Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire

by Stephen W Bennett

  When he looked ahead, he realized the old man had led him into a tunnel-like section of the passage, where the thirty-foot high animal pens on both sides were hung with these coverings, tied to the tops of the pens. There was a mesh lying over the top of all the animal pens. The metal mesh was ten feet below the ceiling, and it permitted animal handlers to walk over the pens to observe any point below. The tarps were sometimes used by animal handlers to isolate and calm animals that were kept here, preserving their energy for when they faced each other or men up in the arena.

  Disoriented in this maze, Sayed saw the man stop and pull back the edge of one of the tarps, revealing a barred heavy gate, made with wrist-thick steel rods and bracing crosspieces. Sayed noted the gate was placed across a twenty-foot wide passage, with tarps only on the right side. The passage ended at a large steel door in a ferrocrete wall, located about a hundred feet away.

  “What is this side corridor used for?”

  The old man winced, apparently at how loud he’d spoken, and answered in a near whisper when he replied. “My Sheik, elephants and animals such as water buffalo are moved in or out by this route.” He pointed to the door in the far wall.

  “On the other side of that motor driven track door is my truck, which is parked just outside the base wall of the coliseum, on the side away from your palace. There is an underground loading dock out there, where animals are brought in by trucks. That is where their wastes are carried away, by trucks like mine. The loading dock is not visible to anyone above because it is covered over and below street level. There is a long ramp leading up to the road.”

  The man produced a large manual key from a pocket, and kneeled down to insert it in the bottom lock of the thirty-foot tall gate. A twist of the heavy wide handled key, and a three-inch thick locking pin retracted to allow the gate to swing open. Two other equally heavy latches, placed higher on the gate, were already open so the old man didn’t need to climb up on the cross pieces to reach them.

  Seeing the Sheik’s upward glance, he explained. “I spent all night covering this passageway to conceal this exit from followers as we made our escape. I unlocked the upper latches then to save time. We need to hurry, because I think I hear other voices back where we came from.”

  The Sheik couldn’t hear the voices of the other prisoners that had shouted at him earlier, but he could well imagine a chase may have started. He quickly stepped through the gate, pushing the old man aside as he cringed at the foul contact with the man’s soiled clothing.

  “My Sheik, if you wait for me at the other door, I will relock this gate.”

  Sayed certainly saw no need to hesitate, and rushed quickly towards the large solid steel door. It was motorized and mounted on tracks, like those in the arena. He heard the metallic ringing of the latch closing when he was midway to the big door. When he arrived, he impatiently slapped the wall pad to activate the motor that would pull the door open. Nothing happened.

  Seeing another key hole, he realized it required a key, to prevent animals from accidentally bumping the button to activate the drive motor. He looked back, and the old man wasn’t to be seen, but there was some rustling at the edge of the tarp at the other end, where he could see hands and feet, revealing the old man was climbing the gate.

  The old man appeared over the top of the gate, above the tarp that concealed it from view on the other side. Spryer than he looked, he had climbed to the top and now stood on the exposed mesh that also covered the top of the passageway, he pulled a hook bill knife from a tool belt, and started to cut the chords that held up the fabric over the outside of the gate.

  “Don’t waste time with that.” Then Sayed thought for a second, and remembered what the old man had said.

  “That is supposed to conceal this exit route. You should leave it in place.”

  With a gap-toothed smile that Sayed hadn’t seen displayed earlier, Ramal said, “Then I wouldn’t be able to watch, my Sheik.”

  “Watch what? Open the next door immediately.”

  “I hear and obey, my Sheik. I will open the next door very soon.” Why did that obedient reply somehow sound insolent? He also wasn’t whispering now. There was a snort of some sort, heard from some distance away.

  Instead of climbing down, the old man walked on the center of the springy exposed steel mesh covering the passageway, moving towards Sayed. About halfway to the wall, he stepped to the covered side of the passage, bent and used the hook bill to sever another chord holding up a corner of a different tarpaulin. The fabric sagged until the middle support chord kept it from falling farther.

