I turned away from him and walked over to Suki and the President. He didn’t look any better; his face was pale and his breathing came in ragged gasps. I touched his hand slowly, wondering if he could hear me, but nothing happened. She looked almost as bad, but there was a new determination in her eyes. I wondered if she knew how much protection her dress would provide — she might as well be wearing tissue paper — and then smiled at her. She smiled back and I was surprised to feel myself stir. Combat does odd things to the human mind.
“He’s dying,” she said, softly. If she knew what I was feeling, she hid it well. “What happens if he dies?”
I remembered the Constitution and bit off a curse. Svergie had no Vice-Presidential position. The next President would be the leader of the party with the highest number of seats, at least until they held an emergency election, and that meant Frida. I looked over at her, sitting in a corner and watching us all warily, and wondered if she’d known that the attack was coming. It seemed unlikely — the attackers might not have left her alive either — but perhaps she had been confident enough to take the risk. I disagreed with her politics on every possible level, but there was nothing wrong with her mind, or her courage. It was also an insane risk…
And it was equally possible that she was an innocent in this affair.
I shook my head, dismissing the thought for the moment, and looked at the politicians. Most of them would be completely useless, but two were holding pistols themselves, mementoes from days in the resistance. I hoped they were ready to fight for their lives, even though if the Communists — or whoever — wanted them all dead, they could just blow up the building. It shook again, as if on cue, just as Jock’s voice buzzed though my earpiece.
“Boss, they’re making their move,” he said. “You’d better get ready.”
Chapter Ten
The essence of a Coup D’Etat is publicly defeating and discrediting the incumbent government. The Coup plotters must not allow the public or the military — many of whom will be undecided — to believe that the previous government is still in power or still capable of striking back. They must gather power, in fact and name, and ensure that no other centres of power continue to exist, even in name.
“All right,” I said, to the room at large. “Here they come.”
We prepared as best as we could on the first floor. There were only three ways up to our level and we’d guarded them all. Anyone climbing up the stairs would be at a distant disadvantage, but they’d also be able to hurl grenades up towards us. I didn’t know what weapons they’d have, but if they’d looted a UNPF deport they probably had everything we had and more besides.
I drew my pistol and held it by my side. The reaction of some of the politicians was amusing, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it, even though they looked as if I were holding a snake in my hand. I motioned for them to head up to the second floor, but I didn’t dare move the President any more. I was rather surprised he wasn’t dead yet, but it seemed that he was just hanging on. I heard shouts and shooting as the communists broke into the ground floor, but none of it was directed. They didn’t know where we were, but I doubted it would take them long to realise we were up one flight of stairs.
Peter stepped up to me, clutching his own pistol. “Make each shot count, sir,” he muttered. “If we’d had a few dozen mines and the time to deploy them…”
I nodded. One of the standard training tests for the Specials — and my people, once I had a chance to develop it — consisted of breaking into a building that had been converted into an armed fortress. It was a thoroughly dangerous exercise and it wasn’t uncommon to end up with real fatalities. If we’d had time, we could have made the Communists pay a high price for breaking in and killing us, but we’d only had seconds. Even a few mines would have deterred them from pushing us too hard.
“We can’t surrender,” I muttered back. The Communists might want to take the politicians alive so they could be forced to stand down and surrender the planet, but Peter and I were expendable. The Legion would seek revenge for our deaths, but if the Communists took control of the Government, they’d order the Legion out and ask Fleet to back it up with force if need be. What would Ed, or Russell, do then? “Whatever happens, we go out shooting.”
A crash heralded the Communists as they broke through the locked door at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn’t too surprised. It wasn’t as if it was hard to find. I nodded to one of the Svergie soldiers and he tipped a drinks cabinet down the stairs towards the first Communist. I heard a scream over the noise of breaking glass and smiled to myself. That was one Communist who’d drink nothing, but tea for the rest of his life. The sound of curses echoed up to us, followed by two quick shots. I don’t know what they thought they were shooting at. The bullets didn’t go anywhere near us.
“You up there,” a voice shouted, loudly enough to shake the walls. A distant explosion somewhere in the city underlined his words. “We have the building surrounded and there’s no escape. No one is coming to save your sorry butts. If you give up now, we won’t kill you.”
“Fuck off and die,” I snapped, and squeezed off a single shot down the stairs. I heard a scream, but I couldn’t tell if I’d actually hit anyone or if they’d merely been surprised by the shot. I hoped that his words hadn’t demoralised the other soldiers, or the politicians; I knew that Ed was on the way, even if they didn’t. The only question was what would get in his way. “If you want us, come and get us.”
I heard muttering downstairs and struggled to listen, but it was in a dialect I didn’t understand. “Their leader is telling them to assault up the stairs,” one of the soldiers translated. “The others are telling him to set the building on fire and pull out.”
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. I’d been more stunned than I realised. Would the Communists actually set fire to the building? It was partly built out of wood in a very old style and would go up like a furnace. We couldn’t hope to escape until the helicopters arrived to save us. I keyed my earpiece and called Jock. “Jock, come in.”
“Here,” Jock said, his voice very composed. I guessed that that meant they were far too close to the enemy and subvocalising to avoid being heard. “They’re milling about, sir, trying to decide what to do.”
“I noticed,” I said. “Can you watch out for any attempt to burn us out and distract them if they try?”
“I can try,” Jock confirmed, slowly. “It won’t be easy to intervene. The whole area is crawling with the bastards.”
“Do what you can,” I said, and broke the connection. I thought about calling Ed, but increasingly desperate pleas wouldn’t get him here any faster. The helicopters would be on their way and I spared a moment to pray for the civilians caught near then when they attacked. I hoped that the ordinary citizens were hiding in their homes, away from the chaos, but I knew that many of them would have been caught out on the streets. Some of them might even be caught up in the fighting as Ed punched his way into the city. “What are they saying now?”
“They’ve gone quiet,” the soldier said. I looked at his nametag. It read ‘Jörgen Hellqvist,’ while his rank badge marked him as a Lieutenant. He was clearly scared out of his mind, yet still holding it together, somehow. He’d go far, unless something killed him first. “I think they’re mulling over what to do.”