The Black Guard: Book II: Evolution (Black Guard Series 2) (9 page)

"That depends on what he actually does. So far, we
cannot prove he was responsible for the man with the bomb or the attack on the
skimmers. He needs to demonstrate aggression toward you by storming the palace.
If he does, I can engage him and his troops. That will give you cause to arrest
any that survive." I spoke of survivors mostly for Nastya's sake, as I
doubted there would be any. They would be wearing combat gear, and we would be
shooting to kill.

* * *

While we waited, I had Elijah distribute eleven Guards
in ones and twos in the empty offices and rooms along the main corridor before
the army guards arrived—what they didn't know they couldn't divulge. I
kept four Guards in the Holy One's area: one each with Nastya and Sanaz and two
to guard the entrance.

Heydar chose to stay in the Holy One's area to better
direct his troops. He was rightly concerned that the Gurk might shoot first
without warning. He had been very specific that the Holy One didn't want them
to resist the Gurk if they tried to enter the palace.

I had installed video feeds capable of hearing and
seeing activity in the main hallway, and each army guard had a headset to
communicate with General Heydar. We had our Mfis loaded with HEIAP rounds.

Now all we needed was for the Gurk to cooperate.

* * *

Two marine combat shuttles from the Crouching Tiger
arrived at the downed skimmer location with all systems in passive mode and
stayed circling the area at fifty thousand meters. Even with the systems in
passive mode, the five Guards' heat signatures were plain to see.

"Sergeant Haber, this is Lieutenant Sutton from the
Crouching Tiger. Colonel Berger sent me to referee your coming disagreement
with the Gurk. I understand they might be planning to send combat shuttles to an
Mfw contest."

"We'd appreciate the help, Lieutenant. Your riot
shields are very nice, but I doubt they are adequate against a combat shuttle's
weapons."

"I wouldn't recommend you hide behind them. We'll give
you enough notice to find better cover," Sutton said, and the connection
went silent.

An hour later, Sutton broke the silence. "Party
time, Sergeant Haber. I have two army combat shuttles approaching from the
north. You may want to find that cover we discussed," he said, his voice rising
with excitement. He watched as the little red dots, heat signals from Haber and
the other Guards, began moving apart, making it harder for the approaching
shuttles to target them. The shuttles came in slowly, spaced a hundred meters
apart. By now the red dots looked to have found some cover, since several were
partially or completely hidden from view.

"Get ready to go active," Sutton said as he
began a slow descent, waiting for the shuttles to prove friendly or hostile. He
received ready acknowledgements from the second shuttle and smiled with his
hand on the engine's throttles.

"Bogy one is firing with machine guns," said the
electronic counter measures operator into the open mike.

"All systems active!" Sutton said as the
engines responded to his demand for power, throwing everyone into their seats.
"Fire when ready."

Moments later, the right side turret began spitting
twenty-five millimeter bullets. The shuttle that had been designated bogy one banked
hard right after it was hit by the rain of bullets. Seconds later, the left turret
began firing. Bogy two hadn't reacted as quickly and appeared to have suffered
a crippling blow as it headed for the ground, trailing smoke and debris.

"I have a lock on bogy one."

"Fire."

"Missile away," said the weapons operator.

Sutton watched the missile streak toward the wounded
shuttle, and then bogy one exploded. He turned toward the downed shuttle but
noticed the red dots were already halfway there. As he watched, red dots
emerged from bogy two, only to stop and disappear. He presumed this meant the
Guard had killed those who had survived the crash and had tried to escape the
shuttle before it exploded. He took one more pass over bogy one before landing near
bogy two while the other combat shuttle maintained watch overhead.

When he exited, Sergeant Haber was waiting.

She gave a shallow bow. "That was good timing,
Lieutenant. There isn't much to hide behind this close to the ocean. Those
shuttles' guns would soon have shredded any trees we could find to hide behind,
and our riot shields would only provide limited protection against twenty-five
millimeter shells. And with the rate of fire from those guns, you don't dare
peek out for a shot."

"Anyone left in the shuttle?" Sutton nodded
toward the downed shuttle.

