Peacemaker: The Corona Rebellion 2564 AD

by Gordon Savage

  “He does seem to be under stress.”

  “That’s because his freedom after this operation depends on its success. Is that not so, Brigadier?”

  “Yes,” Dixon answered.

  Colt again spoke to the AI, “Was that answer the truth?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “So do you accept my command unequivocally?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Let’s get moving.”

  ###

  Less than half an hour later they settled on a landing pad of a farm house several dozen kilometers east of First Landing. Luna was full, lighting the countryside so brightly colors were discernible. Colt looked overhead to locate the van with Orsini and his crew and then climbed out of Dixon’s flyer.

  As soon as Dixon was out of the flyer, he immediately yelled, “Protocol 53!” and sprinted toward the house. Hess immediately started after him, limping as she ran.

  The AI responded, “Protocol 53. Self-destruct in five seconds.”

  Colt shouted, “Sergeant York, belay that order.”

  The AI responded, “I can’t, sir.”

  Colt bellowed, “Run!” and sprinted away from the flyer. At four seconds he caught up with Hess. He threw his left arm around her shoulders and took her to the ground just as the flyer exploded. The blast was deafening, and for a moment pieces of metal fell all around them.

  Colt jumped up to chase after Dixon, but a volley of blaster bolts near his feet stopped him. Three men in mufti were pointing blast rifles at him as Dixon closed the distance and mounted the steps to the front porch.

  He turned around and called back to Colt, “Princess Jana really is here, and she is obviously no longer of any use to us, so we’ll make you a trade.”

  “What do we have that you want?” Colt demanded.

  “I want you,” Dixon answered. “Drop your weapons where you’re standing and walk here with your hands in the air.”

  “I have a better idea,” Colt responded. “Send the princess out and when she reaches this position, I’ll start walking.”

  “You’re in no position to dictate to me.”

  “I disagree. You’ll notice three trained sharpshooters behind me, and they all have you in their sights. Personally I’d prefer no one gets killed in this confrontation, so send the princess out.”

  “Don’t go anywhere,” Dixon said. He turned and went into the house.

  A minute later Dixon and Jana Stewart appeared on the porch. She started walking toward Colt. When she stepped off the porch, he caught the flash of her red hair in the moonlight.

  “That’s her. Orsini will be on his way down by now. Sergeant Hess, as soon as he lands, get the princess aboard and take her directly to the governor general’s palace,” Colt ordered without turning his head.

  As Jana approached, she recognized him and broke into a run. Colt stood paralyzed, hoping none of the marksmen on the porch decided to stop her. “Gus Colt!” she cried. “Is that really you?”

  Reaching him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed, “Thank God you’re here.”

  “I’m glad to see you too, but you need to keep moving. There are men with guns trained on us right now, and I want you behind my marines in case they change their mind about not shooting. Get! I’ll talk to you when I have the chance.”

  Glancing back Colt saw that Hess had taken up a position to shield Jana and was escorting her out of the way. He dropped his weapons onto the ground and raised his hands. Slowly he walked the remaining distance to the farm house, intensely aware of the guns pointing at him. When he reached the porch, one of the marksmen pulled his arms down and behind his back and wrapped a restraint around his wrists.

  Dixon looked at him smugly. “Check him for hidden weapons and take his communicator.” While Colt was being searched, Dixon pulled out his own communicator. “Call Alpha One.” Colt couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but he heard Dixon’s reply, “I’ve got him.”

  As they led Colt into the house, one of the gunmen fired his blast rifle. He shouted, “That was a warning shot. Stay where you are.”

  Colt didn’t see Orsini land, but he got a running commentary from Dixon’s gunmen, “The other flyer just landed and they’re loading the princess in. It’s moving away on the ground, but the three marines have taken cover and they look like they don’t intend to leave. The flyer has moved off beyond the clump of trees over there. It’s not leaving either.”

