Children No More-ARC

by Mark L. Van Name

  I bent my head and subvocalized, "No. He has to know we'd twig to the blackout."

  "Well?" Lim said.

  "It's still too risky," Lobo said.

  I nodded, hoping Lobo would take it as a response to him, and looked at Lim again. "You're right," I said. "We need to talk, but not just us, not here, and not on an empty stomach. Can you call Gustafson and Schmidt to your HQ, have someone bring us some food, and have people you completely trust—maybe Long?—keep the boys away from that place long enough that we can have a truly private conversation?"

  Her face tightened. "You don't command me or my staff, Moore. You tell me, and I'll decide what to do with the information."

  I shook my head. "This is not a contest. I don't want to command anyone. You said you'd trust me, and you've done so. All I'm doing is asking you to trust me a little longer. That's it."

  We stared at each other for a bit.

  She shook her head and smiled slightly. "Why do I put up with you?"

  I smiled in return. "Because you know I'll do everything in my power to come through for you."

  "Breakfast? You want to eat now?"

  "Yes," I said, "I do. Please."

  She shook her head and headed toward the hatch. I heard it open at her approach and followed her.

  As she was about to step outside, she faced me and said, "Be there in fifteen, and after we eat, we talk. One way or another, we will talk."

  Chapter 61

  In the former rebel complex, planet Tumani

  The food was already on Lim's desk when I arrived. The meal wasn't much—chunks of bread, a hunk of cheese, some cured meat, and a pitcher of water—but I piled a plate and started eating as if it were the best food I'd ever tasted. I chewed each bite slowly, taking my time, letting Wylak draw ever closer, hoping Jack and Maggie were doing the same.

  At first, the other three stared at me as if I had been kidding and couldn't have been planning to eat, but after half a dozen slow bites, Gustafson shrugged, filled a plate, and ate a bite of bread. Schmidt followed a few seconds later. Finally, Lim gave in and got her own food.

  After a few minutes, I set my plate on Lim's desk. Before she could yell at me, I said, "For Long." I assembled a little of everything and took it outside where Long was leaning against the wall to the right of the doorway.

  "We'll be eating for a few minutes," I said, "so you might as well do the same. Once we start talking, though, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep circling this building and make sure we continue to be alone."

  He took the plate, nodded, and said, "You bet. Thanks."

  Even eating slowly, I could kill only so much time. The others finished, pushed away their plates, leaned back, and stared at me.

  "About seventy-five minutes until Wylak is due," Lobo said over the comm, "though from some movement I'm detecting in the troops down the road, he may be running a bit early."

  I closed my eyes for a second and focused on staying calm. If Wylak was early, I'd have to stall until either Jack and Maggie arrived or it was clear they weren't coming. As long as the Senator didn't beat his schedule by too much, I should be fine.

  I opened my eyes again, picked up the last piece of cheese from my plate, and ate it.

  "Okay," I said, "let me tell you what I know." I turned to the door and said, "Long, time to earn that breakfast."

  "Doing it," he said. "I'll yell if I anyone comes close."

  As soon as I turned back to her, Lim said, "All of what you know?"

  I smiled. "You know I've been around, so that would take a lot longer than we have. How about I just go over the parts that matter right now?"

  Lim's expression didn't change. She didn't appreciate my humor, but at least she also didn't point out the potential lie in what I'd said. She sat and waited.

  "I'll take that as a yes," I said. I took a deep breath and pushed back from the desk; if Lim lunged for me, I wanted room to maneuver. "The short form is this: Wylak is on his way here now."

  "What?" Lim said. She rose. "Why? He's not due for five more days."

  "He decided to make his move earlier."

  "Why bother?" Lim said. "He knows we can't have completed the reintegration training. A few boys ready are close to ready, but not most of them. It's too soon, and he has to be aware that it is."

