The Black Guard: Book III: The Black Mamba (Black Guard series 3)

by CR Daems

  "Understood," Erickson said, with a head jerk. Ten minutes later, Ganz and his team One joined me, and team Two, and the Widow was disappearing into the clouds.

  "By now the raiders are riding their bikes into the town of Oak Hill. We probably have a couple of hours, but to be safe, I want to take up defensive positions in an hour, waiting for their return. We will arrive quietly in case they left anyone to guard the shuttle. Then take a crescent position behind the shuttle’s ramp with Team One to the shuttle's right and Team Two on the left. Unless we are discovered, no shooting until I indicate. They are unlikely to surrender as they would be facing the death penalty, but I would like to give them the option. Although I would like them taken alive and the shuttle captured intact, if shooting starts, shoot to kill, not wound. A wounded man is potentially more dangerous than an unwounded one, having more adrenaline, less caution, and out-of-control anger."

  The half klick was a struggle to reach the raiders' shuttle within the hour I had wanted. The area was dense wilderness with heavy underbrush, thickly treed, and the ground covered with snow and ice. In addition, the last hundred yards had to be crossed in stealth mode or destroy the surprise.

  We finally settled into our positions, some twenty to twenty-five meters from the rear of the shuttle. The raiders had left two men to guard the shuttle. I decided to let them live for fear of warning the returning raiders something wasn't right.

  The raiders returned thirty minutes later, ten strong on five police-like motorcycles, armed with fixed automatic weapons. They circled around to the rear of the shuttle and cut their engines.

  "How did it go, Bert?" said the grizzly-looking man who stood inside as the ramp lowered.

  "Easy as stealing from old ladies. Our inside man, has picked easy targets if not particularly lucrative ones," said a tall young lanky youth. Only one police unit managed to respond before we left. They weren't prepared or armed to deal with us and were quickly killed."

  "Pete," an athletic man with a narrow face etched in stone snapped. "The object of this raid, like the others, is to cause enough mayhem so that the State's representatives will feel the Black Guard isn't protecting them and would be better off with a Helix Alliance. All of us are well paid given our salary, our large bonus, the loot the raids have produced, and the risk has been minimal–"

  "Reach for a weapon and you die," I said stepping out from the tree I had been crouching behind. They turned almost as one to see nine Black Guards with weapons drawn. They had their hands on their weapons but no one had attempted to draw.

  "That's not much of an option," the stony-faced man said without any emotion. "Shot here or live to be hung in Central City." He surprised me by raising both hands high into the air while his look caused all of the raiders to raise their hands in surrender. Then he slowly stepped back toward the shuttle. His men shuffled back with him. As they did, I heard the ramp motor and saw the ramp beginning to rise. The grizzly man in the shuttle bay had activated the mechanism. I shot him as the ten raiders dove for the rising ramp while attempting to draw their weapons. The Black Guard opened fire. I ran hard toward the ramp, doubting that all ten were dead. Too many bodies in motion in too tight a space. More likely several were merely wounded and one or two escaped uninjured. I stepped onto one cycle and launched myself into an arching dive into the still one-third open ramp, tucked, and rolled to a standing position facing the pile of raiders. I felt the shuttle beginning to rise, turned, and shot the pilot in the head. As I turned back to the pile of raiders, stony face was rising to his feet with his Mfw swinging up. It was going to be a tie, and would have been, except the pilotless shuttle dropped several meters to the ground and continued plowing forward. Stony face and I were slammed to the floor by the impact and propelled toward the pile of raiders, which had at least one functional man who was in the process of reaching for a weapon. He struggled to get untangled as he too was squeeze back into the now closed ramp. As stony face and I were about to reach the tangled mess of raiders, the shuttle hit something and instantly stopped. That caused stony face and I to slide back toward the cockpit. I had lost my Mfw in the impact. Stony face still had his as it was attached to a strap around his neck. As we slid, I reached out, grabbed the strap, and tore it lose, but I lost control of the strap, and the weapon flew to the side wall. We slammed into the wall separating the personnel compartment from the cockpit. Stony face managed to stagger to his feet and draw a combat knife from his boot. He dove toward me, knife posed for a downward strike. I was still dizzy from hitting the wall, but I managed to thrust a front kick into his chest. For a second, he hung suspended in air at the end of my leg. He slashed down cutting the inside of my leg, and would have severed my femoral artery if it had not been for my protective under garment. Before he could strike again, my left foot struck him in the face. He stumbled backward as I drew my laser, but before I could fire, I heard shots and the wall behind me was peppered with pellets. I rolled toward stony face hoping the shooter would hesitate for fear of hitting his leader. He didn't, unfortunately for stony face, as several pellets hit him in the leg. I took advantage of his scrambling backward to locate the shooter and put a laser beam through his right eye and another through a second raider who was struggling to push a man off him so he could get up.

