Mac sucked in a breath then blew it out again and stood up straight. “All right, fair enough. Where do you need me?”
* * *
Sitting alone in his cell and lost in a cauldron of emotion, Danny snapped from his trance when the door to his cell-block swung open to produce the same the two guards who’d taken Madisyn.
Danny’s lip curled at the sight of them, and he started to say something but opted against it when the two men ushered in a third man. It was the newly chained and now former chancellor Lucius Zier, whom they shoved into the next cell over.
Danny traded looks with him as the guards sealed the man’s cage.
“Might I ask how long I’m to be left in here?” Zier asked his jailors.
“Not long,” the corporal said. “You’re being transferred to the new colony on Vendale 2 to help rebuild the mining outfit there.”
“Is that so?” Zier laughed aloud. “I presume that’s an order from your new chancellor, then? That I’m to be carted off in disgrace to live out the last of my days as a manual laborer in the rim? And you actually believe that’ll happen?” Zier chuckled again. “No wonder a man your age is still in corporal’s stripes.”
Visibly perturbed, the aging guard approached the front of Zier’s cell and slammed the butt of his stun baton against the bars.
To his credit, Danny thought, the chancellor didn’t even flinch.
“Enjoy yourself while you can, Mr. Zier,” the gray-haired corporal spat. “You ship out in one hour on the Prelyn.”
Zier’s jovial expression darkened, as if the guard’s last words had struck him somehow, but not so much that they’d been a surprise.
“Oh, Alec,” the chancellor murmured. “You always were a mark for symbolism, weren’t you?” Then, standing upright, Zier returned his full attention to his captors. “You have my word, Corporal, that I’ll be ready when the time comes. I would ask one favor of you, however.”
“Oh yeah, what is that?” the corporal asked.
“If they could spare a moment, please have the Prelyn’s engineering team look over the O2 recyclers attached to my cell and document their findings.”
“And tell me, Mr. Zier,” the corporal said with a lopsided grin. “Why exactly would they need to do that?”
Zier’s lips formed a line. “Well…in the odd event that something were to go wrong with those particular systems, I’d hate for the engineer who’d inspected them to get blamed for an episode of…” He paused, as if recalling something. “Accidental asphyxiation stemming from an unforeseen malfunction.”
“Sure, fine.” The corporal waved him off. “Just be ready when we come get you. Oh, and you might want to get to know your cell mate there. Per the chancellor’s orders, he’ll be making the trip with you to Vendale 2.”
Zier’s face dimmed even further. “Very well.”
And with that, the two guards were gone.
“So.” Zier turned his focus to Danny. “I’m guessing by your clothes that you’re not Alystierian. ASC?”
Danny rose from his seat in the corner, approached the bars that separated them, and blew a giant glob of spit next to the old man’s shoes.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Well then, soldier, may I at least have the courtesy of your name?”
Danny didn’t bother with a response. Instead, he turned his back on the man and sat down in his corner.
“You might as well tell me.” Zier took a seat of his own on the floor. “We’re both going to be dead in a matter of hours anyway.”
The absoluteness in his voice was undeniable.
“All right,” Danny said. “I’ll bite. You sound pretty sure of that.”
“Oh, I am,” Zier said flatly. “Granted, I’m no psychic, so I can’t give you an exact time. But, yes…I’d guess sometime in the next twelve to fifteen hours, once we’re safely out of the system, you and I can expect to suffocate to death in the vacuum of open space.”
“Really? That’s a rather specific, albeit indirect way to off two people, don’t you think?”
“Indeed it is. But the new chancellor wants to send me a final message, and given that our departure is scheduled on the Prelyn, I’d say he’s communicated his intentions rather clearly.”
“What’s the significance of the Prelyn?” Danny grunted. “What, did you nail his old lady in the cargo bay or something?”
Zier smirked. “No…not exactly.”
Danny waited. “So are you gonna spill what happened, or what?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Zier leaned his head against the bars. “It was a long time ago. All you need to know now is that, in a matter of hours, you and I will share our final minutes together, gasping for air.” Zier studied the ceiling. “I just hate that it came to this. Masterson is a monster, of that there is no doubt, but he’s a brilliant monster in that he knows exactly when, where, and how to show his true nature. Unfortunately, prior to today…the Alystierian people were never privy to that nature the way I was.”
“Oh, shut your hole already, man,” Danny groaned. “I so don’t wanna hear this from you. Not now. You and Wylon made a deal decades ago at the Zeller Convention that clearly laid out how prisoners of war were to be treated, and Masterson has been pissing all over those regs for years without even doing Aura the damn courtesy of calling it rain! And you, you senile old prick, what do you do about it? Nothing. You sit back on your throne and watch it all happen while your bloodthirsty populace goes bat-shit wild with every throat that asshole cuts!”
Danny grimaced as soon as the words left his mouth, as if he’d been punched in the gut with a sledgehammer—and it was all he could do not to hit his knees in fresh tears.
