The Yeoman: Crying Albion Series - Book 1

by Tyler Danann

  “I have a new assignment for you my boy. It’s unrelated to this meeting, well mostly unrelated. Everything we do against the dark forces is partly related.”

  “With respect Colonel, you promised I’d be released on leave sir.”

  “I know it,” The officer said, watching Weyland’s hands clench the steering wheel tighter than usual.

  “My fiancée is still in London, I worry about her sir.”

  “I know that too Eric.”

  “I’d like to go and work with her Colonel, help bring her north when she wraps up operations? I spoke with Major Garenby and he’s arranging for a new agent handler to—”

  “As I’ve said already,” the Colonel said with a deep intake of the cigarette, “you’re too well known now for that sort of work in London. Facial-recognition cameras are all over the place, massive enforcer presence is rampant. Then there’s the non-Europeans that have taken over three-quarters of greater-London. Even the City of London is getting its share. Scotland Yard has put a ten-thousand pound bounty on your head as well I’m informed. No, for this next one you’re the only man I trust, this is personal. It concerns a comrade who is no longer with us and an oath I made long ago.”

  “Oaths are powerful things, not to be broken lightly either sir.”

  “Indeed, some might think I treat my men and women as expendable assets, but you’re all like children to me. Yet even a father must risk his own going out into danger. It’s like that when you have high rank, the risks of the father shrink in some ways on the one hand, but grow in others. It can be tough at the top, yet always the lower ranks have the lion’s share of danger. I learned that when I saw the dying in the Rabian lands, then here during the coup and wars.”

  “That’s how the world works though sir, the Yeomanry troops have the burden of danger, the upper ranks the burden of command.”

  “Indeed it is mostly. Yet that may be shifting a bit if all goes to plan,” the Colonel said with an optimistic smile. “If it does, my brother will have the shock of his life.”

  “Is that what my mission concerns sir?” asked Weyland.

  “No, I’ll get you the information on that back at the Estates. Yet for now, tell me Eric, have you ever been admitted to a secret society?”

  Weyland took his eyes off the road to look directly at Seymour momentarily. His face was deadly serious, like a switch it had gone from one mood to the next.

  “You can speak freely, my bodyguards in the back are sworn to keep silence.”

  Weyland looked back to the road and the relentless vehicle in front of him. It, like his vehicle had convoy and hazard lights flashing. Each time he saw it flash seemed to be a warning. To even be a member of any secret society was against Albionic Law. A law signed by all twelve of the Colonels.

  “I’ve been asked to join the Knowlen Brotherhood in the past Colonel.”

  “You can call me Alex son.”

  “I thank you sir, but all the same, as the highest of Yeoman, I must call you Colonel, Colonel.”

  “Fair enough Eric, so why did you not accept the invitation to the Knowlen?”

  Weyland paused before speaking. Why would the Colonel even ask such a thing of him?

  “Of course not, I serve my own people not a Semetic mystery religion.”

  “You can still serve your own folk in a secret society though. One that inherently serves Albion.”

  Weyland refused to speak on, fearing he was being tested further, but the Colonel prompted him shrewdly.

  “Why did you turn down the offer from the Knowlen?”

  “I considered it an alien, non-native thing Colonel. It felt like I’d belong to something entirely different than my own…” Weyland struggled to find the appropriate words. “Belonging I guess.”

  “Well said, that’s somewhat vague but a good approximation of them,” the Colonel said with a nod.

  “The border to Albion isn’t far, you can freewheel now,” his officer said, indicating it was time to leave the convoy and drive independently.

  Weyland didn’t need to be told twice. He turned off his hazard lights and indicated right to overtake the front vehicle. In doing so he took the powerful machine up to eighty-miles per hour.

  For a time there was a silence as the increased drone of the engine dominated the cabin. When the mile marker for Pontefract Castle neared he slowed it down to sixty-miles an hour.

  “I used to be one of them,” Colonel Seymour said quietly.

  “The Knowlen?” Weyland asked gob smacked.

  “Them first, then a more secretive, much more powerful group shortly afterwards. The Commissioner and I were in it together.”

  “Good gods sir!”

  “This was before even the coup took place. I was younger than you back then, just a junior officer believing everything I’d been told. Things were or at least seemed a lot more optimistic, like everything was to play for. My family had connections to powerful people on this island going back to before the Tudors. A family legend says the Normans or Templars discovered secrets during the Crusades elevating them in status. Whatever the case, the invitation came and I took it. That’s when I joined the Inner Way.”

  “I’ve never even heard of them sir.”

  “Almost no-one has, to actually rebel and leave it like I did and tell the tale is rare indeed. I got lucky though, a fellow rebel aided me in doing so. For the Commissioner though, he was all the way or nothing, he thought he could work from the inside and bring it down. He was wrong, the person that was my half-brother went in too deep and never returned from their dark ways.”

  “So was it you and one of the other Colonels that broke off from the Inner Way?”

