Better to Beg Forgiveness

by Michael Z. Williamson

  "Er . . . spammers?" Bart asked as he translated.

  "Five thousand spammers in one convention hall," she said.

  "Damn, and no one hit it." Jason sounded disgusted.

  "Yes, actually. Someone fed nerve agent through the ducts and apparently killed over three hundred. More than a thousand are hospitalized."

  "The tragedy being not enough died?" Alex asked.

  "They should have called me," she said. Were those sobs real or an act? "I could have offered a hundred kilos, strategically placed with fragments."

  "Hell, I'd do it with a ball bat," Aramis said. "Not efficient, but satisfying to see faces mushed."

  "Damn. I wonder if that idea will catch on? People harass, assault, and occasionally kill one . . . but mass murder. I like it. I would love to be on that jury," Jason said.

  Horace asked, "To ensure the guy walks?"

  Jason was grinning. "Absolutely. A god among men. A hero for our times. Anything that kills spammers . . ."

  Alex interrupted with, "Anything of interest about here?"

  "Yes, it's a forgotten war. Why are our troops on Mtali when they're needed here?" She even sounded sarcastic.

  "There are no troops here?" Bart was still finding sarcasm awkward at times.

  "Allegedly not."

  Aramis was tense. "Man, right after the spammers, can we organize one for reporters?"

  "Stand in line," Jason said.

  "Just be sure I am called," Horace said. "I will be very happy to provide medical support."

  That his statement ended the conversation was perhaps the most fun of the day.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A week passed with nothing but routine. They escorted Bishwanath to other industrial and commercial events, some in near-bombed out sectors of the city. Everyone was tense, expecting trouble that never came. There was a Council meeting, and several Earth and other off-world investors came to the palace to meet with Bishwanath in the large drawing room. There were a couple of press conferences, with the President insisting on giving his own answers, not allowing words to be put in his mouth, and lots of late nights where he drew up plans and consulted by phone.

  The only real break in the routine was the supply run.

  First, a shipment arrived from Corporate. With Massa's help, they had authorization for proper rockets, a Viper light cannon that made Aramis drool, and ammo. The crate contained far too many capacitors, rations, and similar sundries.

  "So those are your trade goods," Alex said.

  "Yup," Jason said. "I figure a trade with Mister Dhe will create goodwill towards men and peace on Salin. That, and I'll get a better look at his goons."

  "Makes sense, but be careful." Alex was a great manager, but he'd had far too civilized an upbringing, Jason thought. Even with his spotted past, he was too clean and straightforward. Of course, that could be in reaction to his spotted past.

  "Aramis, let's go deal."

  "Roger," Aramis said, grabbed a vest and carbine and was ready to roll. He scooped up a belt carrier of launcher grenades as he came.

  Once out of the palace, the trip was straightforward. Dhe's territory was near the industrial section to the east. That was a safe route as long as one stuck to main roads. Jason barreled along, Boblight slightly bright because of an ongoing flare storm. The local life was all hiding, including the cute birdiles. The Earth imported life barely noticed.

  Judging from the wandering, working, lazing people, few of them were even aware of the solar storm. He realized it was a good thing that the flares weren't dangerous, or most of this bunch would die. Although, that wouldn't be much of a loss. The difference between the settlers here and other places like Novaja Rossia and, well, Grainne was vast.

  He drove into the parking lot of Dhe's office, which was a block building. He counted thirteen cars in the lot, varying from ruggedly functional to gorgeous. Strictly from a point of view of connections, Dhe might have been a "better" choice for the BuState people. He wondered what had arisen to prevent that. He was corrupt, connected, and a bastard, just the type they liked.

  The guards at the door were no match, but they'd have backup and it was a long way back. He decided to humor them.

  "Leave all weapons in the car," he told Aramis. "They won't steal them while we're here, and we won't be fighting."

  "I . . . will comply," Aramis said, looking bothered.

