by Pam Uphoff
Jaime calculated quickly. "The Gate is scheduled for . . . three days from now?"
"Yes. I just hope they didn't open it off schedule. God knows they do that often enough. But right now we need to secure this building, then search it thoroughly and try to find the women. Eight of them are said to have been given away to various men. I don't have an exact count of who was present. I gave Lieutenant Tripp that invisibility device, she may be at large."
Jaime nodded. "I got another, gave it to Lieutenant Tripp. I'll bet she's loose somewhere."
***
"Tripp? What the Hell?"
Devvy shot a look at the patch of thin air that had just spoken. It sounded just like Sally Harper. "Harper? Private Foster and I are now under cover. And getting sick and tired of it."
"How'd you get away?"
"Same as you. Jaime tackled another Auralian and got another necklace, gave it to me and I piggybacked Foster. From what I hear, the female troops are in three Soltis' harems, a son and two grandsons of the Amma. He left them behind. I think I know where each one's private suite is now. Foster's keeping an eye open that direction."
"No one's noticed you're strangers?"
"Everyone is a stranger, most of the staff went with the Amma, and the son and the two grandsons aren't very related. The Amma had like a hundred wives or something like that. He took them all with him, and their kids and servants and guards. All three of the new wannabe Ammas brought their own staffs and there's still not enough people to run the place."
"All right. I've located the wing where they keep the prisoners that might be worth ransom. The troops . . . well, it doesn't sound good." Invisible fingernails tapped on a graceful side table.
"All right. I want you to go get the captain. I'm going to be standing right behind the Amma's son and if anything goes wrong I'll threaten to slice his throat."
"Yes, Ma'am." Devvy pulled her necklace out of her pocket and looped it over her head. "That's the wing with the guards."
"The captain is second floor, right hallway, seventh door on the right."
"Got it." She jogged easily down the corridor. It was a half mile to the other wing. The palace would make a great shopping mall . . . She spotted the captain under guard, and slowed down. Damn, damn, damn . . . Oh. Never mind. The head guard was the spitting image of Sergeant Johnson . . . "Sir. Lieutenant Tripp reporting, sir."
The captain stopped dead and looked around. Oops. She whipped off the necklace. "I've made contact with Lieutenant Harper, she's getting in position to take out the Amma, or take him hostage, at need, sir."
"Good, Have you located the female troops and the Ambassador's staff?"
"There are three harems in the palace at the present time, sir. The Amma's son's and those of the two grandsons. I have locations for them all. I," she gulped. "I don't know about the grunts, sir."
"Most of them are out in the garden waiting for us." The captain frowned around the building. "How many guards do they have? Can we mug more of them and substitute our guys?"
Devvy stared at him, knowing her jaw was dropping. But it was such a fine idea. "Sir? This building is stuffed with people who don't know each other. The guards, sure. But also the Amma's son and the two grandsons. They, well, the old one is known, but the two sons . . . "
"Their own staff would know them, but if we could pull it off for just a few days . . . " He frowned. "Let's go take a good look at these two grandsons. Lead on."
She strode back the way she'd come, and dropped down a level, the palace was built on a rough slope and the family wing took advantage of that to have the entire lower floor open to courtyards to the north, the second floor opened to courtyards to the south and the third floor opened to the west. The Amma, formerly, and now his son, occupied the second floor. "The older of the two grandsons is down here. There will be two guards around the corner, and more inside, sir. I can walk straight past them, get the doors open . . . "
"Go. We'll be ten seconds behind you. Ambassador? If you and your staff would wait out here . . . "
Devvy walked around the corner and down the hallway. The two humongous men on guard didn't bat an eye at her as she smiled. The one on the right opened the door for her. She walked in and kneecapped the first guard in sight, turned and ducked a sword slash, damn they were fast! She backed and dodged and the doors crashed open and the baker's dozen of trained fighters rolled through. Two of them had the outer guards' swords and actually knew what to do with them. The Guard closest to her crashed to the floor with a knife in his back, and they raced through the rooms. A man stared and ducked away. Two more guards erupted from that room and women screamed. The Army rolled over the pair and then they were in the Harem, where Private Danielle Packard had the man in a grip designed for the most efficient breaking of necks.
"Sir! Permission to kill this sack of shit, sir!"
"Granted."
The man dropped limply.
"There are only eight guards, sir."
"We've got them all, then." The captain returned the salute of the girl in her seriously inadequate . . . garment.
"Now what does this fellow look like?"
He was fairly dark, but with an arched arab type nose. Not completely unlike Captain Orobona.
"No one could possibly mistake me for him," the captain protested.
"Hard to say." Devvy looked around at a dozen horrified and silent women. "These are the only people that know him well."
"Hmm, well, let's get the rest of the troops down here, and tackle the other grandson."
Various minions were sent, and then Devvy led them around and up to the third floor suite. It was smaller, as the opulent second floor had raised ceilings in the main rooms that took space away up here. Now armed with a collection of swords and spears, they took out the outer guards in a silent rush and crashed through to the main room where they came face-to-face with three women armed with crossbows.
"Hold your fire." One woman snapped. "Sorry sir." She saluted.
