by Ward Wagher
The group sitting around the remains of a late supper consisted of Frank, Wendy, Hai, and Smith & Jones. Eden Prary was out visiting as many of the villages in the lowlands as he could. Hai had arrived after dark and had slogged through the snow, coming from the shuttleport.
“It gets cold up here in the winter time,” Hai said. “I nearly froze several important body parts walking down from the shuttleport.”
“You should have called,” Wendy said. “It’s no problem to send the Jitney up.”
One of the recent purchases was a twelve passenger bus for the inn. It was being used for general transport as well as a courtesy van for the inn.
“I should have. I didn’t realize it was this cold.” Hai shivered. “And you have tourists coming for this?”
“No accounting for taste;” Frank said, “for which I am glad.”
“I’m still surprised you were able to get the hotel functional this quickly,” Hai said.
“Still working on it, I’m afraid.”
“Frank has been busy kicking the Village Inn into shape,” Wendy said. “He has been setting high standards for the establishment and surprising, I think, the hotel manager.”
“Mister Marple learned a few lessons today, I expect,” Frank said. “The staff thought they could skate by on some things.”
“What’s the load on the house?” Ciera asked.
“Pretty much a full house; first two floors full. The third is supposed to open next week.”
“Supposed to?” Wendy said.
“After our little inspection this afternoon, I suspect Marple will be moving heaven and earth to get things ready again. He was embarrassed.”
“Fourth floor is the top, right?” Hai said.
“Yes. We are waiting to see how the traffic builds before we invest in finishing that floor,” Frank said. “With any luck at all, our friend will not be able to scare people off.”
“How did you find out about his latest adventure?” Ciera asked.
“It doesn’t leave this room, but I received a phone call from the prime minister, to warn me about it.”
“The plot thickens,” Smith said.
“Oh yes,” Frank said. “He has been tasked, apparently by both Admiral Krause and Carlo Roma to keep the duke in line. He is a very unhappy boy.”
“I do not doubt it,” Hai said. “I had a dog like the duke one time. When he wasn’t peeing all over my flat, he was apt to bite anybody when the notion took him.”
“I never met that dog, did I?” Frank said.
“Alas, he is no longer with us.”
“Would that it was the same with the duke,” Frank said fervently.
Frank’s comm chirped. He pulled it out and looked at the display. “Eden is calling.” He pushed the accept button. “What’s up, Eden?”
Eden Prary’s deep voice rattled the speaker in the comm. “Sir, I am at Blue Cove.”
“What is your status?”
“Sir… everyone here is dead.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Frank squeezed the comm so hard his hand turned white.
“Frank! What is it?” Wendy called from across the table.
“How many are we talking about, Eden?” Frank asked.
“I.. I am not sure. Fifty, maybe seventy-five.”
“Everybody?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Frank looked up at the people around his table. “Eden is at Blue Cove. Everyone is dead.”
Wendy gasped and put her hand over her mouth. Ciera bent over and put his face in his hands.
“Eden,” Frank said, “I want you out of there right now! You are exposed. Don’t wait!”
“Yes, Sir. Heading for the aircar.”
“Who does he have with him?” Ciera said.
“He has two of the guards with him, I think,” Frank said. “That’s not enough if a whole village has been taken out.” He paused. “I cannot believe this. Unless we can figure out a way to run whoever did this to ground, they are going to terrorize the whole district.”
“Is Eden still on the line?” Ciera asked.
“Yes. I can hear him breathing.”
“Okay, we are aboard and taking off,” came Prary’s voice.
“Don’t mess about, Eden. Goose the thing and get some altitude. If they have any man-portable launchers, you could still be in trouble.”
“I would say our pilot is motivated,” he rumbled. “We should be back at the keep in fifteen or twenty minutes.”
“We will see you then. I’m giving my comm to Wendy. Please stay connected until you land here.”
Frank turned to Ciera. “I want you and Smith & Jones to put together a tiger team and be on the ground at Blue Cove at first light. See if Vos will rent us a shuttle. While you are at it, you had better put the forces here on alert. What a mess!”
“If we put a team out there,” Hai said, “you will be way under strength here.”
“Don’t I know it. I wish we had some orbital assets to watch things. If we put an aircar up to look around, it would be a sitting duck. That’s why I told Eden to get back here so quickly.”
“Frank, what about the militia Smith & Jones are training?” Wendy said.
“If I may,” Smith said, “some of them are just about capable of defending their homes. Maybe. If we have them out tramping around in the snow, they will get picked off one by one.”