  While I was occupied with the surviving raiders at the other end of the bay, stony face leaped forward and kicked the laser out of my hand. A second kick to my head glanced off my shoulder as I rolled away to a kneeing position and managed to draw my knife. Stony face still displayed no emotion as he advanced on me, no crouching or weaving or feints. I stood at peace with no thought of winning or losing, just the fight. He slashed at my face, then reversed his motion and sliced across my chest, and finally lunged with the knife at my intestines. I hadn't moved for the two feints. He was close but slightly too far to make a meaningful cut to my face and no chance of cutting through my protective armor. When he lunged, I twisted right. My right arm guided his knife hand safely past me while my left slammed into his right temple. He crumpled to the floor. His worst nightmare–captured alive to stand trial and be executed.

  I opened the side door into the shuttle and found Sergeant Ganz staring up at me. "Sir, you need any help? We couldn't get in with the ramp up and the side door locked."

  "Yes, put stony face over there," I nodded to the man on the floor, "in restraints, lower the ramp and make sure anyone alive is treated and restrained. Then see if this shuttle will fly." I looked around at the eight Guards standing looking back at me. "Sergeant Reti, check in with Lieutenant Mintz and determine the status of Teams Three and Four."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Safort: The Raider's Camp

  When Captain Sapir had sent Activate Plan Go on his Mfi, Sergeant Krebs began moving his team up the narrow road, more like ruts the ground vehicles made coming and going to the cabin. Halfway to the cabin, they heard men laughing and joking and a vehicle starting. Krebs waved everyone off the road into the trees and thick underbrush. The speeding car passed without hesitation.

  "If the Captain's estimate is correct there shouldn't be more than six to eight raiders left at the cabin," Krebs said just above a whisper. "Corporal Paler, warn Sergeant Glick that six raiders maybe heading towards the brothel." When Paler nodded, Krebs continued. "Stealth approach. We need to determine if they have anyone guarding the second shuttle, then to watch the house to see if we can see how many and where. I doubt they will have shades on the windows. Once we have that information, I'll assign positions."

  It took another half hour to get in position, although they need not have been so careful as the remaining raiders were making too much noise to hear them approach, and no one was guarding the shuttle. Two men were on the porch talking and drinking and maybe assigned to guard the shuttle. Four men were inside the living room playing a gambling game, and one man was upstairs in one of the bedrooms.

  "Well, Lieutenant Mintz, are we going to finesse our way in or use brute for
ce?" Sergeant Cerff asked, mischief in her eyes.

  "Which do you prefer?" Mintz asked, with a twitch of his lip in amusement. He had been considering his options for the past few minutes. Cerff provided a good opportunity to get another viewpoint, which Sapir always did, insisting it provided good training for everyone.

  "Finesse will take hours and one mistake will cause a cluster fuck to deal with," Cerff said, smiling. "Let's just blow past them. Should be over in minutes."

