Blackcollar: The Judas Solution

by Timothy Zahn

  "That rill not 'e a 'ro'len," Taakh assured him. He snapped an order, and on the edge of the building monitor displays, just barely visible through the smoke, Galway saw the tips of laser rifle muzzles emerge from the firing slits in the bunkers flanking the building's doors, tracking downward toward the figures still lying motionless on the ground. "I don't like this," Galway warned. "There's some catch here."

  "The catch rill 'e 'or they," Taakh said. Gesturing imperiously to one of the techs, he snapped an order.

  * * *

  Lathe had maneuvered their car through a line of trees toward the southwestern part of the fence as the smoke screen spread out over the base, heading for the section where Shaw had said the radiationwrecked sensor post was located. The last thirty meters were done in near-total blindness as the fog settled down around the grounds. "Everyone out," the comsquare called as he shut off the engine.

  "Spadafora, get the shields. Caine, come with me."

  "Sure," Judas muttered, grimacing behind his filter and goggles as Lathe led the way through the smoke.

  He'd had always hated blindfold games, hated them with a passion. "What exactly are we doing?"

  "We're going over the fence," Lathe said. "Hold up here."

  "You know, you promised I'd be kept in the loop," Judas said as he stopped. "This hardly qualifies."

  "Events are moving faster than expected," Spadafora said, coming up behind him and handing over one of the body shields. "If you'd rather, you can wait for us in the car."

  Judas swallowed a curse. In full honesty he would like nothing better than to sit this one out. The Ryqril in there would be playing for keeps, and the flexarmor he was wearing wasn't guaranteed against anything but the first laser shot. Maybe not even that much.

  But Galway needed someone on this end of the attack to pick up on any details they might miss from inside the tac center. "Thanks, but I'm going," he growled.

  "Good," Lathe said. "You can start by hooking your shield over your back to keep your hands free." He demonstrated.

  Judas had just gotten the shield in position when his tingler came to life: all blackcollars, stand ready; launch in five.

  "What are we launching?" Judas asked as Mordecai grabbed his arm and pulled him down into a crouch.

  "We're not using missiles, are we?"

  "Of a sort," Lathe said. "We're tossing a few bodies over the fence."

  In the distance, Judas heard a series of muffled thuds. "That didn't sound like bodies hitting the ground," he said apprehensively.

  "Scud grenades," Spadafora identified the sounds. "Some of them must have landed on the mines."

  Judas grimaced. "Are they all right?"

  "As all right as the rest of them," Lathe said. "Turn your eyes away from the fence a moment."

  Judas had barely complied when the inside of the cloud abruptly lit up with brilliant green light as a dozen or more lasers all fired at once.

  And an instant later he was thrown to the ground as the whole cloud seemed to erupt in a single, violent explosion.

  * * *

  Even at the very center of the base, Galway felt the vibration of the multiple blasts. "Good God,"

  Haberdae gasped as every sensor screen went solid white and then turned to static. "What the hell kind of explosives have they got?"

  "It wasn't the quality," Galway said grimly. "It was the quantity."

  "The what?"

  "Don't you see?" Galway said, pointing to the fence sensor monitors. "Those weren't real people they tossed over the fence. They were more of those same sensor dummies they had riding their decoy hang gliders when they first arrived. Only this batch were loaded with explosives."

  Taakh was snarling at the techs, who were in turn pounding frantically at their keyboards. "And they were lying right by the fence," Haberdae murmured, his voice suddenly graveyard quiet as he pointed to the grounds schematic. The entire fence line was flashing orange now, Galway saw. "Shaped charges designed to send a pressure wave through the ground when they blew," the prefect added. "Probably took out the whole minefield."

  "And the whole fence sensor system, too," Galway said grimly. "Ready or not, here they come."

  * * *

  The hammering in Judas's ears faded away, leaving only a persistent ringing behind. Cautiously, he opened his eyes.

  To find to his shock and dismay that the smoke screen was gone. On the far side of the fence, fifty meters away, he could see Khorstron's western entrance with its two flanking guard bunkers.

  Both bunkers in full targeting view of them.

