I Might Not Know Where I Am, But I Ain't Lost by cmsix

Chapter 3

I'd barely pulled my dripping dick out of Kala, and she was still panting and looking at me with dreamy eyes when there was a knock at the door. I went to it without bothering to dress and opened it. It was Frankston.

"Sorry to disturb you, Lt, but I think you need to come to the gate," he said.

"No matter, I've reached a stopping point. Let me dress and I'll be right with you."

I asked Jareeta if she thought they should get dressed and see about feeding Royster and themselves. She said they would shortly and then I dragged on my clothes, put on my web belt, holstered my Glock and left with Frankston.

"It was the lookouts sir, they say a large caravan is approaching and there's no doubt they'll want to enter the city," he said.

"What about the population? Have they all been informed of the takeover?" I asked.

"Yes, and it doesn't seem to worry them. Some of them even seem happy about it. All of us have found normal uniforms by now and we've released the archers and posted them on the walls. We did relieve them of their arrows first," he said.

"Good enough then. We'd better cancel the breaks and get everyone in place. Put the other two snipers in the tower with their M40s and space the SAWs out on the front wall. We won't need the mortars so let their crews use M4s.

I had them go ahead and open the gate so the caravan could enter and intended to go there when Chungi approached me.

"Hello, Chungi, how has your morning been?" I asked.

"The best day of my life so far. Jorgenson's new wife had more maids than he needed; he said I could have the one of my choosing and two of the four daughters if you agree. Frankston also said that one of the Sergeants, probably the highest ranked one, was allowed to bring his new wife and one of her maids here with him. He thought I might ask you about her," Chungi said.

"It does sound like a fine start for our intelligence officer. Why don't you take both sets? I assume Frankston has already disposed of the Sergeant," I said.

"Yes, sadly the Sergeant was set in his ways and defiant. Currently he is stacked behind the stable with the officers. Frankston said it was a good place for a while, especially since those men had thought it was good enough for a home for my family," Chungi said, smiling.

"Good, good. See to it then. There is room in the headquarters building for you isn't there?"

"There seems to be plenty. Many of the officers had several rooms, some of them even had separate rooms for themselves and their wives. Jorgenson has curtailed that. He said that you were the only one that could have more than one room," Chungi said.

"For that matter, I believe I can squeeze my women and I into one room and I'll only need a small bedroom to put Royster in. Have you met Royster, by the way?" I asked.

"No, but I've heard that he was commander Junga's son," he said.

"He was, and I have a vested interest in keeping him in good health. You should probably go by to meet him and teach him a few things about the way life really is."

"I will do it, as soon as I have my family settled," he said.

"One room per man does not mean that your whole family has to stay with you, Chungi. Try to find suitable accommodations for your mother and the rest of your family, in the headquarters, but if you can't find a place they like I'll let Frankston and Jorgenson go with you to examine some of the richer merchant's homes," I said.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of room in the headquarters, as you call it. In fact, mother is already there with everyone else. She has found some nice rooms near the kitchen and she has declared herself head cook," Chungi said, laughing.

"Do you happen to know anything about the caravan that is coming?" I asked.

"I will probably recognize some of them when they get here, but I haven't seen it yet," he said.

"Come on then, let me tear you away from your prospective women to take a look."

He seemed glad to go to the front gate with me. The caravan was still nearly a mile away and I couldn't see much. We climbed the stairs to the top of the wall and I took a gander with my binoculars. Of course I still didn't know shit.

"Do you know what these are, Chungi?" I asked, waving the glasses at him.

"Are they some type of telescope?" he asked.

"Close, let me show you how to use them."

After an emergency instruction course and a little fooling around, Chungi turned them on the Caravan and examined it for maybe thirty seconds. He took them down and spit on the walk.

"It is Raastan, the pig. Even his partner detest him, he tried to have me beaten once for daring to look upon his daughter," he said.

"It sounds like he'd be an excellent choice to help patrol the cities streets and clean up where people have shit on them. It will take time to teach them to use the toilets we're building," I said.

"Hah, he will never stoop so low," Chungi said.

"He can pick up shit or he can join the officers and the Sergeant. Meanwhile, I'm sure you can find something to do upon his daughter besides look," I said, smiling at him.

Chungi and I descended the stairs and walked over to Jorgenson. I explained Chungi's previous difficulties with Raastan and my plans for both Raastan and his daughter. Jorgenson was smiling his widest while he went back up to the wall to fetch Jensen, who we usually just called Big'un.

Big'un was six feet seven and weighed at least three hundred and twenty-five pounds. To top that off he was in better physical shape than any man in the squad. Jensen could run a mile in five minutes anytime, and four of them in a row in fact. Many big men are slow and ponderous but Big'un was fast on his feet and quick as lightning.

Frankston came up while Jorgenson was off for Jensen, and I gave him the plan too.

"You don't think I'm overloading Chungi do you?" I asked.

"No need to worry on that score. Jorgenson and I explained things to the Sergeant's widow and her maid this morning. We pointed out that we would be displeased if Chungi had trouble within his new family.

"As we were leaving, Chungi's skinny naked ass was bouncing happily between the Sergeant's widow's thighs while the maid petted and kissed around on his back and cooed encouragement into his ear. His other females were lined up against the wall watching, and cheering him on.

"I have serious doubts about this Raastan's daughter being able to make any significant waves," Frankston said, laughing.

"Well how are the incarcerated soldiers doing?" I asked, as Jorgenson returned with Big'un.

