Read Caine's Law for Free Online

sky.
    Honest-to-fuck
artillery
.
    And the sky isn’t empty. Not when I really look. Way up high, it’s actually kind of crowded, what with all the shiny pinpoints that are probably the latest generation of riot cars.
    Faller coughs behind my head. “The, ah, Social Police are, I guess, hoping to deter a rescue attempt. Or, ah, escape.”
    “Somebody did mention to them that I can’t walk, right?”
    “They—uh, they like to be thorough.”
    “And escape to where? Jesus, look at that shit.”
    I nod out toward the ragged hills rising in the middle distance: only the colors of stone and dirt. “There’s nothing out there. Not even sagebrush or cactus or any other goddamn thing. What the hell is this, the Korean Peninsula?”
    “Ah, no. No, we’re in North America. We, uh … this installation is in the Dakota Badlands.”
    “Holy shit.”
    “Yes.”
    “I’ve heard—but I never thought it could still—”
    “It is. Even now. Hotter than the provincial authority has ever admitted. That’s why all the slavelanes divert south. There is nothing alive here that we didn’t bring with us.”
    “I better knit myself some lead underwear.”
    “Better knit yourself a tank.”
    Wait … the Dakota Badlands … holy shit again. Holy shittier. “It’s the
dil. That’s
why this fort’s here. That’s why
I’m
here. This is the Earthside face of the
dil T’llan
.”
    He shrugs. “No reason to deny it now. Neither of us is going anywhere.”
    Well.
    Well well well. Explains the anti-magick shit. And the black oil.
    Back outside the window some guys are walking by—what the fuck? No armor … and they’re
huge
 … and that color isn’t cammo, it’s their fucking
skin
 …
    “Holy shit …” I can’t seem to get my breath. “Ogrilloi …? On Earth? Are you pulling my fucking
dick
?”
    “The, ah, Overworld Company has been employing ogrilloi at this facility for, ah—” He coughs harshly, and again, and he wipes his mouth with a handkerchief stained with what looks like blood. “For a while. They, ah, are very reliable. And they need very little upkeep. Mostly meat and beer.”
    “Has anybody told them how all their little grills are getting slow-roasted every time they take a step out there?”
    “Apparently some factor of their genetics makes them resistant. About the worst they can get here is sunburn. And I’ve never seen an ogrillo with a sunburn.”
    He’s got a point, but—
    “And you give them
weapons
? Jesus, what are you, suicidal?” Then I get it. How much damage can ogrilloi do with small arms out here in the Badlands? Kill a few Social Police, maybe an Administrator or two, and that’s about it. But heavily armed ogrilloi on Home is a different fucking story. “Orbek’s pistol … he really did get it in town.”
    Faller nods tiredly. “Relations have been … strained … with the Order of Khryl for a long time. Ever since we first opened the gate, in fact. The Board of Governors has been preparing, ah, a contingency plan … andfollowing your, ah—the death of the Justiciar—well, as you can imagine, we anticipate that the Order intends to shut down our Homeside operation. Possibly even close the gate—the dil—if they can.”
    “So you cut a side deal with the grills?” It actually makes sense. Too much fucking sense.
    The only reason anybody bothers to deal with the Order of Khryl in the first place is their military occupation of the
dil T’llan
. We have to play nice, because they’re in place and they have power and they are not to be lightly fucked with—but a few thousand ogrilloi with state-of-the-art training and Home-friendly firearms could kick their armored asses right the fuck off the Battleground.
    I don’t care how much God loves you. Getting shot in the face with an anti-tank rocket is gonna leave a fucking mark.
    With the Order gone, taking with it all that whole Justice and Truth and Knightly Virtue shit that must put a serious