  "Don't worry, they're probably still too blinded or dazed to shoot straight," Mordecai assured him, getting a grip on his upper arm. "Time to go."

  "Right," Judas said, his explosion-dazed brain starting to put the pieces together. Obviously, the smoke screen was gone because the concussion of the multiple blasts had blown the smoke up and away.

  Fortunately, the wrecked truck was apparently still churning out more of the fog. Even as they again moved toward the fence a fresh cloudbank began to flow in from the west.

  Lathe was the first to reach the fence. "Up and over," he said, and started up.

  Judas followed, the shield on his back bouncing awkwardly as he climbed. Half a minute later, with the fog thickening comfortingly around them, they were back on the ground and moving cautiously toward the building. "What now?" he asked, wincing as he walked past sections of torn ground where hedge mines had been.

  Right on cue, his tingler signaled. Commence shutout.

  "We start Phase Three," Lathe said. "Spadafora?"

  "I'm on it," Spadafora said, dropping into a sniper's kneeling posture, his slingshot ready. Setting a small object into the weapon's pouch, he drew it back a few centimeters. "Ready."

  Lathe nodded and reached under his sleeve. Lathe: ready, the message tingled against Judas's wrist.

  In the near distance, Judas could now hear a crackle of small, oddly muffled explosions. "Primer caps being shot into the guard bunkers at the other three entrances," Lathe identified the sound. "The goal is to kill or otherwise incapacitate the Ryqril inside and keep others from replacing them."

  Judas nodded. With the sensors in the fence gone and those on the building of limited range in the smoke screen, the warriors in the bunkers were about the only eyes Galway and Taakh had left. If Shaw could eliminate them, the blackcollars would have nearly free run of the Khorstron grounds.

  The question was, what did he and Lathe intend to do with that freedom of movement?

  He frowned, belatedly noting that Spadafora himself hadn't joined the slingshot barrage. "What about the bunkers on the western door?"

  "Patience," Lathe said. "We have something special planned for them."

  Judas shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't get any of this," he growled. "If we were going to blow the sensors on the fence anyway, why did we bother nuking the ones on that one particular fencepost? Just to give the Ryqril a little misdirection?"

  "Partly," Lathe said. "For the past couple of days, ever since we assume they spotted the pellet barrage, they've probably been expecting a quiet infiltration from that one single direction and have been setting their plans accordingly." He gestured toward the building, rapidly growing less distinct as the smoke screen continued to roll in. "But more importantly, the fence sensors spot explosives and fast-burning fuels. We needed a gap we could use to send in some extra surprises."

  "Such as?"

  "Patience," Lathe said. "As soon as Shaw gives us the okay—"

  Lathe: go.

  "And here we go," Lathe said. Spadafora's slingshot snapped—

  And somewhere in the direction of the western door the white smoke erupted in flame.

  Judas caught his breath. Spadafora fired again; and as a second sheet of flame burst into existence, he realized the fires were situated at the bases of the two guard bunkers. "Surprises, you say," he managed.

  "They're called burn pellets," Lathe told him. "Jellied
aviation fuel inside a thin and highly flammable shell. Once the snipers had fried that fence post, they could lob over enough of them to make a pile against each of the bunkers' bases."

  "And now if the gunners try sticking their lasers out the firing slits they'll get their faces burned off?"

  Judas suggested.

  "Something like that," Lathe said, digging again for his tingler. Lathe: flame on. "And whether they stick their noses out or not, it's going to be getting very hot in there."

  Acknowledged, Judas's tingler signaled. All blackcollars, deploy around Point One.

  "And you had all this set up two days ago?" Judas asked.

  "First rule of magic, kiddo," Spadafora said. "When the magician says 'Watch very closely,' the trick's already been done."

  "Exactly," Lathe agreed, and Judas could hear the tight smile in his voice. "Here we go, Caine. And watch very closely."

  * * *

  The quiet intensity in the monitor room had dissolved into barely controlled chaos. Taakh strode back and forth behind the techs, barking orders and commands and demands as warning lights and displays began flashing all across the boards. "What the hell is happening out there?" Haberdae gritted.

