“Sir!”
Falkenberg nodded again. “To quote Mr. Bradford, I took the liberty of securing the corridors, Mr. President. Now, sir, if you will issue that proclamation, I’ll see to the situation in the streets outside. Sergeant Major.”
“Sir!”
“Do you have the proclamation of martial law that Captain Fast drew up?”
“Sir.” Calvin removed a rolled document from a pocket of his leather tunic. Falkenberg took it and laid it on the table in front of President Budreau.
“But-“ Budreau’s tone was hopeless. “All right. Not that there’s much chance.” He looked at Bradford’s body and shuddered. “He was ready to kill me,” Budreau muttered. The President seemed confused. Too much had happened, and there was too much to do.
The battle sounds outside were louder, and the council room was filled with the sharp copper odor of fresh blood. Budreau drew the parchment toward himself and glanced at it, then took out a pen from his pocket. He scrawled his signature across it and handed it to Hamner to witness.
“You’d better speak to the President’s Guard,” Falkenberg said. “They won’t know what to do.”
“Aren’t you going to use them in the street fight?” Hamner asked.
Falkenberg shook his head. “I doubt if they’d fight. They have too many friends among the rebels. They’ll protect the Palace, but they won’t be reliable for anything else.”
“Have we got a chance?” Hamner asked. Budreau looked up from his reverie at the head of the table. “Yes. Have we?”
“Possibly,” Falkenberg said. “Depends on how good the people we’re fighting are. If their commander is half as good as I think he is, we won’t win this battle.”
XI
“God damn it, we won’t do it!” Lieutenant Martin Latham stared in horror at Captain Fast. “That market’s a death trap. These men didn’t join to attack across open streets against rioters in safe positions-“
“No. You joined to be glorified police,” Captain Fast said calmly. “Now you’ve let things get out of hand. Who better to put them right again?”
“The Fourth Battalion takes orders from Colonel Cordova, not you.” Latham looked around for support. Several squads of the Fourth were within hearing, and he felt reassured.
They stood in a deep indentation of the Palace wall. Just outside and around the corner of the indentation they could hear sporadic firing as the other units of the regiment kept the rebels occupied. Latham felt safe here, but out there-
“No,” he repeated. “It’s suicide.”
“So is refusal to obey orders,” Amos Fast said quietly. “Don’t look around and don’t raise your voice. Now, glance behind me at the Palace walls.”
Latham saw them. A flash from a gun barrel; blurs as leather-clad figures settled in on the walls and in the windows overlooking the niche.
“If you don’t make the attack, you will be disarmed and tried for cowardice in the face of the enemy,” Fast said quietly. “There can be only one outcome of that trial. And only one penalty. You’re better off making the assault. We’ll support you in that.”
“Why are you doing this?” Martin Latham demanded.
“You caused the problem,” Fast said. “Now get ready.
“When you’ve entered the market square the rest of the outfit will move up in support.”
The assault was successful, but it cost the Fourth heavily. After that came another series of fierce attacks. When they were finished the rioters had been driven from the immediate area of the Palace, but Falkenberg’s regiment paid for every meter gained.
Whenever they took a building, the enemy left it blazing. When the regiment trapped one large group of rebels, Falkenberg was forced to abandon the assault to aid in evacuating a hospital that the enemy put to the torch. Within three hours, fires were raging all around the Palace.
There was no one in the council chamber with Budreau and Hamner. The bodies had been removed, and the floor mopped, but it seemed to George Hamner that the room would always smell of death; and he could not keep his eyes from straying from time to time, from staring at the neat line of holes stitched at chest height along the rich wood paneling.
Falkenberg came in. “Your family is safe, Mr. Hamner.” He turned to the President. “Ready to report, sir.”
Budreau looked up with haunted eyes. The sound of gunfire was faint, but still audible.
“They have good leaders,” Falkenberg reported. “When they left the Stadium they went immediately to the police barracks. They took the weapons and distributed them to their allies, after butchering the police.”
“They murdered-“
“Certainly,” Falkenberg said. “They wanted the police building as a fortress. And we are not fighting a mere mob out there, Mr. President. We have repeatedly run against well-armed men with training. Household forces. I will attempt another assault in the morning, but for now, Mr. President, we don’t hold much more than a kilometer around the Palace.”
The fires burned all night, but there was little fighting. The regiment held the Palace, with bivouac in the courtyard; and if anyone questioned why the Fourth was encamped in the center of the courtyard with other troops all around them, they did so silently.
Lieutenant Martin Latham might have had an answer for any such questioner, but he lay under Hadley’s flag in the honor hall outside the hospital.
In the morning the assaults began again. The regiment moved out in thin streams, infiltrating weak spots, bypassing strong, until it had cleared a large area outside the Palace again. Then it came against another well-fortified position.
An hour later the regiment was heavily engaged against roof-top snipers, barricaded streets, and everywhere burning buildings. Maniples and squads attempted to get through and into the buildings beyond but were turned back.
The Fourth was decimated in repeated assaults against the barricades.
George Hamner had come with Falkenberg and stood in the field headquarters. He watched another platoon assault of the Fourth beaten back. “They’re pretty good men,” he mused.
