“I said stop fucking firing!” he roared.
Hilo had come to Euman Island intending to create a dramatic public statement, but perhaps it had worked too well. He’d underestimated the demonstrators’ pent-up frustration. They’d certainly been galvanized, but many might soon be dead. In hindsight, Hilo wished he’d brought along more of his warriors, but none could be spared given that the Juen twins and their teams were busy in Lukang. There weren’t enough Green Bones here to fight the soldiers and protect so many jadeless civilians.
The GSI soldiers were falling back to Anorco’s main building, pulling slain or wounded comrades, still pointing their rifles into the threatening mob. “Let them go!” Hilo ordered. When his words didn’t reach far enough, he hurled powerful Deflections in both directions, knocking people staggering and forcing the mercenaries and the protestors apart. Lott and Hami followed the Pillar’s lead and did the same, up and down the line as the GSI men continued backing away. One foreign soldier shouted frantically into a radio handset, too quickly for Hilo to make out all the words in Espenian, although it was clear he was calling for reinforcements, most likely from the GSI training compound eight kilometers away.
Hilo grinned savagely as he pointed at the man. “Call your boss,” the Pillar shouted in Espenian. “Call Jim Sunto and tell him to come.”
He had no idea if the mercenary with the handset heard him or if he relayed the message, but the cameramen from the news trucks did. They crouched on the sidelines like war zone correspondents, creeping closer to get a better shot of Hilo and his men standing in front of the crowd as the military contractors retreated. The space where the fence had stood became, by unspoken agreement, a line in the battlefield that neither side crossed.
Vin approached, trailed by the young, orange-haired Finger and her friends, who staggered under the weight of the metal containers they’d confiscated from the ruins of the helicopter. They dropped them at Hilo’s feet and saluted him.
“Jade for our Pillar,” the woman exclaimed, her face flushed, her eyes bright with the high of battle. “Far do your enemies flee, Kaul-jen.”
Hilo looked past the fence. Summer rain continued to fall, dripping off his hair into his eyes, turning the trampled dirt and grass to mud. Shouting continued on both sides. Some people had climbed on top of the helicopter and were waving Kekonese flags. The Euman Standoff had turned into a siege.
“Not yet, they haven’t,” he said. “But they will.”
CHAPTER
58
A Promise Kept
Eighteen hours later, Jim Sunto arrived in an armored vehicle outside of the Tranquil Suites Hotel. The CEO of Ganlu Solutions International had been at his home near the company’s headquarters in Fort Jonsrock when he’d been woken in the predawn hours by a phone call informing him that following a violent clash on Euman Island, two of his employees were dead and another three were in the hospital. A helicopter pilot employed by Anorco was also dead. Nine Kekonese civilians had been killed by gunfire and thirty others had suffered injuries.
Sunto had gotten onto the earliest possible flight to Kekon. Two No Peak clan Fingers intercepted him when he walked into the hotel lobby. They took his sidearm and escorted him into the elevator and up to the top floor, which had been entirely taken over by the Pillar and his men. Sunto was boiling over with fury when he walked into the suite.
“What the fuck have you done, Kaul?”
Hilo was sitting on the sofa, finishing breakfast and watching the news, an ice pack wrapped around his shoulder. Lott Jin was standing by the window, talking into a cell phone, pacing around trying to find better reception. Additional Green Bones of both clans had arrived on Euman Island along with the army, state police, and more reporters. The protestors had withdrawn to the ridge beside the original encampment while GSI contractors salvaged the helicopter and repaired the fence around the Anorco property. Lott had left a dozen No Peak Green Bones at the site of the standoff and was coordinating with Aben Soro in the Mountain clan to establish rotating patrols to maintain peace in the area. The Horn hung up the phone when Sunto came in. He exchanged a glance with the Pillar, then went through a door into an adjoining hotel room.
Hilo took a final bite of a meat bun, chewing and swallowing as he picked up the remote control and hit mute to silence the television, which was replaying dramatic images from yesterday—Hilo on top of the van, the smoking ruins of the crashed Anorco helicopter, GSI soldiers firing into the crowd, people being carried away on stretchers. Hilo wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked up at Sunto calmly. “Do you remember the promise I made to you, Lieutenant?”