“Missile incoming!” squawked his wingman. That was all he managed before being engulfed in a fireball. Seeing the red burst that had been his wingman’s Stormbringer out of the corner of his eye, Dorman thumbed the emergency kill switch, releasing all the warship’s offensive capacity to the computers. On full automatic, the Stormbringer rolled over and did a streaking dive toward the surface. Close to blacking out, Dorman felt the ship shudder as a dozen missiles were loosed to speed toward the target. The cannons were all firing now, the controls working themselves furiously to evade incoming fire that was beyond human capacity for response.
There was an explosion the next second and the starboard wing disintegrated into flaming debris. The ship went into a spin, and Captain Dorman lost consciousness as the computers ejected his crash-seat through the bottom skin of the craft.
He came to again less than a thousand feet above the surface. Locked in a sitting position in his crash-seat, he floated down into the green treetops. Blinking away the haze that clung to his vision, he righted his head and saw three black plumes of smoke rising up from the jungle. All three of the combatants had been destroyed.
“Least we got him,” Dorman muttered before the blood pressure in his brain ebbed and he lost consciousness again.
“Uh, yes of course,” stumbled Ari. Inwardly he groaned. He had hoped his auto-shades would be enough of a disguise.
Major Lee, too pleased to notice the General’s unenthusiastic response, led the way back toward the security door. “Perhaps you would like to take stock of the situation? Or do you want to call in your tactical squad immediately, sir?”
Ari balked, refusing to move from his spot near the ticket counters. He gave the flight-departure gates a wistful glance, then flicked his eyes nervously over the security video pick-ups hidden about the spaceport. Mai Lee could be watching even now. “Who exactly is this terrorist group?”
“A madman, sir. He has a gang of giants, either they’re rayball players, or just hired killers. The man claimed to be the new Governor, of all the crazy things. Imagine that!”
Ari jumped involuntarily. “Giants with him, you say?” he asked, his tongue wetting his lips. He took up his satchel with both hands, pulling it close against his chest.
“Yes sir,” replied Major Lee, frowning at the General’s odd manner.
Ari eyed the security door in concern. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed in speculation. “The situation has possibilities.” he muttered aloud.
“Sir?”
“I’ll handle this, Major. You and your men just take up positions around the center. Clear the building, I have some phone calls to make.”
Beaming, Major Lee jogged off with his men and began shouting. Ari frowned after him, envying him his newfound freedom from responsibility. He turned to eye the departure gates again. The elevator up to the orbital platform was so close. He could even take the flitter that went up every fifteen minutes, that would be faster. Before he could move, however, the clerks began to close the ticket counters and the loudspeakers announced that all flights were canceled due to an unspecified emergency. With a sigh, Ari turned toward the line-up of public paylinks. He had left his own unit at his office to make himself harder to trace. He dropped a credit coin into the first paylink he found that was operable.
Eight
“What I don’t quite understand, General,” said Mai Lee, her eyes narrowed in a habitual expression of suspicion. “Is exactly what you are doing at the spaceport.”
“A hunch, your Excellency. Call it the intuition of an experienced militia officer,” Ari answered crisply. “I’ve been studying this man carefully, and I predicted his return to the spaceport. Stationed here is the largest organization of forces loyal to the Nexus that he could draw on for support.”
“But why didn’t you bring your tactical squad with you?”
“They’re on the way here now. I didn’t want to remove them from their alert status at the militia headquarters until I was sure. Besides, your instructions were to locate him and call for your aid,” Ari said, again with convincing certainty. He had anticipated these questions, but hoped that she didn’t probe any further into his motivations concerning coming to the spaceport. It was time to deflect her onto another course. “So, now that we’ve got him here and he has holed himself up, how do you wish to handle the situation?”
“Your effectiveness in this instance astounds me. It isn’t like you to take to the field yourself, General.”
“This is a most serious matter, Empress. Both of our futures are at stake and I felt I couldn’t afford to trust the matter to my operatives. Although I have great faith in them,” he added hastily. The itching sensation of erupting sweat grew in his armpits.
“If you want something done, you have to do it yourself, eh? Very well. While you’re waiting for your tactical squad to come and destroy them, I want you to go in and parlay. Tell Governor Droad that you’re on his side. You could be useful as a mole.”
“Begging your Excellency’s pardon, but are you serious? Why not simply bring in the militia and kill them? We could even hit the entire spaceport, reduce it to rubble with attack lifters and mortar fire if necessary.”
“We will not level the spaceport without need, General. You will enter and lull the Governor, perhaps you can even coax him out of his lair. My forces are fast moving into position, even as we speak,” she said, her ancient eyes boring into his head. “No one is going to escape the planet from that spaceport, let me assure you, General.”
Halfheartedly, Ari tried a few more arguments to avoid the dangerous task that Mai Lee had in mind for him, but she was adamant. It was clear that she suspected his loyalty, even suspected that he had been about to flee Garm. Her command to parlay with Droad was clearly a test. The problem was that Ari suddenly seemed out of options. He could wait for his tactical team, the majority of which were at the rayball arena for the afternoon, not at militia headquarters, but Mai Lee’s palace guard might arrive first.
Thinking hard, Ari took his satchel over to a rack of rentable lockers next to the restrooms, popped a two- credit piece into one of them, deposited the satchel and pocketed the key. Heading back down the escalators, he joined Drick and his ragtag army behind their laughable barricade.
“I think we could take them out,” said the General conversationally. “We have the manpower, I could use my security card to bypass the locks. We would have the advantage of surprise.”
“Yeah?” snorted Sergeant Manstein. “You first, General.”
“If I order it, you will obey!” shouted Ari, losing his composure under the pressure of the moment. A tremendous headache throbbed at his temples now.
Major Lee looked dubious, but Manstein exhibited nothing but contempt. “Look, General. I was in the regular infantry once, but even then, I wasn’t fool enough to assault a steel door with a crack squad of giants behind it. Especially not when they’ve got heavy weapons and we’ve got pea-shooters.”
Ari glared at the Sergeant, but held his tongue. Mentally, he weighed his chances at sending in the security detail against Droad and his giants. Although he had little doubt that the giants, who were obviously professionals, would win the confrontation, the possibility remained that Droad would get killed or at least injured in the fighting. He rubbed his chin in deep thought.
No, it wouldn’t work. Mostly because of the abject cowardice of the security personnel. If they had been a bit more willing to risk their lives, the attack might have a chance of success. Unfortunately, the only way he could think of to get them to go in hard would be with him going in with them, and that of course was out of the question.
His thoughts were interrupted by the spaceport’s public address system, which had apparently been taken over by Droad and his giants. “Loyal soldiers of the Nexus. It is time that I explain this aggression against your base. I am Lucas Droad, the newly appointed Governor of Garm,” said Droad, his face flashing up on public holo- plates throughout the spaceport. Ari and the security detail stared at the holo-plates, fixated.
“I was about to publicly announce my arrival, but certain factions in your government, opposing my appointment, attempted to take matters into their own hands,” said Droad. Then the image switched to a scene of
