by Mark Harritt
Mike nodded, “A happy wife is a happy life.”
Matki was about to reply, but his attention was diverted by a man walking up the path toward them.
Matki yelled at him, “Caul, well met!”
Caul smiled at the greeting, “May the sun shine on you, Matki Awrani.”
Matki smiled and held his hands out, palms up, “Today, it does.”
Caul pointed at Mike, “Your friend?”
Matki nodded, “My friend, Mike.”
Caul looked at Mike, “Well met, Mike.”
Mike nodded at him, “Bedi dom nat, Caul.”
“Ah, you speak our language?” Caul asked.
“A little. I understand okay, but don’t speak well,” Mike explained, “That is why Matki helps me.”
Mike motioned for Caul to have a seat on the rocks near them.
“How is your day, Caul?” Matki asked.
“It is good. I came in this morning, and heard that your friends wanted to know about the lands north of here.”
“Yes, they look for a place to call home.”
“Well, Matki Awrani, I don’t know if there is such a place, but I know a route they can take north.”
“A route?” Matki asked.
“Yes, a pass to the north. I tracked the huachi north, and they took a path up the mountainside. I followed.”
“You followed to hunt the huachi, or to see what was on the other side?” Matki asked.
A wry smile painted Caul’s face, “A little of both, I think. You know me well, Matki Awrani.”
Matki turned to Mike, “Caul is our best hunter. He knows the animals of this valley better than any other.”
Caul’s smile turned into a grin, “Don’t tell that to Salun. He will never talk to you again.”
Matki told Mike about the pass.
“There is a pass to the valley north of here?” Mike asked.
“Yes, the pass is hard to find, but it is there,” Caul replied. “And then it is a steep climb to the top of the pass.”
“You have seen this yourself?” Mike asked.
“Yes, it is there. I saw it myself,” Caul explained.
This was the first good news they’d had since the council meeting.
“Would you show us where it is?” Mike asked.
Caul nodded, “I can do so.”
“And?” Matki asked.
“I hear that your friends have iron knives to trade,” Caul answered.
Matki confirmed this, “They do.”
“Can I see one?” Caul asked.
Matki relayed the request to Mike. Mike stood up and walked back to the room. He came back with a knife and a dragon hide sheath. This one wasn’t as grand as the one they’d gave to Joacar. It was a hunter’s knife, made for use, not decoration. It had a heavy seven inch blade and a carbon fiber hilt. The sheath was made from dragon skin also, something they had at the compound in great amounts.
Caul’s eyes lit up. Mike walked over and handed the knife to Caul, “This is my gift to you, Caul.”
Caul was dismayed that Mike had given him the knife, “I haven’t shown you the pass yet.”
Mike nodded, “That is true. I have faith that I can trust you, though. Besides, when you show us the pass, I’m going to give you these for the service.”
Mike opened up the pouch and poured ten steel arrowheads out onto the ground. Caul’s eyes grew round at the sight of the wealth that Mike had just promised him. He looked over at Matki for confirmation.
Matki nodded, “Mike has promised these to you. If you show him the pass, they will be yours.”
Caul nodded, “I can show you whenever you want to go.”
“How far away is the pass?” Mike asked.
“It is three days up the valley,” Caul answered.
Mike thought about it, “We need to take the entire team then. I don’t want to come back here if we’re three days out. Can you take us there day after tomorrow?”
Caul nodded, “That is longer than I usually stay with the tribe, but I can do it.”
Mike smiled, “You’re being well paid to stay around a few more days.”
Caul nodded, “Yes, I think it will be worth my while if I stay a few more days.”
“It’s decided then, morning after tomorrow, you will be here, and we will leave with you,” Mike held out his hand.
Caul stared at it, not knowing what to do. Mike grinned, “Sorry, one of our customs.”
Matki explained the custom to Caul. Mike offered his hand again. Caul reached out and shook Mike’s hand. He had a firm grip.
Caul left after that, heading back down to visit his relatives and show them his new knife.
Mike picked up the steel arrowheads.
“You are a soft touch, Mike. You are not a trader.”
Mike looked over at Matki and nodded, “I never said I was.”
Matki shook his head, “A knife and ten arrowheads. My tribe will grow rich if you continue to trade this way.”
Mike pulled the strings of the pouch tight, “I’d think you’d be happy about that, Matki.”
“Oh, I am very happy about that. You might want to save a few things so that you can have food for your travels north, though,” Matki pointed out.
“Don’t worry, Matki. The techs sent me up here with a few trade items. Besides, this is just the opening trade. I want your people to think of us as an asset,” Mike explained.
“If you keep passing out iron like it fell off of a tree, then I don’t think there will be a problem with that.”
Mike stood up, grabbed the pouch, and walked to the room, “Well, once we get situated, and do a little survey, there may be a lot more than iron and steel we can teach you about.”
Matki looked at Mike with interest, “What do you mean?”
Mike pulled out his pouch of pemmican and grabbed a handful, then put the pouch back, “I mean, we can teach you how to find it, how to mine it, how to smelt it, and how to forge it. We can teach you everything you need to know about how to make these,” he shook the bag with the arrowheads, “for yourself.”
