Audacious

57

Kris had a command to care for. One that had bled deeply.

Gunnery Sergeant Brown announced he was the proud owner of ten prisoners. ''Would have been eleven, but dang if the officer that I personally plugged didn't managed to smash a tooth or something and kill himself.''

''I sure wanted to talk to him,'' Gunny finished.

''So did I, Gunny, but I'm starting to think Greenfeld's powers that be don't want to be at war with us any more than our honchos want to be at war with them, official like.''

Which seemed to leave Gunny Brown with something to chew on.

Kris knew that the first thing she should have done was go hunting for the ambassador. Instead, she trotted for the riverside walk to check on Captain DeVar. No surprise, the zoo collecting around her, trotted right along. Even Johnson.

The wounded captain was just being lifted onto a stretcher.

''He going to be okay?'' Kris asked the nearest medic.

The woman looked worried. ''He's lost a lot of blood. We got to get him to Doc fast.''

''I'm too mean to let a little leakage put me down,'' the captain grumbled, but his words were slurring.

''Gunny,'' Kris said into her commlink, ''we need a rig here fast for the captain.'' She glanced around the field. There were several casualties that looked to have been hit hard by the auto-gun. More that had been hit too hard and were beyond aid.

''I got one rig able to roll. That whale of yours needs a new tire. Once the driver changes it, I'm sending it back to the embassy with the walking wounded.''

''Do that,'' Kris agreed. ''Just get me something back here that can handle four,'' she said, eyeing the medic. The woman held up a hand with all fingers spread. ''Five stretchers.''

''Damn, was it that bad back there?''

''It looks it,'' Kris answered.

A Marine rig quickly arrived, shot up and limping, but going nevertheless. Tailing it were a pair of private rigs driven by loyal members of the Fraternal Order of Proud Caballeros.

And a newsie made to jam a mike under Kris's oversize nose.

Inspector Johnson got in the way. ''You can't interview her.''

''Why not?''

Martinez stepped forward. ''Because he doesn't want you to know the only thing that stood between the liquidation of all our leaders and the survival of the few who did was these Marines from Wardhaven.''

''That's not true,'' Johnson insisted.

''Pan your camera over this field,'' Martinez went on. ''Who do you see down? Not Eden troops. You drove by the wreckage of our rapid reaction force. How close did it get?''

''Not very,'' the reporter said.

''You've taken pictures inside the hall. Did you see any of our guards still alive?''

''My producer isn't allowing us to show those pictures.'' The reporter shivered at a memory. ''It's too bloody, but I can say that all I saw were Marines and a few private guards still alive. And some of their patrons,'' she hastily added.

''You can't say that,'' Johnson insisted.

''I just did,'' the reporter shot back. ''And I said it to the''—she tapped her earbud—''to our ten million subscribers, including the nine million that just joined us tonight.''

''I'll have your license canceled,'' Johnson snapped through gritted teeth.

''You and what government?'' the reporter snapped back. ''Shirley Chisel of the opposition has already called for new elections.''

''They can't make such a call.''

''They can if they're not the opposition,'' the reporter said with a grin. ''A lot of them weren't invited to this shindig tonight. And just making an educated guess at the survival rate of those that were, I'd say the majority party doesn't have anything like a majority anymore. How many votes do you think they'll have in the morning?''

Johnson paled.

And Kris did a quick look at her options.

Eden was changing. It could never be the same after this night. Oh, people like Johnson and his boss might try, but this tide was in full flow, and only fools got in the way of a riptide.

So what did that mean for her?

King Ray would probably try meddling in these people's affairs. Kris was no longer blind to some of his less socially desirable habits. But she was here and he was not.

These people did not need a Longknife. Or rather, they'd had about all of a Longknife that they could take.

With a shrug, Kris made up her mind.

''If you will excuse me, I have wounded Marines I need to get to care before we lose them.'' Kris saluted the reporter and the police lieutenant, and turned away.

''And my cops and caballeros are searching the great hall for any living soul,'' Martinez said. ''What do you say we get more pictures your producer can try to edit for public consumption?''

''Who did this?'' the reporter asked as they left.

''We'll be a long time investigating that question,'' the cop said carefully. ''Things like this aren't accidents that just blow up one day. But at the bottom of it all, I think we'll discover that we did this to ourselves.''

Kris went about her duty, hunting through every nook and cranny where a Marine might have fallen. She would leave no one behind. No one for the civilians to stumble across.

The wounded were dispatched to the embassy at first. But Doc was quickly overwhelmed. When Kris's limo took off with the walking wounded like Penny, it headed for a hospital.

The search went through the night. The embassy sent a team of Foreign Service officers to hunt for the ambassador. They found him, along with the third political officer, a lovely middle-aged woman who had taken Kris's place on his arm. They were among the dead on the ground floor. The attackers hadn't even considered him important enough to herd upstairs.

Wardhaven's officers took their leader back to the embassy.

Grant von Schrader was also found. The bronze foot of one of the landers had taken him full in the face, smashed his skull, and pinned him against the wall. They identified him by the contents of the wallet in his hip pocket. Kris ordered him left to hang there. ''Let Eden pick up its own trash.''

The Marines gently collected their own honored dead on the grass in front of the west portico. The last of them was gently laid out just as sunrise colored the dawn sky. The pink of the reborn sun blushed their cheeks, tried to make them look warm and alive. The lie was painful to observe.

One of Martinez's men showed up with blankets to give them decent cover.

And Kris had her final run-in with Inspector Johnson.