Keith Laumer - Zone Yellow

“You’re a big-hearted guy,” I told him sardonically.

“As for these―” he went on, indicating the three newcomers, “they’re escaped workers, under sentence of slow dismemberment. Unless you wish to be included in that fate, you’ll shun them. Those Two-Law vermin were not quite satisfied. Even now, they’re holding a parley just down the road. They could well return. And if they do…” He left the rest to the imagination. I glanced down that way. He was right: they were just falling back into ranks, facing our way.

“Quickly!” Swft hissed. “Back into the woods!” I decided to go along, because those ten Ylokk cops definitely had that “All right, this is a pinch” look on their snouty faces.

The three escaped slaves went along readily: it seemed probable that it was them the cops were looking for in the first place. Swft wanted us to scatter and hide, but Helm said, “Colonel, what about an ambush instead?”

“Nonsense!” Swft interposed. “We’ve none of those clever lead-throwers of yours.”

“Glass guts,” Helm countered. “We lie low, and take ‘em one at a time; there’s seven of us against ten; fair odds.”

“Let’s do it,” I agreed.

Smovia protested a little, but cooperated readily enough.

“We let them all pass, and pick off tail-end Charlie,” I told them. “I’ll take the first one, then you get the next fellow, Andy.” The new people were enthusiastic. I put them last, followed up by Swft, who agreed to talk to the leader, a fellow with a light-blue stripe down his back. I told Baby to hide and stay put.

The Ylokk came crashing into the brush, talking back and forth. One straggler paused to pump ship uncomfortably close. I let him finish, then came up fast and drove a good stiff right jab to his short ribs. He folded, making only a few whistling sounds. Andy took his rat out right on cue, and old Gus looked pretty good, handling his boy and then Smovia’s, while Ben and Marie together felled a couple more. I went up fast and intercepted two rats trying to make a run for it, and laid them out left and right. They seemed to be unarmed except for nightsticks they didn’t try to use. It was over in about a minute and a half.

“This is fun,” Andy said. “It looks like we won’t have much trouble here.”

“These spiritless dupes are not representative of the Noble Folk,” Swft was quick to correct him.

“We must take care to secure the alliance of the Loyalists, and not to antagonize them.”

“That ought to be easy,” I supplied, “considering that we’re here to help them overthrow the revolt.”

“You must be careful to make the distinction,” Swft counseled.

Gus drew me and Helm aside to demand why a Ylokk was fighting on our side. I explained that he was a representative of the Old Order and that he opposed the Two-Law faction that had captured the Jade Palace.

“These fellows,” Andy indicated the ten fallen Ylokk, “are some of the ones we told you about. They just showed up one day. That’s why we left town. Who are they? What are they after?”

“They’re a bunch who think the world owes them a living,” I tried to explain. “They reject the Third Law of Motion―”

“That’s the one that says you don’t get something for nothing, right?” Andy asked, nodding to confirm his suggestion. I agreed.

“That’s crazy,” Smovia contributed. “You can’t repeat a law of Nature. But you know, I’ve met people like that at home!”

“These fellows think you can,” I told him, “by capturing enough slaves to do all the work.”

“That explains a lot,” Ben said. “What are we doing about it? What is this place? How did we get here? That box they packed us in―”

“How many of you were there?” I wanted to know.

“Twenty-one in my bunch,” Ben replied. “And a lot more bunches. There’s no real use in fighting back.”

“In Stockholm, we’ve got them on the run,” I told him. “They’re not much as soldiers. They’re sick.”

“ ‘The Killing,’ ” Smovia supplied. “They started dying just about the time the gangs showed up. Terrible.”

“Maybe they’re responsible,” it occurred to me. “Their kind think that things like garbage and sewage disposal just happen; they’ve probably let things go to pot and contaminated the water supply.”

“Quite right, Colonel,” Swft put in. “These moronic upstarts have kept the power-generating plant in operation by holding the former staff by force. They seem amazed when the employees come to them for instruction as to how to handle emergencies. They reply indignantly, ‘I’m the boss\ I don’t bother with such matters! That’s your job!.”

“No wonder things fell apart,” I commented. I tried to explain to Gus that he and the others had been transferred from their native A-line to a distant one. He brushed that aside.

“Is there some way to get back?” Ben demanded. I told him that we intended to retake the Skein Technical Compound, and after putting an end to Ylokk transfers to the Zero-zero line, and with Swft’s help, to use their equipment to return all the captives home.

“What are we waiting for?” he wanted to know.

“First,” I explained, “we have to take over the little town, and recruit a force of Ylokk opposed to the Two-Lawers―”

“Impossible!” Gus snapped.

“That’ll be easy,” Ben contradicted. “Everybody hates them. All they need is some leadership, to throw all of them into their own slave pits.”

“How many humans are there in the town?” was my next question.

“Maybe a few hundred,” Gus guessed. “They come and go. The place is a sort of staging area for breaking in the new arrivals to the system. Show ‘em how to go to the woods and gather stuff, and all. And to break em down so they give up and forget dumb ideas about trying to escape. Where’s there to escape to? This is a foreign country, even though it’s the same geography as home.

“What do we do with these bums?” Gus demanded, looking hungrily at our captives. He had a carving knife in his hand. “Cut their throats?” he suggested, taking a step toward the nearest as if he assumed the answer was yes.

Instead I said, “No, we use them.”

“Use ‘em how?” Andy almost demanded before he heard what he’d said, and mumbled, “Use em. Yessir.”

“Ease off on the Prussian discipline, Andy,” I ordered him. “We’re in this together. Take it easy.”

“How,” Swft cut in, “do you propose to ‘use’ these miscreants? I cannot, of course, stand by while atrocities are performed.”

“You don’t have a whole lot to say about it, General,” I reminded him. “First, get them on their feet; then pull rank on them and tell them they’re your escort. Get them cleaned up a little.”

“Then what?” Gus demanded.

“The less I hear from you, right now, Gus-baby,” I told him, “the better I’ll like you.” He muttered but shut up and rejoined Marie, who edged away from him. She gave me a tentative smile and I said, “Ma’am, for the present I’d like you to pretend that the incompetents have captured all of us, and that General Swft is in charge. Do as he says, please.”

I turned to Swft. “We’re going into town,” I told him. “You’ll be able to find slave-quarters for us, and a good meal for the troops. We’ll trade with them.”

“I foresee no difficulty,” he acknowledged, and barked something peremptory at the nearest fallen Ylokk, the one with the blue back-stripe, who was just getting his feet under him. He glanced up at Swft and cringed back and snarled something that didn’t sound like “Yessir.” Swft nudged him with his foot and said something in a quiet but deadly tone. The sergeant scrambled up and immediately grabbed Andy’s arm. Andy knocked him on his back. Swft said, “None of that, wretched humong!” Andy swung on Swft, who blocked the haymaker casually and said into Helm’s teeth.