The Black Guard: Book II: Evolution (Black Guard Series 2) (17 page)

Zeruf's voice jerked me back to the moment.

"Naxal, what do you have to say?"

Naxal paled. "Your Majesty, the army is prepared to
repulse an invasion from Hylana or Jhina but not the Angels. Your palace
security I thought good, but last night proved we are no match for the Angels.
I think our best strategy is to support the Black Guard in any way Captain
Sapir wants."

"Captain Sapir?" Zeruf turned his glare on me.

I nodded to Naxal. "Colonel Naxal is very loyal. He
is putting your best interest above his image. He understands that each
military component has its strengths and weaknesses: the army to fight wars,
security to handle troublemakers, and the Black Guard to stop professional
assassins. And equally important, he knows that when the chaos starts only one
person can be in charge. Otherwise, confusion will result, and the enemy will
benefit."

"You want to run our security forces?" Kalom's
face tightened in defiance.

"No, Prince Kalom. We need to understand the
security arrangements, and they need to understand that when the Black Guards
suggests an action, it is not optional."

"And if they don't?" Kalom sneered.

"They risk their lives and put their king and his
family at greater risk," I said, enjoying the mental contest as it
diverted my attention from the difficult situation this assignment presented.
"Our only concern is your safety."

"What do you mean, 'our safety'?" Kalom
demanded in a loud tone.

"If someone's actions endanger your lives, whether
on purpose or accidently, we will not hesitate to kill him or her if it
eliminates the danger."

The room was deathly quiet for a long while.

Finally, Zeruf spoke, "Enough, Kalom. The Angels
are our enemies, not the Black Guard. They are much like the
Angels—myopic." He raised his hand to stop any comments.

Personally, I agreed with him.

"Their only concern is our lives. I find that
reassuring." He laughed. "Colonel Naxal, I leave it to you and
Captain Sapir to integrate the two responsibilities. We don't need confusion
when trouble comes."

Not too long afterward, everyone left the room.

"Any thoughts?" Naxal asked as the door closed
behind them.

"Let's keep it simple. You guard the outside and
monitor the entrances and exits. Do not let anyone enter the building unless
you have approved the individual and we have the individual in our
database."

"But … what if there is trouble in the palace?"

"Keep everyone from entering and kill anyone
attempting to exit," I smiled. "If your people enter, my people will
have no way of knowing if you are friend or foe and won't have time to
check."

"I'll brief my people."

* * *

Shortly afterward, I met with the senior sergeants and
Elijah for an update.

"Sounds like we are going to retire here,"
Mintz said as everyone gathered around in a circle and sat.

"Unless the kingdom is really rich, I think the
king will run out of money long before then. Besides, we can't keep up this
intense alertness for much more than six months. I would expect replacements
before a year is up."

"You expect it to last that long?" Judt asked.

"As things stand right now, the situation will last
until the king runs out of money or he and his son are killed. I would prefer
the first," I said to smiles and grins. "What is on the agenda
today?"

"Kalom is a colonel in the army, so he has duties at
the army base," Judt said.

"Judt, have Naxal send a detail along with you.
Nadel?" I asked.

"Dulice and her daughter will be working on the
books today."

"We have to assume the Angels are not above using
them as a distraction. Mintz?"

"The king has a meeting in the reception building
in an hour."

"Check with Naxal about his security arrangement.
Elijah?"

"I'm working with the senior sergeants to keep the
shift changes and the walk arounds random."

"Good. I've talked with Naxal. He's being very
cooperative and agrees the Guard is in charge. Lieutenant, it's your shift, so
I thought I'd go talk to the Marquis."

"I'll wager everyone in the Guard would like to
watch a video of that meeting," Elijah said to bobbing heads.

* * *

"I can't imagine why you would want to seek out the
Marquis?" Naxal said after I explained I wanted to meet the Marquis.

 
"The
more you know about your enemy, the better prepared you are against him.
Normally, you don't get the chance to meet him and you must guess, which is
dangerous. That is all right if you give him more credit than he deserves, but it's
a problem if you underestimate him."