“The duke has caught us with our pants around our ankles this time,” Frank said. “As stupid as he is, he knows how to go for the jugular. Plus, when word gets out, our tourists will evaporate. In fact, if we do not find the tangos PDQ, I will probably evacuate the guests, myself. I’m sure the Woogie will lodge them in Cambridge.”
“The duke will be delighted with that,” Hai said.
“Can’t be helped. Where’s Gerry? I need to get a message to Krause into the pipeline. I doubt he can get here quickly, but he needs to know what is going on. I can’t believe this is happening – killed everybody.” Frank shook his head. “This guy is a vicious animal and he needs to be stopped.”
“Frank,” Hai said, “you do not have the cover of law if you go after the duke. Everything is hearsay.”
“He is killing my people. If I have to take him out to fix the problem, then I will just have to face the consequences.”
“Maybe we will get lucky and trap the tangos tomorrow,” Hai said.
Frank raised an eyebrow. “Yeah and maybe you can go down to the village church and get Father Riggs to tell you the truth about Santa Claus.”
Ciera snorted. “At least he seems to be able to tell the truth about God.”
Frank shook his head. “Fat lot of good that does us tonight. Now excuse me, please; we must get moving.”
It was a grim, white faced team which disembarked from the shuttle at Montora Village the next afternoon. Following the people, Harmon Eckert eased the backhoe down the ramp.
Frank Nyman was standing near the shuttle in the blowing snow as Hai approached. “Were you able to take care of the bodies?”
Ciera nodded. “It was bad, Frank. Really bad. The men and boys were lined up in the street and shot. The women were badly used before they were killed. I am glad Wendy wasn’t here when we got back.”
“She was not happy at my making her stay at the keep.”
“Why do I think that was an understatement?”
Frank chuckled in a humorless laugh. “We have another problem.”
Ciera raised his eyebrows.
“Guess who showed up today?” Frank waited from some response from Hai, which never came. “I brought a small group to the field today to provide security… in a quiet way, for the tourists coming in from orbit. Hai, Daphne stepped off the shuttle too. I nearly dropped my jaw.”
“Krause will have her head for that,” Hai said.
“No he won’t. She resigned from the Navy. She came here and offered her services to Montora.”
“Well, you certainly cannot allow that…”
&
nbsp; “If I cannot get Wendy out of here, what makes you think she would let me boot Daphne out?” Frank folded his arms. “Did you tell your team to keep things quiet?”
“Yes. Word will get around here, of course, but they understand the need to keep the tourists undisturbed. Which being said, we need to go back out there tomorrow. We took care of the bodies today. Tomorrow we need to clean out all of the homes and make Blue Cove look deserted. What do you want to bet the duke is going to get the newsies in there once his team gets word back to him?”
“Is he smart enough to do that?”
“You tell me, Frank.”
Eden Prary walked up to the two men. “It was very bad today, Margrave,” he rumbled. “The men on the team know who orchestrated this and they are out for blood.”
Frank scowled and shook his head back and forth slowly. “I fully sympathize, Eden, and I feel the same way. But you are going to have to sit on them. You too, Hai. If we let a group of vigilantes head into Cambridge we will have a war. Nobody has the resources to fight one and we will all lose. Tell them I am working on something.”
“Are you, sir?”
“Yes.”
Prary looked at Frank steadily.
“I don’t know what it is yet, Eden, but I’m working on it.”
“With all due respect, Margrave, you cannot wait very long.”
“Eden, I don’t need this! You simply have got to keep the people under control. We all do. If we go off half cocked, we will lose everything. Not just me. You and the entire village will lose too. I can talk to them, but they might listen better to you.”
“Of course, Margrave.” Prary bowed slightly and backed away.
Both men watched as Eden Prary walked away with his head bowed.
Hai turned back to Frank. “There goes a man who is beyond rage. Are you going to get the tourists out of here?”
“No.”
“Is that wise, Frank?”
“No. But if I send them away, our business evaporates before it has really begun. Then we lose.”
“But if we have an attack here…”
“They know better than to do a direct attack on Montora Village. They are opportunists. If we do not figure out how to counter them pretty quick, they will rampage through the lowland villages… which will achieve the same end for them.”
“In other words we have to locate and sanitize.”
“You got it, Hai. But, I am at a complete loss on how to do that. We have little villages scattered all over the place. We cannot guard them all. They will pick on the most defenseless. Any suggestions appreciated.”
“Let me talk to Smith & Jones. Maybe we can lure them into a trap.”
“Anything you can do, Hai. We are in real trouble here.”