  "That means the second pistol, too," he grinned. "Yeah, I know about that," he said to Aramis's expression. Aramis sighed and slid the pocket pistol out from his pants and under the seat. While he did, Jason checked his own pocket for an item. Yes, it was there. A multi-frequency scanning imager, a fancy name for a camera that could shoot through fabric and around corners.

  They each carried a box and walked up to the door.

  "Whatchu need?" the apparent senior of the guards asked. The red and blue uniform still looked bizarre, but it was clear this bunch did at least know which end of a rifle to pick up.

  "We have stuff to trade, figured you were the best people to trade with," Jason said.

  "Damn true."

  An hour and a bit later, they left, toting some local wastepaper, a few marks, and a handful of silver.

  "Sucky price," Aramis commented as they climbed in and geared up. He seemed relaxed now.

  "The idea wasn't to make money," Jason said.

  "Oh, I know. And Dhe's no threat militarily."

  "How do you figure?" he asked. He'd already reached the same conclusion, but it was good to have agreement.

  Aramis wrinkled his brow as he spoke. "None of them have any notion of tactics or strategy. They're a halfway disciplined but untrained mob. They obviously don't have enough gear if they were buying that stuff, even if they thought they were getting a great deal."

  "Correct. Any threat he poses is political. I don't believe he's capable of actual military force."

  "Hell, he's a 'progressive.' They tend to wet their pants around weapons," Aramis said, rolling his eyes in disgust.

  "Usually, but not always and a lot of that is Earth culture, especially Western. Elsewhere, they'll shoot in a second if they think it will avoid an election they can't win."

  Once back, Jason wrote up his findings for Alex, who was delighted that he had photos.

  "They didn't even scan," he said. "Quick look, lousy pat, and didn't check the pockets, so the camo didn't even matter. That's his HQ."

  "Damn, it looks like a couple of banquet tables with a fliptop and satellite set."

  "That's what it is," Jason agreed.

  "Primitives."

  Then it was back to the routine, but even routine was tiring, with pretrip mapping, weapons checks, commo, exercise daily, and updates on threats that Alex brought daily from his second briefing with White and Weilhung. The team was paid not only to stop attacks on Bishwanath, but to prevent them when possible.

  Everyone knew there would be another attack. This was a nation at war, and high-end mercenaries hadn't been hired because of their image, which was a poor one to most people. Of course, when the attack did come, it was a political nightmare as well as, in Jason's terminology, a "tactical balls-up."

  ****

  Another long convoy, Alex thought. At least they had air transport for most of it. The drive would have been ten hours each way, far down the coast.

  It was amazing, he reflected, how routine something involving imminent danger could become. The convoy consisted of four civilian limousines, a loyal Celadon Army unit, specially cleared and reinforced with a number of UN Army soldiers and some Recon troops, ready to displace or take down the locals. The soldiers were mounted on local vehicles, mostly small diesel utility trucks. The Recon troops had their light, air-mobile armored cars. Rahul drove the second limo containing his boss, with Elke, Shaman, and Jason. Aramis, Alex, and Bart were in the third slot with Bart driving. The first and last limos were pure decoys. They had overhead cover, in the form of two vertols. This area had been described as "Hot," wi
th three major factions duking it out for control. One sided with labor, one with the owners, and one with a group that wanted to annex the entire region and attach it to the one south, to reduce the drain on travel and acquire more government handouts.

  They geared up, loaded up, and off they went, the President reviewing his speaking notes for a regional council meeting. These were farmers and orchard owners and their workers, with the usual management versus labor problem compounded by not having any real market for their goods. The hope was that they could be brought into a convoy co-op to transport the fruit to the capital.

  How sad a nation was that such issues required a president's presence, he thought.

  It was routine if tense. No convoy was quite like any other, but there was a standard feel to them. Having the military up front did help—armored vehicles had a way of clearing the road of gawkers and slowpokes. They also hindered—it was hard not to know who this was, with a convoy of limos and military vehicles. The occupant was obviously at least a mayor, governor, or senator, and these vehicles were fairly distinctive. There were a finite number of models and specifics. At Jason's suggestion, all the government vehicles had removed their number plates to make ID harder, but it wasn't too difficult for someone to make Bishwanath as the President. No other VIP was in this area, certainly not so protected.

