The Iron Dream (19 page)

Although there was no denying that it would pain him deeply to be forced to deal with Stopa as a traitor, there was no denying that his first and only loyalty had to be to the Swastika and the cause of genetic purity. Stopa was a traitor who stood in the way of victory; duty could not always coincide with personal pleasure. Further, this whole unfortunate business might be put to pragmatic use.

Feric spoke to Lar Waning. "Assuming that the Star Command's qualms about the Knights could be settled once and for all, would they accept me as absolute ruler of Heldon without demur, providing that such powers were granted to me by a legally constituted Council of State?"

"Under those circumstances, there would be no doubt about it, my Commander!"

"How do you propose to accomplish such a great feat of legerdemain, Feric?" Bogel asked. "Those wretches would as soon vote themselves out of office and onto a dung heap!"

"My dear Bogel," Feric rejoined, "that will be precisely their destination before the week is out. Within five days, the Swastika will reign supreme over all Heldon!"

"I'll drink to that!" Waning declared.

"You'll drink to anything, Waffing!" Bogel japed. At this, all present, including the portly Waning himself, burst into hearty laughter.

As the sun went down behind the towers of Heldhime spreading deep shadows over the streets and painting the high stone wall of the Party headquarters compound a fiery orange, squads of SS men wearing their black leather uniforms, but riding in plain unmarked cars, left through the main gate at five-minute intervals. Each squad consisted of six troopers armed with submachine guns and truncheons; eight squads in all left the compound and melted into the dusk of the capital.

Two hours later, when night was fully upon the city, a final unmarked car left the compound, followed five minutes later by forty sleek black SS motorcycles.

The grounds of. the Palace of State lay in semi-darkness; only a skeleton honor guard of some dozen soldiers patrolled the environs of the empty Palace at this late hour. Two of these men were stationed at the Heldon Boulevard gate, four more at the entrance to the Palace itself; the other six walked solitary watches along the 125

perimeter of the fence surrounding the grounds. No one dreamed of an attempt to seize the Palace at such a time, since there was nothing and no one within worth seizing; the soldiers who drew this duty were for the most part careerists nearing retirement rather than alert and vigorous young lads.

Thus it was no trick at all for the SS to seize control of the Palace of State from this handful of time servers. An unmarked car holding four SS men in civilian tunics drove up to the gate and demanded admittance, claiming to have authorization from Councilor Krull to remove some books and papers he desired for study. When one of the guards stuck his head inside the car, he found himself staring down the oiled iron barrel of a submachine gun. It was therefore easy enough to persuade the fellow to draw over his companion on the pretext that confirmation of the authenticity of the certificate of authorization was needed.

The two were trussed up nicely and tossed in the back of the car while one of the SS men opened the gate.

Once this had been accomplished, the need for stealth was removed; a signal was given and in the darkness of a nearby side street, two-score motorcycle engines were kicked into life. Before the remaining soldiers could respond to this sudden hubbub with anything more forceful than confusion and alarm, forty black SS motorcycles came roaring up the drive at eighty miles an hour. They reached the Palace entrance with such blinding speed and such a spectacle of forceful vigor that the four hapless wretches at the foot of the stairs did not so much as get off a shot before they were felled by SS truncheons. After that, it was an easy matter to round up the six isolated sentries, who had been thrown into a state of terror, and confine (hem under guard in the basement of the building with the other prisoners.

Notification of the capture of the Palace was given by electrophone to Party headquarters, and reinforcements were immediately dispatched. Within fifteen minutes, the Palace of State had been garrisoned by three hundred elite SS troops, and the perimeter of the fence was guarded at twenty-yard intervals by heavy machine-gun emplacements. In addition, the howitzers in the headquarters compound had been zeroed in on Star Keep. If the army made any attempt to march on the Palace, it would pay dearly. Lar Waffing was even now informing the Star Command of certain selected details of the situation.

126

Within half an hour of the seizure of the Palace by SS

shock troops, unmarked cars began arriving at short intervals with their assigned prisoners. Only when word of the completion of this phase of the operation reached Party headquarters, did Feric, escorted by a score of motorcycle SS, leave for the Palace.

