Black Legion: 02 - Assault on Khorram (14 page)

“I asked you a question. Who are you, and what do you want?” she demanded, and this time her tone changing to one of irritation. He thought about lying, but what was the point? It would be easy to find out who he was, and a lie could easily end with his death.

“Xenophon...” he spluttered, “Dekarchos of the Night Blades.”

He spotted the flash of a smile on her face at the mention of the unit’s unofficial name. He considered grabbing the weapon, but she was clearly no amateur. He needed to play this carefully.

“You are following a friend of mine.”

She tilted her head as if intrigued by his comments.

“The blue-haired girl?”

“Yes, she is part of my unit,” he added.

“Then you are aware she is colluding with traitors? You know the penalty, do you not?”

Xenophon pulled back, lowering his hands in a passive manner. The woman stayed where she was but kept the blade out in front of her, pointing it at him. With the change of angle, he could now make out her face more clearly.

“You’re a Medes agent!” he snapped back, now realising how she had moved so quietly. “What are you doing on this ship?”

She reached forward, grabbed his shoulder and threw him to the wall. She moved up closer and pushed him front first against the bulkhead. He tried to struggle, but the sight of the black blade appearing next to his eye forced him to be still.

“My purpose here is none of your business. Tell me, what was the meaning of this meeting? How is your friend involved?”

The knife was just a short distance from his eye now. It was dangerous, but the one good thing was that he could see it. He waited until she opened her mouth again to speak and then struck. He started with a simple elbow strike to her chest that knocked her back a short distance. Xenophon then ducked down to avoid an obvious counter stab and punched to her face. Even when surprised, the agility and grace of the woman was incredible. She managed to twist back and away from his fist.

Who are you?

He caught something in his peripheral vision, but before he could respond, it was over. His vision turned to darkness, and the last thing he felt was a numb pain to his forehead. He fell to the ground, a lifeless shape in the blackness of the corridor.

* * *

Glaucon checked one last time and bundled Tamara into the small storage room near the rumbling of the air circulation system. He was sure he could hear a patrol moving towards them. As they waited, a group of four men went past. They were not the usual crew. These were from one of the transports that had been lost in the ambush. They had removed their uniforms and were carrying improvised weapons. This was one of the least desirable parts of the ship, and an area usually only visited by engineers or security patrols. The only clue they had found so far was one of the crew who said he’d seen a couple heading into this part of the ship. According to the engineer, he had remembered the two because it seemed a slender woman was carrying the other, and it had surprised him. But not enough it would seem to actually tell anybody.

“Where is he? How could somebody drag him down here without being stopped?” asked Tamara.

“I don’t know, maybe he was drugged? There are some pretty unsavoury types here, you know.”

He lifted his finger to his mouth; the sound of somebody approaching forced them to keep still. The noise came closer until it was almost upon them. Glaucon leapt out and pinned the helpless person to the wall. It was Roxana.

“Hey, too close, Glaucon!” she yelped.

Glaucon relaxed and moved back, nodding in compliance.

“Any luck?” he asked.

Roxana shook her head and leaned back against the wall. She exhaled slowly.

“I’ve tried every section in this part of the ship. The only sign he was even here are the marks on the floor where we were waiting for Tamara.”

“You think somebody is holding him, ransom maybe?”

“Could be, but there’s another possibility.”

Glaucon gave her a look that was part confused and part nervous.

“Which is?”

“Bounty hunters, the two of you are wanted men still, aren’t you, back on Attica?”

Glaucon gave it some thought. It wasn’t likely, but there was a chance, even a minor one, that somebody had managed to infiltrate the Legion with the express aim of taking the two of them back. What if it was assassination, though? He exhaled nervously as he thought about it.

“What?” she asked.

“It could be an assassination.”

“True, that’s more likely than sending somebody all this way. How would they get back, otherwise?”

They waited and considered their situation for a little longer, and Tamara spoke up. She kept her voice low, but the concern in her voice was genuine.

“If they have him, then we need to speak to the Dukas.”

Glaucon looked at her and back to Roxana.

“She’s right you know? Xenias has the manpower and the authority to do whatever he wants on this cruiser. Let’s get there and fast, time could be critical.”

Both Roxana and Tamara nodded in agreement. Glaucon left the safety of their hiding place and moved out first. It was only a short journey back to the main access corridor. It took nearly ten minutes for them to make it, and not helped by the spatharii patrol that was busy grappling with thugs from one of the other ships. Once they reached the corridor, they mingled with the crowds of warriors and crew. The lighting was better there, and everybody seemed to have something to do. Glaucon stopped and turned to the other two.

“Do you know how to get to the command deck from here?”

“Of course, all cruisers of this era follow the same basic format. Follow me!” said Roxana with almost a laugh to her voice. She moved off down the corridor and took an immediate right turn into one of the main access shafts. Unlike civilian ships, this one was designed to operate with various degrees of damage. Using an elevator on board a ship of war was a risky business due to failure and also the space it wasted. Several wide ladders led to the floor above and below the current level.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Glaucon with a tone of surprise at finding something as archaic as a ladder.

“Follow me,” replied Roxana in a matter-of-fact voice.

She pulled herself onto the ladder and started the low climb up to the next level. As they climbed, Glaucon continued to question her.

“You’re telling me this is how the Dukas would get to the command deck?”

She climbed up further.

“No, this is a shortcut up through the engineering decks. This is a more direct route. You know what these ships are like. There are only a small number of elevator shafts at key areas.”

