So fast and clean is it she remains standing for a second, with a neat hole in one side of her skull and a bigger hole in the other. The Archbishop of Farlight is wiping his face frantically. He’s wearing most of her brains.
Colonel Vijay’s second shot kills Van Zill.
Personally, I’d have taken the archbishop before that scumbag, but it’s the colonel’s call. I think he’s forgotten about Emerald’s implant.
Not a bit of it.
Rolling her over, he drops to one knee and puts his gun to the back of her skull. His next shot blows the implant apart. Killing a U/Free and destroying her memories. Vijay Jaxx just made himself a galactic outcast.
‘Interesting move.’
Even the SIG sounds impressed.
‘Sven,’ Colonel Vijay says. ‘Thought I told you to get out of here?’
Now the crowd know we’re not bringing explosives. I’m about to say, Did you, sir? when three things happen at once.
The first militia officer to raise his rifle goes down with a broken knee and a blade in his shoulder. Ajac’s looking shocked, but then it’s his blade and he forgot to keep hold of it. So now it juts from the screaming officer.
Ajac catches the spare Iona throws.
The archbishop begins to back away. That’s the second. The third is that General Luc arrives just as Colonel Vijay points his gun at the archbishop.
‘Don’t,’ the Wolf says.
This is a man used to being obeyed.
And Colonel Vijay does obey. Nodding, he lowers his weapon and the crowd surge forward. Actually, four things happen.
If not five.
‘No one will touch Jaxx,’ the Wolf announces. To back it up, his corporal turns his machine gun to cover the crowd.
‘My son-’ the archbishop says.
A second later he’s reeling down the steps into the increasingly puzzled crowd. General Luc having just slammed his elbow into the archbishop’s head. The final thing is that my gun shivers to let me know Luc’s splinter group are behind us.
Not that I’m bothered.
We’re Aux. We don’t retreat anyway.
‘Flechette,’ I say, then change my mind. ‘Make that incendiary.’
The SIG-37 whirs as it does what it’s told. A diode lights to say it’s loaded and a little red dot appears between General Luc’s eyes. When he twitches, I know the SIG’s made the dot hot this time.
It likes doing that.
‘Earth to Sven,’ my gun says.
‘Sir,’ I say. ‘Stand away.’ I mean Colonel Vijay, obviously. ‘And you,’ I tell the Wolf. ‘Stand your men down.’
Grey eyes watch me.
His lip curls beneath his heavy beard.
And then his gaze flicks behind me and I feel the cold kiss of an automatic to the side of my head. A second later, it jags slightly. So I’m obviously supposed to have done more than simply notice it.
‘Drop your piece.’
Sergeant Toro holds a Colt, with underslung sight, and a clip that juts indecently beneath its handle. But it’s a single clip, with hollow-point at the most.
There’s no way I’m backing down.
‘Covered, sir.’
Neen has his rifle to Sergeant Toro’s head. Although a Wolf Brigade corporal is pointing a rifle at him. I try to see who’s targeting the corporal. Only, I don’t want to turn my head that much.
‘Got him covered,’ Anton says.
I do the maths. Luc dies, I die, their sergeant dies, Neen dies, their corporal dies, Anton dies . . . Would help if I knew how many Wolf Brigade are behind me. Iona and Rachel, definitely dead.
Maybe Ajac.
The question is whether Vijay can be saved.
Back when I joined the Legion my old lieutenant tried to teach me chess. Good players take and lose as few pieces as possible. Until they’re ready to roll up the opposition. Drunk or sober, but usually drunk, he’d win, no matter how many pieces he gave me first.
He played the long game.
I killed the first pawn to offer itself.
Looking round, it occurs to me I’ve improved. Maybe not by enough, though. Since my instinct is to pull the trigger. Don’t want to get this wrong.
‘Sir,’ says Neen. ‘How are we going to play this?’
Ignoring the weapons completely, someone slides through the crowd and stops at my side. ‘The long game’s waiting,’ Leona whispers. ‘If you want it.’
Chapter 40
We Need General Luc for the long game. Leona will explain why later. Although I’m supposed to know already. The fact he’s commander of the Wolf Brigade, the private guard of Farlight’s emperor, should tell me. It doesn’t.
‘But OctoV’s dead.’
She pouts.
‘You said you felt him die.’
‘Yes and no,’ she whispers, before telling me it’s unimportant. I should concentrate, in the short term, on not getting killed.
The Wolf is watching me.
Still wearing that red dot between his eyes.
Sergeant Toro has his side arm to the side of my head. Even Colonel Vijay looks bemused not to be the centre of attention. But I’m not sure I’m going to let this go, so I hiss another question at her instead.
‘If our glorious leader is dead then General Luc is out of a job, right? You can’t command the emperor’s guard if there isn’t an emperor.’
‘You’re all out of a job.’
That thought shocks me. Colonel Vijay as commander of a reborn Third Regiment is the heart of my plan. Only, the Wolf wants the colonel as well. He wants to wrap his heart in a bow and give it to Aptitude on a plate.
So there is no long game.
Killing General Luc is the right move.
‘About fucking time,’ says the SIG-37, when my finger tightens on the trigger. ‘Hate to think you’d lost your nerve.’
‘Sven,’ Colonel Vijay sounds clipped. ‘You will lower that damn gun.’
‘Sir . . .’
There’s a sudden flare of interest in the Wolf’s grey eyes as he watches me wonder whether to obey.
‘I mean it,’ the colonel says. ‘That is a direct order.’
‘But, sir-’
‘Stand your team down, lieutenant.’
‘Fucking great,’ the SIG says. Diodes fade along its chassis as I flick it into sleep mode.
‘You heard the colonel,’ I tell the Aux.
Very slowly, Neen lowers the muzzle of his rifle so it no longer points at Sergeant Toro, and Anton takes his blade from their corporal’s throat. Sergeant Toro’s first punch takes Neen from his feet.
Anton is raising his blade when the Wolf’s snarl demands silence.
‘Enough . . .’ He nods to me. ‘Your men will put their weapons on the ground. And you,’ he scowls at his sergeant. ‘Don’t let that happen again.’
‘Let the Aux keep their weapons.’
That’s not me talking, obviously.
‘If you will accept my parole,’ Colonel Vijay says, ‘I guarantee no one under my command will use their weapons against you or your men.’
Fucking idiot.
‘Your word as a Jaxx?’
‘No,’ Leona says. ‘His word as the new Duke of Farlight.’
Both men stare at her and the Wolf sneers. ‘Have an heir, do you?’ he asks Colonel Vijay.
The colonel shakes his head.
‘Then it’s going to be a short dukedom, isn’t it?’ The Wolf grins, showing yellow teeth. When he tells Colonel Vijay his parole is accepted, the colonel bows slightly. Nodding at me, the Wolf says, ‘Get your rabble in formation.’
I pass this command to Neen.
‘My son,’ the archbishop says. He’s keeping his distance from General Luc, which seems wise given the blood dripping from a cut over the prelate’s eye. ‘You must give him up for trial . . .’
He gestures. As if pointing the way to the promised land.
‘Here comes the truck.’
Two police officers hang from its doors, riding shotgun. They look young and excited to be part of history. Their chief should have chosen two who knew what they were doing.