TNE 02 To Dream of Chaos Page 18

  "Zero's crew?"

  V-Max nodded his head.

  "So, all his crew are dead?"

  "Alas," Anthony said, "yes. Our cardinal tried to persuade the rebels to rescue them, but the capital Is too well defended. I, myself, heard the execution broadcast over state radio, and several members of my church confessed to witnessing it in person"

  "I see," Coeur said. "Well, even if that's so, I still have a mission to perform. I must find Zero's starship, or any record left by his party."

  As if predicting Anthony's response, V-Max drew an apprehensive breath through gritted teeth.

  "That could be very dangerous," Anthony cautioned. "If they had a space vessel, it is almost certainly stored In the docks of the old starpon depot, in the very center of Brak's power,"

  "Depot, you say?"

  "The old name of the region. Today, it is a fortress."

  Pleased by this turnol events—leads of some kind, at least— Coeur had raised a forefinger to ask another question when beeping interrupted her, coming from the comm panel on the bridge.

  "I'll get it," V-Max said, rushing lorward.

  A moment later, he turned back to Coeur with his comm headset in hand.

  "It's for you, Red Sun. Physic."

  Immediately, Coeur rose to put on the headset.

  "Red Sun here. Co ahead."

  "Captain, Drop Kick's just come back with a report. He says they spotted helicopters firing on a church on the south side of the river."

  "A church?"

  "Affirmative. He says he didn't know if it was Brother Anthony's, but he figured he'd better check It out just In case."

  Fuck, Coeur thought.

  "Roger that, Physic. Stand by ybur laser rig. Red Sun out."

  Coeur ripped off the headset and turned to V-Max.

  "V, do you know the shortest way to the south ridge?"

  "Yeah, It's tnat way...."

  "Here," Coeur said, palming open the hatch. "Show me."

  ***

  Seeing Coeur and V-Max hasten out the hatch, Tom and Brother Anthony exchanged a quick look and then rose as one to dash after them, leaving the ship's boat airlock to lock automatically behind them. Since Brother Anthony lacked the WSV goggles of his companions, he lagged a bit behind Tom as she scrambled up the steep slope of rocks and weeds immediately to port of the vehicle Over 35 years of nightly activity gave him good night vision, however, and he came to The top of the 20-meter ridge just seconds behind the others.

  "Oh my, "he gasped, seeing what the others already beheld.

  From 500 meters above sea level, the hillside gave an excellent view of all the A!bcg3r District, out to the unlit horizon SO kilometers away. Beyond the rocky hillside, sloping steeply down to cultivated farmland—tilled even at this hour by banks of peasants marching abreast the tractors that lit their work—and beyond the River Loro, five kilometers away, lay the buildings at the edge of the city. A handful of those buildings now burned, periodically disgorging fireballs that Illuminated the lazy water of the river and two sets of helicopter blades in the sky above.

  "Attack helicopters," Coeur said, studying the scene through PRIS binoculars. "Probably the same ones Mercy spotted on the way In."

  "Is that your church?" Tom asked Anthony, spotting a building in the middle of the conflagration with a triangular symbol on its roof very similar to the brother's amulet.

  "Yes," the stole priest replied, "That is my church, I only hope Sister Anna and the young spacers escaped,,.."

  "Oh Cod," V-Max said meanwhile, numb with shock, "they must have picked up our radio traffic,..."

  "Yes," Coeur agreed, lowering the PRIS and handing It to Tom. "They must have triangulated the position with their own radio direction finders."

  "Damn," V-Max mumbled. "How could I have been so stupid...."

  "Don't blame yourself, V," Tom said. "You're a navigator, not a secret agent."

  "But Carl and Kauel—they're just kids!"

  "They mignt've gotten away," Coeur ventured, though she

  To Dream of Chaos 147

  doubted It very much. Bombs had set not only the wooden chapel alight, but many adjacent structures, and there was no evidence of a fire-fighting battalion anywhere In sight.

  "I don't know about that," Tom said, handing the binoculars back to Coeur, "but have a look at bearing 310."

  "Good Lordl That's an Imperial Marine APCI"

  "Yeah," Tom said. "I thought It was a truck until I saw it lift off. It was parked on a side street near the chapel."

