The Shadow of Saganami

Chapter Forty-Five

'My God, Aivars.' Bernardus Van Dort's face was ashen as he looked up from the report. 'A thousand tons of modern weapons?'

'That's Kaczmarczyk's best estimate.' Terekhov sat behind his desk in his day cabin, and his expression was as grim as his voice. 'He may be off in either direction, but I doubt he's very far off.'

'But, dear God, where did they come from?'

'We don't know. And we may not find out. We only have five prisoners, and three of them are critically wounded. Doctor Orban's doing what he can, but he's pretty sure we're going to lose at least one of them.'

'And your own losses?' Van Dort asked, his voice softer.

'Two dead, one wounded,' Terekhov said harshly. 'Either some of these people were suicidal, or else they didn't know what the hell they were doing! Using plasma grenades in an underground tunnel?' He shook his head viciously. 'Sure, they killed two of my Marines, but the same grenades killed at least fifteen of their people-possibly more!'

Van Dort shook his head, not in disbelief, but like a man who wished he could disbelieve.

'What do we know about their casualties?' he asked after a moment.

'So far Tadislaw's confirmed at least seventy bodies. That number may very well go up. At the moment, only his Marines are equipped for search and rescue operations in there. Without armor, or at least skinsuits, nobody can get through the fires and the heat.'

Van Dort closed his eyes, trying-and, he knew, failing-to imagine what it must have been like in those narrow, underground passages when modern weapons turned them into a roaring inferno.

'I don't know what I feel,' he admitted after several moments, opening his eyes again. 'It was a massacre,' he said, and raised one hand before Terekhov could open his mouth to protest his choice of nouns. 'I said a massacre, Aivars, not an atrocity . At least we tried to give these people a chance to surrender, which is more than they've done. And if we've killed seventy or eighty of them, that's a drop in a bucket compared to the thousands of civilians-including children— they and their... colleagues have slaughtered. But it's still-what? ninety-plus percent of everyone in their base when we arrived?' He shook his head again. 'Even knowing who they were, what they've done, that kind of death rate...'

His voice trailed off, and he shook his head again, but Terekhov barked a hard, sharp-edged laugh.

'If you want someone to spend your pity on, Bernardus, I can find you some much more deserving candidates!'

'It isn't pity, Aivars, it's-'

'I'm a naval officer, Bernardus,' Terekhov interrupted. 'Oh, sure I spent twenty-eight T-years as a Foreign Office weenie, but I was a Naval officer for eleven T-years first, and I've been a Naval officer for fifteen T-years since. I've spent too many years cleaning up after people who do things like this, and that affects your perspective. We call them 'pirates,' or sometimes 'slavers,' but they're no different, when you come right down to it, from Nordbrandt and her butchers. The only difference is the justification they use for their butchery, and I, for one, am not going to shed one single tear for these butchers!'

Van Dort gazed at his friend's bleak expression. Maybe Terekhov was a harder man than he was-hardened by his profession, and experience. Yet, even if he was, Van Dort knew he was right. FAK's actions had put its members beyond the pale. Whatever twisted justification they gave themselves for their actions, they'd reduced human beings-men, women, and children-to tools. To readily expended pawns. To things to be destroyed in a coldblooded, calculated ploy to terrify and demoralize their opponents.

And yet... and yet...

There was a part of Bernardus Van Dort which couldn't help being horrified. Couldn't accept that any human beings, whatever their crimes, could be wiped away in such transcendent horror without some corner of his soul crying out in protest. And even if he could have shed that soul-deep repugnance, he didn't want to. Because the day he could do that, he would become someone else.

'Well, whatever else it's done,' he said at length, 'it has to be a body blow to the FAK. It's more than three times their total casualties to date, and all inflicted in less than two hours. That kind of damage has to knock even fanatics like Nordbrandt back on their heels.'

'And losing a thousand tons of modern weapons has to make a hole in their offensive capabilities,' Terekhov pointed out. But there was something odd about his voice, and Van Dort looked up quickly.

The Manticoran's eyes were distant, almost unfocused, as he gazed across the cabin at the bulkhead portrait of his wife. He sat that way for over a full minute, rubbing the thumb and first two fingers of his right hand together in a slow, circular movement.

'What is it, Aivars?' Van Dort finally asked.

'Hmph?' Terekhov shook himself, and his eyes refocused on Van Dort's face. 'What?'

'I asked what you were thinking about.'

'Oh.' The Manticoran tossed his right hand in a throwing-away gesture. 'I was just thinking about their weapons.'

'What about them?'

'Tadislaw already has First Platoon's armorers examining their find. So far, everything's been Solarian manufacture. Some of the small arms are at least twenty T-years old, but all of them are in excellent shape. Replacement parts, some a lot newer than the weapons themselves, indicate they were all refurbished and reconditioned before they were delivered to Nordbrandt. The crew-served weapons they've looked at so far seem to be newer than that, though, and they've turned up modern com gear, reconnaissance systems, night vision equipment, body armor, military-grade explosives and detonators...' The captain shook his head. 'Bernardus, they had everything they needed to equip a battalion of light infantry— modern light infantry- complete with heavy weapons support, buried in that hole in the ground.'

'I realize that,' Van Dort said.

'You're missing my point. They had it buried in a hole in the ground . Why? If they had this kind of equipment, why weren't they using it? They could've blasted their way right through anything the Kornatian police could put in their way. Hell, for that matter, they could've blasted their way through anything Suka's System Defense Force could have thrown at them, unless the SDF was prepared to resort to saturation airstrikes! Nordbrandt could have invaded the Nemanja Building and taken the entire Parliament hostage on the very first day of her offensive, instead of just bombing it with civilian explosives. So why didn't she?'

Van Dort blinked, then frowned.

'I don't know,' he admitted slowly. 'Unless they didn't have them then.' He inhaled deeply, still thinking. 'Maybe you said it yourself. You said they were either suicidal or didn't know what they were doing. Maybe they just hadn't had the weapons long enough.'

'That's exactly what I was thinking. But if they didn't have them stockpiled to begin with, where did they come from? How did they get here? I can't believe Nordbrandt had a big enough war chest socked away to pay for them, but the kind of rogue arms dealer who'd deal with someone like her would demand cash in advance, and he wouldn't sell them cheap. So who did pay for them? And when did they deliver them? And while we're asking questions like that, how do we know this is the only stockpile she had?'

'I don't know,' Van Dort admitted again. 'But I think we'd better find out.'

* * *

Agnes Nordbrandt's hands trembled as she switched off the com and returned it to its hiding place in the canister of flour. She put the canister back into the cabinet, closed the door, and switched on the HD. But there was only regularly scheduled programming, none of the screaming news bulletins which would go streaming out when the government announced its stunning victory.

How? How had they done it? How had they even spotted Camp Freedom in the first place?

Was it her fault? That second load of weapons and -equipment-had they spotted the delivery shuttle after all? Tracked it to Camp Freedom?

No. No, it couldn't have been the delivery. If they'd spotted that, they would have attacked before this.