  Everyone like the idea. Cerff and Private Joo would charge the stairs and be responsible for the two sitting and talking. Mintz, Krebs, and Paler would follow through the door into the living room to take care of the four gambling, while Cerff and Joo would race upstairs to take care of the man in the bedroom and anyone else they may have missed. They spent thirty minutes using available cover, the shuttle, trees, and shadows, to get within fifteen to twenty-meters of the house. When everyone signaled they were ready, Mintz sent Go on his Mfi, and Cerff hit the stairs at a run. She shot one of the two before they saw her on the stairs. The second man drew his weapon to late and was shot by both Cerff and Joo.

  Mintz, Krebs and Paler passed Creff and Joo when they slowed to ensure the two were dead. Krebs and Paler entered the unlocked door and sprinted for the living room. The four men were so engrossed in their game, they died before their brains could comprehend they were under attack.

  Meanwhile, Mintz took the steps to the second floor, two at a time. He went to the door with the light on and knocked. When the man opened the door, he hit him in the head with his baton. He made sure the raider was secure, while Creff and Joo searched the other rooms.

  The entire operation took less than two minutes. Thirty minutes later they had secured the shuttle and had established a defensive perimeter, awaiting Captain Sapir, but ready if the six men returned before Sapir.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Planet: Safort, the Brothel

  Sergeant Glick sat staring at the resort-like building as his Mfi vibrated. When he looked, Sergeant Krebs's face appeared, smeared with woodland face paint. Glick smiled thinking of his own face.

  "Glick, six raiders just left their base camp. I wouldn't be surprised to find they were heading your way," Krebs said in a whisper.

  "Thanks, Krebs. That could have been a disaster if they arrived when we were cleaning house." He clicked off and opened his team's private channel. "I have been informed we have six party boys on the way. Let them settled in before we crash the party."

  Twenty minutes later, a ground vehicle came racing down the dirt road and skidded to a stop in front of the house. Six men piled out, laughing and, not too steadily, raced up the steps to the double doors. A tall shapely middle-aged woman opened the door only a heartbeat before they would have slammed into it.

  "Welcome, gentlemen," she shouted. "Go into the parlor and have something to drink. I've notified the girls you are here. They should be down in a few minutes; they need time to get undressed."

  That elicited hoots, laughs, and comments as they rushed by the woman who was shaking her head and looking up in exasperation, then shouted. "You break it. You own it."

  That was followed by the sound of something shattering. She closed the door after a quick look around outside.

  Glick and his team of three sat watching the windows for the next hour as the chaos settled down. It appeared four of the six new arrivals were upstairs in the bedrooms, two were in the living room drinking with several women, the elderly house matron was in her office on the ground floor, one guard roamed around the outside grounds, one stood at the entrance, and the third was inside somewhere. The latter guard tended to roam the second floor but occasionally made a trip downstairs. The biggest problem was the twenty women, mostly underaged girls, throughout the house. The raiders would not care who was in the way when the shooting began. He suspected they wouldn't stay longer than a couple of hours but didn't feel he should wait for them to go, although it would greatly simplify the house cleaning. Just then the third inside guard came out and the three sat on the steps talking.

  "Fire on my command. Alpert take out the man on the right, Lenard, the one in the middle, and Dorit, the man on the left," Glick said into his Mfi, paused a few seconds, then quietly said, "Fire."

  The three slumped backward as one, as three laser beams penetrated eyes and burned through to their brains. The teams quietly made their way to the stairs, collected the bodies, and stashed them out of sight around to the side of the house.

  "Lenard and Dorit, you take the rooms upstairs. Alpert, you secure the matron, then join me in clearing the living room," Glick looked at each individual until they nodded. The four then crept up the stairs, opened the door halfway, and when they saw no one, slid in. Alpert went left toward the matron's office door, Lenard and Dorit up the stairs, and Glick into the hallway. Staying against the wall, he peeked into the living room where at least fourteen naked women lounged on chairs and sofas, danced, or were being manhandled by one of the men. Glick itched to shoot the two men, but he was afraid the resulting screams from the women would prematurely alert the men upstairs.

  Upstairs Lenard and Dorit stood whispering.