  "I don't know," Galway said, studying the flashing orange lights on the status displays. "It almost looks like there are fires in some of the guard bunkers."

  "The 'lackcollars are shooting intae the 'unkers," Taakh said, his voice tight. "They seek tae silence the gunners there."

  He had barely finished when a new pair of orange lights, much larger than the other indicators, began flashing on either side of the western door. Taakh barked a taut question; was barked an equally taut answer. "They ha' set 'ires 'eneath the guard 'unkers at the restern entrance," he bit out. "They had no 'uel or extra ex'losi'es. How did they dae this?"

  "I don't know," Galway said. "We'll have to ask Judas when it's all over."

  "Rhy did he not already tell us?" the khassq demanded.

  "I don't know that, either." Galway studied Taakh's face, a sudden revelation striking him. "You never really believed they could get in here, did you, Your Eminence?"

  "Rhat I 'elie'e is not in'ortant," Taakh ground out. "And they rill not 'enetrate this tactical center."

  Despite the danger, Galway had to smile. The goal of the mission had abruptly run squarely into Taakh's personal pride, and the khassq wasn't at all happy about it. "If they don't, then it'll all have been for nothing," he again reminded the Ryq. "And not just into the building—they have to penetrate all the way to the core. Otherwise when your warriors get into Daeliak-naa they may find themselves stopped by the Chryselli's interior defenses with no idea how to get through."

  "And if those guards in the western bunkers get burned out, the blackcollars will have a clear shot at that door," Haberdae put in, an edge of nervous impatience in his voice.

  "So it rould seen," Taakh said, his dark eyes flicking to the status boards and then back to Galway. "Yaer s'y has said nothing a'out this, either."

  "No, he hasn't," Galway said, forcing his voice to remain steady. "My guess is that at the last minute Shaw took over planning and froze Judas out."

  "Shouldn't we be getting warriors into position in the western entrance foyer?" Haberdae put in, his impatience taking on an edge of urgency. "They could be stacking explosives against the door right now for all we know."

  "I dae not 'elie'e it is that sin'le," Taakh said, gazing hard at the displays, most of which still showed little more than fuzzy images. "There is sone trick."

  "I think you're right, Your Eminence," Galway said, moving beside him and studying the displays.

  "Setting big, ostentations fires outside the western bunkers is exactly the sort of thing they'd do to try and draw our attention that direction."

  "'Or rhat 'ur'ose?" Taakh demanded.

  "Something clever, no doubt," Galway said slowly, turning to the tactical schematic with its multitude of flashing orange lights. "I also noticed that when they were throwing their dummies across the fence, all but one of them was sent straight over. Only this one—" he pointed to a spot just east of the southern road "—was thrown in at an angle."

  "And it was thrown farther in than the others," Haberdae murmured.

  "Yes," Galway said. "And unless I'm remembering the schematics incorrectly, it landed right over the tunnel that leads out to the southern guard bunkers."

  "And its explosion has now torn up the ground there," Haberdae said, his uneasiness vanishing into cautious excitement as he caught Galway's line of reasoning. "You think they're going to try to blast their way in through the tunnels?"

  "I don't think we'd better give them the chance to find out," Galway said. "Your Eminence, I expect you want to keep the warriors inside where it's safe—"

  "Ryqril rarriors dae not stay rhere it is sa'," Taakh cut him off sharply. "Re rill take the 'attle tae they."

  "Do you think that's wise, Your Eminence?" Haberdae asked. "Couldn't you just set up something right at the tunnel entrance?"

  "Prefect Haberdae is right, Your Eminence," Galway seconded. "In all that smoke the blackcollars are going to have the advantage, certainly over ordinary Ryqril warriors."

  "No run has the ad'antage o'er Ryqril rarriors," Taakh snapped.

  "I understand that," Galway hastened to assure him. "But I've seen blackcollars in action. It would take a battalion of khassq-class warriors to stop them."

  Taakh drew himself up to his full height. "It rill not take a 'attalion o' khassq," he said, his voice all but ringing with pride. "It rill take only run. I rill lead they."

  "You're going to go out there and leave us?" Galway asked, his eyes flicking to Haberdae. "But what happens if some of them get inside?"

