Blackcollar: The Judas Solution Read Free

shaking. "What in hell was that all about?"
    "You really don't know?" Galway countered.
    Judas's hands paused in the act of brushing the snow off his chest. "What do you mean?"
    "I mean that wasn't a rescue attempt," Galway said bluntly. "Not with just two men. Certainly not with two men armed with lethal weapons."
    Judas looked over at the sprawled bodies, a sudden tightness in his throat. "Are you saying they were trying to kill me?"
    "Why not?" Galway said. "You're of no use to them anymore. They might as well make sure you're no use to us, either."
    Which wasn't entirely true, he knew, a twinge of conscience tugging at him. The Resistance didn't have to actually kill Judas to make him useless for Galway's purposes. All they had to do was mark him somehow, either with a fresh scar or some minor but noticeable bit of muscle damage. The fact that the first shots had missed strongly implied that that was indeed what they'd been going for. But jumping to the wrong conclusion would help cut Judas's last emotional connection to the Resistance. And it certainly wasn't Galway's job to rectify any faulty reasoning.
    Taakh turned to Weissmann, his eyes flashing with anger. "Yae rill 'urn down the town," he ordered. "All o' it."
    Weissmann's eyes widened. "Burn down—? But Your Eminence—"
    "Dae yae kestion ne?" the Ryq snarled, lifting his laser warningly.
    "No, Your Eminence, of course not," Weissmann said hastily. "But—"
    "I don't think we need to destroy the town, Your Eminence," Galway jumped in, gesturing Weissmann to keep quiet. "We'll simply have Lieutenant Weissmann keep the area locked down for the next eight months."
    Weissmann transferred his stunned expression to Galway. "Eight months ?" he hissed.
    "Yae rill 'e silent," Taakh ground out.
    For a long moment no one spoke. Taakh gazed across the snow at the Security men as they examined the would-be assassins; and though Ryq expressions were nearly impossible for humans to read, Galway had no trouble seeing the conflict raging behind the alien's eyes. On the one hand, his pride demanded that he utterly obliterate the town that had dared to raise a fist against their Ryqril overlords. But on the other hand, he also knew that the war was going badly, and that his people needed an influx of spirit and imagination and tactical skill.
    They needed the blackcollars. And without Galway, they would never get them. "'Ery rell," Taakh said at last. "Yae rill seal the region. Re rill tell yae ren it rill 'e o'ened again." Weissmann took a deep breath. "As you command, Your Eminence," he said. Galway suppressed a grimace. So that was how the alien's pride was going to work itself out. He would allow Weissmann to seal the district as Galway had requested, cutting it off completely from the outside world. But it would be the Ryqril who would decide when that lockdown would be lifted. Until then, it would be the local government's job to figure out how to keep the people inside the ring area alive and fed.
    But at least they would be alive. That was the important thing.
    For another moment Taakh gazed at Weissmann, perhaps wondering if the humans were getting off too easily. Then, apparently dismissing the thought, he turned to Galway and gestured toward the transport with his laser. "Re rill go," he ordered.
    "As you command, Your Eminence." Stepping to Judas's side, Galway took his arm. "Come on, Herr Judas," he said. "Time to go."
    "Yes," Judas said, his eyes on the dead men in the snow. Men who'd once been his colleagues and allies.
    "Maybe even past time."
    * * *
    For a moment Sam Foxleigh lay in his narrow bed in the darkness, wrapped tightly in his blankets, wondering what had awakened him. The wind had picked up since he'd gone to bed, whistling cold and wet off the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Probably that was what it was, he decided; the wind tearing around the corners of this one-room shack that old Toby had built to hide out in so long ago. Or maybe it was the