Black Guard, The (21 page)

"Captain Sapir?" he asked, pausing. When I
nodded, he continued. "I’m Colonel Rickard, your interface with our
special security personnel… and subject to your orders," he said without
emotion, but it was obvious it took considerable control.

"I assure you, Colonel Rickard, I do not want to
direct your troops. I’m sure you are more than competent at fulfilling your
responsibilities. I would appreciate your input as to how the Black Guard
deployment will impact your duties. After we resolve those issues, I shouldn’t
be involved with your troops. Even if there is an assassination or escape
attempt, I shouldn’t need to be involved with your troops. But in the rare
event that I need to give your troops an order, they must know it is to be
obeyed as if it came from you. If a tsunami hits, you and I know only one
person can be in charge; otherwise, no one is in charge and chaos will
result."

"That sounds more reasonable than the contract
wording." The tension in his face relaxed a little.

"I’m afraid the words had to be unambiguous, otherwise
someone might have felt it could be negotiated later. Our priority, like yours,
is to protect Captain Gasparo until the trial is over, but I want to be able to
do that with the minimum loss of life—your people and mine. Avoiding
misunderstanding is partially the reason for the condition we are in charge. If
someone feels that they don’t have to conform and gets in the way of us doing
our duty, they become the enemy regardless of the uniform they are wearing. The
Guard doesn’t take chances with our client’s lives. We don’t play games or give
warnings or repeat ourselves."

"You do have a rather… lethal reputation, but it’s the
reason important people hire you and why you are known as the Black
Guard," Rickard said in acknowledgement. "Come, Captain Sapir, let’s
go introduce you to the High Justice of Halo’s Supreme Tribunal.

The Colonel had a dark blue limo waiting. "I hope you
don’t mind a ground vehicle?" Rickard said as the driver opened the car
door. When I shook my head, he continued. "The tribunal building doesn’t
have a skimmer pad, and my car will drop us at the entrance."

For the first few minutes after leaving the military
installation we traveled through lightly populated rural areas. Not too long
afterward, large housing complexes with ten to fifteen story buildings began to
appear. As we entered the city proper, the buildings were a mixture of old and
new. The older buildings with brick or stone facing were under thirty stories;
the newer tended to be metal and glass, and were double and triple their size.
The Tribunal building was surrounded by new buildings and looked somewhat out
of place, like an old-Earth, two-story, twentieth-century building made with
red brick and a dark-gray roof with a steep pitch. The building, set back from
the road about a hundred meters, had seven archways which led into an open-air
courtyard, and it had an eight-story bell tower attached to the left side. The
limo entered the security gate and drove around to the rear of the building.

"This part of the building is reserved for security.
We have cameras that monitor the entire building, weapons, reserve personnel in
case of trouble, and a place for people coming and going during shift changes,"
Rickard said as he slid a plastic card through a reader which brought up his
picture and rank on the guard monitor. Then he proceeded through the scanner.

"Corporal, turn off the scanner for Captain Sapir. She
has enough weapons hanging on her to set off every alarm in the building."
He laughed. The guard nodded, and a second later waved me through. "We
will have to work out something for you and your team, since I doubt you are
going to remove your weapons for a scan or want to carry a security card.

"Facial recognition software perhaps," I
suggested. After a short pause he nodded and led me over to a large blueprint
hanging on the wall.

"This is a floor plan of the building. The arches open
onto a courtyard that runs the length of the building. In the center is the
entrance to the foyer. To the left are three courtrooms and a waiting area;
straight ahead a staircase to the second floor; and to the right a hallway
which has administrative offices on both sides and leads to this area.

"On the second floor, to the left of the staircase a
waiting area and the three main courtrooms. Farther to the left and secured by
a guarded door is a short hallway that leads to a conference room dedicated to
the magistrates. The magistrates’ three offices are on the left side, and their
staff’s offices on the right. At the end of the hallway are stairs leading down
to this area." He looked to me. When I nodded without questions, he led me
up the stairs to the second floor and down a long hallway with pale marble
floors and bare beige walls. He stopped at the third door on the left, engraved
with the name, Davide Ulises - High Magistrate, Halo Supreme Tribunal, and
knocked.

"Sir, it’s Colonel Rickard."

"Come," a curt baritone voice said. When we
entered, a man around my height with a soft, square shaped body, long brown
hair pulled back and bound in a knotted tail, and inquiring eyes, stood.

"Magistrate Ulises, I’d like to introduce Captain
Sapir of the Black Guard," he said as he closed the door behind us. Ulises
smiled as he walked around his modern wood and steel desk and extended his
hand.

"A pleasure, Captain Sapir. I’ve heard many rumors
about the Black Guard. Like our current prisoner—both praise and
condemnation
," he said then gave a
short laugh when I didn’t extend my hand. "And that you don’t shake hands
or bow lower than you can without losing eye contact."

"Paranoia based on thousands of assignments over
hundreds of years, Magistrate Ulises," I said and gave a shallow bow.

"Understandable. You are strangers on foreign soil
protecting people who are under a real or highly probable threat. So, tell me
how you are different from Colonel Rickard’s very excellent troops. They would
give their lives to guard Captain Gasparo, have had extensive training, and are
experienced at guarding our prisoners, offices, and courtrooms."

"Think of the Jax military as a manufacturing plant.
The raw material comes into the plant at age six…" I paused to let their
minds come to grips with the concept. "Half of that material is diverted to
the navy. The remaining material is filtered again, and again with most going
to the army and commandos. What’s left goes to the Guard, although some is
returned to the commandos. By age eighteen, when the lowest ranked person
qualifies for the Guard, he or she has already had twelve years’
training."

