The Black Guard: Book II: Evolution (Black Guard Series 2) (3 page)

"General Lerman, Captain Sapir," he said, and an
evil grin appeared. "Dragon, I hope you don't mind if I use the videotape
of your performance to motivate my troops?"

Ortega stayed as the gunny and I talked about the differences
between Guard and marine weapons qualification procedures. By the time we had
finished, Gunny had redesigned the shooting range and planned to initiate new
qualification requirements, and Ortega was considering creating a special
action group of sharpshooters that would be the first to board an enemy ship.

"That's very interesting, Sapir. If Colonel Ortega and
his gunny are successful in increasing his group's effectiveness, I may have
them slowly implement it across the marines. If the Jax are to remain without
equal, we must continue to evolve. And I think you are the instrument of that
evolution.

* * *

By the time the Deathstalker docked at Outpost's orbiting
space station, Condor, the general was comfortable with my protocol for
protecting him while eating, sleeping, in meetings, and walking around. He
compared it to having a shadow—always present, seen, but silent. Before
we were allowed to exit, a station manager entered and gave a briefing on the
rules.

The attendees would be transported to the meeting site and
assigned rooms. Only twenty ship personnel were allowed planet-side and ten on
Condor at any one time, to minimize potential conflicts between the multiple
planets' crews currently on the station.

Lerman and I were then taken to a waiting shuttle and flown
to a remote area about a half hour out of Joshsa City, the capital of Outpost.
The ten-story building looked new, like it might have been built for this specific
purpose. The gray steel and cement building had lots of narrow windows—except
for the top floor, which was all windows.

A two-story waterfall on the right side of the large lobby cascaded
over a rough rock wall. On the left side, the entire wall displayed shifting
landscape scenes accompanied by soothing music. Slowly shifting lights gave the
scene the illusion of time changing from morning to night. And dotted around
the room were gold-colored leather chairs, tables, and couches to sit and
relax. Toward the back of the room, several men and women in gold jackets and
green slacks, Outpost's national colors, stood behind a long reception counter.
A young man in military dress, a lieutenant judging by the pip over a single
band on his sleeve, stood in the middle of the room awaiting us.

"If you will accompany me, I can get you registered and
assigned rooms." He led us to the counter. I noticed multiple cameras
monitoring the lobby and two armed military personnel behind the counter at
each end. I had no doubt others stood available in the rooms marked by closed doors
behind the counter. "This is the Jax contingent," the lieutenant said
to the man standing behind the counter.

"Good day, sir. Your name?" The young man gave us a
friendly smile.

"I'm General Lerman."

"If I may inquire, where is your delegation, sir? They
will need to be registered for security purposes."

"Captain Sapir is my only delegate and security."

"But ... we have rooms for twenty—"

I held out my hand. "Give the key cards to me. All security
questions and arrangements will be directed to me."

"Yes, Captain Sapir," he said, sounding a bit
rattled. He handed me a tablet and an envelope full of key cards. "Floor
six is reserved for the general and ... you. The elevators are to your left. Your
key cards when inserted in the elevator will take you to your floor
automatically. That tablet has the meeting's schedule and other general
information."

"Thank you." I nodded and followed Lerman to the
bank of elevators.

The key card delivered an elevator to us, and a voice
announced it went only to floor six. Once we were inside, the doors closed and
a minute later opened on level six. I stepped out first and slowly proceeded
down the hallway with Lerman following, opening each of the fourteen doors: two
master suites, a large conference room, dining room, lounge, and nine bedrooms.

"They went to a lot of expense for this
meeting—modern new building, furniture, food, staff, and
electronics," Lerman said as he selected one of the two master suites.
"What do you think, Sapir?"

"Don't consider this floor safe. They will have access
to every floor and every room and probably have sound and maybe visual
access."

"Not very trusting," he said and smiled.

"Very trusting, sir. I trust they will want to know what
everyone is doing and thinking. We have no equipment along to verify this floor
is clean, or this tablet for that matter. However:" I placed a small
square gray-metal cube on the table, which when activated would defeat any
listening devices.

"So noted."

I then went out and placed another cube in front of the
elevator and another one in front of the emergency chute to the ground level
and activated them. They would alert me to any intrusion.

* * *

"There is a dinner reception tonight at seven hundred
hours on the tenth floor. Each delegation may have five guests and one security
guard," Lerman said, studying his tablet.

"Clever. It restricts the number of foreign weapons in
the room and allows them to isolate each planet's security. I'd wager each
delegation brought anywhere from twelve to fifteen guards and they are useless.
And I'll bet they will have sufficient military present to take control if
necessary."

"Sounds about right." He nodded while continuing to
read the information on the tablet. "The conference is scheduled to last
five days. Tomorrow morning the real meeting begins."

* * *

At ten to seven, I preceded the general out of the room and into
the elevator. When the door closed it announced, "This elevator is
programmed to the tenth floor. Confirm or the elevator will take you to the
lobby."

"Confirm," Lerman said, and the elevator began a
gentle ride up. "It appears we are authorized to go only to specific
locations based upon our key cards." When the door opened, we stepped into
an open room surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows. An Outpost captain stood
along with several armed guards with multifunctional weapons. He was holding a
tablet which I'd wager had a view of the inside of each elevator.

"Welcome, General Lerman. Is Captain Sapir part of your
delegation or security?" he asked. A reasonable question since the general
was entitled to five in his delegation.

"Both. One does not like to make decisions for a Dragon
in the Black Guard." He gave a wry grin and glanced sidelong at me.