  Nor were any protected quite like this. In lieu of a carbine, Elke had her shotgun, which was shorter ranged but devastating for crowds. Aramis had the Viper cannon, which laid down smaller bursts than a machine gun, but with correspondingly greater damage. It fired a 15mm rocket-assisted projectile that would punch through anything optimistically called "armor" on this rock, and most of their so-called "hard cover," too. Aramis had joked that he could make a called shot to the Islets of Langerhans.

  So they watched their sectors from the vehicles and clutched at weapons, low and out of sight. They tried not to overreact to excited teenagers and sometimes adults, to people drugged or crazy who reacted bizarrely. They didn't care particularly if someone got killed for being stupid. Elke's comment had been, "Chlorine for the gene pool," but it wouldn't do to attract the resultant attention if it wasn't necessary.

  "Vehicle coming in!" Aramis shouted next to him. "Oh, shit, he's not stopping!"

  "Understood," Alex said. He didn't turn to look. He had his sector, and it was a large one, being the entire left side behind Bart who was driving.

  "I see the man," Bart agreed.

  "Brace!" Aramis shouted as Jason said, "Confirmed thre—"

  Bart braked hard as all the vehicles reacted.

  "Strike, lead limo, right front," he said.

  "Check right front," Alex agreed. Everything took on a slow-motion clarity.

  "Vehicle to left rear on collision course with tailing limo," Jason said.

  That was within the overlap of Alex's sector. He glanced back. Big truck, right through a crowd of civilians, limbs flailing as they were tossed like dolls.

  "Both directions at once, I'm calling it deliberate. Mics hot. Elke, Shaman, stand by. Aramis, call it." He'd seen it, he had a better field of view, so it was up to him to call it. Alex was comfortable with that. The kid did know his stuff.

  "Stay in vehicle and break," Aramis said. A tough call, but the other choice was to sit and fight against an enemy that had planned an ambush and executed it. That enemy couldn't beat the combined forces . . . and didn't need to. A well-placed rocket or mortar round into the President's limo would end it.

  Jason said, "Impact, left rear limo."

  And the convoy was cut.

  These were professionals. The crashed vehicles had not inflicted much in the way of casualties, but were clearly designed to stall everyone in place, which was the one thing that could never be allowed to happen.

  "Bart, Aramis, find us an exit. Mama, we're going to split up."

  "Are you sure?" Weilhung asked from the front.

  "Several directions, confuse this issue. Do it now!" Dammit, this was no time for a debate, an argument over jurisdiction, or a pissing contest. "Bart, Rahul, split us now. Rahul leads."

  "Roger." "Check."

  Then they were roaring.

  Intellectually, Alex knew the vehicles had that kind of power. Multistage dual turbines with positive displacement rotors, assorted intercoolers, aftercoolers, reheat and variable venturis could take a tremendous amount of fuel and very efficiently convert it to tremendous torque. It just wasn't something one generally did in a luxoboat. He'd had no idea what it felt like to accelerate in one of these things. It was like a jet dragster. Bart had to be draining the capacitor bank, too, feeding the juice to the brake coils backward, because the car was pulling Gs. He fell back against the seat hard enough to wrench his shoulder.

  "Son of a bitch!" he muttered in annoyance and awe.

  Aramis popped the sky roof and stood on the seat, legs spread for balance. Jason handed up the Viper, and there was a reassuring clack as he dropped the safety. That was the perfect position for the kid, Alex figured. He could waste anything he wanted in a messy fashion and no one was likely to object. This was where the youthful exuberance came in.

  The ride got rough. They were on curb, then riding over carts, the oversized wheels throwing debris and splatting vegetables against the side. The odor started entering, and it wasn't a pleasant one. Most of that produce had been overripe.