“They’ll do. Now.” Falkenberg said.
“But you’ve used them up pretty fast.”
“Not entirely by choice,” Falkenberg said. “The President has ordered me to break the enemy resistance. That squanders soldiers. I’d as soon use the Fourth as blunt the fighting edge of the rest of the regiment.”
“But we’re not getting anywhere.”
“No. The opposition’s too good, and there are too many of them. We can’t get them concentrated for a set battle, and when we do catch them they set fire to part of the city and retreat under cover of the flames.”
A communications corporal beckoned urgently, and Falkenberg went to the low table with its array of electronics. He took the offered earphone and listened, then raised a mike.
“Fall back to the Palace,” Falkenberg ordered.
“You’re retreating?” Hamner demanded.
Falkenberg shrugged. “I have no choice. I can’t hold this thin a perimeter, and I have only two battalions. Plus what’s left of the Fourth.”
“Where’s the Third? The Progressive partisans? My people?”
“Out at the power plants and food centers,” Falkenberg answered. “We can’t break in without giving the techs time to wreck the place, but we can keep any more rebels from getting in. The Third isn’t as well trained as the rest of the regiment-and besides, the techs may trust them.”
They walked back through burned-out streets. The sounds of fighting followed them as the regiment retreated. Civilian workers fought the fires and cared for the wounded and dead.
Hopeless, George Hamner thought. Hopeless. I don’t know why I thought Falkenberg would pull some kind of rabbit out of the hat once Bradford was gone. What could he do? What can anyone do?
Worried-looking Presidential Guards let them into the Palace and swung the heavy doors shut behind them. The guards held the Palace, but wo
uld not go outside.
President Budreau was in his ornate office with Lieutenant Banners. “I was going to send for you,” Budreau said. “We can’t win this, can we?”
“Not the way it’s going,” Falkenberg answered. Hamner nodded agreement.
Budreau nodded rapidly, as if to himself. His face was a mask of lost hopes. “That’s what I thought. Pull your men back to barracks, Colonel. I’m going to surrender.”
“But you can’t,” George protested. “Everything we’ve dreamed of ... You’ll doom Hadley. The Freedom Party can’t govern.”
“Precisely. And you see it too, don’t you, George? How much governing are we doing? Before it came to ah open break, perhaps we had a chance. Not now. Bring your men back to the Palace, Colonel Falkenberg. Or are you going to refuse?”
“No, sir. The men are retreating already. They’ll be here in half an hour.”
Budreau sighed loudly. “I told you the military answer wouldn’t work here, Falkenberg.”
“We might have accomplished something in the past months if we’d been given the chance.”
“You might.” The President was too tired to argue. “But putting the blame on poor Ernie won’t help. He must have been insane.
“But this isn’t three months ago, Colonel. It’s not even yesterday. I might have reached a compromise before the fighting started, but I didn’t, and you’ve lost. You’re not doing much besides burning down the city. . . at least I can spare Hadley that. Banners, go tell the Freedom Party leaders I can’t take anymore.”
The Guard officer saluted and left, his face an unreadable mask. Budreau watched him leave the office. His eyes focused far beyond the walls with their Earth decorations.
“So you’re resigning,” Falkenberg said slowly.
Budreau nodded.
“Have you resigned, sir?” Falkenberg demanded.
“Yes, blast you. Banners has my resignation.”
“And what will you do now?” George Hamner asked. His voice held both contempt and amazement. He had always admired and respected Budreau. And now what had Hadley’s great leader left them?
“Banners has promised to get me out of here,” Budreau said. “He has a boat in the harbor. We’ll sail up the coast and land, then go inland to the mines. There’ll be a star-ship there next week, and I can get out on that with my family. You’d better come with me, George.” The President put both hands over his face, then looked up. “There’s a lot of relief in giving in, did you know? What will you do, Colonel Falkenberg?”
“We’ll manage. There are plenty of boats in the harbor if we need one. But it is very likely that the new government will need trained soldiers.”
“The perfect mercenary,” Budreau said with contempt. He sighed, then sent his eyes searching around the office, lingering on familiar objects. “It’s a relief. I don’t have to decide things anymore.” He stood and his shoulders were no longer stooped. “I’ll get the family. You’d better be moving too, George.”
“I’ll be along, sir. Don’t wait for us. As the Colonel says, there are plenty of boats.” He waited until Budreau had left the office, then turned to Falkenberg. “All right, what now?”
“Now we do what we came here to do,” Falkenberg said. He went to the President’s desk and examined the phones, but rejected them for a pocket communicator. He lifted it and spoke at length.
“Just what are you doing?” Hamner demanded.
“You’re not President yet,” Falkenberg said. “You won’t be until you’re sworn in, and that won’t happen until I’ve finished. And there’s nobody to accept your resignation, either.”
“What the hell?” Hamner looked closely at Falkenberg, but he could not read the officer’s expression. “You do have an idea. Let’s hear it.”
“You’re not President yet,” Falkenberg said. “Under Budreau’s proclamation of martial law, I am to take whatever actions I think are required to restore order in Refuge. That order is valid until a new President removes it. And at the moment there’s no President.”