"Lieutenant Sharp. I assume this Solti is dead too?" The captain returned her salute, grinning.
"Yes, sir."
"Is he in any state to be viewed?"
"Only if you have a strong stomach, sir."
"Show me." They took one look and retreated. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Hamza, you have just been promoted to Solti."
"Oh, crap."
"There is another problem, sir. The women here say the Old Solti has some of their kids."
"We'll have to split up then. Tripp, that invisibility necklace . . . Packard and Rogers, I think? See if you can get into the harem and protect the children."
"Thank you sir, a pleasure." The wiry redhead swept around the dead bodies picking up a number of knives.
Kenton had also attended a few feasts in the palace with his father. He gave a quick description of a Solti's proper entourage, and the entrance they ought to make.
The already uniformed troops blocked any possible spectators, and they got all the troops out of the garden and into the upper harem without raising an alarm. Then they got dressed to fit the roles of the various staff a Solti was expected to have.
Trailing an advanced guard of the two biggest men each, attended on by 'concubines'—actual wives would never go out in public—servitors and trailed by a half dozen more guards, the two new Soltis headed for the main audience chamber and entered approximately simultaneously from either side.
The old Solti frowned down on them. "Well, nephews how . . . wonderful to see you again after all these years."
"Uncle." The captain made what might be imagined to be a polite nod.
The Lieutenant raised a supercilious eyebrow under his exquisite crimson silk turban.
"You will both acknowledge me as the new Amma." The older man frowned at them. "I hold your children."
"Do you genuinely not mind killing children?" The captain asked.
"Of course not. Why should I?"
The captain drew his finger across his throat.
The Old Solti leaped to his feet, his hand flying to his throat as a gash opened from ear to ear and he collapsed across the blood sprayed table.
The watchers drew back with indrawn breaths. "Magic," was whispered from multiple sources.
The two "Soltis'" "servants" scampered to bring them food from the platters on the table, and poured wine. The other guests stirred, but made only a small show of eating before making their excuses and departing.
"Well, looks like the party's over."
Captain Orobona stood up and looked thoughtfully at the guards along the wall and at all the doors.
"Who do you serve?" he asked the nearest.
"You, Amma."
"Why?"
The man hesitated, then shrugged. "We will all die in two months. Better to go with some semblance of civilization instead of as a pack of animals."
"Well, I'm not ready to roll over and die. I think we need to start thinking about digging some underground shelters. Because I'm planning on surviving, and I don't see why most of the region can't as well. All of you here are dismissed for the night. Tell your fellows that tomorrow we'll be starting plans to survive. All of us and all of them. Go." He waved a hand and they all filed out, several shooting him puzzled looks.
"First stop, the Amma's quarters. Good job, Harper." The captain swept a look around. "Harper?"
"She didn't know you'd already sent people about the kids, sir." Jaime frowned down at his bare chest and pantaloons. "Gonna have to do something about the slave boy's outfits around here." He lifted the wig and wiped sweat off his head.
The Amma's quarters were decorated in blood and dead guards.
Rogers was pale. "The kids are mostly alright, sir. Some of the old man's wives—they killed their own daughters so they wouldn't be violated by the man that killed their father."
They found the last of the women they had suspected were there, and two extras.
"Damn, Harriet, I thought you were going back to Earth?" The Ambassador walked around the bodies, looking green.
She giggled, on the edge of hysteria. "Well, one battle zone or the other, what's the difference? Do you know what happened on Earth? Did they actually attack?"
"We don't know. Now that we have some tentative control here, we need to get down to the Gate."
"I bet you kin see it frum t'roof."
They all turned and looked at Kenton.
"They said yah kin see a hunert miles frim opp there."
Indeed. It might not be a hundred mile view, but it was more than enough to see the circle of green grass and boxes, with the gate building at the far left as they looked down on it. A light flashed red on the top of the building.
"Oh no. It's too early, dammit why do you have to keep opening these unscheduled gates?" Orobona clenched both hands in his hair.
Down on the plain figures scrambled for the gyps and trucks lined up, ready for the gate.
"They'll see, on the other side, and shut it down quick." Sergeant Johnson sounded grimly determined for that to be true.
Orobona looked around, nodded. "Yes. And then they'll be coming back." He shaded his eyes and stared down at the camp. "Looks like about five hundred soldiers, all native. I think the men in the pale tan uniforms—probably ours, to fool the Gate Authority people—are the Oners. Guess they're the only ones who know how to drive. Maybe thirty, total. And who the hell are those people?"
"Civilians. Wives and children." Devvy rubbed her arms. "They're escaping from the comet. Where they think they're going to go, I haven't the faintest idea."
The light on the building turned yellow.
"Damn it all, there's no way to warn the Earth." Orobona slammed a fist into his palm.
"Yeah, the gate people will look through and say 'Oh good, they're all ready to evac, already' and let them through." Jamie felt sick.
The light turned green.
A gyp, a tanker, and a gyp with a red flag popped out of the building and kept going. The outgoing column moved immediately.