Tamara nearly laughed at their discussion.

“Let me guess, this isn’t one of them?”

They continued another few metres until reaching the level. Signs on the walls indicated the direction of the subsection. Roxana ignored them and moved off towards a series of oval doors, each sealed with mechanical locks. It was simple, but very effective in this day of advanced computers and communication technology. The last thing anybody wanted in space was a ship that could be controlled or modified by the enemy. They entered the narrow corridor, and Roxana pulled the door shut behind her. It was cramped inside, with thick bulkhead ridges running along its length and a continuous rumble through the walls.

“Where are we now?” asked Glaucon.

Roxana moved off ahead and ran her hands along the thick metal to her right as she moved.

“These are the cooling chambers for the forward guns. In battle, this corridor would be double the current temperature. It gets pretty stuffy down here, so come on, we don’t want to linger.”

Glaucon kept his hands well away from the pipes and trailed close behind. It didn’t take them long to reach the next sealed door. Glaucon helped her with this one; it was substantially stiffer than the first and took great effort to unseal. Glaucon moved out first and was surprised to find himself in the forward engineering section. Nearly twenty crewmen were busily working on the equipment, and only one even noticed him in there.

“What are you doing here?” he called out.

Tamara and Roxana appeared behind him and forced the door shut. Glaucon turned back to them and called out in an urgent tone.

“Move it, now!”

Tamara didn’t even consider his words; she ducked low and rushed for the open door leading into a well lit corridor. One of the crewmen, a burly looking man that wore a primitive looking breastplate woke up from his boredom and blocked their path. Tamara crashed into him, but his bulk stopped her in her tracks. She stumbled and fell to the right only to be caught by Roxana who followed close behind. Glaucon, on the other hand, had no difficulty and shoulder barged the man to the wall.

“Quickly!” he spat out, using all of his strength to hold back the man.

As soon as the two women were through, he smashed his head into the man’s nose, and a spray of blood sprayed over the two men. In the confusion, he chased after the others. They had made surprisingly good progress and were already into the next corridor before the other crew had realised what was happening. Two sets of medics were busy moving wounded crew, so they were able to duck and weave their way through the groups of people until eventually reaching the main hub that connected four difference parts of the ship.

A woman, one of the stratiotes from the Cilicia operation, saw them and drew her sidearm, aiming it at their pursuers. Tamara spun around to see them taking cover and aiming their own weapons towards the isolated woman.

“No, we just have to see the Dukas, don’t shoot!” she cried.

Without waiting to see what happened, they rounded the final corner to find an open space leading to the command deck. Two more guards tried to block their passage, but they were too slow. Glaucon threw the first against the wall while Tamara jumped up and slammed her elbow into the second man’s face. They stumbled inside, only to find themselves face to face with their commander.

“What’s going on?” barked the Dukas.

Komes Pasion was stood just a few metres from him and already had a handgun drawn and pointed directly at Glaucon’s face. Next to him was Komes Andronicus, but he simply placed his hand on his hip, waiting but not drawing his weapon. The pursuers chased inside and grabbed the three intruders. The Dukas stepped closer and repeated his question.

“Dukas, there’s something...” started Glaucon, but one of the guards pulled him down to his knees and interrupted him.

“We found them sneaking through the engineering section,” explained the man as he did his best to keep Glaucon down. He was nowhere near strong enough, and the tough Attican put pressure on his legs, forcing himself back up.

“Let him speak!” barked the Dukas, now starting to become irritated at the lack of information coming his way. Roxana shook off her assailant and turned to face the next two who seemed to be holding onto Tamara a little harder than required. The teenager stamped the nearest on the foot with her heel and backed away towards Roxana. Glaucon nearly smiled at the ruckus, but the look from the Dukas told him that he needed to explain, and fast.

“Dukas Xenias, we have discovered a conspiracy on this ship. There are some here planning on...”

“Drop it!” snapped Komes Andronicus. He levelled his pistol at the temple of Komes Pasion. Both men were of similar build and wearing identical uniforms as members of the Arcadian contingent. Komes Pasion glanced towards him without turning his head.

“What is this madness? Have you lost your mind?” he roared.

Behind him a number of the command staff drew their own weapons and forced the others to move to the side of command deck. Dukas Xenias watched in disbelief as his closest advisors and most of the officers of the ship were moved away. He noted those that carried the weapons were mainly men from Andronicus’ unit of spatharii.

“You traitorous dog, what are you up to?” he demanded.

Komes Pasion refused to moved, even when Andronicus pushed the muzzle hard to his head. Xenias did the same, and he was the single individual on the deck the mutineers were nervous of approaching.

“Dukas, join the others, you can all take a visit to the brig. We have need of this ship. Soon we...”

Komes Pasion swung his arm up to knock the weapon aside, but it was too slow. No sooner did he reach the gun before it blasted. At this range, the round tore through his temple and sprayed blood and bone over Xenias and two of the crew. Whether intentional or not, it signalled the start to a bloody but ultimately one-sided firefight. The other men from Andronicus’ unit opened fire on the crew, killing the five and wounding both Kybernetes Manus and the Dukas. Glaucon dropped to the floor and dragged the wounded commander behind the safety of one of the computer systems. More gunshots continued as the surprised crew drew their own weapons. Two bodies slumped to the ground, yet the bloodbath carried on. Roxana and Tamara helped him start moving the wounded man to the doorway. They almost made it until Komes Andronicus stepped out and blocked the gap.