  Bart closed up to ride perhaps a half meter off the bumper of the Presidential limousine. That made the two vehicles effectively one for defensive purposes, allowing the EPs on front and rear to swing to the side. So far, the only response was panicking, running locals, but that could, even would, change. Two of the armored vehicles charged ahead. One from the rear pulled up alongside the rear limo and poured fire into the attacking vehicle there. Whether or not the threat was intentional, the occupants of that vehicle were now dead and splattered.

  They went through the crowd and carts, through some tattered and ragged building awnings, and a cafeteria's tables, followed by two slams as the vehicles crashed in the close quarters, then they were in an intersection and turning left. Rahul was a decently competent combat driver, among his other talents, and it was good to have him along.

  "We're split," Weilhung said. "Want to pick a meeting spot?"

  "Meet at Joe's," Alex said.

  There was a pause. "Confirm . . . Joe's?"

  "Joe's."

  There was another, longer pause. "Understood. Update us soonest."

  It had taken a bit. There was no Joe's. Alex didn't feel like broadcasting a plan at the moment, even on scrambled radios. He was still formulating the plan, and didn't want to give bad information or anything that could be used against them. Likewise, it was never a bad idea to confuse the enemy.

  Three sections of convoy were going in three directions, and would attempt to regroup. Everyone knew the President's section had gone left. The Army could call AF for satellite tracking and catch back up. The locals probably couldn't. There was nothing to indicate they had that level of technology, but Alex was increasingly suspicious. There were lots of off-planet groups taking an interest in things.

  And now they had two limos and only small arms to get back through the city with.

  "I vote for revehicling," he said.

  "Concur," said Jason, with Bart a moment behind.

  "But we need to stay in here for now. Where should I go?" Bart asked.

  "Ultimately back to the airfield. As to route, I'm not sure. Best guess. We need to let Rahul lead for a while. He's more familiar with things."

  "Can we trust him?" Aramis asked vocally, shouting down through the roof.

  "Mic off," he said in warning as he thumbed the button. "That's a damned good question. I assume we have to, and the President does. Hard for us to argue, and we have no evidence he's not on our side."

  "Just that three attacks have happened since he joined us," Aramis said, ducking his head in. "Call me paranoid."

  "The attacks are increasing
in frequency and threat level. I think it's coincidence."

  "Could be. Keep it in mind."

  "Yeah. Mic on. Rahul, you lead, get us back to the airport by any route, try to avoid concentrations.

  "Yes, sir!" came the reply.

  "How's fuel?" Alex asked.

  "Fine. I think we'll be okay if we can keep moving," Bart said, laconic even in the midst of battle. "Aramis, you keep the route clear. I don't want us to have to stop."

  "How serious about that are you?"

  "Mic off. Kill anyone who might cause us to stop. Is that plain enough?" Bart's voice was clear and slow.

  "Sweeet." The kid sounded reassured rather than pleased. Good. He even glanced down at Alex for confirmation. Alex nodded. Not stopping was essential. Enough people could roll a limo, or block it in with chocks and then beat it or fire it.

  "Bad route," Bart said tersely. Alex looked ahead.

  "Fuck." There was nothing else to say.

  Ahead was a fuel tanker, with some kind of petro or methane derivative that was combustible, even explosive, and they were going to pass it.

  "I'd like to keep our distance from that, if we can," Alex said. "Rahul, we want to guide past that tanker, or parallel it, something, ASAP."

  "Understood. I'll stay back for now."

  "I agree," Bart said, and changed lanes while braking. "I don't believe it will be a problem, but why take chances?"

  "Yeah." Alex didn't want to admit he was nervous. Sure, the odds were slim, but enough slim odds eventually came up to a good probability. Murphy said that this was the moment it would cut loose.

  They passed what had been the local conference center. That moment was the moment, and the tanker just disappeared, replaced by a huge fireball laced with black, oily smoke; a massive, crushing blow; a deafening, stomach-churning boom; and a heat front that was painful through the sides of the car.

  The collision curtains deployed, Aramis dropped inside and cursed, the vehicle bounced and came down hard enough to jar spines from coccyx to atlas. The engine stuttered from that shock wave. The short convoy slewed to a halt.