  "They can't have very many of those," Coeur said, watching the streamlined, relic craft fly off toward the north. "Can they?"

  "The flying tanks, you mean?" Anthony asked. "No, very few. And none ever come this far south."

  "Hm," Tom said.

  "It maybe," Anthony wenton, "thatyour friends are not dead. The Cuard may have realized they were off-wortders and come to capture them before they destroyed the chapel."

  "But why?" Coeur asked. "You said Brak executed Zero's people."

  "The rumor Is," Anthony said, "that Zero'screwwas given the opportunity to cooperate before they were killed—to tell what treasure they were seeking on this world."

  "I see," Tom said. "So Brak might have a use for the kids."

  "In his own evil way, yes."

  Well, Physic, Coeur thought, lowering her PRIS, maybe I was wrong Maybe the timetable for killing will have to be moved up.

  Chapter 11

  "Think this is a good idea, sergeant major?"

  "Maybe not," Drop Kick said from his broomstick's front seat, speaking to Gaffer behind htm through a hardwired link, "but I want to get closer to that church and see tf Cari and Katzel are around."

  "All right," Gaffer said, "but watch out for the APC's fusion gun. A close miss from that could shoot us down."

  "Hell," Drop Kick said, lighting the gusting wind and updrafts from fires on the ground as he steered closer to the burning church, "a kid with a slingshot could knock us out of the air. Just hang on."

  Though it was impossible to get veiy close to the church-owing to the choppers overhead and the APC grounded on a nearby street—Drop Kick and Gaffer did come close enough to pick up good detail through their enhanced synthetic vision. Three unarmored human forms were in the area of the church, being hustled andcarried up the rear hatch of the APC by troopers in heavy battle dress. One was a woman dressed like Brother Anihony, but bloodied a^d aoparemly dead. Theother two Drop Kick clearly recognized as Cari and Katzel, singed but mobile under their own power.

  "Damn those street lights," Gaffer said, speaking to Drop Kick in the front seat through a hard-wired link In the broomstick frame. "It it weren't for them we could gel a lot closer."

  "It's all right," Drop Kick sakf, circling the grounded APC at a height of 500 meters. "Just keep your eyes open for any more armor."

  More armor was not in sight, however. Evidently, Emperor Brak felt two attack choppers and a grav APC were sufficient to shoot up a churcn.

  "Hey," Gaffer said, "she's taking off. Want to follow?"

  "Yeah, we're following all right. Flash it to fled Sun."

  Gaffer didn't bother to argue. Though Coeur had ordered radio silence, the heart of Soled ad was over 50 kilometers away, and if they followed the APC there. It would put them beyond reliable radio range of the base camp. Gaffer sent the briefest possible message, "Gaffer to Red Sun, Pursuing APC."

  Coeur's answer came back a moment later as two bursts of static, the previously established signal for message understood.

  Tne pursuit of the APC was hardly a simple matter, though. For one thing, the APC was well-streamlined and soon left its fast helicopter escort straining to keep pace. Even after twisting his handlebar throttles to full thrust, Drop Kick found himself falling behind the Soledad flight as it roared high Into the windy night An unexpected break came, however. In the unlit region between Albegar and the Federal District—utterly unexpected arcsof tracer rounds from antiaircraft
artillery reaching up toward the Soledad flight. Such fire would surely ping off the super-dense armor of the APC, but not so the airframes of the thin-skinned choppers, which probably wore no armor at all. Consequently, they went quickly to the deck, followed by the APC—disgorging covering fire from its small turret—and the broomstick of the trailing sergeants.

  "Good Garal" Gaffer said. "Who's firing that trlple-A?"

  "Unknown," Drop Kick answered, "Rebels, I guess, it sure slowed the Teddies down, though."

  Aided by the intervention of some unknown ally. Drop Kick found himself able to tail the Soledad flight, now flying nape-of-the-earth. With the antiaircraft guns now quiet behind them, the aircraft roared across the blasted wasteland at 200 kph, jinking occasionally but making the lighted outskirts of the Federal Dstrict within 15 minutes.

  "Look sharp," Gaffer said. "I've got aircraft at 2 and 10."

  "I see 'em. Support sleds."

  "Shouldn't we break off?" Gaffer asked, acutely aware of the searchlights popping up from the center of the City ahead.