  Colt noticed that Dixon didn’t seem to be concerned. Instead, he was looking out the back of the house. About thirty minutes later something caught his attention. He spoke to his communicator, “Alpha One.” Again, Colt couldn’t hear the other voice, but Dixon responded with, “There are seven military shooters in front of the house. Land in back and turn on your shields if you have them.”

  A few minutes later a black flyer descended to hover over the backyard. Dixon and his hired guns hustled Colt outside and stood waiting for the flyer to land. Instead, it continued to hover and rotated until it was pointing directly at them. “What the ….” Dixon started. It was the last thing he ever said. A blaster bolt caught him in the chest. Colt dove for the ground as withering fire took out the rest of the gunmen.

  The flyer landed close by. A man wearing a Home Guard uniform stepped out of the back door on Colt’s side. The guardsman kept a blaster leveled on Colt as he stood up and stared at the carnage around him. The guardsman said, “Thanks for getting out of the way, Commander. It made our job easier.” He roughly frisked Colt, examining the restraints on his wrists, and ordered him into the flyer. Before he got back into the flyer, the guardsman checked all the bodies. One of the shooters was still alive. The guardsman used his blaster to complete the job.

  Seconds later the flyer was airborne, accelerating rapidly toward the west. The guardsman grinned maliciously at Colt, “You’re the only one we want, Commander. Relax and enjoy the ride.”

  As the flyer accelerated to altitude, Colt looked back and caught sight of Lindsay’s van. It was rapidly falling behind. The guardsman smirked, “This baby has the military overrides, that flyer will never keep up with us. The speed governor won’t let them.” He showed his teeth at Colt. “Besides, what could they do if they caught us?”

  The guardsman turned back to watch the struggling van. “Hey! Now they’re trying to climb above the governor setting. It’ll take them too long. We’ll be out of range before they can get high enough.”

  In minutes the van had disappeared from sight.

  “You’re very quiet, Commander. I heard you’re big on bravado. Not so brave now?”

  Colt’s mind seethed. He looked at the guardsman. “I was just thinking. Someone has been trying to haul me in ever since Brady was kidnapped. I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that, would you?”

  The guardsman snorted.

  Colt continued, “Whoever had the Clermont sabotaged and kept the crew prisoners tried to set me up. They fed me what I needed to know to break the crew out. Then they had a team ready to catch me when I tried. Luckily, we all managed to get away.”

  “Do I care about this?” the guardsman grunted.

  “Something to pass the time. You’ve got me, so humor me.”

  The guardsman snorted again. “Go ahead, I like a good story as much as the next man.”

  “Someone was obviously monitoring my communicator. When I called Lindsay, they homed on the signal. We managed to stun the two men they sent to pick me up. I presume they got back safely.”

  “Safely is a relative term. I understand after they got back to First Landing they were shot for botching the job.”

  “That’s doesn’t sound like the mercenaries I know. I gather New Castle doesn’t know you’ve gone renegade?”

  “We’re just following orders,” the guardsman snarled.

  “Right. When subspace is restored, tell that to New Castle.”

  The driver looked uncomfortable.

  The flyer began slowing down
as it approached First Landing airspace.

  Colt resumed thinking out loud. “The thing is that whoever is pulling the strings, knew virtually everything I was doing, but the only people I was talking with were people I trust implicitly. I finally realized it had to be someone Fitzhugh reported to, and it had to be someone on Corona.”

  “Who’s Fitzhugh?” the guardsman asked.

  “A friend of mine who regularly reports to the governor general. However, I’ve met Remarque face to face, and no way could he be involved in treason of any sort. So who does that leave?” Colt stopped because he knew there could only be one answer, the one person on Remarque’s staff who had full access to the same classified information Remarque did.

  They had arrived in First Landing airspace. The flyer entered a descent corridor, bleeding off both speed and altitude. It leveled off in an air corridor, turning into a northwest corridor when they passed the center of the city. Minutes later it descended onto the landing pad for the governor general’s palace. A half-dozen palace guards were standing by the pad when the flyer touched down.