  “What are you doing? Open the door now.” Sayed saw a hinge of another heavy barred gate was revealed behind that drooping tarp corner. The mesh, now visible over the pen on that side was also covered by other tarps laid flat. Every pen here was covered with mesh, but what was the purpose of laying traps up there, and why was he cutting two hanging tarps down? Sayed started to feel uneasy at these seemingly irrational actions. Ramal moved to the center chord of the tarp, and bent to cut that one.

  “If you will stop wasting time, I will double your reward. Of what use is removing these panels?”

  “My Sheik, I am hurrying to receive my reward. I will be paid soon.”

  The long sheet of fabric started to sag again as the central rope was severed, and additional tarps laid over the top mesh of the pen were revealed. A repeat of the earlier snort sounded, and it actually had an inquisitive note to it this time.

  Sayed was tempted to walk towards the gate being revealed by the tarp removal, but a sense of dread prevented him from moving. “Why did you use tarps to block your view down into that pen from the top?”

  “My Sheik, it was not to block my view inside, it was to block his view out, of me.”

  “Whose view?” He knew he didn’t want to hear the answer.

  As the third rope was cut, another twenty-foot wide gate was fully revealed when the thirty by twenty feet of lightweight material fell to the floor in loose folds. Ramal, from his position on the passageway mesh covering, looked down into the pen from his vantage point and nodded.

  “Now he sees…,” the rest of whatever Ramal said was obliterated by an ear-piercing screech that dropped into lower notes as it ended. Only something large could make that sound.

  Sayed looked at the top of the gate where Ramal was crouching, and was relieved to see the heavy latch pin was inserted into the thick doorframe. He was certain he knew what this was about; advance payment. Ramal didn’t trust Sayed to pay him, once they were away from the arena.

  He wet his fingers with his suddenly drying tongue, twisted and pulled off three rings, each with impressive sized gemstones. One was an emerald, one a sapphire, and one a ruby. All were large beautiful natural stones, mounted in heavy gold settings. He didn’t care for diamonds, and as it happened, cheaper diamonds were far more common on planets such as Gribble’s Nook than were the other stones.

  “Let me pay you with these rings, and then you open the door. I’ll drive your truck away by myself. These would buy you a fleet of new trucks.”

  “That is not the reward I seek. Those rings will not buy my family another Hassam, who died in your arena. They would not have replaced my granddaughter Akilah, Hassam’s sister, who you threw into the arena two days ago, just to watch her be torn apart by strange animals. She escaped only when saved by the man from Koban. Her death sentence was ordered because she refused to submit to the foul man you gave her to, so you sheiks could watch what the strange animals would do to her.”

  With that, he reached his arm through a six-inch hole cut in the mesh for this purpose, and inserted his key in the top latch. The pin snapped back with a clang, drawing another screeching roar from the pen. Sayed’s eyes were instantly drawn to the other two latches, at the middle and bottom. They too had been opened before he had arrived. His fate was decided before he had left his cell.

  He had to try to bargain for a longer life than the next few minutes. “Ramal, y
ou must have heard that sharia law will be administered by the three devout sheiks invited to hold court. Because of my sins against Allah, it will be a severe punishment. Is not your sense of honor better served by having them pass judgement on me? It would be done before Allah, your family, and all the people. The penalty is beheading, if they find me guilty of murder.”

  The old man touched his chin, as if considering this. “To have you beheaded, or torn apart as you ordered for my granddaughter?” He shrugged. “That is an easy choice.

  “Even the three more devout sheiks are still sheiks. You could be spared your life and offered only the lash, or an amputation and regrowth. That is not enough for my family’s honor.”

  In Sayed’s mind, it was a certainty those three sheiks would declare him a murderer and call for his head. They had declared all nineteen of the other sheiks murderers at some time or other. He could hear the clumps of heavy feet slowly coming closer. The sight of blue tinged white feathers in the dirt near the gate told him what was coming. The whiteraptor had probably shed those when it attacked the bars and gate when Ramal had tied the tarpaulins in place. It seemed to be holding back now, for some reason.

