Chapter 244: The Provost (Part Two)
The two injured Provost soldiers were still on the ground making noise. The 81st's commander stared at Kian with the expression of a man who had expected a very different outcome from this visit.
Then he felt the first flush of excitement — assaulting Provost personnel was a serious offence. This had just become much worse for Kian.
The Provost Major's face went through anger and arrived at a rapid reassessment of the situation. His hand went to his sidearm.
"You struck Provost soldiers. Are you declaring rebellion against Imperial authority?!"
Kian smiled pleasantly.
"Major — I'd suggest organising your thoughts before speaking. We're in an active war zone. The occasional armed rebel infiltrator reaching a rear position is completely normal, wouldn't you say?"
As he finished the sentence, several hundred soldiers throughout the camp raised their weapons simultaneously, all of them pointed at the Provost detachment.
The 81st's commander shouted: "Mutiny! This is mutiny! Major, arrest them all!"
Kian looked at the Major with mild curiosity.
"Mutiny? What do you think, Major?"
The Major felt several hundred weapons pointed at him and experienced a very clear physiological response to this situation. He was also aware of recent history — Provost personnel attempting to exercise authority over combat-zone units had been encountering increasingly severe outcomes. The planetary command structure had effectively collapsed. If a field officer decided to kill Provost soldiers, there was no meaningful institutional response available.
The Major looked at Kian's expression — pleasant, relaxed, with something behind the eyes that communicated genuine indifference to consequences — and made his decision.
"Ha, well — mutiny! No, no. Clearly these are fine soldiers, all of them. A bit of rough humour among military men, nothing more."
"Ah, so that was a joke. You had me worried."
Kian pointed at the 81st's commander.
"I was starting to think you'd taken payment from this individual to have me dragged away, confined, and subjected to extended unpleasantness. Glad we cleared that up."
"Absolutely not!" the Major announced with the conviction of a man who had recently decided this was true. "The Provost Marshal's office operates with complete integrity. No improper arrangements of any kind."
He turned to the 81st's commander with the expression of a man who needed this situation to resolve itself peacefully.
"Clearly there's been a misunderstanding here. A significant misunderstanding. These things happen."
The 81st's commander was staring at the Provost Major with the betrayed expression of a man who had been promised something and was watching it evaporate.
He collected himself and turned to Kian.
"You want to know why I'm here?! Your regiment has set up an unofficial toll on a military supply route. You're extracting payment from passing convoys without any authority to do so.
My motor transport company passed through your sector and vanished. My infantry company passed through your sector and vanished. Don't talk to me about rebel guerrillas — my infantry was a combat-trained unit with full weapons complement. Guerrillas don't quietly eliminate a company-strength PDF element."
Kian noted privately that the man had worked out the truth accurately. Enemies often understood you better than allies.
He put on righteous indignation.
"Impossible! Completely impossible!
Whatever happened to your units is your affair. My sector has active rebel guerrilla interference — improvised devices, night operations. You can see the wire and minefield markers all around this position. That's not decorative."
He gestured to Egghead, who produced a transit log — a bound record of all vehicles that had passed through the sector with dates, unit markings, and cargo.
Kian tossed it to the Major.
"Every convoy through our position is logged. Every unit, every vehicle count. Your regiment has no entries in that log — because your convoys didn't use our road. Whatever route they took instead, that's where the guerrillas found them. And you want to blame me for your people's navigation decisions?"
The Major leafed through several pages. The 81st Regiment appeared nowhere.
"There genuinely isn't an entry for your regiment."
He was no longer in a position to advocate strongly for his friend. The arithmetic here was becoming clear, and his survival instincts were firmly in control.
The 81st's commander jumped in: "That's because your illegal toll drove them onto alternate routes!"
Kian raised an eyebrow.
"Our toll. Tell me — how much do we charge per vehicle?"
The 81st's commander started to answer and stopped.
Three bags per vehicle. One hundred bags capacity per hauler. Three bags was not a number that generated sympathy.
The Major had his own read on the situation now. He understood the broader context — the redistribution system had produced nothing for months, rear-area units were getting nothing from official channels, and the various creative arrangements that had developed to address this were widespread and generally overlooked because there was no functional authority left to do the overlooking officially.
This particular battalion had set up a road toll. Three bags per vehicle. The 81st's commander had declined to pay three bags per vehicle, routed his convoys around the position, and his convoys had subsequently not arrived at their destination.
The Major's eyes drifted to the surrounding fields — healthy, green, extensive. Very productive-looking farmland.
He made a mental note not to look too closely at what might be under it.
[End of Chapter 244]
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