Mike put the pemmican in his mouth and walked into the room. Matki stood there for a moment, then he turned to walk home, wondering about the implications of what Mike had just revealed.
----------------------------------------------------
“Mike, we have a problem.”
Mike looked up to see Tom and Rob standing in the doorway.
“What?”
Mike was back in the corner. Tom had to let his eyes adjust to the lower light. He stepped into the room and walked over to Mike. Everett was still sleeping it off on the bed. Mickey was cleaning his rifle.
“We ran into Geonti and his team coming back,” Tom told Mike.
“Why is that a problem?”
“They killed an animal,” Tom replied.
Mike was confused, “Once again, why’s that a problem?”
“It was wearing a harness.”
Mike had a sinking feeling, “Have you seen the harness?”
Tom nodded. Rob spoke, “The harness had electronics on it.”
Mike spit out the words like a curse, “Grey men?”
“Unless you can think of somebody else that would have electronics.”
Mike stood up, walked over and shook Everett. Everett looked around, groggy, and sat up.
“I swear to God, I am never drinking again.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Mickey said.
“Not from me,” Everett said.
Mickey conceded the point, “True. You never went drinking with us back in Colorado Springs.”
“I had this thing. Called a family.”
Rob looked at Everett, “Man, you look like crap.”
Everett didn’t reply. He sat up, poured water in his hand, and ran it over his face.
Tom watched him, “I don’t think I want to drink arakar, ever.”
Everett nodded, “Good idea.”
Mike stood up, and started pac
ing, “What did Geonti say about it?”
“He didn’t recognize the animal. None of the hunters with him have ever seen anything like it,” Tom explained.
Mike looked over at Rob, “You’re the man with the communications background. What do you think?”
“Well, communications yes. Electronics, no. Honestly, I don’t know what it could be. It was a box on the back of the harness. I slipped my knife in to take a look. I couldn’t tell you what it might be.”
“Radio, GPS, camera?” Mike asked.
“Not a camera, no lenses that I could see. Might be a GPS or a radio.”
“You think the grey men could track it?” Mike asked.
Rob nodded, “It’s possible.
“How the hell did this thing find us?” Mickey asked.
“It had to be back at the necropolis. That’s the only place they knew we were. They had to set it on us there,” Tom answered.
Mike spit, “this couldn’t happen at a worst time.”
Everett agreed, “Yeah, this won’t help our cause with Joacar.”
The other three looked at them.
Rob asked the question, “Why is this a bad time?”
“We just got a concession from Joacar to trade. They were going to help us find a home, also.”
There was a commotion behind Rob, and he stepped to the side to allow Matki into the room. Geonti was with him.
“You heard?” Matki asked.
Mike nodded, “Yeah, bad news.”
“Very bad news. I thought we lost them.”
“Me too.” Mike sat back down, and slapped his hands on his knees, “Crap.”
Everett’s head was down in his palms, “What do you want to do, Mike?”
Mike shook his head, “We don’t have a choice. Matki’s family’s here. They’re vulnerable, his tribe is vulnerable. We remove the threat.” He looked up at Matki, “That only stops the immediate threat. You understand that your tribe is still in danger, right?”
“They know where my tribe is,” Matki replied.
Mike nodded, “It’s possible. We have to tell Joacar. We need to tell your tribe.”
“This is not good, Mike.”
“That’s an understatement, Matki.”
Mike stood up and walked out with Matki and Geonti to go face the music.
----------------------------------------------------
Jarni Mig looked at the world through night illumination goggles. The blue world he saw through the goggles was quiet, deceptively so. He knew that in a few hours it would fill with the sounds of carnage and rape. His orders from the Lord Caen were very clear. There would be no slaves taken in this raid. Instead, he was going to leave a smoking ruin populated by corpses.
They’d arrived in the target area three hours before sun up. After infiltration, it had taken them an hour to move to this position. It would take them another hour to move into position for the assault on the village.
He had thirty men, a full sub-Caen. The other twenty men arrived two days after he talked to Lord Caen Rathon. He’d moved quickly to integrate them into his command. He’d trained them so that they were close to the standards that the Lord Caen expected. He’d been amazed at how poorly they’d done at the outset of training. After he beat the first one into a coma, they paid close attention to what he wanted. Once their skills were at acceptable levels, he broke his men into three groups of nine for the main assault force, and one comprised of three scouts, who were now operating ahead of the main force.
Jarni Mig was waiting for the initial report from sub-Carthar Leviti, the leader of the scouts. Leviti was new to Jarni Mig’s command, but he was a good soldier. He stood out during training, so Jarni Mig promoted him to sub-Carthar, and put him in charge of two other soldiers to be scouts. Leviti didn’t have much training as a scout, but Jarni Mig didn’t have any soldiers that had. The slave raids had weakened his soldiers. They hadn’t met any strong resistance in years, the local thregari unable to stand against the advanced weapons that the Turinzoni soldiers carried. That was a problem that Jarni Mig was going to change. It would be good for his career to be the man to re-instill discipline among the Lord Caen’s soldiers.