  "Negative, I don't think we've been spotted."

  "All right. Butt don't need to tell you what'll happen If we get hit."

  Wo, you don't Drop Kick though!, continuing to tail the APC at a discrete distance of one kilometer, he knew just as welt as Gaffer that the first hit the broomstick took from almost any weapon would be Its last.

  Yet, realizing this, a strange calm overtook the sergeants. Aware that they were indeed unspotted, they relaxed enough to lake careful notice of the Federal District's layout—key details of which Gaffer captured in his suit's integral camera.

  Unlike Albegar, which seemed a maze of wooden huts and crumbling masonry buildings, the Federal District appeared well lald-out, with broad avenues radiating outward from the ancient starport. Also, unlike Albegar, most people seemed involved in industrial, rather than agricultural, pursuits. In smoke-spewing factories of the outer district.

  "That's interesting..." Gaffer said.

  "What?" Drop Kick asked, concentrating on his flying.

  "Olf to the north, there's a troop of track-laying APCs."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, with regular troopers—you know, rifles and steel helmets."

  "Yeah, I see 'em."

  "Maybe that's what most of Brak's forces are—low-tech regulars."

  "It would be nice," Drop Kick said. Sure, Coeur wanted to find the hidden depot, but Drop Kick would Just as soon have the hidden depot be conspicuously lacking In grav tanks, battle dress and energy weapons—if Brak did Indeed have his hands on it.

  Presently, though, the Soledad flight began iosing altitude, and Drop Kick focused all his attention on avoiding detection. The two support sleds they saw earlier had since moved off In what appeared a routine patrol pattern, but the city center was thick with entrenched defenses, among them rooftop autocan-nons and SAM sites.

  "Oh man," Gaffer said, "look at all that air defense."

  "Yeah, I see it Soledad must have enemies that have aircraft."

  "Sergeant Major, I don't mean to sound alarmed, but I think we're way out of our league here. Maybe we should bug out while we still can."

  "No," Drop Kick said, "not yet. We've got to find out where they're taking Cari and Katie!."

  "Cari and Kauel? Man, those aren't even our people!"

  "Maybe not, Gaffer, but they are Tom's people, and—as long as Red Sun's cooperating with them—that makes 'em our people."

  "Okay," Gaffer returned, though he could almost feel the fire control radar from a myriad ground stations locking onto them.

  The broomstick would not be shot down, however. Abandoning a high flight profile as too perilous. Drop Kick took to flying low around the city's rooftops, gambling that the TL6 radar would have trouble locking onto such a small, low-flying target.

  "Damn," Caffer said, amazed, "we're still alive."

  "For the moment anyway. Hey look, the APC's landing."

  "Sure is. Looks like it's going into some sort of bunker under that building—probably a headquarters."

  "It's a big building anyway; I'll try to edge us In closer."

  Big, in the present context, would prove a gross understatement, for no other standing structure In Soledad was anywhere near as tall as this blockish granite edifice. Clearfy a building of some importance, not only was its roof sprinkled with electronic equipment, but one entire face—a 50-meter stretch of window-less wall—was painted with a gigantic rendering of a man the Marines could only presume to be the ruler of the City.

  "Figure that's Emperor Brak?" Caffer asked.

  "That's where my money Is," Drop Kick replied, lowering the broomstick Into an alley between two adjacent office bulldings-"We're right smack dab In the middle of the region he oughta control."

  Whether the rendering was accurate or not they didn't know, but the image on the side of the building portrayed Its subject as a veritable mass of muscle—a square-Jawed man with slick black hair, a thick black mustache and a steely gray-eyed expression. His fine conditioning and muscle tone showed clearly through his military tunic and trousers. As It was the first Image of Brak they'd seen, Caffer duly recorded It with his camera before Drop Kick moved out of Che alley and began orbiting the broomstick around toward the far side of the building.

  "You get that portrait?"

  "Affirmative," Caffer said. "I'm recording the rooftop now."

  "Good thinking."

  "That is one helluva lot of radomesand antennason that roof. Suppose It could be the defense ministry?"