"Security for now, sir," I said, scanning the room.
The table had a nonagon shape, and each of the nine sections had a five-place
setting. Judging by the guards standing back against the walls, seven
delegations were present.

At seven, the delegation from Valhall arrived and shortly
afterward Outpost's delegation. A tall stocky man stood while the other four at
the Outpost section sat. When he picked up a microphone, those still standing
found seats.

"Welcome to Outpost. I hope you found your
accommodations satisfactory. Tonight I thought we could use the dinner to get
acquainted. I'm Ace Joshsa. Together with the Kuhn family, I set policy for
Outpost. But times have changed since our families founded Outpost. The Helix
sector has grown and is no longer a rag-tag group of settlers. We are in fact
the only inhabited sector without an organized ... alliance, and therefore we
are at risk both individually and as a sector. We called you together to
discuss our options." His gaze scanned the room and settled on Lerman.
"Why don't we start with the delegation from Jax?"

"I'm General Lerman, representing Jax," he said
with a nod. Joshsa frowned.

"I thought Jax had two components to its government,
civilian and military. Are they delayed?"

"No. I'm representing Jax, and while I wouldn't commit
Jax to any agreement, I am in a position to reject any proposal I do not
believe in our best interest. If I think an agreement is in the best interest
of Jax, then I—like several other delegations—will have to take it
back for consideration and approval; therefore, I won't cause any additional
delay." Lerman's voice was soft and casual, like he was speaking to a
group of friends.

Joshsa scowled at the answer.

The introductions took over an hour. Like Outpost, Valhall
and Lariw were dictatorships run by powerful families whose ancestors had dealt
in piracy and armies for sale. Ironically, Jax had initially developed its
strong military to combat raiders from those planets. Chancel and Blackwood
were theocracies, and Kaycia a monarchy. The remaining two, Safort and Haven,
were democracies.

* * *

"What do you think?" Lerman asked as we stepped
into the elevator to attend the first meeting.

"I don't like the way the tables are arranged."

"You noticed that the dictatorships were clustered together,
suggesting an agreement of some kind has already been negotiated."

"The problem with the current seating arrangement is
that the firepower is focused at one end of the room, and they don't have to be
careful, as they have you isolated."

"Interesting. I see the political alignment while you
see the physical threat from the positioning of the planets' guards and
Outpost's security. Good, I can relax and enjoy the theatrics."

Again the elevator announced we were going up. We arrived as
everyone was beginning to take their seats. I backed against the wall and noted
the positions of each guard. Outpost had five security guards today: one behind
Joshsa, one on either side of me within six meters, and two on the right side
of the room about midway. That concerned me because Lerman was directly in my
line of sight to those two guards—he was in the kill zone.

Joshsa stood and his microphone glowed. "As I indicated
yesterday, we in the Helix are the only sector without a formal alliance to
protect ourselves from the others' sectors raiding or dictating their rules to
us. Individually, the strongest of us is weak; however, collectively we would
be a formable force. So I am proposing a formal alliance among the nine systems
represented here. I would like to hear everyone's thoughts and concerns.
Valhall?" Joshsa turned toward the group to his right.

Valhall's mic glowed when Art Vega picked it up. "I've
spoken to the other families on Valhall, and they are in favor of a central
government and military."

"Lariw?" Joshsa asked, looking to his left.

Mason, representing Lariw, gave an almost word for word repeat
of Valhall's response. The two democracies followed with a tentative agreement,
subject to their government's approval. Then the two theocracies gave tentative
agreement, after a caveat by the Omom Nastya, representing Blackwood.

"I understand everyone's concern, but a central
government could impose rules which would be inconsistent with our God. So I
withhold my vote until I see the specifics of such an agreement."

"Understood, Omom Nastya," Joshsa said with a
slight grin. I thought he knew everyone's response before he asked, including
Lerman's, and had a strategy for dealing with those against the alliance, but
it eluded me. "General Lerman?"

"I understand your concerns and the attractiveness of
banding together, but unlike Omom Nastya who may agree if the wording of the
agreement doesn't infringe on Blackwood's religious rights, such an agreement
would destroy the Jax's way of life. The Jax are therefore not interested."

"That would put you against a Helix Alliance,"
Joshsa said, raising an eyebrow.

"No. The Jax does not oppose you forming an alliance, nor
would we expect any support from the alliance in the event of trouble. If the
alliance held any ill will against the Jax, that would be your aggression, not that
of the Jax."

"You're an arrogant bunch, just like your companion
standing behind you. She thinks she's special because she's wearing a man's
uniform. Any of my guards could take her in a fair fight. Of course, the Black Girly
Guard doesn't believe in fair fights, does it? They earned their reputation
shooting unarmed civilians and sneaking up on their opponents and shooting them
in the back. I hear the men are average, but my guards have heard the women are
called the Black Tramps," Joshsa said loudly. He pretended to laugh, but
it was strained.

He was setting me up for something, because he wasn't armed—maybe
trying to goad me into touching my weapon and justifying the guards to shoot
me. Sensing trouble, I scanned the room, watching the guards for signs they were
preparing to draw their weapons. There were a total of seven that concerned me:
the five Outpost security guards as well as Valhall and Lariw's two guards.

"What about it, girly!" shouted the Valhall security
guard standing on Joshsa's left.

Sensing he was an intentional distraction, I glanced right. Sure
enough, the two Outpost guards on the right side were drawing their weapons. To
my relief, Lerman dropped to his knees.

I slapped my Mfw. It swiveled up enough to target the two guards
and I fired twice, hitting each in the head, a precaution in case they were
wearing body armor.