‘Sir?’
‘Must be why you killed the honour guard.’
The colonel nods to himself. ‘Because you knew I wasn’t up to it. I would have tried, you know. Done my best. Of course,’ he says, ‘it probably wouldn’t have been good enough, but . . .’ There are two people in this conversation, and both of them seem to be Colonel Vijay.
‘Perhaps,’ I say, ‘if you start at the beginning?’
The colonel sighs. ‘Who knows,’ he asks, ‘where anything begins?’
All right, so I shouldn’t grin. Only I have had this conversation in a dozen bars in a dozen cities with a dozen different troopers, usually just before they pass out. Just never had it with a Death’s Head colonel while wearing a planet buster round my neck.
I have to remind myself he’s eighteen. Or is it nineteen? If so, we’ve missed his birthday.
‘Sir,’ I say. ‘Would you excuse me?’
‘Use the fire. It’s traditional.’
‘Need some air, sir.’
‘Very well.’
Sleet hammers my face, and the wind rips heat from my hands as I force my fingers down my throat. The vomit melts the ice glaze on the dirt at my feet, and then becomes part of that glaze in its turn. I piss anyway because I’m here; although that is not what brings me outside. I need to be sober.
‘Sir,’ I say, when I return. ‘Let’s keep this simple.’
He laughs.
‘That’s what it says in your file,’ he tells me. ‘Likes to keep it simple. Guess that’s why my father chose you.’
It’s the first time I have heard him call Jaxx that.
‘Plus the fact you killed that colonel.’
‘Nuevo?’
‘You killed Colonel Nuevo? ‘
‘Actually, no . . . Colonel Nuevo killed himself. I killed Captain Mye.’
‘Why?’ Colonel Vijay demands.
‘He intended to surrender.’
Sitting back, the colonel puts a hand to his face. ‘Of course,’ he says. ‘What better reason could anyone have? And I hear you killed another officer for insulting OctoV . . .’
It’s not really a question, and it takes me a moment to work out who he means.
Wiping brandy from the SIG’s chip, I slide it into place and twist the grip, locking it down. The barrel slots next, and then it’s just the pin, the slide, a couple of clips, an underhung rangefinder and the sights.
Forty-five seconds.
I think of telling Colonel Vijay the man in question was an Uplift plant, put into a cell with us to sow discontent. But I have no proof of that. Anyway, Colonel Vijay has made up his own mind about this stuff.
‘Sven,’ he says. ‘If you knew I was here to betray our glorious leader what would you do?’
‘Kill you.’
‘Yes,’ he says. ‘I imagine you would.’
‘No imagine about it, sir . . .’
‘Well I’m not,’ he tells me. ‘So you can put that knife away.’
What knife? Oh, that one. Slipping it back into my boot, I shrug.
‘So why am I here?’ asks the colonel. ‘I just wish I had a good answer . . . Or a better one, anyway,’ he adds. ‘What do you know about politics?’
‘Nothing, sir.’
Around senior officers, that is the only safe reply. In my case, it’s also true.
‘Probably wise. Officially, we’re here to sign a treaty with the Enlightened. That’s why the U/Free sent us. And that’s why we were met by an Enlightened honour guard. Obviously, you know that already.’
Obviously, I don’t.
Apparently, the U/Free president brokered a treaty. A deal between the Enlightened and the Octovians. It will unite the two empires into one, fold the Death’s Head back into the Silver Fist, from which they originally sprang, and see OctoV and the Uplifted become a single mind.
War will be over. Peace will return.
We will all become Enlightened.
‘OctoV agrees this?’
‘What do you think?’
I think OctoV should order his entire army to fight to the death rather than accept such insanity.
Chapter 37
Sitting next to a fire, Franc cuts a slice of bread from a stale loaf with the longest of her knives and holds it to the flame with another, the shortest. The heat must be unbearable; I guess that’s the point.
Neen has dug into his rucksack for the last of the coffee. A huge square of goat’s cheese sits on a plate. I don’t ask where it came from, but I expect it’s the same place as the slices of salt goat that sit on a plate beside it.
A jug of water occupies the middle of the table. It’s all Colonel Vijay has been drinking. No doubt he’ll drink some more when he gets back from vomiting.
‘Makes a change,’ says the SIG.
‘What does?’
‘Usually,’ it says, ‘that’s you.’
Serves me right for asking. ‘You all right, sir?’
The colonel nods, and takes his place at the table. I want him here, because I want him to listen to what I say. Picking up my mug, I sip my coffee and look slowly round the table. My words are already agreed, but I wait until I have his attention as well. If the Aux are going to die – and chances are they will – then we might as well tell them why.
Neen stops loading clips, Franc puts her piece of toast onto a plate and sits at the only unclaimed chair. Rachel and Haze glance at each other. Ajac and Iona are off begging bullets from Milo. We need more ammunition. Also, I need them gone, because this is for Neen, Franc, Rachel and Haze only.
What I’m about to say can get them killed. So I’m going to tell them, and then they are going to forget. ‘You understand?’ I ask Neen.
‘Yes, sir.’
I make each one give me an answer in turn.
‘Good,’ I say, when we’re done. ‘Three months ago, a regiment of the Death’s Head mutinied . . . While we were fighting in Ilseville, General Tournier surrendered the Ninth half a spiral arm away. He surrendered rather than go down fighting.’
‘Fuck,’ Neen says.
‘Yeah,’ says my gun. ‘Bet you didn’t know you could do that.’
‘It gets worse,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘Under the terms of the surrender, the Ninth went over to the Enlightened. General Tournier offered to bring the rest of the Death’s Head with him.’
Silence fills the upper room in the little gatehouse.
Treason, pure and simple. Except nothing about treason is pure, and this is not simple.
‘My father was offered money,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘A dukedom, his own planet, his own system. All he had to do was declare for the Uplifted.’
‘And OctoV, sir?’ demands Neen.
‘The U/Free would take care of him,’ I say.
‘Will of the people,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘Freely expressed. If enough Octovians wanted to become Uplifted . . .’
‘Can they do that?’ Rachel asks.
‘They can do anything they like,’ says Haze, the first time I’ve heard him sound anything but envious of the United Free.
Our glorious leader’s answer to all this is elegant in the extreme. On OctoV’s orders, General Jaxx gives his son authority to sign the treaty on the general’s behalf. Colonel Vijay Jaxx will meet General Tournier under a flag of truce. The chosen location is Hekati, an insignificant ex-mining colony on the edge of Enlightened space.
Having met General Tournier, under this flag of truce, Colonel Vijay has orders to kill him. At one stroke, OctoV allows General Jaxx to prove his loyalty, disposes of a threat to his empire, and ensures a treaty will never be signed.
Without General Tournier, the conspiracy collapses. There is, of course, only one problem. Jaxx’s son is a staff officer with zero combat experience.
That is where we come in.
Most of the U/Free think we’re on a cultural mission.
A smaller group think we’re looking for their missing observer. Who must have gone missing during the setting up of the treaty, although they don’t know about that. An even smaller group, who do know about it, believe we’re escorting Colonel Vijay to a pre-agreed location to sign the damn thing. Only OctoV, General Jaxx, his son – and now us – know we are delivering an assassin.