The Thirteenth Man (19 page)

Every time Charlie returned to Starfall he found more of the Two Thousand waiting for him, and they were often accompanied by a few of Cesare's staff. This time it was Major Pelletier and about a dozen of Cesare's personal guard.

Charlie greeted Pelletier stiffly. “Why now, Major? After all this time why do you suddenly find Theode's ser­vice so distasteful?”

A man like Pelletier had resources, and nothing compelled him to remain on Traxis. But after so many months, ser­vice to Theode had become implicitly voluntary, and Charlie wondered if he could trust the man.

Charlie had decided to receive Pelletier “under the eyes of the ducal seat,” a saying that meant he'd receive Pelletier seated upon the ducal throne, though no one called it a throne since there was only one throne in the Realm. “Why did you remain?” Charlie asked.

Pelletier lowered his eyes. “I had hoped to do something for Lord Arthur. He was a virtual prisoner in Farlight, constantly under guard by men not under my command. I do believe Duke Theode didn't trust me.”

“And what did you hope to do for Arthur?”

“I don't know, Your Grace. I confess I'd never thought through such a situation. One of the men I brought with me wanted to try to kidnap him, steal a ship, and bring him to you. But we wouldn't have gotten far, and in any case I know your resources are limited. Theode would merely have come here in force and taken him back.”

“Why did you finally leave?”

“Once they decided to remove Arthur from Traxis, it became clear we could do nothing for him. Though, looking back, it should have been clear from the beginning.”

Charlie had allowed only his closest advisors and friends to be present: Winston, Paul, Roacka, Add, Ell, Roger, Seth, and Darmczek. He didn't really know Pelletier, who had joined Cesare's ser­vice while Charlie was in the hands of the Syndonese. “You served Theode, who betrayed Cesare and Arthur.” Pelletier cringed. “Theode didn't trust you, and clearly he had reason not to. Tell me why
I
should trust you, Major.”

Pelletier opened his mouth to speak and hesitated. The moment drew out, Pelletier standing there with his mouth open, but with no words to say in his own defense. It was Roacka who broke the silence, stepping forward and growling, “I'll speak for the man, lad. He's a good man, loyal. Maybe it was a mistake to stay with Theode so long, maybe not. Who can say? But I have no doubt of his motives.”

Add stepped forward. “And I'll speak for him too, little brother.”

Ell joined her. “And I.” One by one they all stepped forward in a unanimous chorus of support for the major.

Charlie considered Pelletier for a long moment. “Speak for yourself, Major.”

Again Pelletier hesitated, then in a rush he said, “I loved your father. I did.”

Of all the things Pelletier could have said, Charlie hadn't expected that. “I'll think on the matter,” he said, then stood, and without a word marched toward the doors. But in passing he overheard Pelletier whisper to Roacka, “He allows you to call him
lad
?”

“Of course he does,” Roacka replied, unable to whisper even when trying to do so. “The day the boy expects me to pull out some
Yer Graces
and
Yer Lordships
is the day I turn him over my knee and spank him like I did twenty years ago.”

“L
ittle brother.”

Charlie sat on the stone floor facing the featureless wall at the end of the blind corridor. He'd had another sleepless night, had awakened in the wee hours of the morning and trudged down here to stare at the wall obscured by the visual distortion field. At the sound of Ell's voice he rose to his feet and turned to face her. Add, Roacka, and Pelletier stood behind her. “Major Pelletier may know how to rescue Arthur.”

 

CHAPTER 19

PIRATE'S BOUNTY

T
heode was having Arthur removed to the planet Kobiyan, an airless rock in an out-­of-­the-­way system that was a minor de Maris holding, and an ideal place to lock Arthur away forever. With a few modifications and upgrades, Kobiyan could be well-­enough defended to make it difficult to crack without a full assault by several warships.

“Why now?” Charlie asked. “Why after all this time?”

Pelletier said, “Apparently, someone made an offhand remark at a reception in Almsburg about reinstating Arthur, which infuriated him. He kept saying it was you, but Gaida disagreed with him on that. They've both grown quite paranoid about Arthur.”

“It was Telka,” Charlie said. “And I think she did it on purpose to goad him.”

Winston gave Charlie a look as Pelletier continued. “In any case, the location of Arthur's new prison is to be a closely held secret. Quite simply, he'll never be seen or heard from again.”

“How did you learn this
closely held secret
?” Charlie asked.

Pelletier shrugged. “Servants. They hear everything. And a good security chief is wise to cultivate them as sources.” Charlie understood that well. His mother had been a servant, and before Cesare had taken an active role in his upbringing he'd been raised by servants, and had been treated as a servant. Servants were ignored until needed, and frequently forgotten even when present.

“There are quite a few in the de Maris household who are loyal to Arthur. And of course Theode and his mother haven't endeared themselves to anyone.”

“And Arthur hasn't been moved to Kobiyan yet?”

“No. They've locked him in a hospital room under heavy guard on Traxis Prime to get him out of sight. But that's only temporary while they make modifications to the facilities on Kobiyan to improve security. If we had some firepower we could extract him from there.” Pelletier wasn't yet aware of the existence of Charlie's shadow fleet, nor was he aware of the true nature of
The Thirteenth Man
.