Zier sat upright and peered at Danny though the bars. “She meant something to you, didn’t she,” he said in a solemn voice. “Wylon’s daughter. I’m so very sorry, son. Dr. Reynolds’s death was—”
“Shut your mouth!” Danny erupted, stabbing his finger at the old man. “You do not…speak her name. Are we clear? You have no right to speak it. Let’s get one thing straight right now, Chancellor, and you’d better damn well hear me on this. Madisyn is dead because of you. Now you may not have been the guy with the knife—that falls on Masterson—but the fact remains that if you’d leashed that psychopath years ago, like any ruler with a pair would have, then your people could never have turned to him now and none of this would’ve ever happened!” Danny spat again in disgust. “Geez, how your people were ever in control of this war with an impotent putz like you in charge, I’ll never know.”
Zier shot to his feet. “I did what I had to do, and I make no apologies for it. I will accept my part in today’s events, as any leader should. But do not think for one instant that I wanted any of this, particularly with regard to the travesty that just took place on that stage!”
Danny rolled his eyes then stared at the wall. “Why do you care, man? It’s not like any of this is your problem anymore.”
“Why do I care?” Zier asked, seemingly offended by the question. “You mean, besides the fact that an innocent woman who had nothing to do with any of this was just murdered for absolutely no reason? This may come as a shock to you, soldier, but I actually like Rick Wylon. He’s a strong leader and a good man, and while I may disagree with some of his ideals—just as my ancestors did with his after the Beyonder war—that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect him.” Zier leaned into the bars to enunciate his point. “And one typically doesn’t show his respect for another by slaughtering that man’s only offspring!”
Danny launched himself at the bars but Zier just stood there, motionless.
“Yes,” the chancellor said. “It is true that if I’d taken a more forceful approach with Masterson prior to the start of the war then perhaps Wylon and I could’ve ended things peacefully and averted this entire mess. I’ll concede that. But you have no idea the obstacles I faced—not just from Masterson but from parliament at large, just to keep those talks alive as long as I did. It was absurd!” Zie
r rubbed his face and sighed. “But in the end, there was simply too much money and too much power to be gained from war, especially with Kendara at stake, so men like Saul Doering and Ralph Kean did what they had to do in order to ensure its declaration.”
Danny released his grip on the bars and tried to mask his amusement. “So let me get this straight. You’re telling me this whole thing, the entire war with Aura, happened because a small pack of corrupt, fat-cat government officials pulled the wool over everyone else’s eyes in order to make a back-pocket cash grab at the caldrasite mine on Kendara?”
Zier nodded. “And when a charismatic leader like Masterson came along…a so-called ‘man of the people’ who came from nothing and fought his way to the top of the Alystierian fleet…Well, then they had the perfect mouthpiece.”
“And they never had a clue what he really was,” Danny guessed.
“Oh, of course they did, as did I. They just didn’t care, and between their own misinformation tactics and the support they received from the media who, let’s face it, have enjoyed a lip-smacking love affair with Masterson ever since his victory at Phalkirk, they were able to keep everyone else in the dark long enough to rally the votes and public support they needed to force the war into being.”
“But you still had to declare it,” Danny said. “It was you who made it official.”
“Please,” Zier scoffed. “I never wanted this war; never wanted any part of it. By the time I made the official declaration, more than eighty-six percent of parliament was backing it along with ninety percent of the populace. For me, the declaration was nothing more than a means to an end.”
“What end?” Danny snorted.
“Keeping my job,” Zier answered. “In the hopes that Wylon and I could somehow find a compromise to end this war sooner rather than later. But then came Dulaston…and Masterson and his goons from the Eurial Sun have been running my name through the mud ever since.”
Danny sat back in his cage and ran a weary palm over his forehead. “Please. Dirty politicians, war profiteers and a corrupt press…When in the hell did I get back to Washington?”
“You want to know the saddest part about it?” Zier asked. “The Alystierian people? The real ones that you don’t see on the battlefield? Most of them are well-educated, well-meaning citizens who want nothing more than safety and security for their families, just as their ancestors had wanted when they left Aura eighty years ago. Unfortunately for them, though, part of being well-educated is having all of the facts, and facts, in this media climate, are hard things to come by. Trust me, soldier, if the Alystierian people are guilty of anything, it’s of buying the only narrative they were ever sold. That’s it.”
Danny stared at his boots while he contemplated what’d been said.
“At the risk of angering you even further,” Zier added, “I do want you to know how terribly sorry I am about what happened to…your person. She was a brilliant woman, and both our worlds are the worse for no longer having her in them.”
Danny shot his cell mate another cold stare; but this time he found it hard to hold. True, he’d still go to his grave thinking the old fart had no spine. But if what he’d said about guys like Kean and Doering was true—especially Kean, and Danny already knew he was a scumbag—then Zier had definitely given him some things to think about.
“My name’s Danny…Danny Tucker.”
Zier craned his neck in Danny’s direction. “Lucius Zier. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Tucker.”
“It’s Sergeant Tucker, actually. Now to paraphrase a buddy of mine, I’d take it as a real kindness if you’d shut the hell up while I try and figure us a way outta here.”
* * * * *
Chapter 33: Exit Strategy
Racking his brain for any ideas for an escape, Danny felt his attention jerked back to the cell-block entrance when, as promised an hour ago, the two guards returned.