  I nodded. "Yes, he is, but that's not the point, and you know it. Once he's gone through the motions of meeting with you, he'll have the proof he wants. He'll return to his colleagues, declare this exercise a failure, and demand custody of the boys."

  "So he can turn them into soldiers again!" Lim smacked the desk with the flat of her hand, and all of our plates shook. "No, he can't do that."

  "Yes, he can," I said, "and he's bringing a lot of the troops that are guarding the road to help make that point."

  "How can you be sure about all this?" Lim said.

  "The same sources that told me about the blackout before you learned about it."

  "How long have you known about Wylak coming early?" Schmidt said. Her voice and expression were completely neutral, but fury showed in her eyes. "How long?"

  I focused on her. "That doesn't matter," I said. She started to speak, but I held up my hand to stop her. "If we in any way let on that we were aware he was coming, he'll realize we have an intel source in his team and change his comm protocols. We have to act surprised and do what we can to show him some boys who are ready for reintegration."

  "Is there any chance he'll throw us out today?" Gustafson said.

  I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes. He'll have the firepower, and he already has the desire. We have to consider it a possibility."

  "So," Lim said, "you've known for some time—it doesn't matter how long, some time—that Wylak was coming and might take the boys, and you didn't think you should tell us." She leaned closer. "Do you realize what you've done?"

  "Yes," I said. "I've stopped you from doing anything that might endanger either these boys or the only reliable information sources we have—or both."

  "We could have been preparing," Schmidt said.

  "To do what?" I said.

  To Schmidt's credit, despite how upset she was, she considered the question. After a few seconds, she said, "We could have contacted local media or tried to get at least some of the boys off the planet."

  "Lim and I have already been through this," I said, "and I expect she's reviewed the subject with you as well."

  "I have," Lim said.

  Schmidt banged her fist on the desk. "We could have tried to do something!"

  "None of the options available to you would have helped," I said. "Most would have made matters much worse and played right into Wylak's plans."

  "Okay," Lim said, "let's grant that we had no viable alternatives. You said you had a plan, and you said you were working on it. Isn't it about time to brief us on that?"

  "No," I said. "There is absolutely nothing I could say that would help."

  "With all the knowledge you had," Lim said, "why did you have us clear away those trees? Paint those signs and plan a party we'll never be able to hold?" She studied me closely. "Or is all of that part of your plan?"

  I didn't look away as I answered. "The boys learned important lessons. Those activities seemed like a good idea at the time. I still hope for a positive outcome."

  Schmidt looked like she wanted to shoot me.

  Gustafson showed no reaction; he just watched everything.

  Lim fought to control her anger. Her eyes widened slightly and she looked up and to her left; some new tactic was coming.

  "Or am I giving you too much credit?" she said. "Did you even have a plan, or were you simply trying to keep me calm once you knew the situation was hopeless? Were you able to sacrifice all of the boys that coldly? Do none of them mean anything to you?"

  Even though I could tell that she was trying to get to me, I couldn't stop the anger that flooded my body. I ground my teeth and forced myself to take a long, slow breath through my nose before I spok
e. "You know me better than that. I appreciate how hard this is for you, but I promise you that continuing to push and attack me is not going to accomplish anything useful."

  "What would you have us do?" Gustafson said. His face now looked as tight as mine felt, but his words came out flat.

  "Keep trusting me," I said. "Carry on as normally as possible until we meet with Wylak. Lim, act surprised when he calls, but don't act stupid; he's too smart not to notice changes in your behavior. Be indignant about the comm blackout, and ask him what he knows about it." I stood. "In other words, act like we never had this talk, which is what I'd wanted in the first place."

  "Where do you think you're going?" Lim said.

  "Out. To clear my head and get ready for our meeting on the road outside the complex."

  "'Our' meeting?" Lim said. "And on the road? Wylak will want to meet with me, not us, and I assume he'll fly in here as usual."

