Fourth Vector Ch. 50

Jack could tell that he'd struck a nerve. Clark shifted in his seat as tears appeared in his eyes. Those tears soon contained the dancing flames of the fire in front of them, and Jack harbored a secret thought that he just might be successful yet.

"Bancroft is a sinking ship. Don't go down with him. You still have so much to offer your country. Or perhaps even in retirement. God knows you've done your best for Java over the course of your career. It doesn't need to end this way, Jason. There's a second path in front of you. You can join with us, and I'll make sure that you get a fair ending out of this. If you want to retire, you can do that. If you want to go back to the navy, by all means, we'll make that happen. Don't tether yourself to a man that's already dead. You have another option."

For a brief moment, Jack thought that Clark might take him up on that option. The man seemed to be considering his words, and he remained silent for several minutes after Jack spoke. Jack could see the two of them taking out the three guardsmen and then driving Bancroft back to the Western Army, effectively ending the war and redeeming Clark in the same breath.

However, it wasn't meant to be. Clark's gaze soon hardened and he turned away from Jack to stare into the flames.

"Some of us aren't so cavalier with our loyalties, Jack," said Clark quietly. "You may have found it within yourself to betray your country but I will not. This is the path that I have chosen and I will see it through to the very end. Everything that I am, I owe to Percival Bancroft."

"Everything that you are you owe to Jason Clark," corrected Jack. "Bancroft didn't make you into what you are. You did, out of your abundant talent and intelligence. Don't confuse his role for what you already had inside you in spades."

To Jack's surprise, Clark actually looked at him with a small smile. "Maybe in another life, we might have been friends, Jack. Hell, I might have even been your deputy in this other life. I know the cause that you fight for and why it has put you at odds with Bancroft. I also know the Emperor is far from perfect. I get frequent reminders of it to this day but even with all that being said, this is the path that I've chosen. And in this life, we will have to be enemies."

It was quite clear to Jack that Clark wasn't going to change his mind. The man could take the title of the most loyal deputy in the world, never once thinking about leaving his master even as everything burned down around them.

And yet, Jack got the feeling that Bancroft didn't realize just how devoted Clark really was to him.

"I can't fault you for your decision, Jason," said Jack quietly. "You're a good man. You've always been. I just hope that he knows the caliber of the man he's dealing with. Something tells me he has no idea."

Yet again, Jack got the impression that he'd struck hard. He watched as another tear fell down Clark's cheek before being quickly wiped away.

"That's neither here nor now," said Clark quietly.

With those words, it became evident that Clark was done speaking for the night. He put Jack in a pair of handcuffs to prevent him from going anywhere, and he then cuffed them directly to his person.

"I have a feeling you wouldn't do anything to me just to escape, would you, Jack?" asked Clark once the situation was set.

Jack shook his head.

"Good," replied Clark, before turning around to get some sleep. "If I were you, I'd keep quiet. If Bancroft found out that you're alive, he'd certainly make things much more miserable for you. Now get some sleep. We'll have a long road to Corsham tomorrow."

With that, the number two man in the Javan Empire soon turned on his side and went to sleep, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts.

Escape was something he couldn't even fathom right now, especially without the right tools for the job. There was also the fact that there were five of them and one of him that stopped him from going anywhere either.

For now, Jack would have to be content to be chained to Clark. He shifted slightly to be able to sleep, careful not to give off too much movement and alert the one guard that was on patrol. As Jack's face laid against the hard ground, he thought of many things.

He thought mostly about the war, and how he hoped his army wasn't far behind Bancroft. He thought about all his friends and allies within the army, and wondered how many of them were still wondering whether he was alive or dead.

Mostly, he thought about Kat and Abigail, as well as his children--both John and the one still resting in Abigail's stomach. Jack could only pray that Abigail had survived the blast with the Destiny, and that their child was alive alongside her.

At least he was still alive for now. Though things couldn't get any worse, there was always hope where there was life.

But how could he escape Bancroft's clutches now?