  The insight came swiftly, based on a lifetime of watching smart predators kept in captivity. The gate was unlocked but it was still closed, and the animal didn’t know the difference. He realized the raptor was being tentative because it didn’t see a way out. He’d watched it on a video feed previously, the first day in this same large pen, as it repeatedly tested the new enclosure’s strength. It had finally learned it couldn’t break through, so it was approaching slower now, coming over simply to make its displeasure known and to satisfy its curiosity. Ramal wouldn’t allow that state to persist. His hand was still stuck through the hole in the mesh up to his elbow, gripping the top of the gate. He would pull it open as far as he could when the raptor came closer, and then the monster would shove it completely open.

  Sayed decided to run to the other end of the passageway, where he could climb the tall gate to the top to see if he could make a gap and force his way through. The big gate was held shut only by the bottom latch, so it might warp enough at the top to allow him to squeeze through. He dropped the rings and started his dash.

  When he passed the crumpled tarp, he glanced through the gate’s bars. The raptor was fifty feet away in the large pen but it saw him. Running prey triggered an instant response, and a fresh and louder screech sounded as it leaped with a powerful surge of speed. Somehow, he had thought of it as lumbering, due to its size. Its sight and sound now spurred Sayed to greater, more desperate effort. Exactly as if his life depended on that, as he’d seen countless other men and women do in the past. Sometimes they won that race.

  He reached the end gate and used the cross bracing to climb as fast as he could to the top. He’d felt the gate’s frame vibrate and rattle with only the bottom clamped as he climbed; He hoped he could flex the tall gate enough to squeeze through. He had watched many desperate people do amazing things in life or death situations.

  At the top, he grasped the mesh top with his right hand, and shoved his left arm through a pair of bars, resting it on a diagonal support welded at the corner of the gate. It hurt his arm and fingers, but that supported his weight, while he pushed with his feet and legs against the passageway bars. The gate, being twenty feet wide, and thirty feet tall, pinned only at the bottom, warped six inches out into the main corridor on his first try, but not enough.

  He heard the crash and felt the vibration as the raptor slammed into the other gate, emitting a triumphant scream of pursuit. Sayed looked back just once, and saw that the beast had slipped and fallen as the gate suddenly swung wide, yielding to the body slam. It was scrabbling to get its feet under it, and using its little feathered arms and hand claws to tear at the fabric of the tarps and cross bars, using them to help stabilize it as it regained its footing. The narrow tooth filled mouth was agape, and its two forward oriented yellow eyes were locked on Sayed, using its binocular vision to judge how close its prey was. Fifty feet wasn’t very far, not to a thirty-foot long frustrated young killer, operating in such low gravity.

  Sayed, breathing heavy, used the rest of his strength to shift his feet to closer bars, for a harder push, and shoved with all his might. The gate warped almost a foot at the top corner, and using his straightened right leg, knee locked, to maintain that push with his left hip painfully pressed against the edge of the gate, he jammed his now free left knee through the lower part of that opening. Pulling his left arm free, he twisted to shove his arm and left shoulder into the gap above that leg. He was stuck, because he couldn’t pull his right leg back to slide it into the gap, because it was all that was creating the gap. His only hope was that at twenty-five feet above the floor, he was higher than the beast’s head.

  Then the young, inexperienced predator, added a permanent warp to the gate, as it slammed into it with its left shoulder, its fetid breath coming from just feet below Sayed. It was thirty-feet long, but not thirty-feet tall, and it hadn’t leaped upward as it closed with its target. On the rebound, it lost its footing again, but not before it created an eighteen-inch gap at the gate’s top corner. Sayed would have slipped down, wedged within easy reach of the raptor if not for his literal death grip on the overhead mesh with his right hand.

