Damn you, I thought, bitterly. The plan to reform Svergie was going to fail; I was sure of that, now. Fleet — Admiral Walker — would either have to intervene openly or write Svergie off as a world that wouldn’t be able to claim a seat in the Federation. And if that happened, the civil war would devastate the entire planet and take it back to the stone age, leaving the system open for someone else to develop…
They know. The thought was crystal-clear. If the Freedom League knows — or suspects — that Fleet is intervening covertly to keep a planet stable, they kidnapped us to gain proof they could show to other planets, other supporters. If they convince other worlds that Fleet is breaking its own rules, whatever the intention, they can use it as a tool to break Fleet, perhaps even spark off a second mutiny and coup. Shit.
I wanted to discuss it with Muna, but I didn’t dare. God alone knew what she was thinking, but she knew almost as much as I knew about Fleet’s covert involvement. If I died, they could still try to break her and perhaps they would; hell, Muna had known John Walker personally, just like I had. Her word might be more incriminating than mine in the secret councils. Fleet might not be able to save itself from disaster…
The ground shook violently, sending plaster drifting down from the ceiling. I looked over at Muna and saw the hope in her eyes, as the distant sound of shooting echoed out in the distance. The newcomers were firing short precise bursts, but that didn’t prove anything, although I hoped that they were friendly. Was it possible that the farmers had turned on the Freedom League? Another explosion, and another, shook the building; I heard the noise of running feet in the outside, hunting for someone — us? Someone kicked at the door and shook it, before breaking it down, revealing someone wearing a farmer’s outfit. No, not someone; Jock.
“I found him,” Jock shouted, as he came over to me and started to fiddle with the handcuffs, using a lockpick to undo my cuffs. I felt my hands come free and pulled myself away from the chair as he undid the remaining cuffs. “Boss, are you all right?”
“Never better,” I managed. It was true; just seeing Jock had put a massive boost in my sprit. I was delighted to see him. “You tracked the transponder then?”
“No,” Jock said, darkly. “They blocked that quite effectively. We had a stroke of luck; the building they used was one we’d had under quiet observation for a few weeks. We spotted just a few oddities from the UAV and decided to take a chance on hitting it. Hang on.”
I stood up as he turned to release Muna and staggered as I placed weight on my feet again. The handcuffs had blocked my circulation and it was all I could do to remain upright. Jock helped Muna to her feet as the others of his team came in, allowing him to pass her over to Judy, the only female on his team. I silently commended him for his compassion; Muna wouldn’t want to touch a man if it could be avoided. He caught me and helped me stand up straight until I could limp outside, hearing the sound of a helicopter and shooting in the distance.
“I think we kicked over a hornet’s nest,” Jock said, as he helped me outside the cell and into a corridor that seemed to climb upwards to daylight. “There was at least a hundred fighters nearby and we didn’t even detect them until they started shooting. If we hadn’t called up help from Fort Galloway, we would have been caught and shot up by superior numbers. We’d have killed most of them, but the rest would have got us.”
I nodded as we climbed up the stairs and came into a living room. It had once been open and airy, but someone had covered all the windows and barricaded all the doors. The farmer who had owned it had clearly been preparing for a siege, although it hadn’t helped the Freedom League when Jock and his team had come in to hit them. A handful of prisoners, all farmers, lay on the floor, under heavy guard.
“Should just kill them now,” Jock said, seeing the wounds inflicted on Muna and I in the better light. “Sir?”
“Never mind that,” I snapped, remembering my duty. “There’s a redheaded woman around somewhere, and two thugs. Did you find them?”
A quick check of the prisoners revealed no sign of the women and one of his thugs. The other was lying in a pile of bodies waiting to be identified. “No women here at all, apart from the Captain and Judy,” Jock said. “She must have gotten away in the chaos.”
The sound of shooting grew louder. I tensed as I heard a helicopter firing rockets down towards the ground, followed by a hail of explosions. Ed had to have sent out both of his helicopters to back up the rescue mission, along with an entire Company of soldiers. They were Svergie Army soldiers, I realised with a smile; he’d trusted them enough to carry out a delicate mission. It made everything we’d suffered worthwhile.
“We’ll have to move the prisoners out with the helicopters,” Jock said. “I don’t think they’ll risk shooting down a helicopter with their own people onboard.”
“Good,” I said, tiredly. I wanted sleep and a drink, but I wasn’t going to get either — I knew — until the medics had checked us both out thoroughly. “Jock, Suki betrayed us and led us into a trap. Did you find her here?”
“No,” Jock said. “Robert — ah, Captain McClellan — put out an alert for her, but we didn’t find her here.”
I hoped, absently, that she’d returned to her parents’ farm, but it was much more likely that the Freedom League had simply eliminated her. They’d regard her as a loose end, one who had seen more of the interrogation process — and heard that I’d said — than they’d be comfortable with. I’d have to track down her farm and ask her father directly what had happened to her, or perhaps… her father was part of the farmer leadership council. I might be able to use her death to drive a wedge in between him and the Freedom League.
“Good,” I said, finally. A transport helicopter came in to land, armed soldiers surrounding it at once, guarding it from all possible attack. The noise of the rotor blades hurt my head, but it could be endured. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Although a civilian may feel otherwise, it is quite possible to recover from many military-inflicted injuries fairly quickly, provided that medical attention is prompt and skilful. It is for that reason that we permit Doctors to obtain their Federal Service through serving as military medics, even though they are literally too valuable to risk lightly. Their care saves lives.
Fort Galloway looked surprisingly different from how I remembered it, although that shouldn’t have been a surprise. The basic layout was still the same, but Ed had taken everything that had come in via the daily convoys — which were shot at regularly and sometimes had to shoot their way out of traps — and used it to build up a far more formidable base. The trees and grass had been cut down, providing clear fields of fire for the soldiers in the bunkers, and some of the damaged buildings had been rebuilt. Given time, I was sure, Fort Galloway would be more than any UN-standard fort had ever been before. It was amazing what a single competent officer could do.