*****

The next morning, Kat, Abigail, Greg, and the rest of the Western leaders arrived in the small village of Tinhurst, pressing on after a short journey that only started an hour earlier. Their force contained a spearhead of as many as three thousand of the best Western soldiers, while a much larger force of about fifteen thousand followed in their immediate wake.

The difference between the first group and the second group was speed. Vehicles had been requisitioned wherever they could be found--small cars all the way up to trucks--to be used to carry the small force forward. It gave them a speed that they wouldn't have had otherwise, which was considered essential if they were going to find Jack still alive and get him out of harm's way.

The rest of the men would follow along behind them just as quickly as they could march, following the coastal road down to Belfort. The other parts of the army were taking different roads on the way south, the goal being the ultimate convergence on the Javan capital while rounding up as many of the routed Javan soldiers as possible.

Ordinarily, it would have been considered too risky to let a small group of soldiers guard the Western leaders so far out from the main body of troops but Javan resistance seemed to have completely crumbled. Any Javan soldiers that were happened upon immediately surrendered, creating a great logistical problem as prisoners were taken by the thousand.

And yet for Kat and Abigail, there was no price they wouldn't pay to find Jack, and that first involved clearing out these coastal villages in the hopes that they could find him.

This particular village they were entering was marked only be a simple wooden sign that said "Tinhurst" as their cars breezed into it. Approximately a few miles down the coast from Mobust, it was here that the Western Army stopped as they realized that the fishermen were harboring many survivors from the naval battle.

With those survivors came the desperate hope that Jack might be with them.

"Search all the wounded and check those cages over there!" instructed Abigail to the soldiers closest to her. "Report in all the names of the wounded as well as what ship they came from. You all know what your king looks like. If you find him, please let us know right away!"

With those words, the soldiers fanned out through the village and started to retrieve all the wounded. Many of them were in good shape, looking to have been taken care of while they were in the village. Their wounds were bandaged and they seemed to be fed and hydrated.

However, there was a very small minority of men that were in cages closest to the dock, something that turned Abigail's stomach to see.

"Why in the world would those men be in cages?" asked Kat from her side, noticing the same thing.

"I have no idea," replied Abigail. "But it ends now. Let's get them all released."

As it turned out, almost all those in the cages were sailors that the fishermen assumed were either traitor Javans or Fourthies. One of those Javans was a very familiar face.

"Abigail!"

Abigail squinted her eyes until she recognized just who she was looking at. His uniform was tattered and he was covered in dried blood but she would recognize Lt. Cory Renner anywhere.

"Cory! You're here!"

They closed the distance and Cory slipped into her arms. It was at this point that she realized that something was very wrong.

Cory was crying.

"What's wrong? What happened?" she asked.

Cory looked at her with sorrowful eyes. "They have him. Bancroft has him."

A cold chill ran down Abigail's back. "Bancroft has who, Cory?"

"Jack! Bancroft has Jack!"

*****

It was not much more than twenty minutes later that all the Western leaders were inside one of the houses in the village of Tinhurst, set aside for them by a bewildered owner who didn't know what to make of this collection of Fourthies.

All of them gathered around Cory, who had been cleaned up, given a blanket and something to eat while he told them everything that had happened since he'd been picked up with Jack.

"That's when they took him," said Cory, finishing the rest of the story. "Bancroft and his men took Jack and got away in a small truck. It's all that's left of the forces under his direct command. They got away in the night."

"How long ago was this, Cory?" asked Aedan. "It can't have been that long, right?"

"Yesterday afternoon," he confirmed. "That's when Bancroft came through. He didn't last long and got moving quickly."

Aedan turned to look at Kat and Abigail. "Less than a day ahead of us by this rate."

"Yes, but moving by vehicle, just like us," said Abigail. "They can cover a lot of ground and stay just one step in front of us."

"True, but we have most of the major roads south covered," said Greg. "They can't run forever either." Greg then turned to look at Cory. "Do you have any idea where they're going? Did they say anything?"

Cory shook his head. "Just that they're going south but I don't know where. He can't get into Belfort with only three men, four if you include Clark. My guess is that he's going to try to regroup somewhere else."

