by Mel Odom
Fire alarms screamed for attention, adding to the din and promising even more confusion as business owners in the nearby buildings abandoned their shops. Some of those people went down under the anxious guns of the attackers hunting Sage and Kiwanuka.
Sage hated leaving the civilians behind to fend for themselves as they got caught up in the firefight, but he and Kiwanuka were focal points for the aggression. The people were collateral damage in the effort being made to kill him and Kiwanuka. Whoever was trying to kill them was pulling out all the stops.
DawnStar Security Center
0758 Hours Zulu Time
Standing in the observation room, Velesko Kos cursed Sergeant Frank Sage and the team he had sent to kill the man. The operation had been simple. Sage had been found and marked, and the sergeant’s route through the sprawl had been straightforward. The market had been deemed the ideal spot for the assassination. A one-shot kill would have guaranteed anonymity in the wave of confusion that would have followed.
Now there was only confusion and several of the people Kos had hired to do the job were dead or wounded. Or still in pursuit of their quarry.
The dead and those mercenaries who were captured would be annoyances, but Kos had stacked a defensible layer between himself and those people. Perhaps the Terran military could suspect who had sent them, but they would never prove it to the Makaum Quass that DawnStar had sided with.
There might even be some flack passed down from the exec level, but Kos knew he could weather that easily enough. DawnStar needed him to arrange their less-than-legal enterprises. As long as he brought big profits to the bottom line for the corp, he was golden.
Perhaps it would have been better to let Sage walk, but after last night, after the way the sergeant had so directly challenged him, Kos couldn’t do that. Sage had to die to prove that crossing Velesko Kos was not something anyone would want to do. Sage was to be an example.
Instead the man insisted on living and causing even greater problems.
Kos stared at the screens and watched as Sage and his companion ran through another alley and kept going, not allowing their pursuers to catch up.
“Do you have them painted for the mercenaries?” Kos tapped another screen and brought up a map of the area, trying to figure out where Sage was headed.
“Yes. They’re painted.” The sec technician gestured in the 3-D control field, managing the spy cams and the communications among the mercenaries. “They have Sage and the other soldier.”
Kos swallowed a curse. The mercenaries didn’t have Sage. That was the problem. Kos thought again that he should have done the job himself, but getting caught and identified by someone would have been costly to his employment at DawnStar. That was the downside of becoming management: he didn’t get to solve the day-to-day problems that cropped up in his job.
“The military has two jumpcopters in the air,” the technician reported. “They’re en route.”
“Monitor them.”
“Yes sir.”
After a brief look at the map, Kos thought he knew where Sage was going. The old well house was located in the center of the Makaum sprawl near the market. That structure was made of stone and would offer more protection than the wooden houses. There was also room for the jumpcopters to maneuver.
Kos lifted the small mic at the side of his head and opened the encrypted channel that connected him to the mercenary leader. “Jozef.”
“Yes?” Jozef Sasnal sounded out of breath or wounded.
Kos spoke in Polish, the native language they shared. “Sage is headed for—”
The comm channel went dead at the same time the vidscreens filled with gray fuzz.
Kos turned to the technician. “What happened?”
“Fort York’s intelligence teams found our signal array.” The technician gestured like a man suffering palsy, trying to bring the feeds back online. “They’ve shut down our comm to the field team.”
“Can you reconnect?”
“I can, but if I do, we’re going to risk being found out. If they don’t already have us.”
Cursing, Kos stripped the comm set from his head and threw it away. Sage’s luck continued to hold. Still, there was a chance that Sasnal and his team would succeed.
0801 Hours Zulu Time
Holding his position at the corner of one of the shops in the market, Jahup lifted his rifle and took aim at the men pursuing the Terran sergeant. When the sights rested on a man’s throat, where there was no armor, Jahup took up trigger slack and pulled through. The rifle stock banged against his shoulder as the 7.62mm round tore through the man’s flesh and sprayed crimson over his chest plate and the back of the man in front of him.
The dying man stumbled and dropped his weapon, grabbing his ruined throat with both hands. He spun, looking for help, his eyes wide behind the protective mask.
The sight froze Jahup for a moment. Before the offworlders had come to Makaum, Jahup had never killed a person. There had never been any need. Crime had been relatively unknown on the world. The Makaum people had been outsiders on the planet since the generation ship had crashed. They’d needed each other to survive.
Now crime had spread, and the Makaum people took up arms against each other to chase profits that had never been realized before they’d had connection to the offworlders. Life on Makaum had not been perfect. It had been filled with danger and desperation, but at least there had been no evil within.
Jahup pushed his breath out and forced himself to focus. There would be time to think later. He sighted down his rifle again.
Behind the mercenary Jahup had shot, another man took one look at the blood pumping from his companion and recognized that a new threat had materialized. He stepped behind the dying man, using him as a human shield as Jahup tried to track him. Jahup’s second round smashed into the dying man as the man sheltering behind him opened fire.
Jahup flattened behind the corner of the building as laser blasts charred the structure and crisped the tree leaves in front of him. One of the branches caught fire and blazed merrily.