“So now we come to it.” Zier got to his feet and presented his wrists as the private approached his cage. Shortly thereafter, he and Danny were led from their cells in restraints.
“C’mon, move it,” the corporal said with a prod of his stun baton to Danny’s back.
The image of Madisyn being dragged away by this man flashed in Danny’s mind. “Just so you know, I wholeheartedly plan to kill you before this ends.”
The corporal traded amused looks with his partner. “Really? Is that supposed to be some kind of threat?”
“Nope.” Danny trudged forward. “Just a promise, and I make it a point to keep those.”
“Fine.” The corporal popped an electric charge from his baton’s head to make his point. “Just shut up and move, already. Ship’s waiting.”
“Hold on just a second,” a voice called from outside the door, and a second later, all four men looked up to see Masterson’s XO stride into the room.
“Captain Briggs,” the corporal behind Danny said with a hint of confusion. “What’s going on?”
Briggs brandished a tablet. “Last minute change in orders, straight from the new chancellor.”
“I didn’t hear anything about that.”
“Don’t know what to tell you, Corporal.” Then, with an easy-handed flick of his wrist, Briggs flipped the tablet toward the corporal who lunged to catch it, only to have his entire head wrenched sideways when the captain’s fist slammed hard into his jaw.
“Holy crap, Captain!” the private shrieked as his partner hit the floor, unconscious. “Are you out of your slaring mind?”
Briggs bent over and scooped up the corporal’s stun baton then pulled his own sidearm and aimed it at the baffled youngster. “I’m sorry for this, Private. But I don’t have much time here, and the chancellor’s coming with me. Now this can go down one of two ways. Either you turn him over and let me stun you, in which case you have my word that you’ll wake up in an hour with a headache and no recollection of where we’re headed. Or, there’s option two.” Briggs brandished his gun. “That’s the one where you don’t wake up at all.”
Danny wondered if he’d ever seen a man so vexed as the private was right then.
“If it’s all the same with you, Private,” Briggs added, “I’d really prefer it if you just took option one.”
The befuddled private considered the offer. Then, reluctantly, he eased the sidearm from his holster, placed it onto the ground, and kicked it off to the side.
“I appreciate that.” Briggs sparked his baton and the private joined his comrade on the floor.
“Captain Briggs, your timing is impeccable,” Zier said, stepping aside to let Briggs unlock his restraints. “To what do we owe this little change of heart of yours?”
“I didn’t sign up for what just happened on that stage,” Briggs said.
“Nor did I.” Zier placed a hand on the captain’s shoulder. “We are in your debt.”
“Yeah, thanks a lot.” Danny gave Briggs his own wrists for unlocking. “I’ve gotta tell ya, I must’ve screamed my head off in here for hours earlier trying to get someone to come talk to me, but no one ever did.”
“Not surprising,” Briggs said with a turn of the cuff key. “Cameras notwithstanding, these rooms are soundproofed.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Danny scooped up the corporal’s sidearm and fired two shots into the head of each guard.
“What the hell are you doing?” Briggs exploded. “I gave those men my word!”
“So did I,” Danny said in an even tone. “You got a problem with that, Cap?”
Zier regarded the men on the floor then returned his attention to the pair before him who were already squaring off. “That’s enough, gentlemen. You both have your reasons for being angry, and I understand that. But right now, we don’t have time for this.”
“How can you say that, Chancellor?” Briggs demanded. “Those men were unarmed and innocent!”
“Indeed,” Zier said, “as was the love of this man’s life when those same two guards dragged her away to be beaten
and murdered before a live audience of millions.”
Danny shot the old man a dark look, then he turned his gaze back to Briggs, whose expression began to cool.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know,” the captain said.
“What the hell ever.” Danny handed the private’s sidearm to Zier. “The chancellor’s right; we need to go. Talk to me about a way out of here.”
Briggs studied Danny for a long moment then reached into his shirt and produced three sidearm sound-suppressors. “The guards’ pod is just two blocks down from here. For the time being, we ought to be clear on account of the video loop I plugged into the security feed, but that’ll only buy us about eleven minutes or so. At that point, people will start wondering why your escorts here haven’t arrived at the release-checkpoint upstairs, and that’s when they’ll come looking for you.”
“Is eleven minutes enough time to clear the premises?” Danny ejected the magazine from his pistol and inspected the load inside.
“I think so, yes,” Briggs said. “I’ve got a cargo hauler parked out back that should be nondescript enough to get us off post and into the city, but that’s not what I’m worried about. Masterson has ordered me back to the Kamuir, which means that sometime in the next hour, I’m probably gonna be declared AWOL, and then all bets are off.”
“All right then, let’s move before the BOLO drops.” Danny slapped the mag back into his gun. “I do need to make a pit stop on the way out, though.”
Briggs looked perplexed. “What in the gods’ names for?”
“You guys took some stuff off of me when you nabbed me from the Larrin,” Danny said. “A small box in particular. I want it back.”
“Not even close to an option.”
“Also not up for debate.”
Briggs’s face tightened again. “Fine. One question: how do I know I can trust you once we’re outside?”
Red Sky Dawning Page 25