears you go they’ll find out and come for me. They’ll kill me but not straight away.” Her eyes were wide and really frightened of that thought, not Bobby, which surprised Bobby. Troopers were usually the worst thing that could happen to a Pleb.
Bobby glanced at Hood, weighing up his size and hers. He smiled because this would really piss off Ellis, and more importantly it might save Hood. “You have to help. No passengers. Are you strong enough to help him to walk?”
“Yes. Anything as long as you take me.”
“Right, get him comfortable, and get yourself dressed. Trousers if you’ve got them.” Bobby went around to make sure everyone drank, and used the bog while there was a chance, and to tell them hands off the woman or else. Those who needed to do so dealt with wounds or changed dressings on older ones. He gave the searchers upstairs seven minutes before going to get Margaret.
“Time to go.” Bobby looked her over. She’d muffled up in a coat with a hood and baggy trousers. “Do you need to do something special, or can I open the door while you get Hood up and ready to move?”
“Put the back of the card to the lock and go across it the usual way. The same to lock it from outside.” Margaret handed the card over and Bobby squeezed through everyone as they finished settling weapons and burdens into place. He put a finger to his lips, unlocked the door, and cracked it open as quietly as possible. Siflis slid his little mirror out to look both ways.
“Clear.”
“Everyone keep very, very quiet.” Bobby eased out of the door and listened. There were voices upstairs so his timing must be about right. Bobby put his head back inside. “I need five men with working legs and arms. I want two of these men dead and one alive, but silently. Better dead than noisy.” Five men detached themselves from the rest, creeping through the door and after him. Three crossed to the other side of the foyer, then the six of them waited.
It had to be worth a try but in the end, silent meant dead. Bobby himself cut the third one’s throat as he opened his mouth. That’s the trouble with stunning someone; not hard enough and they yelled, too hard and they died. Bobby beckoned to the flat down the corridor. Moments later the whole group were on the move, as quietly as possible. Margaret walked under Hood’s armpit, taking as much weight off his leg as possible. Her eyes widened as they passed the three bodies, now being thoroughly looted.
Partway down the outside of the next block, Margaret repaid them for her life. As voices approached she pointed to a pair of low doors. The padlock quickly yielded but instead of finding a storage cupboard they all slid down a coal chute. The small group of Plebs passing by never even glanced at the doors, or not enough to notice the missing padlock. The boiler room exited near the other end of the block, up a set of stairs, and the small force crept on.
In the end, coming out of the last block to join up, they had to make a noise. “Bobby B to Armour. I can see you from a stairwell, two floors up, but we’ll have to shoot our way in and then it’s a long way over open ground. It’s the only way to get through the Plebs behind the barricade.”
“Where. Plain-speak because they’ve broken the codes.”
The armoured Troop Carriers had turned in different directions to point their frontal armour at the nearest barricade or accommodation block. “Barricade directly ahead of your third vehicle. We can kill these I reckon but the rest will shoot us crossing the open ground.”
“Double click when you’re set, and come ahead when they break. Be quick because they’ll hear this radio message.” This Super had brains as well. The armour fired up their engines, and when Bobby clicked the seven vehicles lunged for the exit towards Bobby. Their heavy weapons lashed the low barricade and the defenders scattered because the Plebs wanted the armour down that road, any road. The armour stopped short of the barricade and any mines. “Come on then, quick.”
Beebi’s reinforced Basteds poured out of the building, killing the Plebs hiding in the doorway and the one opposite. The armour swivelled, as did the turrets, to lash the nearest buildings and barricades while the rear doors of the troop carriers opened. All of Bobby’s group made it because the fallen were brought with the Troopers, but some were dead when the heavy doors slammed shut. Bobby glanced at Margaret before taking the tags off the slightly built Trooper lying on the floor by his feet. Just in time.
“Strip them and dump them.” Those were standing orders with the dead so a couple of the Troopers stripped the body near Bobby. Those stripping the other body in this carrier proffered the snapped tags, signifying the man had carked it, for Bobby to add to the pocket full he already had. The Super kept advancing between the sitting Troopers until he reached Bobby. “Sodit Beebi, you really are a Sergeant. You’ve even got the bledrin stripes on so now I know we really are in the shite.”