  “No, he was a merchant banker’s son. He and I formed a pact to break away and form a better Britain, an Albion. So the seeds of the coup were planted,” the Colonel smiled at the memory of those heady times. “Then, during the chaos and confusion the Inner Way sent their assassins in. He was cut down and killed but I, along with other Yeoman fought on and the coup began proper. The Inner Way were not happy to say the least, but the coup was successful and I became too powerful for them to take down. After the war and this territory we now call home they know better than to mess with us. Though weakened, they still pose a threat.”

  “Colonel, why exactly did you leave the Inner Way?”

  “They practice dark ways and arts, there was and is a plan to enslave the world and we are their number one target I think. So, amid a cauldron of child sacrifice and molestation I saw it was time to take a stand.”

  “The Inner Way kill and abuse children?”

  “They sacrifice them.”

  “That’s horrific!”

  “Indeed, fortunately I learned of this from the rebel banker before I’d been fully admitted into their cabal. In this way I was not tricked into murder and abuse, there’s usually no going back once you are in that deep. Yet one of them showed me the darkest secrets of them actually killing a young boy, in order to prove what he said was real.”

  “By the powers sir that’s the lowest of the low, I thought such things were from a previous age.”

  “Not a chance, the Inner Way and those like them still indulge, it’s just a lot more secretive and behind closed doors. They wear masks so even a video camera can’t prove who is who.”

  “Was that when you chose to rebel?”

  “Yes, I gathered loyal officers to me. From there we plotted and schemed like madmen on how to try and turn around this precious island from their clutches. It took us half a year and all kinds of maneuvering to set up the take-down of a government and the Inner Way. Then, on the day I was supposed to be admitted into the Inner Way, the coup was launched instead. What a time! It was like the fates and destinies crying out for liberation. We killed many Inner Way types with our battles and executions, but let me tell you, not one of them deserved a fair trial.”

  “I’m not judging you Colonel and I doubt many other Yeoman would, but did you not think to tr
y and blow the whistle and bring charges through the courts?”

  “No-one would have believed us, the judges would either have thrown it out of court or been part of the whole racket.”

  “I thought the coup was to take down the corrupt government, but all this time there’s been a much darker force at play?”

  “Exactly. There were twenty of us when it started, nineteen military men and that one civilian who helped show me the true dark heart of the Inner Way. I wasn’t corrupted with the taint of their child murdering ways but I think he was. Yet perhaps something awoke in him, a force to redeem through our actions. Whatever the cause, he opened the door and that’s how I escaped the Inner Way. They didn’t know any of this until the day of the coup when we were smashing down doors up and down the land. The element of surprise, the way of unpredictability. These are elements the Inner Way cannot easily work out or fathom.”

  Weyland paused as he took in the gravity and secret history of the coup.

  “This was the merchant banker fellow? The one who got you out to begin your work?”

  “Yes, he was a young half-Kaslar lad, born into a family steeped in such things. I often came close to killing him when I learned the Inner Way’s true nature, I feared that perhaps he was playing me somehow. I’m glad I stayed my hand. I could have protected him better perhaps, but he always liked the cities and the ladies too much to be among the towns and village folk. The Inner Way suspected he was rogue though, he had done a lot of digging and revealed many of their members to us.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “Inner Way contracted some of their killers, they tracked him down, took out his bodyguard and mortally wounded him in a savage fashion. By the time I got to him he was on his last breath, cuts all over him, dying from blood loss. Before he died he asked that we go easy on his folk if they needed a place to shelter.”

  “Was this because his kin were a part of the Inner Way and wealthy elite?”

  “That and the fact we both knew there was a good chance of a backlash against his brethren. So I swore they’d have a place if they had no place else to go. It was the least I could do for him.”

  “That’s bold sir, a few Yeoman have a rough bone to pick on that I think. Many don’t trust them at the best of times.”

  “Don’t I know it, I had to make a few compromises but the coup held firm. One of the biggest gripes was infiltration, but with outside help a system was in place for detecting and weeding out undesirables.”

  “Don’t saboteurs, spies and the like try it on though? I don’t just mean bad Kaslar folk but people of Albion stock who are working for the enemy.”

  “Yes, but they get spotted and shown the door. The ones that get through are small fry, deliberately watched and followed discretely. That way the enemy thinks we are not totally infallible.”

  The old Colonel grinned with the words and wound down his window to smoke another cigarette. He offered one to Weyland who took it readily. When it was half-used he smiled in the afterglow memory of victory.

  “The past is the past. I did what I could, and avoided a civilian total war, which was my biggest fear during those times. Anyway, that’s enough about me.”

  Weyland nodded, they’d almost reached the first outer-base of the Estates and he began to slow down to about forty-miles-per-hour.

  “If it’s about Ireland I’ve already—”

  “No, it’s about your past my boy.”

  Weyland fell silent, knowing it was his turn to answer prying questions. He nodded slowly.

  “You left the Intelligence Corps to join us during the war. Yeoman Riley was also formerly Intelligence Corps was she not?”