  As Colt stepped from the flyer, the guards surrounded him and silently escorted him up the steps to the portico of the palace. As he entered the building, he mumbled, “Where’s Zorro when you need him?”

  Chapter 39

  “Well, well, well, Commander Colt, so good to see you alive and healthy. Won’t you join me in my office?” Wallace sounded cordial enough, but his face remained expressionless.

  Colt pulled his right hand out from behind him far enough that his restraint was visible and looked at it pointedly. Wallace nodded at the guards. One released the restraint. “Will you be needing us anymore, sir.”

  “No, I can handle him. You’re dismissed.”

  Once the door to Wallace’s office was closed, Colt asked, “Do they know who they’re working for or did you convince them I was a threat to the governor general?”

  Wallace looked at him coldly. “Have a seat, Commander.”

  Colt picked a chair to the side of Wallace’s desk. Wallace sat on the front edge of the desk and stared at Colt for several seconds. Colt stared back, unruffled.

  Finally Wallace said, “You’ve become a problem, Commander. Frankly, I don’t know what to do about you.”

  “But it’s such a great plan. Surely you had all the contingencies covered.”

  Wallace frowned. “Perhaps you don’t appreciate how precarious your position is.”

  “Oh, I have a pretty good idea. The trouble is your plan’s falling apart around you. The loyalists weren’t supposed to put up so much resistance. And, of course, they don’t even have to win. All they have to do is keep you from taking over long enough for the fleet to figure out that they need to intervene.”

  “Unfortunately, in a way you’re correct. There was supposed to be complete chaos after the explosion in Kyoto.”

  Colt smiled. “Backfired, didn’t it?” He changed the subject, “Help me out here. You don’t strike me as a power-hungry politician. Why are you doing this?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Apparently I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I don’t know why I should tell you. I certainly don’t expect to recruit you.”

  “I always like to know my opponent’s motivation. It helps me decide how to handle them when I take them out.”

  Wallace snorted. “Then perhaps I should be interrogating you.” He stood up and began pacing back and forth in front of Colt. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll exchange information with you. You tell me what you know, and I’ll tell you why I’m doing it.”

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “Well, there’s a certain Mrs. Hansen.”

  Colt glared.

  “Oh, come now, Commander. I suppose it was in poor taste to threaten the love of your life, but we can share information with each other. After all, what harm can it do to tell me where I fouled up?”

  “All right. Let’s see how well I’ve figured this out. You’re planning to take control of the planetary government and secede from the Republic. I feel certain the separatists were poorly organized and had no intention of actually rebelling. Your people either prodded a few splinter groups or started battles themselves. Come to think of it, it almost had to be your people who took the subspace relays out and that would account for most of the battles. It didn’t turn into the ground swell you had hoped for, and the nuke at Kyoto pretty well took the fight out of both sides. I presume you’re working on plan B now.”

  “Not bad. Of course, I know these people. I knew an armed rebellion wouldn’t have a chance. The nuke did just what it was supposed to. It got that oaf, Hargety, out of the way. Nobody trusts him now.”

  “You strike me as more of an idealist than a petty tyrant. All right, it’s your turn. What’s your reason?”

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, the Republic is collapsing. Soon enough all the colonies will be independent. We’re just hurrying the process.”

  “So you expect me to believe you’re simply power hungry and want to rule a whole planet,” Colt remarked dryly. Wallace frowned, but Colt continued, “Have you sent your demands yet?”

  “No, we haven’t been in contact with her majesty yet.”

  “You know they’ll laugh in your face.”

  Again Wallace frowned.

  “Oh, come on, Wallace. You’ve been in the business long enough to know the Crown doesn’t negotiate with rebels. The most you can hope for is time to consolidate your grip.” For a second his jaw dropped. “Wait a minute! You’ve known all along this wasn’t going to work, haven’t you? What were you really up to?”

  This time Wallace’s eyes widened.