"I don't know what you think you are going to
learn, but I'll take you if you want."

"Thank you. I don't know either, but it sounds like
fun, and I have nothing else to do right now. The Angels will be inactive while
they look for a weakness to exploit."

Naxal laughed, thinking it was meant to be funny. In
fact, I was serious. Naxal had his car brought to the palace and had an armored
car as an escort.

"It's a rough neighborhood," he said as we
left the palace grounds and moved into the city.

The upscale houses soon disappeared as we wove our way
through narrowing streets with little space between houses and shops. Finally,
we entered streets not much wider than the vehicles we were in, with
cobblestone roads and houses stacked side by side, many with small shops on the
street level. The people wandering the streets looked like hard-working
laborers. I suspected few would be wandering the same streets come nighttime.
Our driver stopped in front of a shop with a large window and a sign that had
Exotic Things
painted on it in a strange
but beautiful calligraphy.

When I left the limo, I could see several colorful snakes
were on display in the shop's window.

"I'm told the owner of the shop is a woman, and the
Marquis. But I've never been here or talked to her," Naxal said as I
entered the shop. Naxal chose to remain outside with the vehicles.

Inside were cages of every size and description: boxes
with iron bars, open wooden boxes, glass containers with and without water, and
walk-in cages. An old woman sat toward the back of the shop in a rocking chair,
and curled at her feet was an ugly dog in blacks, reds, and yellows with a larger
than normal head. Its eyes tracked me across the room.

"Good morning … what do I call a senior
Angel?" I asked.

She was very old and wrinkled in the face but looked remarkably
fit. Her arms were smooth and showed a hint of wiry muscle.

"Bored." She smiled. "But the day is
showing signs of improving. Marquis will do for now. What can I do for you,
Captain Sapir?"

"I wanted to learn a little about the Angels of
Death and their contracts as one professional to another."

She sat quietly as her eyes evaluated me for several
minutes. Then she smiled. "
Professionals
.
A much more accurate description and devoid of emotions, unlike killers,
butchers, executioners, assassins … Those terms apply equally to soldiers,
sailors, and police."

"Yes, all killing is professional when done for money
or family and not for hate or joy, glory or revenge," I said, thinking
about the Black Guard.

"I like you, Sapir. What would you like to
know?" As she rose, the animal at her feet rose. Ironically, I sensed it
had not risen to follow her so much as to keep me in reach. I'd wager those powerful
jaws could crush bones with ease.

I smiled mentally. Unless I was mistaken, she was well
armed and hardly needed the bone-crusher at her side.

"How would I go about making a contract?"

"You would tell me a name, a reason, and any
special requirements. My friends would assess the situation and get back to you
with a price and the conditions relative to the contract."

"Conditions?"

"If you lied to me about facts material to the
contract, we could void the contract and not refund the payment—or insist
on an adjustment in the time or amount."

"Would you take a contract against an existing
client?" I asked, seeking to understand their ethics.

"No. That would be unethical and … messy. Of
course, that only applies while the person or group is a client. That is not a
lifetime arrangement."

"So, a current client cannot be a contract, and a
contracted individual or group cannot be a client." I said, thinking I
understood.

Her frown slowly turned to a smile.

"Precisely. Otherwise we wouldn't be professionals.
We began centuries ago as assassins—killers for hire. Our ethics were
defined by the clients' money. Our founder, Angel Choi, united the disparate
groups and developed a code of honor. Those that refused to change were killed.
So today, there are no assassin organizations on Nizara, only the Angels, who provide
a function as old as humanity but under a codified set of rules."

"And the client status is independent of the
contract," I asked.

"There are exceptions, but in general that is true.
The contract lives even if the client dies, unless there are conditions
attached to the contract."