  "You're going to bring me," I said. "He'll wait outside the complex. He'll have troops behind him, lots of them. He'll know what he's started. You've demonstrated enough anger in front of him that he won't want to take the chance that you'll try to hold him hostage, so he'll stay where he feels he's completely safe." I headed for the door.

  Long appeared in the doorway and blocked my path.

  "And if instead I have Long lock you up and meet with Wylak myself?" Lim said.

  I stepped to the side so I was more than a meter from Long and had clear views of all of them.

  "Say the word," Lobo said, "and I will blow the top off that shack and trank them all."

  Gustafson stood and stepped closer to Long.

  I glanced at the floor and subvocalized, "Get ready."

  Long angled his body toward me.

  I made eye contact with each of them, Lim last. I stared directly at her. "If you try to do that," I said, "then you'll have started something you cannot hope to finish, and I'll end up meeting with Wylak on my own. That is not my preference, but I will do whatever I can to save those boys. Letting you detain me and deal with Wylak on your own will hurt them, not help them."

  "Hovering," Lobo said.

  "Your call," I said to Lim. "What'll it be?"

  Chapter 62

  In the former rebel complex, planet Tumani

  "You're not that good," Long said.

  "Son," Gustafson said, his eyes never leaving me, "you'd do well not to speak when you don't know what you're talking about."

  "There are four of us," Long said. "If by some miracle he takes us all, dozens of reinforcements are one call away."

  Lim shook her head slowly and faced Long. "Stand down, Chris. He doesn't need to do more than survive the couple of minutes it would take for his ship to reach us."

  "Less than thirty seconds," Lobo said over my comm. "Would you like me to show them?"

  "No," I subvocalized.

  Long didn't like Lim's order, but he stayed put.

  After a few seconds, she nodded and focused again on me. "You were right a while back," she said, "when you realized that I'd brought you along in case things went nonlinear. They have. You say you still have hope, so I'm going to continue to trust you." She glanced briefly at Long. "We're all going to trust you. So, I'll do as you instructed when Wylak calls, and I'll bring you to the meeting."

  "Thank you," I said. "Now, I need to get ready."

  She tilted her head. Long stepped clear of the doorway.

  "Just one more thing, Moore," Lim said.

  "Yes?"

  "If this ends badly and I find out you were lying, that you never had a real shot at saving these kids, then I'll get my own ships, a lot of them if I have to, more than yours can handle, and I'll find you. You understand?"

  "Yeah," I said. "I'd do the same in your shoes, but it won't come to that."

  I walked out the door. When I was ten meters away, I said to Lobo, "Tell me you have news from Jack and Maggie."

  "Not yet," Lobo said, "but as I warned, with this blackout we won't know until either they're very close or the time passes and they don't show."

  "Great," I said. "Just wonderful." I glanced backward. No one was anywhere near me. I picked up my pace. "I'm on my way in. Brief me on everything you have on Wylak's movements and the soldiers' activities." Lim had yielded mighty quickly. She was probably telling the truth, but she might have been playing me in some way I hadn't yet figured out. Being cautious at this stage of any operation was only prudent. "Monitor everything Lim and her people say. If anything starts to go off track, I want to know about it immediately."

  "Already doing it," Lobo said. "As for Wylak, from what I can pick up of the chatter of the nearby soldiers, he'll reach them about half an hour before the meeting, do a quick review of the goals with the leaders, and ceremoniously lead them up the road to us."

  "Making a show of it suggests that he brought others; he wouldn't bother with the performance if the only observers were the soldiers. Can you tell if he did?"

  "Yes. I haven't been able to hack into his ship, because it's not one he used before. I had tapped into the systems at the government transport station where his staff filed his travel plans. According to the records I received from it before the blackout, he's traveling with three other senators, a general, a couple of media handlers, and two holo recording teams."

  "So all the logs will appear clean and above board," I said, "especially after his people edit the recordings."

  "Update: He contacted Lim and told her he'd arrive in less than an hour."

  "How she'd do?"