  “That’s it isn’t it? You helped set this up, but you planned all along for it to fail. You’ve been careful to make sure that none of your operatives know you personally. I’ll bet the men who brought me in don’t know anything about your involvement in this little insurrection. They probably think they’re doing undercover work for you. What do you get from being the hero and unmasking the real conspirators?”

  By now Wallace’s face had become ashen. He looked away from Colt and composed himself. “I knew you were too dangerous to leave on the loose.”

  He swung around and pointed a finger at Colt. “Does revenge seem like a strong motive to you?” He was looking Colt directly in the eye.

  “I considered it once. Fortunately, there was no one to take revenge on.”

  “Ah yes, your wife and daughter. Well, this too is about revenge.” Wallace went back to his pacing.

  “Several years ago, after almost two years of painstaking work, I had put together an ironclad case against Ernst Prochaska for drug trafficking using military personnel. I even had a video of him handing over money to a navy CPO for drugs. I got a warrant and brought him in. Then things started turning sour. First, the video and all the backups disappeared. Then the witnesses all ended up dead or missing. Finally, at the trial, the DNA evidence turned out to be corrupted. On top of that, the defense brought in a surprise witness, Senator Corey Anne McKillip, who swore she was in bed with Prochaska at the time of the exchange. As you can imagine, Prochaska walked.”

  “The Admiralty doesn’t take kindly to getting egg on its collective face, does it? You’re trying to get revenge against the Admiralty?” Colt asked.

  “No, not the Admiralty. As it turned out, Prochaska had enough damaging evidence on Senator McKillip to send her to jail for several years. Even though it meant the end of her political career, she perjured herself rather than go to jail.”

  “You found this out how?”

  “Before Prochaska mysteriously vanished, he confessed most of his varied crimes to me. Unfortunately, none of it was admissible in court.

  “Immediately after the trial McKillip dropped out of the government and disappeared from sight. I finally was able to trace her. She had had bio-sculpting to change her looks and had changed her name to Maryanne Phillips. I had an operative
convince her that there was opportunity here on Corona, and she’s been rebuilding her political career ever since. When Remarque sent the message about finding natives to the colonization board, I made sure she saw a copy. With a little prodding, she started the separatist movement. When Hargety, with his moderate approach, emerged as the separatist leader, she broke off a group who wanted action rather than talk and started the militia.

  “Which worked right into my plans. I’ve been working to set her up. My agents carried out all these incidents—Kyoto, the Guard barracks, Pretoria and dozens more—so they trace directly back to her. We left enough evidence for Hargety’s people that they’ll get the credit for finding her out. She was going down hard!” Wallace winced.

  “Ah, but something else went wrong,” Colt said.

  “That she-witch disappeared again,” Wallace growled. He took a moment to calm himself. “She won’t get away this time. She can’t get off the planet without me knowing it.”

  “I gather the governor general doesn’t know what you’re doing.”

  “No, he doesn’t.”

  “Aren’t you concerned he may drop in on us when he hears I’m here?”

  “Remarque is out for the moment. Just before you got here we received a call from the Invincible. He went to the spaceport to welcome Captain Wessler and find out from her firsthand what happened.”

  Colt’s eyes widened.

  Wallace continued, “I see you were aware there was an incident.”

  “Incident? It was a nuclear explosion.”

  “Apparently the ship survived, but for some reason went incommunicado. They were lucky.”

  “Are you trying to pretend you had nothing to do with the blast?” Colt glared at him.

  “There isn’t a shred of evidence connecting me with the explosion, so, yes, I categorically deny having anything to do with it.” Wallace allowed himself a faint smile. His glance strayed to something on the wall to Colt’s left. Colt followed his gaze. He had to fight to keep his expression neutral.

  He looked back at Wallace. “I’d say there is evidence.” He stood up and walked over to the wall. The revolver hanging on the wall on a highly polished piece of teakwood had a tarnished bronze placard at the bottom that said, “Colt 45 Peacemaker.”