“But Budreau’s surrendered! The Freedom Party will elect a President.”
“Under Hadley’s constitution only the Senate and Assembly in joint session’ can alter the order of succession. They’re scattered across the city and their meeting chambers have been burned.”
Sergeant Major Calvin and several of Falkenberg’s aides came to the door. They stood, waiting.
“I’m playing guardhouse lawyer,” Falkenberg said. “But President Budreau doesn’t have the authority to appoint a new President. With Bradford dead, you’re in charge here, but not until you appear before a magistrate and take the oath of office.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Hamner protested. “How long do you think you can stay in control here, anyway?”
“As long as I have to.” Falkenberg turned to an aide. “Corporal, I want Mr. Hamner to stay with me and you with him. You will treat him with respect, but he goes nowhere and-sees no one without my permission. Understood?”
“Sir!”
“And now what?” Hamner asked.
“And now we wait,” John Falkenberg said softly. “But not too long...”
George Hamner sat in the council chambers with his back to the stained and punctured wall. He tried to forget those stains, but he couldn’t.
Falkenberg was across from him, and his aides sat at the far end of the table. Communications gear had been spread across one side table, but there was no situation map; Falkenberg had not moved his command post here.
From time to time officers brought him battle reports, but Falkenberg hardly listened to them. However, when one of the aides reported that Dr. Whitlock was calling, Falkenberg took the earphones immediately.
George couldn’t hear what Whitlock was saying and Falkenberg’s end of the conversation consisted of monosyllables. The only thing George was sure of was that Falkenberg was very interested in what his political agent was doing.
The regiment had fought its way back to the Palace and was now in the courtyard. The Palace entrances were held by the Presidential Guard, and the fighting had stopped. The rebels left the guardsmen alone, and an uneasy truce settled across the city of Refuge.
“They’re going into the Stadium, sir,” Captain Fast reported. “That cheer you heard was when Banners gave ‘em the President’s resignation.”
“I see. Thank you, Captain.” Falkenberg motioned for more coffee. He offered a cup to George, but the Vice President didn’t want any.
“How long does this go on?” George demanded.
“Not much longer. Hear them cheering?”
They sat for another hour, Falkenberg with outward calm, Hamner with growing tension. Then Dr. Whitlock came to the council room.
The tall civilian looked at Falkenberg and Hamner, then sat easily in the President’s chair. “Don’t reckon I’ll have another chance to sit in the seat of the mighty,” he grinned.
“But what is happening?” Hamner demanded.
Whitlock shrugged. “It’s ‘bout like Colonel Falkenberg figured. Mob’s moved right into the Stadium. Nobody wants to be left out now they think they’ve won. They’ve rounded up what senators they could find and now they’re fixin’ to elect themselves a new President.”
“But that election won’t be valid,” Hamner said.
“No, suh, but that don’t seem to slow ‘em down a bit. They figure they won the right, I guess. And the Guard has already said they’re goin’ to honor the people’s choice.” Whitlock smiled ironically.
“How many of my technicians are out there in that mob?” Hamner asked. “They’d listen to me, I know they would.”
“They might at that,” Whitlock said. “But there’s not so many as there used to be. Most of ‘em couldn’t stomach the burnin’ and looting. Still, there’s a fair number.”
“Can you get them out?” Falkenberg asked.
“Doin” that right now,” Whitlock grinned. “One reason I come up here
was to get Mr. Hamner to help with that. I got my people goin’ round tellin’ the technicians they already got Mr. Hamner as President, so why they want somebody else? It’s workin’ too, but a few words from their leader here might help.”
“Right,” Falkenberg said. “Well, sir?”
“I don’t know what to say,” George protested.
Falkenberg went to the wall control panel. “Mr. Vice President, I can’t give you orders, but I’d suggest you simply make a few promises. Tell them you will shortly assume command, and that things will be different. Then order them to go home or face charges as rebels. Or ask them to go home as a favor to you. Whatever you think will work.”
It wasn’t much of a speech, and from the roar outside the crowd did not hear much of it anyway. George promised amnesty for anyone who left the Stadium and tried to appeal to the Progressives who were caught up in the rebellion. When he put down the microphone, Falkenberg seemed pleased.
“Half an hour, Dr. Whitlock?” Falkenberg asked.
“About that,” the historian agreed. “All that’s leavin’ will be gone by then.”
“Let’s go, Mr. President.” Falkenberg was insistent.
“Where?” Hamner asked.
“To see the end of this. Do you want to watch, or would you rather join your family? You can go anywhere you like except to a magistrate-or to someone who might accept your resignation.”
“Colonel, this is ridiculous! You can’t force me to be President, and I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Falkenberg’s smile was grim. “Nor do I want you to understand. Yet. You’ll have enough trouble living with yourself as it is. Let’s go.”
George Hamner followed. His throat was dry, and his guts felt as if they’d knotted themselves into a tight ball.
The First and Second Battalions were assembled in the Palace courtyard. The men stood in ranks. There syrithi-leather battledress was stained with dirt and smoke from the street fighting. Armor bulged under their uniforms.
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