Ranh

by Ian J Miller

  "Just say, I have my sources."

  "Since when has the Medical Curia been given special information relating to military abilities?"

  Yet another Tenzat squirmed, but this one decided to bluff. Or was it a bluff, when he said, "I have good information from the Conclave."

  "You think the warships built and secreted on a satellite about the far eccentric giant are going to suffice?"

  "What do you know about them?" This time there was clear hesitation.

  "Ha, so you do have information. Well, I shall tell you how I know. The Ulsian battleships are above the entrance to where these ships are hiding."

  The Tenzat now seemed really concerned.

  "The problem with storing them underground," Hadell continued, "is that while they are kept secretly, when the secret is known and the ships are still underground, they can be buried."

  There was a long pause while the Tenzat considered this, then he finally asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

  "There are several outcomes to this situation," Hadell replied. "The first is, the Cardinal wins the coming tussle, in which case the Krothians have a free go at the Ranhynn, Earth knows it must go to war with Ranh, the Xanex have little choice but to use whatever weapons they have to make sure they are on the surviving side, and in the odd event you can survive that, Ulse will remove the Ranhynn from their great list of species."

  "Remove us from a list? What sort of threat is that?"

  "The list is an accurate list of species," Hadell shrugged. "To be removed from the list means you no longer exist as one." She stared at her quarry as the significance sunk in.

  "The next outcome," Hadell continued, "is that the Cardinal loses, in which case all those associated with him will be executed for treason." She watched as her quarry showed sufficient concern that she knew to whom he was committed so far.

  "There is, however, a way out," Hadell said quietly. "Those who were contributing to the Cardinal's collapse will naturally be rewarded, and those who change allegiance in time will similarly benefit, although perhaps not to the extent of those who contributed more."

  Hadell waved a claw at the Tenzat then said, "You would be advised to make your choice definitively and quickly. What we need at the moment is both information and commitment. Your best bet would be to argue that you were just accepting the religious proclamations without very much thought, but now that you know what the situation truly is, you have had more serious thoughts about what you should be doing, and accordingly you elected to help."

  "You're mad!"

  "Not at all. I shall leave now have a think on this, and if you want to really advance your cause, phone this number and let us know the location of Seppet Tes."

  "Why do you want that?"

  "Because my son, Kazyn, wants words with him, then feathers, and then, who knows."

  With that, Hadell stormed out. She was beginning to see the magnitude of the problem. Most of the Tenzatynn were at least loosely allied to the Cardinal. That had been one of the first who had clearly been somewhat involved, which raised the question why? One option was biological warfare, which would greatly increase the problems they could face.

  * * *

  Following the retaking of the House of the Military Curia, there was some discussion as to what should happen next. Tharryt was now somewhat surprised to find himself treated essentially as an equal by both Methrell and Kazyn, although as he suspected, neither Kazyn nor any other Ranhyn for that matter would be keen to challenge Methrell.

  "Our prisoners have given some information," a Captain who had been in charge of the Special Forces involved in the operation informed them. "It isn't very helpful, but I'm coming to believe they don't know much anyway."

  "I think we have to assume that's true," Methrell said. "Unfortunately, that means we are not much further ahead than we were before, but we have alerted the opposition to what we are doing."

  "The element of surprise was never going to be a significant factor for our side," Gaius said, "and I rather suspect we never had it."

  "Based on?" Methrell challenged.

  "Based on the fact Tes was not there. He must have had a reason to go and hide."

  "He could have been out seeking support," Methrell suggested.

  "In which case surely he would go out the front gate, inside a vehicle, and probably with support."

  "And I assure you all," Tharryt said, "he did not do that, at least after I got back here."

  "In which case, I think our next short-term objective should be to locate and capture Tes," Gaius said. "At the same time, Methrell should ensure that Tes does not get sufficient support to become Tenzat. We agreed on a strategy previously, and there is no reason to believe it was a wrong one. We keep at it."

  "Perhaps I should announce that I am taking a caretaker control of the Military Curia," Methrell suggested.

  "I would advise against that," Gaius said. "In the first case, it looks as if you are engineering a coup, and that might force the Cardinal to take action."

  "So?"

  "We have yet to work out where this is going, and how deep the involvement of the other Tenzatynn is. I think it might be better to keep those who strongly support the Cardinal as inactive as possible by giving them the minimum to work on."

  "Tes will be getting them coordinated," she protested.

  "Will he, though, and will they believe him?" Gaius asked. "Look at it this way. If nothing public happens, and if Tes runs around like that, some may start wondering whether he was indeed the source of this trouble. After all, why wouldn't you step back and allow proper procedure to take place if you weren't organizing a coup?"

  "I suppose that might be right, but it might also look like I don't care, and –"

  "I never said you should do nothing," Gaius smiled. "I merely said you should not make any public announcements. If I were you I would get as many in the various armed forces on your side as you can, which brings me to the second reason you should stay quiet. If you don't look like you're pushing for it, you may well find it easier to become Tenzat later."

  "That probably won't happen," Methrell said. "Tes has so shamed the Seppet name and I had no idea what he was doing when I had the power to do something about him. I doubt that –"

  "You may have more support than you think," the Captain interrupted.