Now the soldiers lay in position, waiting for his order to move forward. The sounds of bodies shifting were countered by sub-Carthars threatening to skin the next man that moved.
“We’re approaching the target, Carthar,” Leviti reported.
“What do you see?”
“Nothing, Carthar. It looks like they’re all asleep.”
“Are you sure they’re there?”
“Yes Carthar. I can see smoke from fires. I watched one of the older thregari come outside to relieve themselves.”
“Stay in place. If anything moves when we walk in, I want to know about it.”
“Yes Carthar. Carthar, there is one thing that you need to know about.”
“What is it?”
“There seems to be a large group of animals around the area, hundreds of them.”
“Why is this a concern?”
“They may alert the village,” Leviti replied.
Jarni Mig thought about it, “Let me know if they start moving. Hopefully we can swarm the village before anybody can react to a warning.”
“Yes, Carthar.”
Jarni Mig called his three Sub-Carthars, and told them to move forward. The Turinzoni soldiers stood up and started walking forward. They made some noise as they stood up, but it wasn’t too bad. With the thregari sleeping, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The three units moved forward in a straight line, traveling down the path that led to the village. Jarni Mig was pleased with his soldiers. Everything was going well. Nothing moved, and the men were quiet on the path.
The world exploded. The flash and overpressure his senses. Something hit him and he went down. His night vision shut down from the glare. He was blind as the screams of his men filled the air. He heard the sound of Turinzoni rifles opening up. He heard several thregari yell a strange, guttural word, “Grenade!” More men started screaming as additional explosions shattered the world around him. He heard one of his sub-Carthars yelling to break contact. His night vision slowly came back on, revealing the devastation around him.
His men were shooting, trying to move out of the kill zone. The sub-Carthar’s yells turned to screams as arrows filled the air. Fewer and fewer rifles returned fire. Jarni Mig turned over onto his stomach, and started clawing at the ground, trying to crawl away from the arrows hitting the ground around him. His legs weren’t working, and he couldn’t move very fast. The smell of gore filled the air. He tasted his own blood on his lips. He saw his men running, trying to establish a counter attack. There weren’t many left, maybe six or seven. The rest were either dead or dying on the ground. He tried to warn them as he saw laser light flick out to target them. More shots rang out, cutting down the last of his command. They didn’t stand a chance.
The noise level decreased dramatically. The only sound were the moans of the dying. Jarni Mig struggled to pull himself forward. He had to make it to cover. He was having problems breathing. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he was dying. He struggled with the catch of his helmet and goggles. He took them off and threw them away from him. As he crawled, he heard yelling. He couldn’t understand the words, so it had to be the thregari primitives. Footsteps sounded as the enemy walked forward. He listened as one of his men begged for mercy. The man started screaming. His screams cut off, replaced by a liquid, bubbling sound. Moans quieted as the thregari walked among his soldiers.
He heard footsteps approach him. Somebody grabbed his shoulder and turned him over. Jarni Mig looked at the soldier squatting down next to him. This soldier wasn’t a local. He had modern weapons, modern kit. This was a man was used to violence. The youthful face, framed by light hair and beard, couldn’t hide the eyes. There was no emotion there, not for him. This hominid was an unknown, taller, but more slender than a Turinzoni. Jarni Mig had never seen his lik
e before. He was joined by another, larger man. The larger man had a golden red beard and a bald head. He was as wide as a Turinzoni, but much taller.
He didn’t know where his rifle was so he tried to reach for his pistol. The slender soldier slapped his hand away. The pistol was taken from the holster and tossed away so that he couldn’t reach it. He tried to pull his knife. The soldier held his hand down, pulled the knife, and threw it over to the pistol. The two soldiers started talking. Jarni Mig didn’t understand a word.
“He doesn’t want to give up.”
“Would you?”
“Probably not.”
“He ain’t gonna make it. His legs are shredded.”
“You can’t save him, Mickey?”
“Nah, too far gone. Another world, another time, yeah, I could stabilize him, and we could airlift him out. No way in hell that’s going to happen here.”
Another voice called out, “Hey Mickey, need you over here.”
The slender man stood up, “Matki, make sure all of your people are okay. Let Mickey know if anybody is hurt.”
“Okay Mike, I will check with my people.”
“I need an ACE report.”
Three voices responded.
The slender man looked around, “Everett, where’s Rob?”
“I don’t know. He was on my right when the shooting started.”
“Tom, have you seen Rob?”
“No, I haven’t seen him.”
“Find him.”
Voice raised, yelling out for the missing man.
Jarni Mig’s sight was starting to dim as he listened to the strange soldier yelling. His breathing was labored now. It would come soon. All he had to do was wait.
“God! Mickey, get over here. Rob’s down.”
Jarni felt the impact through the ground as the big man ran to the others.
“Rob! You stay with me! You ain’t goin’ nowhere. Tom, I need pressure right there. Okay, I’m going to roll him over and check for an exit wound.”
“Fuck! There’s no exit wound. The bullet’s still in there.”
“Where’d the bullet go in?”
“Below the lung. I think it went through the liver.”
“Is he conscious?”
“Barely. Damn you Rob, why didn’t you fucking stay down?”