Never had the Council chamber presented to Feric an aspect this pleasing. All eight Councilors were trussed to their chairs like so many chickens in a market, and over each of them hovered two tall blond SS men with steely blue eyes, fanatic resolve, and cocked submachine guns.

Twenty more SS men in black leather encircled the rotunda; in the hall outside, Feric could hear the reassuring clatter of steel-shod SS boots on tile. There could be no mistaking who ruled here now.

Behind Feric as he confronted the prisoners were Best, Bogel, and Remler, crooking submachine guns in their arms. A Party flag had been erected by the Council table and the double red lightning bolts of the SS were displayed on a smaller black banner beside it.

Only Krull, out of his senile whining arrogance, presumed to address Feric under these circumstances. "What is this filthy outrage, Jaggar?" he wheezed. "How dare you—"

Before the old degenerate could further pollute the atmosphere, the nearest SS guard ended the outburst with a smart backhanded blow across the mouth that left the old pirate drooling blood.

Feric favored this fine young fanatic with a modest nod of approval before deigning to address the collection of cooked political gooses; the fellow deserved to know that his Commander had noticed his dash and speed.

"I will now inform you of the reason for your arrest,"

Feric said.

"Arrest!" Guilder cried. "You mean kidnapping!"

A gun butt to the back of the head ended this unseemly outburst, and Feric continued. "You are all charged with treason. There is a Dominator among you and you have fallen into his net. Such laxity in will in Helder of your high position is tantamount to displaying cowardice in the face of the enemy, a treasonable offense, punishable by death."

The faces of the prisoners fell. Gradually their eyes came to focus on Gelbart—a Universalist after all, and 127

therefore the most likely of their number to be a Dom.

For his part, Gelbart stared impassively into space; Feric could sense him exerting the full force of his will on the wretched creatures. Their resolve slowly stiifened, and all at once, they gained the courage to speak.

"What nonsense!"

"Where is your proof?"

"A Dom on the Council? Utter rubbish!"

Feric had held up his hand at the first sound of this outburst, restraining the SS guard from maintaining silence by force. Now he had the unconscious Guilder shaken awake so that all of the Councillors would fully understand their situation.

"Very well," Feric said, "I'll give you the chance to prove that you're free from Dominator control, I order you to vote me emergency power to rule Heldon by decree, to adjourn this Council indefinitely, and then to resign your seats. If these orders are obeyed, my first act upon assuming the tide of Supreme Commander of the Domain of Heldon will be to commute your death sentences to permanent exile. You have sixty seconds to decide."

The whining that arose from the degenerate wretches was all too predictable. "An outrage!" "There has been no trial!" "You have no authority!" Clearly such craven creatures would not have the will to cavil in this manner in the face of death without the psychic underpinning supplied by the Dom, Gelbart.

This repellent creature now glared at Feric with uncon-cealed hatred, his black rodent's eyes filled with cold fire.

"This will get you nowhere, Jaggar," the Dominator hissed. "When the army leams of this, you will be annihilated."

At this, the Councillors seemed to take heart, embold-ened by Gelbart's words as well as by his psychic emanations.

"I see that it is time to clear the air once and for all,"

Feric observed, unsheathing the Steel Commander and raising the gleaming shaft high above his head. He stepped forward a few steps, and with one irresistible stroke brought the headball of the Great Truncheon down on the top of Gelbart's skuH and dashed the Dom's head to pieces.

With the Dominator who had controlled them lying inert in his chair with his putrid brains spattered all over 128

the Council table, the seven remaining Councillors had no further illusions as to the gravity of their situation. The stench of fear rose over them like the vapors of some malodorous swamp.

"I vote in favor of Councillor Jaggar's motion," Ross-

back stammered.

"And I," said KruU.

With that, the others fell over each other in their haste to make the motion unanimous.