"Thank you, Marquis. I appreciate you giving me
your time and for explaining your contracts," I said as I watched the
hairy black spider creep toward my shoes. I had seen it leave the Marquis's
person several minutes ago. She smiled when I drew my laser and pointed it at
the spider. "A friend, or should I kill it?"

"A curious friend and harmless. She looks far more
dangerous then she is." She bent down and scooped the spider up into her
hand. "A test to confirm what I already suspected."

"That the Angels of Death and the Black Guard are
locked into bad contracts?" I asked, having deduced the Angels could no
more cancel their contract than the Jax could, and each would have to suffer
the consequences.

"Yes. That is my conclusion. I should have
Cerberus," she nodded toward the animal at her side, "kill you, but I
suspect you'd manage to kill me before you died, and our deaths would change
nothing. Besides, I like you. If you would like to talk again, my name is
Sumiko."

"Rivka," I said. "I too have enjoyed the
talk, and I'll wager you are still a formidable Angel, Sumiko." I gave a
small bow and left.

"Did you meet her?" Naxal asked as the limo
drove away from the shop.

"Yes. She was quite pleasant and informative."

"Anything useful?"

"All information is potentially useful, Colonel,
but no, nothing that will get the Angels to cancel their contract. I'd like to
drop in on the meeting the king is holding."

* * *

An hour later, we climbed out of the vehicle in front of
the gray granite building used for official meetings. The entrance had twelve
steps leading to an open arched walkway supported by six two-story high pillars
elaborately decorated with figures and inscriptions. That led to two massive
wooden doors with four security guards.

When the guards saw Colonel Naxal, they opened one door
and we entered into a lobby with two smaller silver doors and four more guards.
Again one of the guards opened one door and we entered. Inside was a
semi-circle of twenty seats with men dressed in silks positioned five steps in
front of a raised platform where the king was currently sitting. Four Black
Guards were positioned around the room. The two silver doors seemed to be the
only way in or out of the room. I scanned the three-story dome and noted that man-sized
windows every few meters encircled the dome. I turned, walked out of the
building, and began circling the structure with Naxal following. I clicked on
my Mfi.

"Mintz, I want someone to climb the outside of the
meeting building and examine the windows before the next meeting." I
clicked off when he acknowledged the order.

"Why?" Naxal asked.

"Like the Angels, I'm probing for weaknesses. You
may want to patrol this building at night, since that would be the most likely
time for someone to try and climb it." I clicked on my Mfi. "Judt,
where is Prince Kalom?

"He's at the Red practice range, monitoring an
exercise between two groups."

"Colonel, I need to get to the Red range
quickly," I said, waving toward the limo.

He nodded and moved at double time to the car.

"Serious?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Potentially," I said. "Clients don't
seem to evaluate the risk before they decide what to do, or they think we are
omnipotent and reduce the danger to zero."

"And if something goes wrong, it's our fault no
matter how impossible it was to prevent," Naxal said almost to himself.

As I exited the limo at the Red practice range—a
large field with mounds, shrubs, and a few trees—one group with white arm
bands and one with red arm bands were engaged in some sort of exercise using
automatic weapons, which I assumed had non-lethal projectiles.

"Stop," I said as I approached the prince and
what I thought might be a general, judging by his shoulder boards and the way
he stood talking to the prince.

He and the prince turned toward me. The general frowned;
the prince looked angry.

I snatched the megaphone from the lieutenant standing a
few meters off to the side and shouted into it, "Cease fire
immediately." I waited with my Mfw drawn and sensed the four Guards with
the prince also had their weapons drawn.

Slowly the activity on the field ceased, and everyone
turned toward us. Before I could speak, the prince spoke.

"Who do you think you are interfering in the army's
exercises?" he shouted.

"I'm a captain in the Black Guard and responsible
for your safety. And right now, I judge this exercise to be potentially
dangerous. So, either you leave with me, or I get to ensure the area is as safe
as I can make it. Of course, you could have your father cancel the
contract." I mentally added
please,
knowing the gods weren't paying attention or maybe were having too much fun to
grant my plea.