“All legal slur. Though you could take them away for not saluting?” Bobby smiled. “Or carrying a notsi?” He waved his shotgun.
“Still a cheeky basted. Anyway, you’re allowed a shotgun now.” Sandman passed Bobby a standard double barrelled one with a bandolier half full of shells. The Super shook his head. “Not in my chain of command, all praise the ultimate CEO and his blessed minions. Now make me happy and give me a clear run out.”
“We tried, but the basteds all carked it.”
“Shite. I hope you’ve got your fireproof underwear on. Pick East or West since you’ve got to be Lady Luck’s favourite boy tonight.”
“South-East.” Bobby smiled.
“Smartarsed basted. There’s a sodin building in the way.”
Bobby grinned. “How strong is the front of this thing?” The Super looked at Bobby, puzzled. “I’ve been thinking about it after seeing your transport. If you go through an accommodation block anywhere but where the stairs and lifts or the concrete firebreak cross-walls are, it’s all plasterboard. Even a bledrin flechette goes through them close up, so if you can ram through the outside walls?”
The Super grinned back at him. “We don’t have to ram them. The light cannon on two of these babies will go through a brick wall like Epsom’s. We’ll loosen them up then yes, the armour on the front will do the rest.” He turned to go, then turned back. “Though the bill for the property damage will probably mean eating a bullet, or at least a lot of shite.”
Bobby beckoned and played back the recording from when the Super first told him to get clear. “Break anything and anyone. Those are still my orders. Do you want me to aim the weapon?”
“No sergeant, but I want that recording for when I’m sued.” Bobby copied it to the Super’s wristcomp. “How far to get clear of the mines?”
“I don’t know but three streets seems a good bet.”
“Good enough. I want the same lottery numbers as you this week, if we make it.” The Super tapped his head for luck and went.
The armoured troop carriers had pulled back after picking up the survivors but now they lurched into motion again. The whole vehicle shuddered as the cannon struck up with five rounds rapid. It fell silent while the carrier clattered forward until the nose rose, followed by a solid impact on the front. The carrier hesitated and then ground on, up, and over an obstacle before rumbling onwards. Behind it the others would be lashing the front of the block with heavy flechettes to stop any petrol bombs.
A muted cheer echoed through the steel shell, despite the continual small impacts on the exterior. The vehicle stopped and the shuddering started up again as the gun chewed holes out of
the opposite exterior wall. Then the carrier went down and presumably outside again. The same procedure happened twice more before the vehicle slowed before picking up speed. The rescued Troopers echoed the muffled cheer from the fighting and driving compartments forward.
A medic came through into the rear to work on the wounded. He just shook his head at Hood’s leg. “Metal.” He moved on to Margaret, huddled inside her coat and hood. “Let me look at you.”
“Not that one.” Bobby kept his voice down.
The medic looked annoyed but also inquisitive. “Not down to a sergeant. The Super says I’m to check everyone. Still, why not this one?”
Bobby leaned in closer and kept his voice low. “Spook.”
“Still got to check him.”
“This one was in deep cover, and broke it to get us out. Do you want to identify one of The Horseman’s deep agents?” Bobby chuckled. “He’d shoot you to keep the identity secret.”
The medic moved back as if Margaret was infectious. “That’s bulsh.” He glanced at Bobby, then Margaret. “Above my pay grade so I’ll leave it to the Super.”
“Good enough.” The medic checked Bobby over before resetting the splint on his forearm. The basted wasn’t overly gentle either. Once the medic moved on to the rest and got busy with bandages, Bobby moved up closer to Margaret.
“Don’t speak or keep your voice as deep and quiet as possible. Here.” Bobby passed over the tags. “That’s who you are for now. Wear them and show them if you really have to. Claim to be a deep cover spy for The Horseman. Put these gloves on because your hands are too small.” Margaret took the studded leather gloves and her hands disappeared inside them. The tags went inside her hood.
“The Horseman?”
“That’s what we all call the Spook-master since nobody seems to know his name. It’s supposed to be because he’s the Headless Horseman, or one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, or all of them. He’s in charge of all the spies and cameras, the ones you don’t see, and some deep and dirty shite. Just keep saying deep cover, and The Horseman won’t want it broken.”