Ben Bova - Test of Fire

Then Alec had his men reopen the gates and stay out of sight behind the wall, awaiting the return of the village men from their fields. The villagers were returned to their huts and ordered to stay quietly inside them.

Jameson, satisfied that everything was under control, jumped down from the wagon. “Not bad,” he said. “Twenty minutes to seize, search, and settle the prisoners.”

Alec relaxed enough to grin at him.

“Got a surprise for you,” Jameson told him, starting for the back of the wagon.

“Did you have any trouble taking the wagon?”

Alec asked.

“No. Driver and two gunners, same as the past few days. Coming in for corn and hay. They didn’t put up a fight, they saw they were covered; Got them in here…”

He dropped the wagon’s rear panel and pulled a ragged covering off the three lumpy shapes back there.

“Angela!”

She was lying on the wagon’s floor with two young men, all of them bound with their wrists behind their backs, their ankles tied together.

Gags stuffed their mouths. She looked furious.

“She was one of the gunners. Tried to shoot me, too, before the driver convinced her she’d only get all three of them killed,” Jameson said, a respectful smile on his face. “I thought you’d want to talk to her.”

Alec jumped up on the wagon and pulled the gag from her mouth.

“I should’ve shot you,” she snarled at Jameson.

“If I’d thought you’d do this to me…”

“Quiet,” Alec snapped. “Ron acted under my orders. We didn’t want the wagon crew to give the villagers an alarm.” He started to untie her wrists.

“I would have, too!” She yanked her hands free of the loosened cords and sat up, reaching for her ankles.

“What are you doing on a job like this?” Alec wondered.

“What’s wrong with a woman on guard detail?” she raged. “I was the only one with guts enough to fight.” She glared at the other two prisoners, still helplessly bound and gagged.

“That would have caused a lot of shooting. Here in the village and out in the fields, too. A lot of people would’ve gotten hurt. We’re not trying to hurt these people.”

“Not much!” She pushed him away and scrambled to her feet. “You’re just trying to steal their food and weapons. Leave them hungry and defenseless.”

“No,” Alec said firmly. “What I want is what I came to Earth for: the fissionables. We’ve fought our way across the country all summer to get here. I know he’s not far from here, and the fissionables are here too.” He took her by the arm.

“Where is he?”

She looked at him. There was a silly scrap of straw clinging to her cheek. She brushed it away.

“He’s not far,” Angela said. “And when he finds out what you’ve done he’ll find you .”

“That’s fine,” Alec said. “One way or the other, it doesn’t matter. But I still want to know where he is now and where the fissionables are stored.”

Angela shook her head. “It wouldn’t do any good, even if I told you. You’d just get yourself killed. You can’t storm the base with a dozen men.”

“I can get more.”

She turned away.

“All right.” Alec hopped off the wagon, then turned to help her down. She jumped down on her own. Frowning, he turned to Jameson. “Find an empty hut and lock her into it.”

The Sun swung down and touched the western hills. In small groups the village men came back from their fields, to be taken and disarmed—their faces slack with shock—by Alec’s men. By nightfall the entire village was safely under guard.

“Hey!” Gianelli shouted in the flickering light of the fire they built in the center of the village square. “We found the wine!” He waved a wicker-covered jug over his head, then put it to his lips.

Alec was sitting by the fire, eating with Jameson. “Better make certain that no more than a couple of those jugs are opened,” he said. “Put the rest under guard or break them. And keep the villagers inside their huts. I don’t want any of our men grabbing their women. I want to stay as friendly with these people as we can.”

Jameson nodded, finished scraping his plate clean, then moved off into the shadows.

Alec spent a fruitless couple of hours questioning the village men. None of them admitted to knowing where Douglas’ headquarters were, except that it was west of their valley. For years they had been sending grain over the western road in exchange for protection.

They spoke seriously and politely. They shared the wine from several jugs together. They would reveal nothing. They spoke of Alec’s father as “the Douglas,” like “the Lord.”

“You can see,” Alec said, being careful to allow a long time between sips of wine, “that he isn’t keeping his end of the bargain. Where is your protection?”

“It will come,” one of the elders said sullenly.

“Protection should protect,” Alec countered, “not revenge. My men could have burned your village, raped your women, murdered all of you.”

“Ahhh…” said the old man who had been napping by the gate. “The Douglas knew that you were no ordinary raiding band.”

“What?”

“He told us weeks ago that his son might pass this way.”

“Shut up, you old fool!” a younger man snapped.

But Alec waved him down. “Douglas came here and warned you that his son might raid your village?”

The old man looked troubled now, uncertain.

“Eh… it was something like that… perhaps I’ve got it wrong… I forget a lot nowadays…”

So he’s expecting us, Alec thought.

They changed the subject, or tried to. Alec steered it back to the location of Douglas’s headquarters.

Jameson joined the circle around the fire, but still the villagers would admit nothing.

Finally Alec bade them goodnight; they got up and returned to their huts.

Watching them drift into the darkness, Jameson murmured, “Be easier to guard them if we packed them all into one or two huts.”

“Let them sleep in their own beds,” Alec said.

“We have their weapons, and they don’t want any trouble.”

Shrugging, Jameson said, “They didn’t tell you much, did they?”

“Not much,” Alec admitted.

“We have the wagon crew. They know where Douglas’ headquarters is.”

“Yes.”

“And they know that we know. A little persuasion would open them up.”

Alec said nothing.

“I could… um, talk with them. The two men, that is. I wouldn’t bother the girl.”

“ ’Til talk to her,” Alec said, “Maybe I can convince her…” He let the thought trail off.

“Alec,” Jameson said, his lean face hidden in the shadows, “What do we do if she tells us where he is? We can’t just walk up to Douglas and expect him to hand us the fissionables.”

“No—but we can call down as many men as the settlement can provide. And I think we can recruit some of the people around here. They can’t all be totally loyal to Douglas. They’ll join our side for a share of the loot, especially when they see the army we can put together.”

“You really think Kobol’s going to bring down an army for you?”

“Not for me,” Alec said. “For the fissionables. They’ll have to.” And he added silently, to himself, Even if Kobol’s gained complete control of the Council he’ll have to come here for the fissionables.

In the dwindling firelight, it was impossible to see the expression on Jameson’s face. He said slowly, “Listen, Alec… some of the men don’t think we’ll ever get back to the settlement. They think we’ve been written off.”

“That’s not true!”

“It’s what they think,” Jameson said. “And… well, they’re not all that unhappy about it. This is a big world here. We could carve ourselves a nice chunk of it, if we wanted to. Some of the men have even been wondering why we don’t join up with Douglas…”