Victor O'Reilly - Games of The Hangman

"My longbow is not an antique," objected de Guevain.

"Whatever," said the Bear. "The point is that we have a large collection of weapons of limited military value in modern terms, but some of which could prove useful. I've distributed them around the castle to be grabbed in emergencies. The muskets, incidentally, are loaded, so be careful."

"I assume you'll be using a crossbow, Heini," said de Guevain.

"The Swiss national weapon wasn't the crossbow, as it happens, but the pike or halberd."

"Let's get back to other firepower," said Fitzduane.

"Well," continued the Bear, "here we have the Hawk forty-millimeter grenade launcher and about thirty grenades of different types. We have a box of conventional hand grenades. We have some C-4 explosives and Claymores we took off the frogmen's raft, and we have some home brew made with weed killer and sugar and diesel oil and other trimmings. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of gasoline, since the castle vehicles run on diesel, but we've siphoned a few gallons from the Volvo to make Molotov cocktails." He looked at Fitzduane. "I used the poteen to make up for the gas shortage. I'm afraid I made quite a dent in your reserve stock."

"My whiskey." Fitzduane paled. "You've taken my whiskey and mixed it with gasoline?"

"Hard to tell the difference sometimes," muttered Henssen.

"What about the cannon?" asked de Guevain. "Are we going to give them a try?" He was referring to the two small eighteenth-century cannon that normally stood in the bawn.

"We'll see," said the Bear. "There is only a small stock of black powder, which I'm keeping for the muskets. That means using our weed killer explosive for the cannon – with trial and error being the only way of working out the right load. I can't say I'd like to be the gunner during those tests."

"They'd be ideal for covering the gate," said de Guevain. "We can load them with nails and broken glass and the like to get a shrapnel effect."

"Let's do it," urged Fitzduane. "We'll try a few test shots at one of the outhouses to get the loading right – and use a long fuse."

"And watch out for the recoil," said Henssen, "or your toes will be flattened – or worse."

"This fellow obviously knows what he's talking about," said the Bear. "And I thought you only knew about computers. Consider yourself volunteered."

Henssen raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Why did I open my big mouth?"

"Good question, said de Guevain.

The review continued, covering the placing of the Claymores, distribution of the hand-held radios, food, medical backup, blackening of faces, duty rosters, and the host of matters, major and minor, essential to consider if the castle was to be defended properly.

"Is there any way we haven’t thought of so far that we can send for help?" said Harry Noble. The ambassador's face was pale and strained, the shock of his son's death etched on his features. For the moment the heavy work load was keeping him sane. Fitzduane didn't like to think about the private torments the man would face in the future. To have killed your own son; it was a nightmare. The Hangman had much to answer for.

"Fair point," said Fitzduane. "The question is how. We're completely surrounded and now their ship-"

"The Sabine," said the Bear.

"The Sabine," continued Fitzduane, "is blocking the seaward route." The ship, now that the focus of the Hangman's attention had switched to Fitzduane's castle, had left the point and was less than half a mile offshore from the castle.

There was silence for a few moments. The fact was that sooner or later the Rangers should realize that something was wrong and send help. In contrast, no one present had any illusions about the dangers of trying to break through the Hangman's cordon, let alone getting off the island.

"Something else to think about," said Fitzduane. "We don't want to let the Hangman get hold of a hostage."

Harry Noble nodded. "That's something I hadn't considered. Perhaps we should wait it out."

Fitzduane looked around. From everyone's eyes he could tell there was general agreement to wait, so they moved on to discuss the students. Some were still in shock at what had happened, but a number, refreshed after eating and intrigued by the preparations they had witnessed while filling sandbags and doing other manual work, wanted to join the active defenders. They were now bunked down behind locked doors in a storeroom off the tunnel. They hadn't gone willingly. The protests had been vigorous and had died down only when Fitzduane explained the problem: After the business of the Sacrificers, who could be trusted?

"I don't know about keeping them all locked up," said Andreas. "I appreciate the problem, but I think we're going to have to arm a few of them. We need the manpower. The perimeter is too big to hold for long with what we've got."

There was some agreement with this view. The defenders were stretched thin, and things would get worse after dusk.

"They're not kids," said Judith. "Many of them are about my age."

The Bear smiled.

"Look," continued the Israeli girl, "they know the security problem. Why not let them pick some volunteers? They ought to be able to pick some people who can be trusted – unless you think they've all been suborned."

Fitzduane shook his head. "No, we probably don't' have a security problem with the students anymore, but even so I'm reluctant to pout them on the firing line. Let's compromise. Let's put them to work picking some volunteers, but let's not use them unless we really have to."

"Makes sense," said the Bear.

Fitzduane looked at Andreas and Judith.

"Fair enough," Andreas agreed.

"Judgment of Solomon," said Judith.

"Let's get on to considering what we're up against," continued Fitzduane, "and the options open to the Hangman."

He looked at Noble, who had been given the job of coordinating everything they knew, including the string of reports from those on watch. The ambassador, de Guevain, and Henssen had then put themselves in the Hangman's shoes to evaluate his options. Both Noble and de Guevain had previous combat experience – de Guevain had been a paratrooper in his earlier years – and Hensssen had the greatest knowledge of the Hangman's methods of operation gleaned from his endless hours working with the Nose in Wiesbaden.

"Best estimate," said Noble, "is that we're up against a force of between seventy and eighty hard-core terrorists, to which may be added a small crew from the Sabine. I would guess the one motivation they have in common is mercenary, but considering the Hangman's MO, there will be subgroups with their own specific reasons for wanting to strike back at what they see as the establishment.

"The terrorists will have been highly trained in a rather rigid, unquestioning way. They will have been oriented toward a violent assault against ill-prepared opposition with an emphasis on inflicting maximum damage in the shortest possible time; they probably won't have had the kind of systematic, specialist infantry training needed for an assignment like taking this castle. But whatever the weaknesses in the fine points of their training, they will all be highly proficient in basic weapons handling and are undoubtedly fit, committed, and determined.

"Their weapons seem to be typical Eastern bloc stuff apart from the Ingrams carried by the frogmen and the explosives, which are American. They have AK-47 assault rifles, Makarov automatics, plastic explosives, undoubtedly hand grenades, and probably a few RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launchers. We've seen no sign of anything heavier so far, but with the Sabine freeing them of normal transport constraints, they may have something more lethal in reserve. If they do, I'm afraid we'll find out the hard way. The likely candidates would be heavy machine guns, mortars, rockets of various kinds, or even artillery. Somehow I can't see most of that stuff being available because, on the basis of what the Hangman originally intended to do, what would be the need? But you never know with this fellow. He likes gadgetry, and he likes surprises.