  "As well as the extremely brief call permitted," Lobo said. "She protested about the early visit and the blackout. He claimed both were for the safety of the boys. Before she could say anything else, he cut her off."

  "Excellent," I said. "Short is good."

  "Lim wants to talk to you."

  I nodded.

  Her voice filled the front of Lobo. "Wylak will be here within the hour," she said. "He just called. Before you ask, I played it right—not that I had much of a choice, because he disconnected almost immediately."

  "Thank you," I said.

  "So what now?" she said.

  "Make it as much a normal morning as possible, but post a team you trust—preferably including Gustafson and Schmidt—on the exit to the road. I'll meet you there when Wylak is five minutes out."

  "He'll want to come inside."

  "I know, and we'll probably have to let him, but we'll start out stalling."

  "How long do you expect to be able to do that?"

  "Nothing from Jack and Maggie," Lobo said privately.

  "I'm not sure," I said to Lim. "I figure we'll do our best."

  "Lovely," Lim said. "Out."

  Jack, I thought, I sure hope you make it.

  Chapter 63

  On the road outside the former rebel complex, planet Tumani

  I'd worried that Wylak might bring only a few soldiers, try to play it conservative lest his force look overpowering.

  I needn't have worried.

  Lim and I watched from a meter outside the doorway to the road as row after row of soldiers marched toward us. Wylak and his entourage rode in an open hoversled in front of the troops, moving so slowly that the marching men and women had no trouble keeping up.

  "Why so many?" Lim asked.

  "It allows him to send three messages at once," I said. "First, to the Tumani citizens who will watch the holos, he is showing that the nation's army is strong enough to be able to spare forces even as the war with the rebels rages. Second, he's making the points that the sixty of us are nowhere near enough to handle five hundred boys, that he understands this fact, and that, unlike us, he is able to staff appropriately. And third, of course, he's showing us that fighting him would end badly."

  "None of them are heavily armored," Lobo said over the comm, "and none of them are carrying any surface-to-air weapons. As long as you let me kill them, it doesn't need to end at all badly for us. I could shoot them all in minutes; the mines will ta
ke care of any that try to get away."

  "I don't plan to let it get to that," I subvocalized.

  One of the holo teams in Wylak's transport turned to face us, no doubt recording our every move. Their directional mics would be able to capture our words when the hoversled shut down, but for now they couldn't hear us.

  I raised my hand as if covering a cough and said, "They're capturing video of us, though the hoversled's noise will stop them from hearing us. From here on, cover your mouth or look down if you need to speak to me. Otherwise, do exactly as I say."

  Lim scanned the area as much as she could without moving her head. She looked down as she spoke. "They're in front of us. Our staff and the boys are behind us. Nothing is different. This is your plan?"

  "Wait for it," I said.

  "Before you can ask," Lobo said, "nothing yet from Jack and Maggie, but with the blackout that doesn't mean anything. I'll tell you the moment I hear from them."

  "Yes, this is my plan," I said, also staring at the ground. "Trust me." I tried to sound a lot more confident than I felt. Maybe Maggie and Lobo had been right that I was foolish to trust Jack. Maybe he'd given her the slip already. Maybe he'd tried and failed. Or maybe her people had refused to fund this very expensive endeavor, in which case he would have vanished quickly.

  I shook my head. I was destroying my calm uselessly. Either Jack would show up, or we'd lose the boys. I'd already resolved not to fight Wylak, but to maintain that resolve I had to stay focused and centered, not let him provoke me into doing something stupid.

  Or if he did, I had to send in Lobo with everything firing and be prepared for all-out war.

  No. I recalled the dream. I would not do that. I'd been over and over this issue. There was no way to fight Wylak's forces without starting a series of battles that would inevitably end with a lot of boys dying.

  Lim stared at me for a moment before returning her gaze to the road. "I'd be a whole lot happier right now if you had a more substantial plan, say an armada to wipe out these fools and take the boys off planet."