  "They rill not," Taakh said firmly.

  "No, of course they won't," Galway said. "But if they do, we'll have no way to protect ourselves. If you could leave us a couple of warriors, maybe ones you don't think can handle blackcollars anyway—"

  "Enou'!" Taakh barked. Snatching out his laser, he thrust it into Galway's hands. "There. Yae rill now dekhend." Barking a final order at the techs, he strode from the room.

  "Feel safer now?" Haberdae asked sarcastically.

  Galway hefted the laser in his hands. "A little, yes," he said. "He couldn't have used it out there anyway.

  Not in all that smoke."

  "No, of course not," Haberdae said, heading for the door. "You just go ahead and play soldier. I'll be right back."

  "Where are you going?" Galway asked, frowning.

  Haberdae sent a tight smile over his shoulder. "To help you feel even safer."

  * * *

  Ten Ryqril advancing from east door; turning south toward Point One, the terse report came from one of the comsquares on the eastern side of the Khorstron grounds.

  Eight Ryqril advancing from south door, another comsquare added. Second group, silent: six Ryqril.

  Acknowledged, Shaw's reply came. All blackcollars defend. Lathe—go.

  "And here we go," Lathe muttered, getting a grip on Judas's arm and pulling him toward the blazing fires. "Shields ready."

  "We're heading to the bunkers?" Judas asked as he fumbled his shield into position on his arm. "Shaw said the Ryqril were heading south."

  "Because that's where they think the main attack is coming," Lathe said. "Shaw's made it look like—

  hsss!"

  He yanked Judas down into a crouch, the other blackcollars dropping down beside them. There they all squatted, motionless, while around them the shadowy figures of a Ryqril warrior squad hurried past through the smoke. The sound of their footsteps faded away, and Lathe pulled Judas back to his feet.

  The fires were still blazing when they reached the nearer of the bunkers. Even as the structures themselves began to appear through the smoke Judas heard the twang and muffled cracks as Spadafora began to lob primer caps through the firing slits. "Breaking into the bunker won't do us any good, you know," he warned as they continued forward.
"The door leading from it into the tac center is just as strong as the main ones."

  "True," Lathe said. "But only if—watch it."

  He snapped his shield up as a laser poked through the slit and a green bolt shot through the writhing flames. The shot hit the shield dead center, and Judas heard the crackle of heat stress as some of the metal and ablative material burned away.

  The gunner never got a second shot. Spadafora's slingshot snapped again, and through the flames Judas saw a tiny explosion inside the bunker directly behind the muzzle. The weapon tilted sharply upward and slid back out of sight.

  And then, deep in the bunker's darkness, Judas saw a faint glow suddenly appear.

  "It's open!" Lathe snapped. "Mordecai?"

  "Got it," Mordecai said. He stepped through the flames right up to the side of the bunker, his shield with its trailing heat-sink metal ribbon gripped horizontally in his hands. Slipping the edge of the shield into the firing slit, he ducked his head and peered around its side into the interior. Then, with a precise, sharp movement, he shoved the shield into the bunker.

  "Half a meter back," Spadafora said, also ignoring the flames as he peered through the slit on the bunker's other side.

  "Half a meter back," Mordecai repeated, taking hold of the end of the metal ribbon now trailing out the slit. Carefully, he pulled a half meter of it back toward him.

  "That's it," Spadafora said. Stepping back away from the fire, he raised his slingshot, crouching a little as he continued to peer into the bunker.

  "Let's move it," Lathe said. He had pulled a soft-looking pouch from his pack and was busily stuffing it into one end of Spadafora's firing slit. "Caine, you want a look?"

  "Already figured this one out, thanks," Judas assured him as he nevertheless stooped for a quick look.

  Between the fire and the primer caps, the blackcollars had succeeded in driving the Ryqril gunners in from their bunker ... and when they'd opened their door to retreat, Mordecai had shoved his shield in across the floor to block it open.

  Sure enough, through the smoke he could see the half-open door and the ready room beyond it. A couple of Ryqril were also visible, frantically working at a small control box on the wall just inside the door.