  "In any case, you will be strengthened with time," Gaius advised. "If what I understand of the rules are correct, right now a strong assault on your bid from the Cardinal would almost certainly sink you, but he cannot attack your bid if you haven't made one."

  "But he can support Tes, and –"

  "Which is all the more reason to find Tes," the Captain said. He turned and faced Methrell, and said, "I think you'll find the troops will follow you, because you have spent a lot of time with them and shown you're one of them, whereas Tes has shown very little interest. But you have to get onto that right now."

  "Which means we have to get on with that," Gaius said. "Unfortunately, finding Tes could be difficult if he doesn't do something stupid."

  "We'll find him," the Captain said. "After all, he can hardly make a play to become Tenzat without visiting the military bases."

  "He may have some lined up, though," Tharryt warned.

  "Yes, he might," Gaius said, "in which case it is important that we find out from where any support for him might come." He paused, then looked at Tharryt and continued, "What we need is information, and I am wondering if you feel up to trying to get some?"

  "You want me to spy on the Guard?"

  "Yes."

  "It wouldn't work," Tharryt said. "They don't like me very much, and I'm sure they're suspicious. My guess is I only got to watch Thuygen because they were short of staff, and they didn't expect that to be important." He paused, and added, "You may not realize this, but they got very suspicious about me after being taken by Kazyn."

  "I know," Gaius said, while holding up a hand to restrain Kazyn, "but from what you told me, you
are OK with this Captain?"

  "That doesn't mean much, though."

  "No, but it is something to build on. Suppose you were to rescue a squad of Guards?"

  "And how am I going to do that?"

  "Reasonably simply, once we work out why you are there to do it. The question is, will you?"

  Chapter 35

  As plans went, Tharryt thought, this was too complicated. How could it possibly work? Then again, why had he gone along with it? The first part bordered on the silly. He was to have spent all this time looking for Thuygen, because that was his last order from the Captain of the guard. He had "found" Thuygen's car, outside a small military base. How it got there was interesting. That Thuygen must have a furball for a brain, because after doing all that fleeing, he had parked his car in its proper space, then disappeared somewhere. The military had merely acquired it and parked it outside the base.

  Not unnaturally, Tharryt could hardly go onto a military base, so he would tell them he had waited. After all, how could Tharryt know that Thuygen was not in the base? There was his car, so he would watch it and wait. That would explain the time consumed. If the Cardinal were to check, had he the means, the car was still there. So, Tharryt watched, and eventually saw four Ranhynn emerge in plain clothes, but carrying weapons, and behind them, some others in plain clothes were starting up an armoured vehicle. The first four got into another vehicle parked outside, and sped off, and as Tharryt would later claim, he could not be sure but he thought one of them was that Kazyn. Although he could not be sure of the Ranhyn, he was very sure that one of the weapons being carried was the Terran rifle that Kazyn had used before. Tharryt decided to follow. Strictly speaking, he was supposed to be finding Thuygen, but since he had watched for so long and nothing had happened, he had decided that Thuygen had parked his car in the one place nobody could come and get him.

  As to why he decided to follow that group, which presumably contained Kazyn, he was to say he was using his initiative. According to that Scaevola, that would get him good marks. He was not too sure about that. Guards were not supposed to use initiative, but then again, this looked suspicious, and, well, the results might be in his favour.

  He had now reached the destination, a small Guard communications base. There would be about four Guards in there, and while they were armed, they were not top class fighters. In fact, Tharryt realized, they were probably considered inferior even to him. Now, time to execute the plan. He reached for his phone and dialled the outpost.

  "Yes?"

  "Listen carefully," Tharryt said. "There's a group of rogue soldiers outside your base, and one of them's probably that Kazyn. In any case, he has that Terran rifle, so stay away from windows –"

  At that moment, a rifle shot went off, and a bullet went through one of the outpost windows. Inside there was a shower of glass, and a Guard stood there, stupefied.

  "Take cover!" Tharryt roared into the phone. There was an order, and the Guard dived to the floor as another bullet flew through the air. These were deliberately aimed to miss. The plan was not to kill.

  "What's going on?" came bleat over the phone.

  "You're under attack," Tharryt said in despair. If the Guards could not work that out, and if they were typical of the Guard, then it became far less likely that Sender could win. "There are more reinforcements coming, so gather up anything sensitive and get the hell out of there, and go southeast. I'll give you cover fire, but don't waste time because I want to get the hell out of here too."

  There was a sign of an argument brewing, but two more bullets through another window settled it. The Guards gathered up whatever they could take, and three began to hightail it out to the southeast. The fourth took the phone and said, "I'll help with the cover," and began firing, but not at anything in particular.

  Three "Ranhynn" began running towards the outpost, while the fourth laid down rifle fire that forced the Guard to take cover.

  "Just get out of there," Tharryt ordered over the phone as the Guard's head appeared again. He then fired at the "Ranhynn", and in sequence each fell spectacularly. Tharryt knew quite well that they were only illusions, but the Guard did not know that.

  The rifle fire stopped, and the Guard came back on the phone. "You killed them!"

