Zone Yellow

Chapter 17

I interrogated them further and was told they wondered where they were; it didn’t look like any part of Sweden they knew of. They came to the woods every day to gather berries, truffles, nuts, and something else I didn’t understand. The bruiser was named Gus, and the other fellow Ben. Marie was the woman, and Gus acted as if he owned her, but she seemed to prefer Ben.

Swft was dithering all the while we talked, and I finally turned to him. “Things are beginning to be a little clearer, Swft. You’re still being cagey. The ‘invasion’ is actually a slave-raid, isn’t it?”

“Why, as to that,” he temporized, managing a passable shrug with his short arms, “there was some talk of recruitment, not that I personally approved the idea…”

“Don’t kid me,” I told him. “You already let slip that labor was the big problem at the root of all your troubles. The Two-Law folks don’t believe in work, you said, and the Jade Palace people are above all that. So―once you discovered an intelligent, non-Ylokk species, it seemed your troubles were over. Right so far?”

“It wasn’t―” he tried to butt in.

I rolled right over that. “You were wrong. They were just beginning. Now the Imperium knows where you are, and what you are, so it seems you goofed―badly.”

“Still,” Swft put in coldly, “you humans are here, alone among us, and quite dependent on me for your lives, to say nothing of return to your own phase to report your mistaken ideas.”

“Don’t count on it,” I said, but I knew he was right.

“That party of constabulary,” he went on, “would have shot you down out-of-hand, had I not told them you were of my personal retinue.”

“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.

“You’d best play along, Lieutenant, if you hope to survive the day. The others are at hazard, too.”

“Djaveln!” Helm spat. “We’ve already shown these rats who’s in charge!”

“We can’t beat the entire garrison, Andy,” Swft told him. “They’ve no doubt called for reinforcements. In a few moments, we’ll be surrounded by two hundred trained policemen.”

Andy looked at me.

“You heard the general,” I told him. “You also heard me, I think. We’re under cover, Lieutenant, passing as slaves. Get with the program.” He complied reluctantly.

The sergeant―his name turned out to be Dvd―was back on his feet, sounding indignant. Swft barked a command at him and went on to the next Ylokk. It took him ten minutes to get them all in line, with the sergeant’s assistance; then he held a conference with the non-com and left him to shape up the detail in a column of twos. By that time, we could see Ylokk out on the road, standing at the ready, while their OIC talked into a hand-held talker. Swft said, “Wait here, if you will, Colonel,” and went over toward them. They came to a sloppy alert, but snapped-to when they got a good look at that red stripe. He had a short talk with the captain and turned to yell back to Sergeant Dvd, “Bring them out.”

Dvd rather sheepishly gestured to me to fall in, and at my request, Gus, Ben and Marie lined up, and Smovia, Helm and I got in place beside them. Baby was talking to a cop with a bloody nose, and gave him a hanky to wipe it. Dvd got his boys back in a row and gave the “move out” signal. We dutifully shuffled out into the sunlight, trying to look like homeless chattels who were sorry they’d ever run away. The captain bought it. He could see the signs of a struggle, but had no way of knowing who’d won it, except the lies Swft was telling him.

“…attempted to resist,” the general was saying. “I explained to the sergeant that I required these humongs for my own work, and…”

I brought our little band to a foot-shuffling halt and looked at Dvd, as if for orders.

“Colonel, we can take this bunch, too,” Helm muttered to me. “There’s only twenty-four of ‘em. Let me―”

“You’ll receive your instructions, Lieutenant,” I whispered back. “Maybe a little of that Prussian discipline would be in order after all.”

Swft turned to snap an order at Dvd, who turned hard on me and squealed, “Silence!” We silenced.

Swft went over and spoke quietly to Baby; then he took one of the long overcoats from one of the smaller cops, and helped her into it. That was a good idea; now she could mix with the troops and look unexceptional. We moved closer to the newly-arrived Ylokk, trying to discourage them from looking too closely at the row of sheepish-looking Ylokk ostensibly guarding us. Swft was tete-a-tete with the captain. After a brief conference, the latter motioned his NCOIC over and gave him orders. The new squad fell in and right-faced and went around us into the woods and began pushing our captives around.

Swft objected sharply. The captain gave orders and in a moment the two groups were lined up side by side. Swft came over and told me, “I told Captain Fsk to place these fellows under arrest,” he notified me. “Insubordination,” he explained, “and incompetence.”

“These reinforcements don’t seem very motivated,” I commented. “Whose side are they on?”

“They’re not quite sure, actually,” Swft confided. “They’re trained regulars, and are hesitant to take orders from these newly-arrived gangs of ne’er-do-wells; they recognize my rank, and so far that’s been enough to keep them off balance. I told them it’s an Imperial exercise; they are, after all, under my command, and I’m playing it by ear. Please continue to cooperate, Colonel, and we may bring this off yet.”