"They'll be roast meat if there are. We're ready to
go if you are."

"How many left to deal with?" Sutton said as
he waved them to enter the shuttle.

"I was told the Gurk's guard numbered around fifty.
Our captain killed four and Corporal Toch two during introductions. We killed
around twelve here, judging by the number in the downed shuttle, so I estimate
a little over thirty," Haber said and then smiled. "They won't need
our help with that few, but we should go anyway. Captain Sapir will want to see
that we are safe."

* * *

I watched as two Gurk shuttles settled to the ground
simultaneously, one twenty meters from the front entrance to the palace and one
twenty meters from the rear entrance. They each disgorged fifteen or so Gurks
in honor guard uniforms. Both pairs of outside palace guards immediately
stepped away from the doors with their hands well away from the automatic
weapons hanging from straps around their shoulders. One of the army guards even
saluted the Gurk major as he approached. He smiled as the other guard opened
the door for him.

"Check the rooms," he said as he marched down
the hallway.

This would test the critical part of my deployment. With
only one or two Guards in a room, they should be able to find hiding places to
avoid detection—unless the rooms were given a thorough search. That would
be illogical given the information Prakash had—only five or six Black
Guards in the palace, and the army wasn't giving any resistance.

To my relief, the troopers weren't entering the rooms.
One opened each door and the other gave it a quick glance without entering and
then rushed to keep up with the group advancing down the hallway. Just short of
the entrance to the Holy One's area, Major Gowad held up his arm and both
groups of fifteen stopped.

"Captain Sapir, Colonel Prakash demands your
immediate surrender. You are greatly outnumbered, and we are in combat gear and
have military grade weapons with metal piercing rounds. You have five minutes
to decide. Holy One, Colonel Prakash is concerned about your safety and knows
you can negotiate a reasonable solution when the Black Guard has gone. If they
choose to fight, they will be putting you and your daughter's safety at
risk."

He was using some sort of megaphone, as he could be
heard anywhere in the palace and for some distance outside. A good
strategy—
we tried to save the Holy
One, but the Black Guard wouldn't release her and chose to fight to the death,
which is their tradition
. If we did surrender, I had no doubt they would
fire on us like they had the skimmers. And they would kill the Holy One and her
daughter next.

"Lieutenant Douglas, are you in place?" I said
into my Mfi after setting it to our prearranged frequency.

"Yes, Captain. I have three combat shuttles at your
disposal. Sergeant Haber wants you to know they are all healthy and
bored."

"The life of a Jax Marine and Guard. Those two Gurk
shuttles are not to leave the party without my permission."

"They will be here when the party is over,"
Douglas replied with an amused snort.

I set my Mfi timer to twenty seconds and clicked on
start.

At fifteen seconds, Corporal Preis cut the palace power
and the lights went off.

By ten seconds, I predicted every Gurk would have
switched on their night-vision goggles, and Corporal Volpe and Rong threw flash
stars into the hallway and turned away.

At zero, the doors opened and I slid into the hallway
with thirteen Black Guards, firing HEIAP rounds.

It was chaos. The Gurks staggered into walls and each
other. The exploding stars would normally blind a person for fifteen to twenty
seconds if you didn't rub your eyes. But with night-vision goggles many would
have permanent damage—not that it mattered.

A few Gurks were firing hoping to hit something, and
they were—their fellow Gurks. Others had pulled off their helmets hoping
that would help—it didn't. And still others were running helter-skelter.

All in vain, as the Black Guard began shooting them.
Bodies were torn to shreds as bullets ripped through reinforced armor plate and
exploded into flesh and bone. The nightmare lasted only seconds but would be
remembered for years. As quiet descended on the building, I heard two
explosions outside and seconds later the fire of a shuttle machine gun. Then
silence.

I rose and headed for the front door. "Lieutenant
Elijah, check the status of our troops, see if any of the Gurks survived, and check
if General Heydar's troops can get started cleaning this up. I don't think they
will want our help," I said while I walked back to the Holy One's study
where I had left Nastya and her daughter.

