Chapter 14

Artlam, through his contacts, tried to find out everything he could about Lord Cundra. Apparently he was one of the generals commanding a few hundred of the Church's private army. Life was hard and vicious on Bejek and the Army of the Righteous stood out even in this context. No enemy stood for long even if it took three or four attempts. When the mop-up came, everybody was put to the question then killed. This was not just those on the battlefield but their families and even friends. Few would dare oppose this group.

Artlam was worried, so I got him to check about where the various divisions of the Army of the Righteous were stationed and where they were right now. If they started to march this way, they may quietly disappear along the way. When I reminded him of the missiles, he seemed to calm down and even smiled.

The girls and I tried to think of what this army might do. The enemy may be arrogant at first. If I hit them hard with Earth weapons, it would smarten up. We had to get help to find out what its usual practices were. Basically, it killed everybody that they didn't want then use the slaves until they were done and then kill them. It seemed to work very well as a terror weapon.

Anguy seemed to provide the bulk of the units on this side of the continent and of course, they were stationed in that country. Artlam sent off some of his men and a lot of copper to see what could be learned. The whole country was crazy in my opinion and anybody from Mendab would be quickly spotted as not being as dower or religious as the natives. Here, the word fanatic sounded right.

The Church and the Army of the Righteous were said to command lightning. I wasn't going to discount this because I did the same when I attracted lightning to charge the portals. It was said that they had an invisible shield that protected the entire army. The army was also said to control the dead but this could also be those too drugged to do anything but follow orders. In addition to the dead were the animals of nightmares. There were many accounts of them and it was even said somebody had a body of one of the creatures found a few hundred years ago.

We were told that the soldiers never tired but this could be done with drugs. People back home were playing with this idea already. The worse, though, was that it had some fearsome rifles. But what was said about them was what was said about ours.

There were two tales where a relieving force showed up when none should. This could be that they had radios or, far worse, that they had a portal.

When we added it all up it looked like they had long range cannon and used them. They also use lightning when it was really needed. They had good rifles to match the cannon. There may be radio or one or more portals. They used horses and wagons and lived off the land instead of carrying much of their own supplies. They probably used captured people as cannon fodder or sent them on missions to terrorise their own people. I had to include the animals because the Church may have access to the portals. I also remembered that one portal lead to a jungle. Traps that had been set for this army were all discovered so they had never been caught with their britches down. This could be good surveillance, great commanders, or magic.

There were a lot more stories that said everything imaginable. Some could be attributed to a good assassin or some great spies. I thought of portals here, too, but this was ridiculous. Kings and their families died in their beds without a mark on them. There were giant explosions before black powder came around. They were not called that term then because explosions were not known at the time.

All this talk brought the other list we made up a while ago with the other abilities the Church was said to possess. It stood to reason that the Church should be opposed by stealth as well as outright force. Artlam was the one that was good at the former.

The next morning, I had another meeting, but this was private like last night. I was sure the Church was after my head and they would try to get it the easy ways first. Using the Habstner army was simple for them to do. An assassin may have looked inappropriate before but perhaps even that would come now. Dead kings and their families sounded a lot like poison gas to me and we had no way to counter this. All it would take is one of those small portals and a cylinder of poison gas like cyanide. When the job was done, the cylinder could be recovered. Of course the whole family could have been poisoned from the food or drink. It was also probable that it could be some short lived disease organism.

We argued the pros and cons of where the assassins would or would not come now. We had to assume that they would come eventually. Whether they would use assassins assisted by magic would come after they had gone through the regular kinds. This was what was happening now.

If I was still alive at this time they could send a small unit of the Army of the Righteous. If that was not enough then they would come with either a full army or all the magic paraphernalia. Lightning could be grounded or absorbed. Their long range cannon could hammer the city. If they got closer, they would be in range of the missiles, the machine gun and the sniper rifles.

If the protective shield they were supposed to be able to command was easy to switch on and off, we could not hit them. Of course if we kept hitting the shield then they could not fire either.

The animals and the zombies struck me as what would happen before or with the attack of the army.

The only thing to do was to clear out the noncombatants and give whoever was coming a chance and then see what we could find from them. If they were fanatics, Jonna would have to make us some sort of super cocktail to get over their resistance.