  "Possioly," Drop Kick said. "Anyway, ifs obviously an important building. Lock this position into your inertlal navigator,"

  "Roger," Caffer said, shutting off the camera and then chinning the helmet button that would record their position in the suits Inertial navigation system —data that would soon be added to all the1/ party's Soledad maps, "Got It," he said a moment later. "We could drop right on top of this position If we had to."

  "Hopefutiy, that won't be necessary," Drop Kick said, spinning the broomstick and shooting away from the center of the city, "A man with a head that big should have the brains not to tangle with the RCMC."

  Although their position was well-concealed, in a cleft in the side of theLomarica Hills, Coeur knew a vehicle like the grav APC Drop Kick and Gaffer had followed could easily fly overhead on a silent reconnaissance flight. Thus, she ordered Physic, Newton and Vink to drag an IR shroud and camouflage net over the G-carrier, just as V-Max had done with the ship's boat. No further flights appeared near the hills, however—even after the chapel Tire had burned out an entire block and petered Out—for a reason that Brother Anthony made plain when he and the captains returned to the ship's boat, leaving V-Max up on the ridge with the PR1S binoculars.

  "The emperor's men are deathly afraid of these wild areas, Captain 0' Esprit. Even his Guard in its flying tanks only ventures into dark areas In force."

  "The rebels are that strong?" Coeur asked.

  "Not the rebels, Captain. The nightjacks."

  "Nightjacks?" Tom asked. "What are those?"

  "Demons," Anthony said, "creations of Hell. Even I would have feared to come here, were it not for my faith in the Defender and the Strong armor of this craft,"

  Both Coeur and Tom aimed concerned looks at the priest.

  "I assume nightjacks are some sort of mythological beast," Tom said.

  "Would that they were," Anthony replied, making the triangular holy sign of the CCL on his chest; "but I have seen the torn bodies of their victims."

  "Well, then, maybe it's some sort of native predator," Tom speculated. "It it's afraid of light, maybe we should turn on our floodlights—as long as V-Max Is out alone."

  "I don't know about that," Coeur said. "It would have to be a pretty nasty predator to be worse than the artillery we'd gel if we were spotted,"

  "Does V-Max know about these nightjacks?" Tom asked.

  "Yes," Anthony said, "but you should temper your concern. I
have blessed him with holy water that wards all demons."

  "Oh good," Tom replied.

  Just then the comm panel beeped, and Coeur went forward to answer it, "Red Sun, this is Physic. The iwo broomsticks have returned, and Drop Kick says he thinks Tom's people are alive,"

  "Thank God," Coeur said. "Tell the Marines we'll be right over."

  "Roger that, skipper. But there's something else..."

  "Yes?"

  "Drop Kick says he saw a woman's body removed from the Albegaf chapel, and he thinks It was Sister Anna."

  Coeur grimaced.

  "Understood. I'll let Brother Anthony know."

  "I suppose it could have been somebody else; he did spot her from a distance."

  "Yes, well, something tells me respect for human life Isn't a high priority with this government, But anyway, do you still have someone posted to the plasma gun?"

  "Affirmative. It was Vink, but Whi2 Bang's taken over now that he's back "

  "Good. We've heard there's some kind of native predator roaming around dark areas like this, so see that It stays manned."

  "Understood."

  "Red Sun out."

  "Brother Anthony," Coeur said, putting up the headset, "I've got bad news. Drop Kick thinks your associate. Sister Anna, was killed,"

  For Coeur—who was beginning to wonder If loving acceptance was etched on the face of the priest—it was almost a relief to see his reaction. Staggered, he reached backward for the nearest seat and fell Into it, "Oh my." he bowed his head, rapidly murmuring an Invocation, and several times drew his faith's triangular sign In the air.

  "Are you all right?" Tom asked, sitting down In the next chair.

  Anthony nodded his head, wiping the corners of his eyes.

  "Yes, I'm fine. Ifs the risk we accept when we take our vows. Her soul will be at rest."

  "Maybe we should give him a little while alone," Coeur whispered to Tom.

  "No," Anthony said, getting back to his feet. "No, I'm all right. Is there anything else your men discovered?"

  "Yes," Coeur said. "Cari and KaUel might still be alive."

  "Well, thank Cod for that," Tom said, "Yes, we should," Anthony agreed.

  "Perhaps," Coeur said, "but all I know is that two of our people have been captured, and I want them back."