"Are you hurt?" Nastya asked, concern written
on her face and in her voice. The two Guards were also staring at me. I looked
down wondering if I had been wounded and saw my uniform splattered with blood
and ... human matter.

"No, Holy One. The Gurk entered in Combat Gear with
military grade weapons, capable of piercing metal and masonry. We had to
respond in kind. They are dead."

"Colonel Prakash?"

"They are all dead. If you will excuse me, I'll get
cleaned up." I left feeling numb, unable to believe I hadn't noticed how I
looked and hadn't cleaned up before going to see Nastya and her daughter. I had
done my duty—saved my clients and protected my family by my
tactics—but it felt like butchery. I washed, changed my uniform, and
meditated until my mind had quieted. When I entered Nastya's study some time
later, the room was silent. General Heydar was there looking tired and pale.
Nastya had her arm around Sanaz, but her gaze looked to be far away.

"General Heydar informs me that ... the entire Gurk
security force is dead. Was that necessary?" she asked. It was an
accusation of unnecessary force.

"Holy One, when you can quiet your mind, you will
know it was the reason you hired the Jax. You knew Colonel Prakash would not
submit without a fight. You didn't want the army to fight him and his troops.
You didn't want Blackwood troops killing Blackwood clan. Now the problem is
solved and you can blame the Jax."

"How dare you—" Heydar came out of his
seat with his hand on his laser, but Nastya stopped him with a raised hand.

"She's right—"

"Mother, she's a murderer and accusing you of
..." Sanaz shouted, her smooth face tense with anger.

"No, my child. Captain Sapir is right. Unlike
Colonel Prakash, she was not seeking revenge and did not like killing the Gurk.
It was duty. Like her, I'm upset at the necessity of having to take human life
and my mind is not at peace. And yes, I hired the Jax to do what I didn't want
Blackwood to do—kill each other." She paused, again gazing off into
the distance. No one spoke into the silence. I was content to wait while she
decided on a path forward. "You believe there is an Omom plotting with
Outpost for some purpose?"

"That is my assessment based on the colonel's
actions. I believe their first attempt was to embarrass the Guard and use that
to have you replaced. When that failed, Prakash planned to kill you and blame
it on the Jax. It could just be a jealous Omom wanting your position, but I
suspect it has something to do with Outpost wanting to create a Helix Alliance.
A greedy Omom and a power hungry leader." I collapsed into a meditating
posture, seeing Nastya close her eyes and sensing she would need time to digest
what I had conjectured. She knew the Omoms and had been at Outpost for the
meeting of the planet leaders.

 
"I
agree, which means the threat is not over; however, I believe having the Black
Guard accompany me to see the clans my serve the Omom's cause and be more
dangerous than a potential assassination. Give me a few days to consider the
situation. Thank you, Dragon Sapir, for your honesty."

My detail and I boarded the Crouching Tiger three days
later, having negotiated a new contract.

* * *

"Is part of the Black Guard's evolution negotiating
contracts?" Colonel Berger took a sip of his wine. He seemed amused.

"Dragons have no trouble with duty, Berger, but I
hear some have trouble with tradition." Captain Blatt looked serious.
"And this is not the first time for Sapir. I think she's safe this time
since it's what the Jax wanted, an alliance."

"How? I'd imagine the Black Guard is hated on
Blackwood," Berger said, frowning.

"We are, and that is the reason Nastya terminated
the prior contract. She thought having the Guard accompany her on her visit to
the clan would be taken negatively and play into her opponent's agenda. She
decided to confront the threat directly and called a meeting of the senior
Omoms. There, she informed them of my suspicions about the collusion with the Gurk
to have her killed. And then said if further attempts on her life occurred, she
would hire the Black Guard to investigate."

Berger choked on his wine. "That has got to be the
threat of the century:
you either cease
your plot or I'll send the most blood-thirsty Black Guard on Jax after
you."
He held up his hand. "Sorry, Sapir. I know you are anything
but blood-thirsty, but you have to agree that from their perspective, you just
slaughtered fifty elite security guards and are reported to have killed a lot
of people at Lanzhou, New Kief, and Halo." He looked to Blatt, who nodded
agreement.