  Sayed, supported by his cut and bleeding fingers gripping the metal mesh, his left arm and elbow now locked around a bar from the outside of the passage, pushed his now free-swinging right leg through the widened opening. He was having trouble getting his ample gut through the gap, which he sucked in now. If his right hand had jarred free of the mesh, he would have slipped down where the gap was slimmer, and he’d never get his torso through. He was close to forcing his way through, thanks to the young raptor’s clumsy and inexperienced attack. He’d fall nearly twenty-five feet when he pulled his head through and let go, but he might only receive a minor injury if he clutched at the bars to slow his fall.

  Abruptly, he thought his right hand had gone numb and released, when he lost his grip, and only his left arm wrapped around that bar kept him from sliding lower. He reached up again to grasp the mesh and pull himself up a bit to get all the way through the gap, but couldn’t seem to get a grip.

  He heard a laugh as he felt several items softly strike his head through the top of his keffiyeh and they bounced off, passing in front of his face. He couldn’t believe it. They looked like the ends of fingers. Sayed looked up. It seemed that Ramal had arrived with his hook bill tool. He then sat on the mesh at the top of the gate, swung his right leg over the side by the gap, planted a foot in Sayed’s horrified upturned face and shoved him down, pushing his head back through the gap and twisting his keffiyeh to the side, as his paunchy midriff wedged the man in the gate.

  “Look down, my Sheik. Your fate is rising to meet you.”

  The last sight a screaming Sayed had was of an open maw, rimmed with serrated teeth, rising to close on his head and upper torso.

  ****

  Haveram was annoyed. “How could it get out? Either gate would probably hold in an adult. No way did it break out.” His first reaction was disbelief and denial. The adolescent whiteraptor male was loose in the underground warren below the floor of the arena, raising havoc with the animals it could reach. It had started using its powerful feet to kick-in the weaker cell doors it encountered, when it detected more of the noisy, but soft chewy meat morsels inside the small nests.

  Carson had an idea. “I don't think it was expected to get completely free. The first gate was undamaged, so it must have been left unlocked. The second gate was bent far back at middle and top, with only the bottom locking pin twisted open, as the raptor forced its way out. The top two pins of that gate were already retracted. Next to that damaged second gate is where we found the half-eaten remains of a chunky man, who once had worn a rather fancy gold trimmed white robe. The headdress, or keffiyeh was missing, along with the head and upper chest, but I’ll bet you Federation cred
its that it had real gold threads braided into the rope agal. The agal is that circular rope or braid that holds the scarf on the head. That was a traditional Arab robe, except for the gold trim, which nearly all of the sheiks wear. I think one of them received his judgement early, and then the raptor went looking for more of them.”

  Thad said, “We can count which one was missing from the holding cells later, if that damn raptor doesn’t eat any of them whole. It has to be getting full. It’ll want a nap soon. Right now, we don’t want that wild raptor bastard to get out and wade into the mob gathering above in the coliseum. They came here to see judgements rendered, not to join those being judged. It would easily get out of that arena if it made it that far. Hell the rippers jumped out easy enough. I half expected the mob to want to send the sheiks into the arena with the rhinolo. They’ve agreed to let the three other sheiks render judgements on the accused sheiks, which is apparently a public beheading for the crimes of which they are all accused, if found guilty. Perhaps more humane, but still brutal. Some of their henchmen will join them.”

  Haveram nodded. “OK. Have someone shoot the raptor. We need some of the bastards to face the local version of legal justice, although I favor the raptors version for most of them. This place will take some serious watching for a long time. I’m happy to let the Raspani and Prada organize that, with a few dozen Kobani rotated through to back them up for years, until they set up a trained local police force they can trust. I’m happy that Poldark is willing to undertake that training task. At least the sheiks estates will pay for it all. Damn they were greedy bastards, with their tentacles into crimes on almost every Rim World. Wait until the PU finds out how deep they were into deals with corrupt Hub World officials.