“Cut it down,” I snapped, and gave a quick outline of the situation. “Get Ed on the line.” I switched channels before they could reply. “Jock, this is Andrew; report!”
There was a worryingly long pause before Jock answered. I’d sent the four Specials into the city disguised as normal citizens, but even the Specials would have problems coping in the midst of a riot. I trusted that Jock would have seen to their weapons and equipment, but if they were in trouble there was no way we could come to their aid. I doubted that they could even help us.
“Boss, there’s a riot going on and it’s turning into a revolution,” Jock said, his voice echoing in my ears. Jock was normally a larger-than-life character, boasting of the women and enemies he’d conquered in one breath, and then terrorising the supply clerks with the next. Like me, he’d known John Walker before he became famous. “The policemen are all down and dead while shooters are occupying the surrounding buildings. I made at least a hundred armed men near your position. They don’t know we’re here yet, but that could change at any moment.”
I cursed under my breath, forgetting how sensitive the earpiece was. If the building had been isolated by now, the enemy — whoever they were — would be able to storm it and bring us all down in body bags. They’d planned it carefully, I realised, as I slipped onto the roof and stopped dead. The entire city was in chaos. There was always an element of chaos in the beginnings of a military operation, but this was different. The civil authorities wouldn’t be prepared for violence on this scale. The towering pillars of smoke bore mute testament to their lack of imagination.
“I see,” I said, finally. I trusted Jock. If he said that they were safe, they probably were. The building was tall enough for me to be fairly safe from snipers, but I didn’t dare show my face anywhere where someone might try to improve my looks by putting a bullet though them. “And the bombs?”
“I counted at least seven explosions,” Jock said. “Two of them were over in the rich district, the others were placed to deter civilians and kill policemen. I think we can safely say that the city is completely out of control. There’s no sign of any response from the local authorities.”
The police chief might be dead, I thought, as another burst of shooting echoed out in the distance. I wouldn’t have chosen New Copenhagen as the place to hold a battle, but evidently my enemies disagreed. If they’d hit the civil authorities hard enough, they might keep them completely out of the picture until they’d overrun the government and proclaimed victory. What would happen then?
I switched the earpiece back to the main channel. “Ed,” I said, “what’s going on over there?”
“A handful of mortar rounds got tossed into the compound,” Ed reported, calmly. His voice steadied me and I took a long breath. “We fired a single shot back with the counter-battery weapons and took out the launcher. The enemy apparently retreated without trying to engage the perimeter security force, but I have everyone armed or in shelters just in case. I have no contact with the civil police or local military headquarters. What is your situation?”
I gazed towards the north, towards another pillar of black smoke, and knew what had happened to the local military headquarters. The enemy had decapitated it in a single blow. Whoever was behind this had evidently studied carefully before launching their coup. It just wasn’t perfect.
“Bad,” I said, and outlined it. “Ed, I want A Company and 1st Svergie to mount up and come to the rescue. Get the choppers to provide security from the air; ROE are Beta-Three, understand?”
There was a pause. I’d just given him authority to fire on anything that even looked as if it were a threat, without waiting for it to fire first. It made sense in open countryside, but in a city it threatened a bloodbath. I was past caring. I wasn’t going to lose men because the enemy decided to hide in civilian clothes.
“Yes, sir,” he said, finally. “I had them ready to move once the first shells started to land. They’ll be at your position inside of thirty minutes.”
If we’re lucky, I thought. There was no bridge between the spaceport and New Copenhagen, but the enemy could probably delay a relief column with a little effort and minimum risk. The helicopters could be here sooner, but they’d face the possibility of handheld SAM weapons stolen from the UN deports. We’d never traced even half of the weapons the UN had shipped onto the planet. Still…
“Load up the transport helicopters with volunteers only and get them to fly directly here,” I ordered. “I’ve got the remains of the government here and they need help. I also need a medical team and their gear.” I paused. “Do you know anything about the remainder of the planet?”
“Local communications are completely down,” Ed reported. “Muna called in from Pitea — the industrial city — and reported that its dissolving into absolute chaos as well, but then we lost communications ourselves. I don’t know if she’s all right, sir.”
“Leave it,” I ordered, feeling my heart twist savagely. I considered calling the William Tell and asking for orbital footage, but even if Captain Price-Jones agreed without demur, it wouldn’t tell us much. I’d seen enough ‘safe’ areas from orbit to have a deep distrust of orbital images. If Muna were still alive… well, we’d have to deal with that later. “Do you have a general suggestion of who’s behind this?”
“Tech thinks it’s the Communists,” Ed said. I snorted. He was probably right, but way too late to be useful. “Pitea is one of their strongholds, sir.”
“Understood,” I said. It hardly mattered at the moment. “Get that relief force to us as quickly as you can.”
I risked one look over the parapet — Jock had been right; there were bodies everywhere, most of them civilians — and ducked back down the stairs as a bullet snapped past my head. Someone down there was good with a sniper rifle, although not as good as one of my men. The thought kept me smiling as I ran down the stairs and back onto the first floor, where I saw that Peter had organised a proper defence.
“There’s not much in the way of ammunition or weapons here,” he reported, not entirely to my surprise. If we lived through this, I suspected that the weapons laws were going to be rather sharply revised, although it might go in the wrong direction. Perhaps the President should have tried to disarm the factions, even though it would probably just have started the civil war early. “We’ve rigged up some weapons, but there isn’t much here we can use.”
I nodded. “Relief is on the way,” I said, and explained what I’d ordered. Peter nodded — he knew how long it would take to get any reinforcements into the city, even without armed opposition — but the others looked scared and angry, a dangerous combination. “We just have to hold out until then.”
“We spent millions of credits hiring you and your men,” one of the politicians protested, from where he was cradling himself. “Can’t you get them here sooner, or are you not worth your pay?”
“No,” I said, flatly. I was not going to get drawn into an argument, particularly one that would probably end with me punching his lights out. If the politicians had taken more precautions, such as having an entire infantry unit ready for action and a proper security blanket around the stadium, the entire disaster would never have happened. I silently wished Ed luck running the unit after I was gone. If I died here, Ed would have to take over both the unit… and the mission. “They have to get into the city and do so without causing major civilian casualties.”