Hai nodded as they turned to walk. “Let’s get to the keep before we freeze out here. I’m going to take the aircar out tonight. I won’t be spotted at altitude, but I think I can pick out campfires. Maybe we will get lucky. Vos rented us the shuttle for the week.”
“I know. I saw the invoice.”
“If I see something we can drop a troop in on that group before they know what is happening.”
“Do our people have the training for that?” Frank looked over as they scrunched through the snow. It was cold enough their boots squeaked in the drifts.
“No, but I think they will do well enough. Surprise is a wonderful thing.”
“Surprise works in two directions, Hai.”
“I do not intend to be surprised.”
The scream of turbines announced the arrival of another shuttle, interrupting their conversation. It descended across the field and nosed up to kill speed before settling on its landing jacks.
“Who is that?” Hai asked.
“I have no idea,” Frank said. “Nobody was scheduled to come in.”
“I have not seen a shuttle like that around Cambridge.”
“Let’s hope the duke has not acquired a combat shuttle. We’d better go see who just dropped in on us.”
The ramp dropped and a figure wearing brilliantly polished tanker boots, and gleaming medals on a military uniform strode off the shuttle. His sharp features and white hair were clearly seen through the snow. “Ho, ho, ho! Christmas in Montora, by Gawd! I saw the ads, Frank, and just had to come. Wendy did them, right?”
He walked up to Frank and held out his hand. “Hello, you old goat!”
Frank looked over at Hai as he shook the proffered hand. “I would like to introduce you to the most profane man I know. Commander Hai Ciera, this is Colonel Otto Putin of the Baltic Regiment.”
Ciera saluted and then stuck out his hand. “An honor, Colonel. I am so surprised, I cannot think of something witty to say.”
The colonel laughed. “The Captain here is in a class all of his own for turgid witticisms. Do not feel you must compete with him for my sake. But why are we standing out here in the snow? I want to see this castle I have heard about.”
Frank reached inside his coat and pulled out his communicator. He punched a few numbers. “Modest, I need the jitney up here at the shuttleport. We have VIPs.”
He put the comm away. “It is about a mile to the castle. I have transportation coming. How many do you have in your party?” He glanced over at the shuttle, where more people were coming down the ramp.
“I have my aide, the two pilots and a couple of MPs for security.” Another officer walked up, carrying an attaché and a machine pistol. “This is my aide, Captain Cannon. I believe his name encourages him to maximize his weapons load at all times.”
The captain smiled politely. He had heard the joke before. He saluted Frank and shook hands with Hai.
“What brings you to Montora, Colonel?”
“We have business to discuss, Captain. I was hoping for a warm dining room to open the topics.”
“That we can do,” Frank said. “If the jitney doesn’t get stuck, we should be on our way shortly.” He leaned closer to the colonel. “It has been a very bad day here, Colonel.”
Putin cocked an eyebrow but said nothing.
“We had somebody take out an entire village last night. What was the count, Hai?”
“Sixty-seven, Sir. Men, women and children.”
Putin looked down and started swearing under his breath. “You really did screw yourself into a hole in the ground, Captain. I assume you don’t have the resources to come up with a counter. Well, here comes your bus. You can tell me about it on the way.”
The little electric jitney eased to a stop next to them. Modest Marple himself was driving. Frank and Putin boarded first and moved to the back. Ciera and Cannon sat a couple of rows ahead of them and blocked the aisle, forcing the other passengers to sit forward. As they rolled away, Frank quickly sketched out the outlines of what had been going on, including Ciera’s plans for tonight.
Putin pulled out his communicator and called the ship. “Get me Sergeant-Major Rothman.” He waited for a minute. “Smaj, I need you to set up a troop with winter gear and weapons, and get them on one of the assault boats. This will be an all-nighter. Commander Ciera will call you in thirty to brief you.” He waited briefly. “Right Sar-Maj. Probably would be best to drop here first to pick up the commander. He will have the decision-making authority. And probably you should let the major know.”
“You have got troops on board?” Frank asked.
Putin held up an index finger. “All in due time, Captain,” he said quietly. “We have a lot to discuss.”
Chapter Twenty-three
“So tell me why I should not install you aboard the next shuttle from here with a solid kick in the pants?” Hai said.
Daphne sat across the table and glared at Ciera. “I no longer have to explain anything to you, Commander. I am no longer in your chain of command. Wendy and Frank needed me here; so, here I am. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?”
“What is so difficult to understand? The last time you were here you had the stuffing beat out of you. You canno
t sit there and tell me you are not still sore from that little adventure.”
“I’m fine, Commander.”