Noojin slammed an angry fist into Jahup’s shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“They’re trying to kill the Terran sergeant. The one who challenged Velesko Kos.”
“So? This is not our fight.”
“I could not stand by and let them do that.”
“You idiot! You can’t stop them from killing that man if that’s what they want to do. The offworlder means nothing to you.”
Jahup didn’t have time or the words to make Noojin understand. The Terran sergeant had impressed him with his courage. Jahup had fully expected the man to die two nights ago. Now here he was, still on Makaum and still fighting the Terran corps that sought to hollow out Jahup’s world like krayari worked a dead thing. Jahup couldn’t idly stand by and let the man just die at the hands of the carrion feeders.
“Come on!” Noojin pulled at his sleeve. “Before you get yourself killed!”
Peering around the corner of the building, Jahup checked the sergeant’s attackers. Three of the men had peeled away from the group racing along the shopfronts and were now approaching Jahup’s position. Jahup pulled his rifle to shoulder again and took aim. He knew that the bullets he fired couldn’t penetrate the attackers’ armor, but Terracina had talked to him once and pointed out the armor’s weak points—in case he ever faced armored men out in the jungle. Perhaps the bullet wouldn’t penetrate the armor, but the expended force would still strike home like a sledgehammer.
Aiming at the lead man’s knee from thirty meters away, Jahup pulled the trigger. The bullet didn’t penetrate, the armor stopped it, but the knee beneath the covering twisted violently sideways in a way nature had not intended. Jahup had no doubt that bones were broken, or at the very least the knee had been dislocated.
When the man collapsed, yelling in agony, his companions ran for cover, thinking perhaps that Jahup was firing armor-piercing rounds.
“Jahup!” Noojin
pulled at him again.
Knowing that if he stayed there she would remain with him and become a target as well, Jahup wheeled, grabbed her hand, and sprinted for the end of the alley. He wished the Terran sergeant well, but he’d done all he could do for the man.
0802 Hours Zulu Time
“It appears you were correct.”
Zhoh stared at the vidfeed streaming from one of the Phrenorian spy cams planted in the Makaum sprawl. This one was from one of several that monitored the market area. A lot of business was done there by the Makaum people because their economic system was primarily based on barter and co-op production.
Anything worth having could be gotten at the market. Including information and alliances and secrets that could be used for blackmail. Phrenorian intelligence agents had acquired all three and continued to do so.
On the vidscreen, a group of armed men chased two people, one of whom, the intelligence division had assured Zhoh, was Sergeant Frank Sage. Zhoh had known he was correct about the Terran sergeant’s ability to draw the hostile attention of the corps he’d challenged. DawnStar could not sit back and take such an affront. They were currently the dominant corp onplanet and they wouldn’t want that pecking order to change.
Seated at his desk, Zhoh brought up other screens and played back the beginning of the violence. He noted with satisfaction that he’d also been right about Sage being a dangerous man.
“He should have died in that first attack.” Zhoh glanced up Mato, who stood in the doorway. He had been the one to bring Zhoh the news about the gun battle.
“You sound like you are glad he did not.” Mato’s chelicerae twitched. Zhoh knew that Mato was troubled.
“I am glad. It proves my judgment of the being was sound. And as long as this soldier remains alive, he’s going to be a distraction to DawnStar, and the sergeant will be forced to focus on staying alive. Just as I predicted.” Zhoh waved at the screens. “This attack may heal some of the civil unrest and uncertainty between the Makaum people and unite them against common enemies. They will pull back from the Terran corps and the Terran military both, and they will look for more stable forces to partner with.”
“You think they will turn to us.”
“I am certain of it. The escalation of enmity between the Terran corps and military will give the Makaum natives no alternatives. They will recognize the need for structure and security. They will also recognize that we can offer those things.” Zhoh watched as flames claimed one of the buildings, bringing it down and spreading to the next. The damage mounted and the Makaum fire suppression methods would be hard-pressed to control the blaze. “We are here and we are not going away. Makaum will have to come to us for protection and stability.”
“They could always go to the (ta)Klar.”
Zhoh stood up from his desk and adjusted his armor, then reached for his weapons and strapped them on. “The (ta)Klar will not stand against the Terrans. Not directly. They are not a species that will openly oppose a challenger. They behave cowardly.”
“Do not discount them so lightly because they have different ways of achieving their ends.”
“I do not discount them at all. They will be a problem we must, in time, deal with. The (ta)Klar depend on worlds they bend to their will to stand up to anyone who would pull them away. The Makaum are not strong enough to stand against us. Only the Terrans are, and we are better served if the Terrans are divided against themselves.” Zhoh moved toward the door. “One enemy at a time, Mato. Let us conquer the Terrans and force them offplanet first. Then we will rid ourselves of the (ta)Klar.”
“Where are you going?”
Zhoh smiled. “To act the part of benefactor. Those fires in the marketplace need to be controlled. It’s easy to see they’re beyond the meager abilities of the Makaum people. They would never have built so many structures so close together had it not been for the Terran corps, and they had never counted on that kind of destruction taking place there. They need help, and Phrenoria will provide it. Today we will be saviors. On another day, we will be conquerors. Do you wish to come?”