It didn't matter, though, and Charlie shook his head adamantly. “If we had the firepower to extract him, as you pointed out earlier, Theode would just come here with more firepower than I can muster and take him back. In any case, it'll be easier to take him from a ship. But how do we do that without them realizing it's me?”

Roacka suddenly threw his head back and laughed, then looked at each of them with an evil grin. Paul demanded angrily, “All right, you old reprobate. You've got some sort of idea, so out with it.”

“Well now, churchman,” Roacka said, the grin broadening. “I'm reluctant to speak this idea in your hallowed presence because it might offend you.”

“Out with it, damn it.”

“Ah! A churchman who swears.” Roacka looked at Charlie. “I guess that means it won't upset him to conspire with pirates.”

T
he Headsman
was an ideal pirate ship. Of obvious Syndonese make, no one would ever associate her with Charlie. Her victims would probably assume that her Syndonese crew had, at some time in the past, mutinied against her officers—­Syndonese senior officers were reputed to be brutal disciplinarians—­then taken command of the ship and turned pirate. And while piracy was rare in the Realm, it was rumored to be an ever-­present problem in the Republic. In fact, Drakwin told Charlie that in the Republic it was also rare, but rumored to be a problem in the Realm. Such rumors would make a real act of piracy all the more believable, and would only work in their favor.

Pelletier still had some sources among Theode's servants. And Theode and Gaida were cut from that caste of arrogance where servants were truly invisible until needed. Apparently, Theode didn't trust many of the crews on his own ships, fearing they still held some loyalty to Cesare's memory, and to his rightful heir. And with only a few captains and crews that he did trust, he couldn't afford to divert one of them for the entire run to Kobiyan. So he'd decided to transport Arthur first to Cathan aboard a de Maris light cruiser, then from there to Dumark by commercial passage aboard the liner
Paradise
, with the last leg to Kobiyan on a chartered merchantman. Arthur would travel drugged and incognito, his itinerary a highly kept secret, and always accompanied by a squad of ten heavily armed mercenaries handpicked by Theode and Gaida.

Charlie scrambled the entire shadow fleet, sent Pelletier, in command of
The Thirteenth Man
, back to the vicinity of Traxis to keep his intelligence sources active, while the rest of them headed for Cathan and Dumark.

Winston didn't want Charlie to join the fake pirate crew on
The Headsman
. He thought Charlie should establish an alibi by making himself publicly visible elsewhere, but Charlie was adamant. “It's Arthur, so I'm going,” he said, “and I won't listen to any arguments to the contrary.”

Roacka came to his defense. “They'll see
The Headsman
is of Syndonese make, because we'll make sure they do. And they all think Charlie doesn't have access to that kind of firepower. So don't get your panties in a twist.”

Charlie carefully hid his smile at Winston's reaction to
that
comment.

Had they been facing a fully crewed man-­of-­war, there would have been nothing they could do. With Charlie's five ships they might defeat a cruiser, but only after a pitched battle, and then all that would be left of the cruiser would be a cloud of radioactive vapor. But a commercial liner like
Paradise
was a different matter. Furthermore, Charlie had the twin advantages of multiple ships and that no one knew of the existence of hunter-­killers and their capabilities.

Using the hunter-­killer tactics they'd developed,
Turmoil
, with Roger in command, had picked up
Paradise
as she transited out of Cathan nearspace, and was following close on her stern.
Chaos
, with Seth in command, lay about ten light-­years out from Dumark, with
The Headsman
stationary five light-­years farther along
Paradise
's course. Their plan was that
Chaos
, sitting stationary in deep space, could accurately detect the transition wakes of
Paradise
and
Turmoil
as they passed by, then uplink navigational data to
Turmoil
and
The Headsman
. Roger would then correct his course to be right on
Paradise
's tail, and
The Headsman
would move to intercept
Paradise
as she approached the outer reaches of the Dumark system.

“Got 'em,” Darmczek said, breaking the tension on
The Headsman
's bridge. “
Chaos
reports they've picked up the transition wakes and are in contact with
Turmoil
. And we've got
Paradise
's vector now.”

Charlie felt a general sense of relief wash through everyone on the bridge. His immediate reaction was to start issuing orders, but
The Headsman
was Darmczek's command, so Charlie bit his tongue and sat without comment. Darmczek knew what he had to do, and they had about ten hours in which to do it.

The tension on the bridge declined further as Darmczek barked out orders. They were a quarter of a light-­year to one side of
Paradise
's course. They spent three hours driving hard to build sufficient sublight velocity, then up-­transited, pushed their transition drive to the limit for a half hour, down-­transited and spent another three hours killing their sublight velocity.

“Two light-­years and closing, sir,” the navigator barked. “We've got a little over an hour and a half.”

Darmczek lined them up on a coarse parallel to
Paradise
's and they started building up sublight vector. If they succeeded in knocking
Paradise
out of transition, she'd hold on to a lot of sublight velocity, so they needed to build up as much as they could to match her speed when the time came.

