We reached the warehouse. We didn’t slow down, but ran in through the big wide-open, garage-type doors and slammed into a mass of Ylokk huddled in the center of the big room. They were in a hurry to surrender; our boys had to crack a few heads, and there was a little snapping and biting, but none of them used their firearms.
The arrival of the two flanking parties was anti-climactic; the fighting was all over before they got there. Lst had an earnest talk with pink-striped Captain Blf―the one in charge of the garrisons―and reported back that the entire unit was ready, even eager, to attack the “real’’ Two-Laws, the group of only about thirty dedicated rebels who had invaded the town in the very beginning.
There were no casualties on our side, except for a few contusions and a couple of bites. Doc got busy and patched them up. Good old Gus had a bruised shoulder; he was skulking and complaining about fraternizing with rats. He got louder and louder, demanding that he be allowed to shoot the rat that had bitten him, whom he claimed he could recognize by the black stripe down his back.
Lst asked Captain Blf about that. “A full colonel? Here? Why?”
Blf went off and picked the colonel out of Smovia’s clutches (he had a crease in his scalp Gus had given him in the process of getting himself bruised). Lst then questioned him very respectfully. He seemed puzzled; the colonel answered him readily enough, but seemed to be evasive at times.
“He’s being cagey,” the major reported. “There’s something going on he doesn’t want to talk about, but he gives himself away by his seemingly erratic pattern of avoidance. I’m a well-trained interrogator, Colonel; any casual questioner wouldn’t have caught it.”
“Keep after him,” I directed. “Meanwhile, we have a town to liberate―or to inform that they’re already liberated.”
While Lst and I were making preparation to send out well-armed squads of three to spread the word, and incidentally locate useful supplies, Smovia came over and asked to go along, to identify the sick, and start getting them into some sort of improvised clinics until he could get to them.
“I’ll have to train some people to help me,” he confided. “I trust I have your approval, Colonel.”
I told him to go ahead, but to look sharp for trickery. He assured me he wasn’t interested in suicide, and showed me the heavy revolver he’d become attached to. “I’ll use it if I have to,” he assured me.
It was time for a council of war. I called the humans together, plus the Ylokk officers and non-coms, as I’d be relying heavily on them; not too heavily, I hoped. But the troops seemed to be highly motivated, especially since the attack, such as it was, on the barracks had showed them how willing their erstwhile comrades had been to fire on them.
“We have to be careful,” I told them, “not to be overconfident: so far we haven’t really faced any determined opposition by organized units, such as we can undoubtedly expect in the city.”
Major Lst wanted to say something, mainly to us humans: “My people,” he began, “though not practiced in the arts of war, are not lacking in intelligence, or in courage. It was Grgsdn who observed the constant strife among the humongs in those phases dominated by them; that gave him, he said, the concept of taking by force that which we desired―and what more desirable than a source of intelligent and vigorous slaves, to perform those chores that are beneath the dignity of the Folk,’ as he put it. The response was astonishing. First hundreds, then thousands flocked to hear him screaming his message of the eternal holiday; no more work, forever―coupled with an unheard-of abundance of every kind of desirable goods.”
“That’s an incredibly naive concept,” Smovia commented. “Did he imagine these fierce warriors he so admired could not resist?”
“His intent was to overwhelm with numbers,” Lst explained. “Plus the new ‘weapons’―we had no word in our language―which rendered our troops irresistible, he declared.”
“And,” Helm contributed, “he could hardly expect to install his New Order until he had eliminated the old; thus the revolution and the kidnapping of little Minnie.”
“He must have remarkable charisma, this Grgsdn,” I remarked. “What’s he like?”
Lst didn’t know; he’d never seen him. Few had, it seemed; none in our army. His disciples spread the word, but Grgsdn himself stayed in hiding, adding the allure of mystery to his appeal.
“They were fools,” Lst snarled, “but please believe me: they are not representative of the Folk in general. The great majority would gladly return to the old ways, if there were a way. We shall provide that way.”
We talked it over at length and decided to move in openly, in a single column, with the human personnel in the center. Let the Two-Laws wonder what was happening. We’d surround and neutralize any detachment of Two-Law militia we encountered, and enlist as many as possible before moving on. We’d advance directly to the Skein technical compound and secure it, then invest the Palace, and relieve the Loyalists still defending it. When calm had been restored, we’d cap our fait accompli with the presentation of Her Highness the Princess.
“Then, maybe,” Gus grumbled, “we can give some thought to our own problems.”
“When we have secured the technical facilities,” I pointed out, “we can immediately .put an end to the flow of reinforcements for the invasion, and arrange for our own return home. And only when we hold the compound,” I emphasized. Finally old Gus had stopped griping, partly because of the belated realization that there would be no massa-ere of “rats,” and partly because he was beginning to understand that it really wouldn’t be a good idea.
Smovia, having administered his medicine to all the sick troops in our bunch, was more relaxed, and indeed eager to get on with it. For their part, the soldiers, seeing their dying comrades restored to full health, tended to regard the Doc as a magician, and to be very protective of him. I felt a little bad about what I had to do.
We commandeered backpacks from the supply-room attached to the barracks, packed them with food, sleeping gear, and whatever else anybody wanted to carry. In a shed behind the supply-room, there was a cache of human-made clothing and small items like watches and pocket-knives. Lst told us it was a two-mile hike to the center of town. We started at dawn, well-rested, watered and fed. Three fellows were still sick and we left them behind.
Chapter 22
The inner-city wall was high and impressive, stoutly built of hewn stone with spikes on top. The gate was of plank-and-iron-strap construction, and guarded by a tall Ylokk in a fancy red-and-gold outfit, and armed with a Bofors hand-cannon he didn’t seem to know how to hold. He kept peering down the three-inch barrel while fiddling with the firing mechanism. His head was still intact, however, when I followed Major Lst up to him. He gave the major a casual look, and switched his gaze to me, until Lst barked what sounded like “Hsst!” followed by a rusty-spring squeal. Then the sentry snapped-to and almost dropped the cannon. Lst grabbed it and checked it over expertly.
“Fine weapon,” he commented to me. “Clever recoil mechanism.”
I agreed and helped him find the ceremonial-looking but functional key attached to the sentry’s belt, and we got the gate open. Nobody jumped out and said “Boo!,” and we filed through unchallenged. I had the humans out as flankers now. The Jade Palace loomed, pale green as a jade palace should be, replete with crenellated towers, slim spires, flying granfallons, and ominous fire-slit openings through which their devastating disruptors could be aimed.