  "If we open the door and shoot the raider, the woman or women will probably scream, either when they see us or after we kill the raider," Lenard said, whispering into Dorit's ear. Dorit nodded.

  "The other raiders may take that as normal rough sex," Dorit said. "We need to be quick in case they don't or it attracts the raiders downstairs."

  Lenard nodded. "Except for our protective under garments, we could take off our shirts and expose our breasts. That would freeze the men enough to get in the first shot."

  "Your boobs, maybe. Not mine," Dorit said with a short snort. "Alright, you take the last two rooms and I'll take the first two. Open, identify, shoot, and on to the next room." Dorit walked quickly and quietly down to the end of the hall, stopped next the last door, and nodded to Lenard.

  Lenard turned the door knob, opened the door far enough to see a large hairy-back thrusting his hips up and down. Her laser sliced across the back of his neck, cutting the cervical spine. He collapsed on the woman. Without waiting, she closed the door and in three quick steps had the door knob to the next room. She jerked the door open to find a man reaching for a whisky bottle and a small girl lying next to him, crying. A laser bean cut through his ear into his brain. Ironically, no screams.

  Simultaneously, Dorit, open her first room door to find a man pulling on his pants and a woman walking toward the bathroom. She shot the man through his eye as a beginning smile froze with recognition. He fell sideways off the bed onto the floor, knocking the contents of a small table with him. Dorit put a finger to her mouth when the woman looked back at the noise and saw her. Dorit closed the door and ran to the next one. This time the man appeared asleep or passed out drunk. No one else appeared to be in the room. Since she might be needed downstairs, she shot the sleeping man in the head and closed the door. Lenard stood in the hallway, smiling. She then waved and the two ran for the stairs.

  Alpert open the office door, slid inside, and closed the door before speaking. "Quiet, and you and the ladies will live through this house cleaning. Besides, by now there is no one to come to your aid, and it will just piss me off." He proceeded to secure the woman's hands and feet with restraints and added a gag just to be sure. Then he joined Glick.

  Glick nodded as Alpert neared him. He had expected noise from upstairs as the signal for him and Alpert to start cleaning out the living room but hadn't heard a sound. He smiled when Alpert jerked his head down the hallway and turned to see Lenard and Dorit. He turned back to peer into the living room, took aim at the short stocky middle-aged man laughing while squeezing a young girl's breast so hard her face was distorted in pain and tears ran down her cheeks. His hair smoked as the laser burned through the mass of greasy-brown hair and through his skull. Then he shifted his laser right two-meters to a man sitting on a couch drinking a bottle of beer while h
is other hand held a woman head down at his groin. It burned through his left eye.

  "Ladies," Glick shouted. "Someone, please shut off the music." He waited as the women took in the four in black uniforms and the two dead men, with an array of cascading emotions. "We are the Black Guard cleaning service. You will be free to leave after we take your statements.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Planet: Safort, Almost Rat Free

  I sat in the Widow listening to Mintz report on Team Four's progress and then Sergeant Glick's summary of the action. I relaxed hearing no Black Guards had been injured or killed. Hopefully, our findings would sway the SUC into rejecting the Helix Alliance and keeping their contract with the Jax. I notified the team leaders that I wanted them to resume their previous duties, pretending things were back to normal.

  I spent the next week putting together a presentation. The difficult part was avoiding making any direct accusations and letting the SUC come to their own conclusions. That way they would own it and not the Black Guard. Otherwise, we could be accused of bias as we had an interest in the outcome.

  When I finished, I called Geraldo who would already be aware that we had caught the raiders but hopefully not that I knew all the details. In which case he may believe he could manage the damage if he acted fast.

  "Yes, Captain Sapir, how can I help you?" he said cautiously. His face a mask of neutrality which showed master level control, as I must be number one on his Wanted Dead or Dead list.

  "We have caught the group raiding Safort," I began. "Unfortunately, they all chose to die fighting rather than stand trial. But I would like to wait until the normal SUC meeting to present what we found, since that will give me time to chase down hundreds of loose ends that could help connect all the dots."