When this stage was over, we would have to do a preemptive strike on the army. Knocking out any animal or drugged person would be easy with a 50 cal. The autocannon would make it a sure thing. If I were planning this for the Church, I would use the night to start. This was a given because they had always started this way. Night vision was now a lot more important for us.

Countering a hypothetical shield was difficult. The only thing we came up with was that the portal controlled some sort of power and the device was made of silver.

We decided to set up most of the motion detectors. They fed a radio that was placed in Artlam's home. At the same time the noncombatants were moved and some had to go to the fort. The laywomen stayed as bait. The boys and girls were dispersed with more guards than we cared to use.

Lauren, Tiffany, and I raced back to the portal with three trucks and some men hanging on for dear life. While empty, we were faster but the road was still not smooth enough.

We had hundreds of sensors in our woods to find an army. It might find a patrol or not. Instructions were made to those that had stayed to flee to Earth if necessary. They would open the portal regularly and look out with a mirror. I hoped an intruder would not make it through but this method would allow us to be seen and given save passage through the portal. In the mean, time I wanted the people dispersed for their own safety. Max was usually here and the camp accepted him as their dog. If things got rough the people would look out for him.

I bought thousands of motion detectors and some cheap radio transmitters to tell me which of the sensor were tripped. They could be worked on in Shreff. Once in London, I used a special cell phone to call an intermediary to contact Willie. I needed some equipment and only some was available from Canadian Tire.

Air rifles that fired an anaesthetic could be found along with the drugs to render a man unconscious. Paint ball guns could fire rounds of mace and or puke gas. There was lots of nonlethal weapons that could be made if we had the raw material to tinker with.

Nylon monofilament was used in lots of traps. Triggering a teargas grenade was as good a use as any. The masks were easy to find but not in Canada. Air packs with protective gear may work in a pinch. Napalm was easy to make and all I needed was more plastique and detonators. The former I could make but professional detonators were best.

I had run out of my liquid assets and Willie was due to refill my coffers. A last report came in from the pilot about finding a new place for a portal but it was as expected, negative.

This time was hectic. My credit card was nearly depleted. My lawyers got more gold and they had to pay the bills. We had been placing three ounces at a time in all the refineries to get our product made into coins or just sold. It seemed if we stayed small we would not be noticed as quickly.

Willie finally returned my call and I requested a meeting. He was busy as usual and we didn't talk on the phone about anything that was sensitive. I would leave a note for him and a hundred kilos of gold. This was understood. What may not be understood was my request.

Some shipments arrived after Willie knew I was home. They were all appreciated but they were never enough. An old tanker truck came to the farm. It had been partially filled with soap from a plant in Toronto and then with gasoline. By the time it reached Shreff it would be well mixed.

The trip back was slower and uneventful. Shreff looked the same until I saw how tense Artlam was.

"What happened?"

"We got more priests. They had some visitors. Some worked much as I do. So far we have not got anything from them."

"When did you get them?"

"Just after you left, about six days ago."

"Did you find any prizes in their property?"

"Jonna searched it and found quite a bit. Most are books but some are some silver icons. There is no reference in the books to the shapes."

"The books shed any light on this? Was there any correspondence?"

"There was, but it's in a strange language."

"Any attempts on your life?"

"Only two."

"Two, they must be slacking off."

I disbursed the ammunition, powder and primers I had brought with me and got the girls and some of Artlam's people to help me assemble more of the motion detectors. There were four more night vision glasses which went to the men watching from the roofs of some nearby buildings.

The house was now well protected but more detectors were mounted where an intruder may come in. This included the roofs.

I was awoken from a dead sleep by an explosion that shook the house. I was up in seconds with a gun in my hand. By the time I had my night vision glasses on I heard Artlam's voice outside the bedroom door asking us to be calm. He didn't want panic shooting in his house.

I called out, "What was it?"

"An old man drove a wagon toward the house. There was an explosion. I need time to find more."

Shit, now it was cart bombs. This reminded me of Iraq or Lebanon. I finished getting dressed. The girls got up as well. Maybe we could catnap later.

An hour later we found that a drugged man tried to drive a heavily laden cart near the house. He was denied access. He pulled a gun out and he was shot dead. There was the sound of a burning fuze and the guards dove for cover. Two didn't make it.

The next morning we looked at the damage and saw that there was a lot of death. Families were literally blown apart.

You would think this sort of attack would discourage people from staying here. The fact was that there was a lot of employment and people needing to feed their families. This made them stay.