"The papers. Best," Feric ordered. "Untie the hands of the prisoners." As Best extracted a sheaf of documents from his tunic pocket, the SS guards freed the prisoners, who heaved a collective sigh of relief. Feric passed around a copy of the resolution for signature. When all had signed, he signed the document himself for the sake of unanimity, then returned it to Best for safekeeping. "The letters of resignation," Feric said. Best handed these documents around to the seven Councillors. When several of the swine began reading the papers, Feric roared "Sign them at once!" The prisoners instantly complied.

When Best had collected all the documents, Feric turned to Bogel. "The new Council of State now consists of the present members of the Swastika Circle. I will rule by emergency decree until a new constitution can be written which permanently abolishes republican forms. Prepare the proclamation for broadcast at noon tomorrow."

Bogel grinned, saluted, shouted "Hail Jagger!" and went off about his business.

Feric returned his attention to the cowardly wretches seated around the Council table. They had signed the resolution as well as the confessions to high treason. There was no further need for these vermin, and the moment had come none too soon. The very sight of these puling traitors soured his stomach. The world would certainly be better off without seven such swine as these!

"Remler, take these reeking bags of garbage out of here and have them shot!" he commanded. No order he had been able to issue thus far had given him such patriotic satisfaction.

Feric awaited Field Marshall Heermark Forman in a small, plain office on the top floor of the Palace of State, so that, by the time the representative of the Star Command arrived, he would have already have seen the thoroughness 129

with which the building had been garrisoned, and would have been made to climb several flights of stairs.

The man Waffing ushered into the room was an imposing old fellow in his late sixties; an excellent example of how a genetically pure human could retain his vigor and force long after his physical prime. Although older than Waning, he was a good forty pounds lighter, and in his field-gray uniform festooned with medals and trimmed with rich brasswork, he held his own as far as dash went, even though Waffing's black leather uniform was of clearly superior design. His gray mustache and steely eyes added dignity and force to his appearance; here was a man well used to both discipline and command. Forman was breathing heavily as he seated himself on one of the plain wooden chairs that were the sole furnishings of the little aerie. As for the state of Waffing's respiration after the climb, the less said the better.

"I trust that High Commander Waffing has already briefed you on the basic situation," Feric began.

Forman regarded him somewhat coldly. "I've been given to understand that your men have occupied the Palace of State for the purpose of thwarting a Universalist plot in which the Council itself was implicated," the Field Marshall said cautiously.

"Events have progressed swiftly," Feric said. "The filthy cabal has already been dealt with. Gelbart was a Dom; all the Councillors save myself were enmeshed in his pattern.

Gelbart's plan was to vote a ban on the SS and the Knights of the Swastika. I'm mortified to have to say that the Knight Commandant Stag Stopa was implicated in the plot. His men were to have then slain the Star Command, thus precipitating a ruinous civil war between the Sons of the Swastika and the army. The patriotic forces of Heldon would then be so decimated that the hordes of Zind could then march upon us and annihilate the true human genotype.

Naturally, when the SS uncovered this plot, I ordered my men into action at once. Gelbart was slain, and the wretched Councillors confessed."

Feric reached into a tunic pocket and withdrew a series of documents which he passed over to Forman, who accepted them without comment. "Their signed confessions may be inspected at leisure by the Star Command,"

he said. "Before' resigning, the Councillors unanimously passed a resolution suspending the constitution and grant-130

ing me the power to rule by decree. I have assumed the title of Supreme Commander of the Domain of Heldon and have appointed sturdy patriots of unquestioned loyalty to Heldon and total devotion to racial purity to the vacant Council seats. The emergency is now past."

"What of the traitors?" Forman inquired evenly.

"Stopa has yet to be dealt with," Feric said, "but my very first act as Supreme Commander of Heldon was to have the whole foul lot of Council swine shot."

For the first time, there was a modest display of emotion on the Field Marshal's face: a certain soldierly approval for a task well and smartly done. "I'm not quite sure why I'm here. Commander Jaggar," he said. "You obviously have the situation well in hand. Provided all is -as you say it is, the Star Command is ready to accept you as rightful ruler of Heldon; I say this as a representative with full plenipotentiary powers."