“Point-­one light-­year and closing, sir. We're at a velocity of point-­nine lights.”

Darmczek pushed
The Headsman
's sublight drive to the limit. They were a tenth of a light-­year in front of
Paradise
, both heading inward toward Dumark, but with the liner in transition she was overtaking them rapidly.

“Com, signal
Turmoil
that we made it on point. They can stand down.”

Turmoil
's primary purpose had been to help them be sure they were targeting
Paradise
, and not some other wake in the busy Cathan-­Dumark shipping lane. As a secondary purpose,
Turmoil
was there as backup should they be unable to position
The Headsman
properly in front of
Paradise
.

“Fire control,” Darmczek ordered. “Arm a ten-­kilotonne warhead, target for detonation five kilometers in front of their bow. That should disrupt their transition field nicely. And tell all weapons stations to stand by.”

“Sir, she's closing rapidly.” Darmczek had positioned them so that
Paradise
would pass about one hundred thousand kilometers to one side of their own line.

“Stand by with that warhead. You've got your targeting solution. Follow it.”

The Headsman
's hull thrummed with the sound of a transition launch. “Missile away, sir.”

The missile only took a fraction of a second to cross the intervening space, and all data from exterior sensors froze momentarily as the incandescent glare of the detonation overloaded them. The tension grew for several seconds as they waited to learn the fate of the liner. “We got her, sir. She's in sublight.”

As Charlie's screens came back to life he could see that for himself. The data showed
Paradise
coasting in space, her automated distress systems broadcasting a call for help to Dumark.
Turmoil
had down-­transited nearby and was running silent; no sense in letting anyone know of the existence of such ships.

“All forward main batteries,” Darmczek barked. “One shot, across her bow, fire.” The hull thrummed again to the beat of the transition batteries.

Darmczek continued snapping out orders. “Helm, match their vector. Com, open a channel to
Paradise
and get Drakwin on it.”

Roacka had outdone himself, staging the whole pirate thing like a prep-­school play. Since they were supposedly Syndonese outlaws, Drakwin, who stood almost two meters tall and spoke with a thick Syndonese accent, would be the infamous pirate Raul the Damned. “Where the hell did you come up with that?” Charlie asked Roacka.

“Just my vivid imagination, lad. I think I should have been a vid writer. Bet I could have made a fortune.”

“This is Raul the Damned,” Drakwin crowed over the com, sitting at a station near Charlie and hamming it up badly. “Heave to and prepare to be boarded. If you try to run we'll fire on you, and no shot across the bow next time. Lives will be lost, possibly everyone on your ship. Heave to as ordered, and only money will be lost.”

They cut the com link and waited for a reply.

“Forward main batteries,” Darmczek barked. “Target on their drive and stand by in case they try to run.”

Charlie leaned toward Drakwin and said, “Heave to and prepare to be boarded? You've got to be kidding.”

Drakwin grinned like a schoolboy. “Saw it in a costume drama once, Your Grace. Always wanted to say it myself.”

Paradise
had popped out of transition at point-­eight lights and one hundred thousand kilometers to one side of their line.
The Headsman
was still decelerating from point-­nine lights, which meant they were pulling away from her rapidly, though they were breaking hard to close the distance. They waited several minutes, then Drakwin repeated his message, and this time they got a reply almost immediately.

Someone from
Paradise
, speaking in carefully articulated syllables, said, “Please identify yourself again.” They broadcast audio only, no video.

Drakwin snarled, “I am Raul the Damned of the Mexak League. Prepare to be boarded.”

The voice that came out of the com said, “A Syndonese pirate! You gotta be kidding.”

“I'm not just any Syndonese pirate,” Drakwin said. “I'm Raul the Damned. And I answer to no man but the devil and the Mexak League.”

Shit,
Charlie thought.
We've created a monster.
It had been his idea that Raul should be part of an association of pirates, which they decided to call the Mexak League.

“What do you want?” the fellow demanded, his voice cracking with tension.

The fellow sounded nervous and tense, but not afraid. A crewman on a ship being attacked by bloodthirsty pirates should be just plain scared, and his lack of fear raised Charlie's suspicions.

Drakwin demanded, “I ask the questions here. Identify yourself.”

“I'm Captain Chambers, CO,
Paradise
, Dumark registry.”

“Well, Captain Chambers, as I said before, heave to and prepare to be boarded.”

“You can't do this. We're law-­abiding ­people here.”

Charlie switched his com feed to
The Headsman
's command channel. “Darmczek, he's stalling, probably got his crew rushing to prepare an up-­transit. Stand by to put another shot across his bow.”

“Aye, Your Grace.”

Charlie leaned over to Drakwin and whispered the same message in his ear.

Drakwin spoke over the com link. “Chambers, I'm beginning to think you're not hearing what I say.”

Charlie had to crane his neck to see Darmczek amidst the instrument clusters and duty stations in the cramped confines of
The Headsman
's bridge. Charlie nodded, and a second later heard the thrum of her main transition batteries as they fired another shot across
Paradise
's bow.