  “That’s correct Colonel. We heard your plea and answered it, despite both our families disowning us.”

  “There was a lot of disowning all over back then. Now, there was a third though was there not? A person close to you at that time. The one you couldn’t convince to join our struggle.”

  Weyland knew who he meant, he didn’t seek to ask how, when or who had been the source. He nodded.

  “Rebecca Templeton,” Weyland stated with a sigh. “It was a case of her honor to her folk versus my sacred duty to mine. She would not even consider joining us, try as I did. It was just as well really I think, our roads are separate ones, destiny was having sport of us. She’s probably long gone elsewhere now, probably made passage to Kaslar territories in Levant. A fair few of them went there after the war.”

  “Indeed, but I think the fates have an unsurpassed humor when it comes to that one.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked in disbelief. Did the Colonel know of his secret pact, only days before he joined the Yeomanry?

  “Rebecca Templeton is part of a counter-Yeomanry cell. Intelligence Corps have a few of them set up, but hers is the main one. It was set up decades ago but we’ve just recently heard of it surfacing against us. They first engaged us covertly during the Colonels War.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Special Occurrences Task Force. SOTF, or Soh-taff as it’s pronounced. We are the occurrence and they feel they’re special enough to take us on.”

  “By the gods colonel! Eagle branch didn’t even mention this to me.”

  “You’ve been gone a long time too, there’s been changes and SOTF are assigned to bring you in, dead or alive. You’ve been targeted, any Yeoman operative or senior rank for that matter is of course, but you’ve topped the list since Heysham, putting me at second place. Well done for that,” he joked with black humor.

  For Weyland the fact he was an enemy did not bother him the slightest, but that it was her that spearheaded the efforts sent waves of shock through him. “Of all the people on the island! Is she at large in Albion?” he exclaimed in disbelief.

  “No, but we think it’s possible they’ll be launching a strike against us. With all that’s been going on, consider yourself promoted to Yeoman Raven, our highest operative rank.”

  “I didn’t know about Raven rank sir.”

  “Few do, it’s our highest operative rank, here,” the Colonel said, reaching into his combat jacket. He fished out a pair of capsules in two separate containers “Knowing what you know now, it would be wise to use them if the worst is to befall you.”

  Seymour passed the first one to Weyland who took it. It was a white capsule pill inside a small plastic case.

  “This one will put you in a deep, dreamlike coma for a couple of days. If captured by regular forces, the police and suchlike I recommend using it. With a tracking beacon activated we’ll scramble a rescue team.”

  “I’ll stitch it into my clothing,” Weyland said sharply as Seymour passed him the second capsule this one being red.

  “Is this a spare pill?”

  “It’s cyanide, you know what it does. If you have to use it don’t bite down it or there’s a risk you’ll have an agonizing death. Swallow it down, death will come within about thirty seconds.”

  “Surely the first pill will be enough? With a rescue team on standby?”

  “The first pill won’t do you much good if you’re fighting Inner Way operatives, elite troops and SOTF. They know some of our tricks. Intel suggests they can nullify the effects or at least silence our tracking beacon. Your choice on using them, but it’s to be considered.”

  “They say suicide is the cowards way out Colonel.”

  “Better to take your own life than suffer for their torture and vile ways. Being kept alive for days and days for their pleasures is certainly something any man should seek being a coward to avoid. Make no mistake you are one of their top targets now, not just from SOTF. Along with myself and all the other Colonels, you’re a marked man.”

  Weyland took a deep drag of the cigarette, he rarely smoked, but heavy talk was made easier by the effects of it.

  “Well, I suppose it makes it more real though somehow, like we’re facing the threat more than others.”

  “That’s the spirit, we either endure and see in victory
or become broken by our fate.”

  The final checkpoint to the Estates loomed.

  “Do you still want this final mission? I can assign another in your place? You don’t have to accept it.”

  “I never was tested that much overseas sir, not compared to some of the others.”

  “Don’t give me that Eric, I’ve had high praise from your Eagle Commander and his report on you speaks otherwise. This mission might not be London, but it is behind enemy lines.”

  “I don’t want an empty promotion Colonel.”

  “And I don’t want a dead Raven either, especially one who hesitates if he has a Kaslar girl from his past in his sights.”

  “She chose that road and I’ll not sway from mine, especially not now.”

  “Good, we’ll brief you in-depth at The Estates. Oh and Eric...”

  “Our conversation… stays in this Defender sir?”

  The leader of the country nodded. “That’s what I like to hear.”

  They reached the final checkpoint where Weyland slowed the Land Rover down to a slow-crawl. As the double-sentry team saw their commander they both saluted before one raised the armored barriers.

  The Yeoman was now a raven but instead of elation he only felt the grip of anxiety. He’d written off the pact the three of them had made as youthful shenanigans. Yet his past had returned to haunt him even as a mission loomed ahead.

  Chapter 6

  Retaliator