"There's no shortage of Javan soldiers out there," said Kat. "But I'm willing to bet most of them aren't willing to fight for Bancroft any longer. He might be in just as much danger from roving bands of former soldiers as the civilians are. They'll be resentful at fighting for a lost cause."

Cory closed his eyes as a painful look appeared on his face. "I don't know how long Jack has. I know Bancroft is going to kill him if he's not dead already. I just couldn't do anything to stop it being in that damned cage!"

"It's okay, Cory, you did what you could," said Abigail. "We'll catch up to them. It's good knowing that we are less than a day behind them. We can keep up our current pace with the vehicles we have. Bancroft will have to be more choosy about what paths he takes, for the reasons that Kat outlined."

"I just hope we can get to him in time," said Cory, hanging his head. "If something happens to him, I'll blame myself for not being able to save him."

At this point, several of the leaders gathered around to discuss while Reina and Ciara tried to comfort the distraught Cory.

"Well, I think we ought to get moving quickly then," said Ambros, thumbing his finger back at Cory. "We shouldn't make any unnecessary stops. If we can stop Bancroft before he can do whatever it is that he wants to do, we might just be able to save Jack's life yet."

"We should increase our speed while we're at it," suggested Abigail. "We'll need to make up any ground while we can. Our stop here, while beneficial in that it got us Cory and several of the missing survivors from the Destiny, has only delayed us in catching up to Jack."

"What about the other roads?" asked Greg. "I would think we'd want them to keep advancing south at an equal pace? It sounds like Bancroft doesn't have any plans to go east."

Kat nodded. "That's the best course of action right now. Besides, the army is stretched out a full thirty miles now. We're covering a lot of ground going down these roads and we should be able to follow Bancroft's trail rather easily. I'm sure it won't go unnoticed when he stops in towns like this one."

"I can tell the men to get ready to leave at once," said Ambros. "The survivors are nearly loaded up."

"Good, give the order then, Ambros," said Abigail firmly. "Let's catch up to Bancroft."

*****

That morning, Jack woke up to a stiff body and an aching back. Sleeping on the ground hadn't been pleasant, and being tethered to Clark had really limited his range of movements. Jack tried to stretch without attracting too much attention, but he found that once again the guardsmen weren't anywhere in sight and Clark was drinking some water right next to him.

Upon seeing that Jack was awake, he offered the water to him. Jack drank heavily before passing it back.

"We're going to be moving out soon," said Clark, looking at his watch. "We have a ways to go until we get to Corsham. Probably another two days at this pace. And I know the Emperor is going to want to leave soon."

"It doesn't have to be that way," said Jack, testing the waters once more. "We could still manage to get away on our own."

Clark didn't even bother to think about the suggestion. "I've already given you my answer, Jack. It's not going to change now."

"Just think about it, that's all that I ask. Things don't have to end this way."

Clark started to get angry. "You don't take no for an answer, do you?"

"Not if I still feel like the argument isn't final yet."

"Well it is," snapped Clark before he gestured back toward the truck. "And if you knew what was good for you, you'd shut up. The Emperor is coming now."

Jack turned to look, seeing the familiar face of Percival Bancroft making his way toward the two of them. It was too late for him to pretend that he was still dead, as Bancroft was now staring at Jack with wide eyes and an open mouth as he quickly closed the distance.

The jig was up. Bancroft knew Jack was alive.

"Well, well, well, isn't this a surprise?" said Bancroft as he stopped directly in front of Jack. "So you're alive after all?"

"I don't intend to die for quite a long time," said Jack. "Too bad you can't say the same."

Bancroft actually grinned and shook his head. "And here I wondered if you'd actually managed to learn any humility throughout our little war. It appears that you haven't." Bancroft then looked at the cuffs on Jack's hands, as well as the tether that went to Clark.

"At least you got him shackled without too much trouble," said Bancroft to Clark, his tone unforgiving and even a little disparaging. "We'll be moving out soon. You can sit in the back with our prisoner."

"I have a better idea," said Jack. "Why don't you just surrender to me now? My army isn't that far behind you, and you have no forces with you to mount any resistance. Surrender now and let's put an end to this war that never should have happened in the first place."