TWENTY-TWO
Market Square
Makaum Sprawl
0803 Hours Zulu Time
“There.” Sage pointed to a community well house covered in cut stone.
The natural cistern was fed by an underground spring and was located in the center of the Makaum sprawl. Judging from the age of the buildings nearby, the sprawl had grown around the well house as the initial community had gotten larger. If Makaum had an “old town,” this was it. Sage guessed that the spring had become a meeting place for the Makaum hunters and gatherers in the beginning, then had become the cornerstone of the sprawl as the wandering tribes had put down roots. The Quass councils were held there, as were celebrations.
Built of cut rock, the skeletal well house had been arranged in the shape of an insect called an ypheynte, a winged creature that reminded Sage of a Terran dragonfly. The long body of the insect formed the main building and the rocks had been cut to balance on six thick, arched legs over the cistern. Special vines grew up and along the roof of the well house, stretching out to flare into wide wings. Other vines threaded through the stones, making up the legs, and helped hold the structure together. The craftsmanship that had gone into the construction had been time-consuming.
Domesticated ghakingar, a miniature version of kifrik that had been patiently bred into a separate and distinct species by Makaum geneticists over generations, lived in the vines and wove fine orb webs that caught the green sunlight and looked like a field of brightly colored jewels from a distance. Few insects were caught in the webs because they were so distinctive and not hidden, which was a drawback that would have killed the species in the wild. The Makaum people put crumbs of delicacies in the webbing for the spiders to feast on so they would not starve. The ghakingar were totally dependent on their benefactors and did not successfully leave the area. Evidently they were content to be kept as pets.
According to the intel Sage had on the place, peace treaties for the early tribes had been worked out there. Family lines had been recorded there so that marriages could be arranged to keep the Makaum gene pool healthy. With such a limited population that had come from the generation ship, care had been taken to keep inbreeding from occurring.
There wasn’t any religious rule against such mating, from what Sage had read. The decisions were all based on knowledge that if the gene pool became too streamlined it would only take one strong sickness to kill the whole population. Or at least enough of the population to doom the rest of them. Makaum’s human species had been balanced on a knife’s edge since they had crashed there.
Sage felt guilty taking up a position in the well house, knowing that the attackers that followed them wouldn’t hesitate to destroy the structure. Still, the well house offered more protection than anywhere else, and he and Kiwanuka were exhausting options where they could run.
He glanced at Kiwanuka, who stood behind one of the two-meter thick insect legs. She caught him looking and nodded her readiness. They had nowhere else to go. Sage hoped the jumpcopters arrived in time. It was going to be close.
The cistern was a natural stone bowl twenty meters across that had been cut into the earth. The water pressure was enough to keep the supply full at all times. A low stone wall ringed the cistern, but it was more for decoration and for seating than to hold the water in. The water level never came up to the wall. Lily pads and other flowering plants grew in the water. Bright yellow and purple blossoms floated above the water’s smooth, glasslike surface.
Back toward the market, thick black smoke coiled toward the green-tinged sky. As Sage watched, another building suddenly tumbled down and scattered sparks in all directions. Some of them would land on the roofs of other structures and set those on fire as well.
Their attackers crept up through the buildings, firing again and again. At least for the moment, Sage and Kiwanuka were ahead of them, but that wouldn’t last long. There was to
o much open space around the cistern. If they tried to run, they would be cut down before they reached any kind of shelter. Shadows of the ghakingar crept across the thrumming webs, which were also mirrored on the ground.
A crawling sensation prickled across the back of Sage’s neck. He had to remind himself that the AKTIVsuit wouldn’t allow any of the creatures ingress. And if one of them happened to get by the hardsuit’s defenses, the near-AI would alert him.
Sage peered out at his foes. He felt bad about all the damage cascading through the sprawl even though he knew it wasn’t his fault. But that was war. All it took was two sides. The Makaum people weren’t going to have the luxury of remaining neutral for long.
“You ready, Sergeant?” Sage asked.
“Yes.”
“Then pick your targets.” Sage stayed locked onto a man even though bullets ricocheted from the stone pillar he stood behind and laser blasts cracked the rock. He breathed out half a breath, held it, and squeezed through the trigger.
The gauss blast caught his target in the face and pitched the dead man backward. At the same time, Kiwanuka dropped another attacker with an ankle shot, then put a blast through the man’s throat as he struggled to get back up.
Two crawlers roared at Sage from the side. A hail of laser beams and particle bursts hammered the ground and the stone column as Sage slid around his cover. Coolly, he put the Roley’s sights over the face of one of the drivers and pulled the trigger. Even if the head armor kept the gauss blast from piercing the man’s skull, the impact of energized particles batted his head back.
Dead or dazed, the driver lost control of his vehicle and turned sharply. When the front wheel caught the rugged ground, the crawler flipped onto its side and slid toward Sage in a cloud of dust. A blue gel grenade suddenly popped into existence on the stone pillar a meter above Sage’s head.