  "I've killed those four, but the rest are coming with an armoured vehicle, and I can't stop that. Get out, now!"

  As expected, the Guard ran, and Tharryt also left the scene, although at a more leisurely pace.

  * * *

  The news media at first made some outrageous statements, saying the military had gone crazy and were seeking revenge for the killing of the Tenzat of the Military Curia, and that this was clearly the work of that Seppet Methrell. However, an hour later, most of these outlets that had published such statements were forced to make public apologies. One leading journalist had been at the military barracks interviewing Methrell at the time, and when the news came through, she immediately issued a general roll call. All soldiers were present, although some were more than a little grumpy at having been called to the parade ground. It was later found that one armoured vehicle had been stolen from a small outpost, but according to the officer in charge, none of his soldiers had participated. The officer conceded he was in trouble, but he hardly expected anyone to steal an army vehicle. He was then confined to barracks for a month, although in private Methrell ensured he received a bonus, and the promise to delete his punishment when this matter was resolved.

  If not Seppet Methrell, who would do such a thing?

  "You know I did not," Methrell said, "although I concede I would have been sorely tempted had I known who perpetrated the outrage of killing my father. But," she added with a scowl and a raised claw, "if you are so sure I wanted revenge for the killing of my father, why are you so sure that Seppet Tes did not also desire revenge for the killing of his uncle? Maybe he did it."

  While this would not fool some, as Methrell noted later, at least it might fool enough journalists that they might seek out Tes for a comment. The more looking for him, the easier it would be to find him.

  However, there were no immediate sightings of Tes. As Methrell was to note, this should have increased the suspicions of Tes, but it did not, and the whole incident appeared to die down. Cardinal Sender had obviously commanded the media to stop searching for Tes, and instead drop the topic and find something else to publish.

  * * *

  Surveillance equipment within the Guard communications centre had forwarded recordings of the event to the Central Guard barracks. It was clear that those inside the base had basically fled, while the one Guard who had stood and fired had seemingly hit nobody, because no hit corresponded to when he fired. On the other hand, Tharryt's firing had been noted, and all three kills were neatly coordinated with his fire. Therefore Tharryt was credited with three kills, and since the rifle fire stopped, he was given a fourth "probable". Tharryt was noted as the saviour of the four Guards, and also the rather confidential codes, and certain other information. The Captain from the pursuit had generously praised Tharryt, and also added that it was his wise decision that had Tharryt at the right place to do this. Tharryt was happy enough to share the credit. The last thing he needed while in the Guard base was an enemy. The other Guards were also suddenly friendly, almost fawning. The Cardinal had apparently praised Tharryt, so it would be bad form for them to do otherwise. To criticize Tharryt now was to criticize the Cardinal, and everybody knew how a bout of criticism of the Cardinal would turn out. Very badly, and not in any way for the Cardinal.

  Tharryt found himself the centre of attention at the bar that evening, and drinks began flowing. The discussion became gradually more heated, as everyone began speculating on what was going on. Eventually, one of them asked Tharryt what he thought.

  "I haven't any idea at all," Tharryt lied convincingly, "and it's not my place to speculate. All I will do is follow the Cardinal's orders."

  "You have no idea what we should do now?" one of the officers as
ked.

  "I should follow the cardinal's orders," Tharryt said firmly, then after a pause, he added, "but of course, if the Cardinal wanted to reward me, I want to go after that Kazyn."

  As Tharryt expected, the officer present relayed that message to the Cardinal. Tharryt knew the game he was playing was highly dangerous, but he had suddenly discovered some of the Ranhyn blood running through his veins. His timidity was becoming a thing of the past; the warrior streak was showing through.

  Chapter 36

  The humans had returned safely to their underground base, and a meal was provided. None were particularly happy.

  "I don't think Scaevola trusts us very much," Lucius said as he stared at what remained of his food. The meal was not exactly appetizing, Natasha noted, but they did not have access to lots of suitable materials to cook.

  "Be fair," Livilla said. "He hardly knows us. From his point of view, all we have managed is to survive, and that involves hiding and –"

  "That's not it at all," Katya interrupted. "I promise you, he is more concerned for your future. What he is trying to do is to stop a Ranhyn/human war, and with all those Tenzatynn busy supporting a Cardinal that wants to exterminate humans, he wants to give those Tenzatynn the least excuse as possible."

  "What Katya means," Natasha added, "is that nobody can blame humans if it is the likes of Methrell who sorts out the Cardinal."

  "If she succeeds," Lucius grumbled. "If she loses . . ."

  They stared at each other, and resumed eating. There was almost ten minutes silence, when suddenly Aella burst into the room. "We have a problem," she said. "A couple of our people are holed up in an old building where they were foraging, and they can't get back to the escape route."

  "Holed up?"

  "There're a couple of Ranhynn who seem to want to eat them."

  "Then we must go and rescue them," Lucius jumped to his feet.

  "I shall go with you," Katya said. "We must avoid killing these Ranhynn if we can."

  "They want to eat us, and you want to let them –"

  "Katya is right," Natasha said. "If we cannot avoid it, we shall kill, but if it is at all possible, we capture and subdue."