Bancroft sneered at him. "You know, that's partly the reason why I liked you in the first place, Jack. You have a lot of pluck for a younger man. You did back then too. Your biggest problem was that you could never see more than one move ahead of you, and you fail to see that even now."

"The only moves I see are the ones that involve your surrender and execution for what you've done," growled Jack.

Again, Bancroft shook his head at him. "That will never happen. But your death will, just as sure as the sun will rise in the morning. As long as I have a nucleus to rebuild my army around, this war isn't over." Bancroft then crouched down, putting his face close to Jack's. "And I'm going to rally that army by displaying your lifeless corpse on the highest building that I can find. So you see, you still have some use to me. And it might be better off that you're still alive after all. Killing you in front of them will give them the kind of zeal they need to defeat the invaders."

Jack could only shake his head. "You're mad. You've lost it all."

"We'll see about that," said Bancroft with another sneer. He then turned to look at Clark. "Let's go! We're leaving now!"

*****

For the rest of that day, the spearhead of the Western Army continued to move south, following the coastal road in search of Jack and Bancroft. They seemed to be getting closer to the Javan emperor, as the last hamlet they went through mentioned that Bancroft only crossed through earlier that day.

"We're gaining ground on him," said Kat triumphantly to Greg, Ambros, and Abigail. "We might be able to catch them if we drive straight through the night!"

"As much as I'd like to, that would be a bad idea," said Greg. "These roads along the coast aren't great. Many of them are in dire need of repaving. It wouldn't be good for us to lose several vehicles in the night just because our visibility is poor."

"I'd have to agree with Greg," said Ambros. "At this rate, we're catching up. There's a good chance we'll be able to catch them tomorrow if we're lucky. We shouldn't do anything too rash once we're this close to our quarry. Besides, we still have all these prisoners to process before we move on."

That was true as well, despite Kat's desire to keep moving. It seemed that every group of Javans they encountered just wanted to surrender, many never considering the thought of fighting. Only one group offered any resistance but it was so small that it was neutralized in a matter of minutes before the group could continue onward.

With the consensus being to bed down for the night, a very frustrated Kat and Abigail went back to their tent for the evening. The tent had been taken with them, pulled out of the bed of their vehicle and pitched by the members of Jack's security detail, most of whom seemed to take guarding Kat and Abigail as seriously as they took guarding Jack.

Abigail was so upset that she started cursing once the two women were alone. "Damnit, I want to keep moving! Who knows what could be happening to Jack right now! He could be in danger!"

"I know, but we can't really continue on with just the two of us," said Kat. "Even though the Javans keep trying to surrender, there are still groups like the one earlier that could try to fight us."

"I don't even care about that," said Abigail. "So we take Ben Torben and the rest of the security detail with us. That will make ten of us, with eight burly security guards to handle any trouble. I think that would be more than enough to handle things!"

Kat crossed the distance between them and hugged her sister-wife. "Let's just hope morning comes before we know it. I know nights are the worst but at least we're getting close."

"That's what makes me nervous," said Abigail, her voice muffled by Kat's body. "It's the fact that we're so close. If something happens to him now, I'd never forgive myself."

Kat pulled back and looked into Abigail's eyes. "Jack is strong. We need to believe that he's going to get through this. For his sake as well as ours, right?"

Abigail nodded glumly. The two women separated and soon made for bed, but they were joined by a friendly face just before settling down.

Vera emerged in their tent, wearing a melancholy look and seeming to be in similar spirits.

"Do you think there's any chance we can still leave tonight?" asked Vera, showing solidarity with two of her closest friends.

"We've already been down that road," replied Abigail. "It's not looking like we're going to get our way."

"I know what you mean," said Vera, sitting on Abigail's cot. "I've already talked to Greg about it, and he says it would be too dangerous in the dark. I understand why he's saying it but I also can't get over the fact that it's my brother out there."

"Believe me, we were already about to bribe Ben to leave in the night," said Kat, before she nodded her head in Ben's direction. "Would you take our offer, Ben?"