"That does explain a lot," Rickard said, nodding.
"I thought the two years mandatory training my troops received was
extensive."

"For another thing, Colonel Rickard’s troops will
defer to you and the others you guard and go out of their way to accommodate
you. The Guard won’t. Our concern for our contract’s safety comes before
anything else."

"And if that’s unacceptable?" Ulises asked, with
a hint of amusement.

"We leave. What would be the point of staying if it’s
impossible to protect our client?" I asked.

"That does explain a lot of the rumors, which did
sound exaggerated. What can we expect, Captain?"
 

"I’d like to get you, senior security and
administrative personnel, and the magistrates in a room with my detail. I’ve
come with two seven-man teams headed by senior sergeants and a lieutenant as my
second in command. Colonel Rickard and I will work out our deployment at the
prison, but the personnel in this building need to understand what our presence
means" I said.

Ulises nodded. "I couldn’t imagine how the Guard could
differ so much from Colonel Rickard’s security forces as to justify your cost.
Your explanation helps me to understand the differences, and if the rumors are
true, why you are referred to as the Black Guard."

* * *

 
An hour later,
Rickard had gathered the senior members of his security forces, the three
magistrates, and their senior staff along with my detail into the second floor
conference room reserved for the magistrates. Two men and a woman in red robes
entered with Magistrate Ulises and approached Rickard and me.

"Magistrate Maull, Heflin, may I introduce Captain
Sapir of the Black Guard." Maull was a short, chubby, gray-haired woman
with sparkling eyes set in a round face. Heflin was also over weight, but tall
with an angular face with penetrating eyes.

"Judging from the rumors, the Black Guard should be on
trial here," Heflin said.

"As you are most aware, whether an action is criminal
or not depends on many factors. More often than not based on who is in
power," I said. "And, like today, we are hired by those in
power."

Maull laughed. "A valid point, Martin. Captain Gasparo’s
problems are caused by that exact dilemma—those he helped are not those
in power." She held up her hand to stop Helfin from continuing the
argument. I took that as my cue.

"If you will all please take seats," I said, and
walked to the front of the room.

A security guard lieutenant remained standing while I
waited for the room to quiet. When everyone had been seated, he spoke.
"Colonel Rickard has indicated the Black Guard is in charge—"

"Yes, that is true and the reason I wanted to speak to
the senior people who are likely to come in contact with us. We are not here to
interrupt your normal routines. You know your responsibilities and those
responsibilities have little if anything to do with us. We are here to guard
Captain Gasparo while he is being tried. So unless your current role interferes
with our responsibility, nothing will change. However, if your current role
does interfere with our responsibility, then you will need to pass the fact
that the Black Guard are in command on to your personnel." I surveyed the
room noting the various reactions on individual faces. Except for a few faces
with narrowed eyes, everyone looked satisfied with that explanation.
"However, in the event of an assassination or escape attempt, the Guard is
in command and any orders they give must be obeyed immediately."

"What if we don’t?" a distinguished man in a grey
suit asked.

"You could be killed, either by the assassins because
you ignored our directions or by the Black Guard because you were in the way.
Commands given in those circumstances will be given only once and are not open
for debate or thought." Now just about every human emotion was written on
the faces in front of me. "Although we are not here to protect you, our
orders in the event of a firefight or a pending one will be designed to keep
you as safe as possible under the circumstances."

After the senior staff were dismissed, my team and I spent
the next hour with Rickard, his two lieutenants, and the magistrates,
discussing schedules, duties, transportation to and from the prison, and the
courtroom.

"Our security will ensure only authorized persons are
in the courtroom and no one has a weapon, so why do you need to be there?"
Heflin asked.

"You hired us because you believe the threat is not
only real but inevitable. I would be negligent if I made assumptions on when,
where, how, or the number involved. In fact, your courtroom is far less secure
than the prison and a more likely place for assassinations or escape attempts
to occur."

"How can you protect everyone in the courtroom?"
Maull asked.

"We can’t and won’t try," I said, resisting a
snort of amusement. "The Black Guard was hired to protect the prisoner
Gasparo. Any protection to the participants of the proceedings must be the
responsibility of your security forces."

"Can’t you protect both?" Maull persisted, her
eyes narrowed and forehead wrinkled in a frown.

"If it’s one gunman and I shoot him, the result will
have been that I did just that. But my intent will have been to protect
Gasparo."

"You’re splitting hairs," Ulises said.

"No. Are action and intent the same?" I asked.
"If I’m cleaning my weapon and it discharges and kills someone, is that
the same as if I shoot someone with the intent to kill him?"

"Of course not, but—"

"Believe me, the actions my team take will be in the
interest of protecting Captain Gasparo, because that is what we were hired to
do. If it benefits others in the area, we will consider that a plus, but that
will not have been our intent." I didn’t add that trying to protect the
spectators would not only increase the risk to Gasparo but to the Guard.
"Ironically, your security forces will be more concerned with protecting
the participants than Gasparo, so the two should balance out. My concern is
that everyone understands what you hired the Guard to do and how we will
attempt to honor that commitment."

"The Black Guard," Maull said quietly, almost to
herself, invoking nods from those close enough to hear. After the magistrates
left, Rickard and his two lieutenants gave us a tour of the Tribunal building
and then escorted us back to the military base prison where persons awaiting
trial by the Supreme Tribunal were held. That meant two half-hour trips each
day to and from the Tribunal, and two excellent opportunities to attempt to
free or kill Gasparo.