“I took you on,” she pointed out.
“True,” he said. “But you had functioning weapons then. Now you have melted steel all over the fronts of your lasers. They won’t fire. And your cannon doesn’t look very good either. So what’ll it be? Do you want to be captured, or run?”
“I still beat you,” Bishop said.
“Yes, yes,” Farrell agreed. “We cut the cards and you turned up the jack of spades, just like you did before.”
“Just like I did bef—Damn it, Jack Farrell, you threw this fight!”
“Bright girl. You figured it out. Now I’m about to give the order to close the corridor. So get moving.”
Bishop ran. The infantry squad with its boarding tools saw her coming toward them, and turned and ran as well. At over a hundred kilometers an hour, she didn’t take long to reach her lines, on the other side of the city from the DropPort.
The whole way there, Jack Farrell laughed in her headset.
49
Castle Northwind
Rockspire Mountains
Northwind
February 3134; local winter
Will Elliot had seen plenty of pictures of Castle Northwind in his life. The massive gray stone structure was a popular subject for posters and for glossy pictorial volumes about the scenic glories of beautiful Northwind. The tourists he’d used to guide through the northern Rockspires had often been quite put out to learn that the photogenic castle they’d come so far to see was set in the middle of a large expanse of private land and wasn’t available to gawkers. He’d certainly never expected to find himself sitting at a table in the castle’s lesser hall, drinking tea with the company Captain and his fellow Sergeants and waiting for word from the Countess.
Lexa McIntosh appeared to agree with him. She poured more tea into a porcelain cup from the big silver teapot and added a lump of sugar with the silver sugar tongs. “It’s a long way from Barra Station to a castle in the mountains. Life is good.”
“With only three platoons?” Jock Gordon said. “It’s not that good.”
Will shook his head. “With three platoons we can fight off any scouting forays until the main body arrives.”
“That’s all very well,” the company commander said, “but just in case the good life decides to give us some nasty surprises, I want to wire everything in sight with demolition charges. Starting from the cliffs by the uphill drive, right the way back to the public road.”
Lexa’s gaze drifted over to the windows as the company commander spoke, and Will saw her eyes narrow. He followed her glance. The long uphill drive to the castle’s front entrance ran briefly in view of the windows, but the road when he looked showed nothing visible, either on the pavement or in the snowdrifts to either side.
“What was it?” he asked. Lexa had a sharpshooter’s keen sight and noticing eye, and if there’d been something moving on the road a moment before, she’d have seen it.
“Messenger,” she said. “On a fast motorcycle. None of your damned hoverbikes.”
“Looks like the good life’s over with,” said the company commander. He set down his tea cup. “I believe that the three of you should go see what the postman has for us today.”
Will and his two friends hurried down to the castle’s front entrance, arriving in time to stand together on the granite steps as the motorcycle came into view on the last curves of the uphill road. The bike was faster than safe and leaning into the curves so hard that it seemed to be lying on its side. The rider was a man in the uniform of Northwind.
“Message for the company commander,” said the messenger.
“Kinda figured that was it,” Lexa said. She’d had her laser rifle sighted in on the final curve, and grounded it as she spoke. “Let us have it and we’ll carry it up.”
The messenger pulled out an envelope with a string seal on it. “I’ll need the commander’s answer,” he said.
“We’ll make sure you get it,” said Will. He took the envelope. “Wait here. Jock, Lexa—you stay with him.”
He carried the sealed envelope back through the castle great hall to the lesser hall where the company commander waited, looking out of the windows at the snowcapped Rockspires and stirring his cup of tea.
“Messenger from central command,” Will said with a salute.
“Thanks, Sergeant,” the company commander said, returning the salute. He opened the envelope, read the flimsy inside, then put it down. “Please ask the other sergeants to come in. And give this reply to carry back to the Countess and General Griffin. ‘We understand.’”
“Sir,” Will said, saluted again, and left.
A few minutes later he returned with Jock and Lexa. The company commander, who’d been looking out the window at the Rockspires again, turned around to face them.
“This is where things get interesting,” he said. “I’ve just been given some information, and an order. The information is that the main body of the Highlander force will not be coming here after all. I expect that the reason is this: there’s only one way in; there’s only one way out. If the main body came here, they could be bottled up by anyone holding the end of the pass.
“The order is very simple. We are to prevent the Steel Wolves from taking Castle Northwind. All means are acceptable. Questions, comments, suggestions, or observations?”
“Blow it up now,” Jock said. “With three platoons, we can’t hold it.”
“We don’t want to blow it up until we have to,” Will protested. “How about this? Hold it as long as possible, make the Wolves spend time, troops, and matériel, and then blow it.”
Lexa nodded agreement. “A fight’s a fight. Here or somewhere else. If we destroy the castle, and the bad guys don’t show up, then we’ll have done it all for nothing, and the Countess will be pissed.”
“How do you know that?” Jock asked.
“Because if it was me, and it was my castle, I’d be pissed.”
“I’m thinking much the way you are, Sergeant McIntosh,” the company commander said. “But all of the solutions involve the possibility of demolishing this structure at one point or another. So we can start by wiring it. Later, other things. But for right now—”
“Captain,” Will asked, “your message. Did it say when the Steel Wolves would get here?”
“Six hours, maybe eight.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Lexa said. “They won’t attack until dawn.”
“What makes you say that?” the company commander asked.
“Call it intuition. Anastasia Kerensky is a bitch’s bitch. She won’t stand off and let her troops take our Countess’s own castle in the dark—she’ll want to be here to watch the flags go down.”
“If there’s a good chance she’ll show up in person—”
“Let me see to my rifle,” Lexa said. “If she gets within a mile of me, she’s mine.”
“Very well,” the captain said. “McIntosh, your squad has the road leading in. See to its defenses. Gordon, you have the exterior defenses, as soon as the interior is wired. Elliot, you have interior defense. Help Gordon with the demolition charges, then everyone get some rest. This may be a long night coming.”
“Who does he think we are?” Will muttered to Jock as the three sergeants headed down the stairs to give the good word to their platoons. “We already know to sleep every chance we can.”
50
Castle Northwind
Rockspire Mountains
Northwind
February 3134; local winter
“As I came in by Fiddich side, on a May morning…”
Lexa McIntosh hummed under her breath as she lay on the top of a cliff overlooking the road up to Castle Northwind. She was looking to the south, not silhouetted against the sky, invisible to the road, her laser rifle at her shoulder. The large telescopic sight she’d attached to the front of the rifle showed, in great detail, the line of scout vehicles, armor, and infantry moving up the valley toward Castle Northwind. Lexa ignored the scouts and the infantry troopers; she would only have one shot from this position, and she wanted to make the target worth her while.