“Six days ago, in the city of Godwin, three marines from this command were suddenly and deliberately attacked. Corporal Sterling and Corporal Higgins were both killed instantly. Two hours ago the third victim, Sergeant Robert Clay, died from extensive burns over ninety percent of his body.”
Colonel Klaus Magnus paused to let this sink in. He had done this speech once before for the duty shift. From the look of the faces filling the cafeteria-cum-auditorium, he had their attention. The speech he was making was being broadcast throughout the complex to all the civilians, but Klaus made a point of gathering all the marines here in person. These were the ones who needed to see him face-to-face, to understand the stakes here.
Klaus let the anger creep into his voice. “These three marines were in Godwin to apprehend a deserter. They died in the line of duty. They died because of the treachery of this planet.”
Klaus slapped his hand down on the podium in front of him. “Without reason or provocation, a gang of Godwin hoodlums attacked and killed three Occisis marines in the midst of their duty. Two marines crushed beyond all recognition, one burned past repair by a plasma explosion.”
He slammed his hand again. “Why?”
He scanned the audience. Everyone alert. All eyes on him. Good. The “gang of Godwin hoodlums” might be an exaggeration, but he needed a little hyperbole to get his point across. Klaus could feel the anger in the air, even from the five marines he’d been forced to discipline a week ago.
“Why? Why this unprovoked assault? Why, when any civilized planet in the Confederacy would refuse to aid or comfort a deserter? When any civilized planet would aid in the capture and extradite such a deserter? Why?”
Each “why” was like a club he used to bludgeon his audience.
“By Bakunin’s own rules, our only conflict is with the war profiteers we’ve neutralized. Our battle is with Godwin Arms and Armaments. We have made extreme, and perhaps even dangerous, concessions to avoid hostilities with any other organization on this planet.”
Klaus watched his audience and felt a little internal smile when he saw a few marines nodding. One of them was Captain Murphy, Shane’s replacement and an officer much more to Klaus’ liking.
However, Klaus did not let his pleasure show; his face was a mask of anger and hard determination that he did his best to impart to his audience.
“Despite this, we’ve been under constant assault from without. Barely a week passes without the necessity of repelling an armed force from our perimeter—
“Why?
“We’ve played by this world’s rules. At considerable risk to ourselves we have battled only with the forces of GA&A—and still, we are subject to undeclared and unprovoked attacks—
“Why?”
Klaus waited a beat for his last “why” to sink in.
“Because this is Bakunin and there are no rules here!
“Wipe from your mind any notion that this is a normal world. This is a planet that, by its very nature, is at constant war with the Confederacy and all it stands for.
“No rules! Do you understand that? The evil out there? No rule of law, no rule of morality, no rule of engagement. The only rule out there is brute force and the passion of criminals rejected from every corner of the Confederacy.
“If you had any doubt in your mind, wipe it away. We are at war!”
Klaus could feel a flush inside him as he surveyed the crowd. He was winning them, had already won them.
“We’ve been at war ever since Bakunin accepted the seeds of anarchism into itself and opposed everything the Confederacy stands for—
“Unity,
“Diversity,
“and The Rule of Law!”
The entire room stood up and applauded him. He let the ovation wash over him in waves. Now that his marines had a concrete example of what they were fighting, they were his.
Klaus was glad he had decided to visit their burn tank. Unplugging Sergeant Clay had been a good move.
* * * *
“Damn it, where have you been?” Klaus demanded. He managed to generate a spark of irritation, even after the heady experience of talking to the troops. He was locked in his office looking at a glowing blue sphere and talking to an electronically altered voice.
“I’ve been incommunicado—and you don’t sound too happy to hear from me.”
“You disappear for five days and I should be happy?” Klaus leaned back and turned the chair around to face the holo sunset over Godwin. He wondered where in that city Webster had set up shop. He wondered who Webster was. As it was, he had no hold on Webster other than money, and that was no hold at all.
“Don’t be ungrateful, Klaus. Remember who’s doing who favors.”
“Expensive favors.”
“You accepted the terms I gave you. You’re the tactical genius who screwed the grab for Shane.”
Klaus spun the chair around and avoided—barely— sweeping the secure holo to the ground in fury. “How dare you—”
“I don’t have to give you anything more, Klaus. I gave you Shane, I gave you Mosasa.”
Klaus shook his head and regained his calm. Webster was lucky that he was anonymous. No one should be allowed to talk like this without repercussions. Klaus’ patience had finally reached the breaking point. “I am afraid this relationship has reached the end of its usefulness.”
“Don’t do something stupid, Klaus. Not when I’m about to hand it all over to you.”
Klaus’ hand stopped halfway to the disconnect button.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean? Why did you hire me?”
“All of them?”
“One thousand three hundred and eighty-seven as of last count. Plus Dominic, plus Shane, plus a handful of others.”
“Where?”
“No.”
Klaus was silent for a long time.
Finally, he spoke, his voice barely in control. “What do you mean, ‘no?’ “
Webster chuckled. “I wish you had your holo’s video pickup switched on, just to see your face.”
Klaus grabbed both sides of the holo, stood up, and shook it as if he could throttle Webster by remote control. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”
“I mean that I have to be compensated for the risk I’m taking.”
“What risk?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to know. But you’re going to have to quadruple the balance on my account before I hand you anything.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I know exactly what I’m asking. I’ve got a monitor on the account active right now, and I’ll talk once I see numbers change.”
“Right now?”
“Unless you want a nasty surprise or two in the morning.”
“What do you mean?”
“Pay.”
Klaus debated a moment, only a moment, before he went to the main terminal on his desk and began to transfer funds. It only took a few minutes to do. With his account at TEC, his finances for discretionary spending were effectively unlimited. If he hesitated at all, it was because it galled him to be dictated to.
If he ever found out who Webster was, he was a dead man—
Or woman.
“There, you have your money.”
“Very good, Klaus. For a minute there, I thought you were going to let your pride screw you up again.”