"They've been watching us. They know the protocol. But when the first of the foot soldiers go through, it'll be obvious what's happening. They'll shut it down fast." Lieutenant Hamza was still in his Solti robes.
Head of Orobona's Intel unit. He knows how the gate people work. Knows that they're alert for this sort of thing. Well, Natives sneaking through, more likely. But they scrutinize every thing that comes through. Right?
Two gyps disappeared, the trucks followed.
"About a hundred troops in the trucks, God Damn it all!"
The vehicles were still moving. The mounted troops on their heels. The foot soldiers had assembled to the side, and were shifting, ready to march through. The mass of civilians to the other side, were scrambling into carriages and wagons.
The last truck went through, the horses objected, were whipped and spurred into the gate.
Soldiers marched, wagons rolled . . .
And they all stood and stared down at the empty camp.
The light on the gate building turned off.
"They got every last camp follower through." Orobona slumped for just a moment. Then he turned and looked at them.
"We need to get down to the camp, and arm up."
Jaime nodded. "We've got a couple dozen horses. There may be wagons . . ."
Most of them had to march.
The camp was empty. The new arrivals, two gyps and a tank truck full of fuel. Three drivers and five soldiers, all stunned. Eighteen gyps in the mechanics' yard, in various stages of disassembly. The armory had been stripped. The boxes were in disarray, everything of value gone.
The gate anchor didn't seem to be damaged.
Danielle stared up at it. "Sir? Are we stuck here?"
The captain sighed. "I expect our fellow troops to come back through the gate any time now. Hopefully after we've got control of the guards down there. But if these maniacs managed to damage the gate mechanism on the far side . . . well, I think we'd better get ready to ride out the comet strike."
Sutter's team was left behind to guard the camp. Lieutenant Harper stayed to try to assemble a working radio from the wreckage and spare parts left behind after the communications center had been vandalized. The rest of them walked back up the hill to the palace. The locals all looked them over. A few tried to intimidate them. Not wise, the mood they were in. Not that they had much skill with their appropriated swords. Most of them had acquired clubs. All they needed to do was block the first swing of the sword and close in for hand-to-hand. And knife fighting? No prob. They left more cautious natives in their wake, and made it back to the palace with nothing more than a few bruises.
Orobona formed them up in the main throne room, an immense octagonal room with a domed roof. "Right. It looks like this charade of me being the new Amma is going to have to continue for a bit. Anyone have any bright ideas?"
Jaime cleared his throat. "The comet . . . well, we have no idea how bad it might be, but digging some shelters sounds like a reasonable way to spend the next five weeks."
"Indeed. Lt Hamza, you are in charge of procuring supplies. Both for us right now, and assuming the disaster will ruin next spring's planting and the harvest . . . "
"Right. I'll secure any grain stores, silos, whatever . . . "
"Lt Lennox, dig the shelters. Lt Comfrey, security. The palace and the gate camp especially, but the city in general." He drummed his fingers on his leg. "As the Amma, I suppose I'm in charge of the city."
"The City Fathers run the city." The boy squirmed under their gaze. "There's police, but the Amma may have taken them with him."
"Right. I'll talk to them. Let's take a tour of the palace."
Female staff, apprehensively cleaning, easing out of rooms as they approached. In the harem rooms, there was plenty of apprehensive cringing, except the women who fluttered their eyelashes at the new Amma. The guards and the solti's bodies had been wrapped up, but still lay there. "Lennox, get 'em buried. Lieutenant Grabber? Find out the
state of the State treasury. I want to give each of these women a pension, and a dowry or whatever for their kids and get them out from under foot. Pay our troops and the Palace Guards so they're happy."
Jaime got swept up in the house clearing, digging a big hole for the bodies, amazingly few, and then he explored the palace, Kenton following him, breathless in disbelief.
"So, kid, what happened to this father of yours?"
The boy's lips thinned, and blinked to hide the tears in his eyes. "I have a twin brother who looks just like Dad. I don't. When he had a fight with mother . . . he sold me. He signed the papers . . . "
"Crap. Well, hang around with us, kid, we'll give you a job." And a new family. It's not like I'm going to have kids of my own. Well, I'm probably only six or seven years older than he is. So, I always wanted a little brother.
They released the "guests" awaiting ransom and sent them on their way.
Gave audiences to everyone who wanted to meet the new Amma. Kenton earned his pay as the Amma's mouthpiece the first day and got a serious raise in pay. Jaime was able to understand most of what anyone said, and get the gist of it to the captain. Lieutenant Hamza spoke Earth style Arabic and managed the local hodgepodge well enough.
They killed the slavers that came to the palace to complain of an escape.
The rest of the locals got very polite after that.
The palace was a nightmare maze, even the Amma's quarters with all the outside exits was impossible to defend. In the end the Earth troops all moved down to the lowest floor and shifted the women there up to the second floor to fight over accommodations with the widows already in residence. Jaime did a quick count and came up with sixty-eight widows and almost two hundred children. Mostly the old man's, but the two grandsons had contributed to the total. Some of the women had family, and took a gift from the new Amma and quickly removed themselves and their children.
There were a few bitter jokes about how there were still plenty of women for them all—pity they weren't up to the challenge.