"Mostly begging and pleading now, but Jorgenson and I decided another day or two without food and water would help them understand their place when we put them back to work."

I explained to Big'un then that we might be having trouble with one of the caravan's leaders and pointed out that the miscreant had once tried to have Chungi beaten.

Big'un liked Chungi as much or more than most of us seemed to. He said he'd love to serve by keeping the caravan man in line.

Chungi had been right on the money. Raastan's palanquin was barely inside the gate when he directed it out of line, had himself set down, made his exit, and walked over with a large slave following.

He'd no sooner reached us than he recognized Chungi and ordered his slave to catch him. The slave was a big man, but he was nothing compared to Jensen. Big'un backhanded the unfortunate man to the ground and gave his head a love tap with a size fourteen combat boot before quick could get ready.

He followed it up by smashing Raastan in the nose and mouth with a straight right hand that he called from somewhere in the vicinity of China, on our old world. It was a two hit fight, Big'un hit Raastan and Raastan hit the ground.

Another man came rushing over from the still entering caravan just then, wanting to know what was going on.

"Why have you assaulted my partner?" he asked.

"Raastan has offended our intelligence officer. We have arrested, tried, and sentenced him. He will spend the rest of his presumably short life cleaning shit from the streets.

"All of his possessions and his family will be confiscated. Would you like an arrest and trial of your own, or can you keep a civil tongue in your mouth?" I asked.

"But we have an arrangement with the commander here. We pay well for our safety," he said.

"That at least is good to know. As for the former commander, I killed him myself this morning, just after some of my men locked all his soldiers in their quarters.

"Do you have a helper that can show my men which is your property and which is Raastan's? He will also need to identify Raastan's former employees and family for us," I said.

"Yes, Yagi can do that for you," he said.

"Be sure he is an honest man. One you have faith in, because if we think he is trying to cheat us, we will have you cleaning up shit with Raastan," I said.

"I will explain to him that he should suggest what was Raastan's, but of course you will be welcome to anything you see if there is any doubt in your mind," he said, learning quickly.

"Very good, but perhaps he should just help us locate Raastan's family and any slaves or employees he might have had. You and I can take a look at the merchandise later. Come, let us go to an inn and slake our thirst. Do you have any dancers with your caravan by chance?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, but I do not, I only travel with things that can make profit for me. Raastan often brings dancers, but he didn't this time. None but his daughter," he said.

"A shame, and we have already promised his daughter to Chungi. No matter, we will get by with food and drink."

Chalmas was a wealth of information. They had traveled through Lagan and even through Kahtal, the capitol and city of King Frata's castle. He knew that things were getting tense between Perneath and Lagan but he'd heard no word of a siege of Quancho, which would surely be the beginning of any war.

I explained that there had been no siege and that we'd simply captured the city last night. I could tell that he couldn't understand how and I also saw that he had no intention of asking. My estimation of his intelligence went up with that observation.

After we'd eaten and he'd shared all the news he knew, I made my proposition.

"Chalmas, even though we took Quancho for King Dasga, we have no intention of surrendering it to him. We understand that King Frata will lay siege and that after we break that siege, when King Dasga learns that we intend to keep the city, he will most likely lay a siege of his own.

"We have a lot of food stored now, but we will surely need more. Would you be interested in interrupting your travels and procuring food for us, mostly grain of course. We can pay well, since King Frata has not come to remove his collected taxes in quite a while."

"But what of the goods I have now?" he asked.

"We will hold your merchandise safely for you, and if you bring back sufficient grain, and other food that can last, you will be well paid and we will return all your goods to you and most of those that belonged to Raastan."

It didn't take Chalmas long to realize he was fucked if we wanted to fuck him. He agreed and then I surprised him with a bag of a hundred gold pieces to purchase the food. It would probably cover most of his things he'd have to leave here but it wouldn't pay for what Raastan was losing and he knew it.

I hoped he'd take a chance that we were even halfway honest.

"But I don't understand why you want to hold Quancho, its only value to Lagan is as a border post and a place to collect taxes from merchants. In fact I don't understand why King Dasga wanted it. He has his own border city, barely twenty miles from here where he collects his taxes and guards his border," Chalmas said.

"I will not tell you of our plans, but Quancho is not the end of them. I'm sorry that we are disrupting your trade since this place is worth nothing without trade. I can only tell you that you will be happy when you bring back food to reclaim your goods. I don't think I need to mention that things will be better if you come back as quickly as possible," I said.

I saw in his eyes that I needn't have mentioned it. He knew as well as I did that it would be pointless to come back after King Frata had an army parked outside. After he left, Jorgenson showed him an empty warehouse and he had his people and most of Raastan's former people unload all the goods. His caravan left early the next morning, just after daylight.

Shortly after that, Frankston, Jorgenson, and a few others, armed to the teeth, opened one of the barracks and let the men come out for water and a little food. Afterwards, Frankston and Jorgenson split up and began interviewing the men one at a time.

I suspect it was more along the lines of laying down the law. It must have gone well because they only shot three of them. Late that afternoon they opened another barracks, using former prisoners for some of the guard duty and this time they didn't have to shoot anyone.

There were two more barracks to deal with but the day was over. Frankston had the men that had already listened to reason pass water and food to the other barracks through the high barred windows so the poor bastards wouldn't die of thirst. The next day, interviews with the remaining men were finished before noon.

Two days later another caravan showed up. Chungi was an old hand with binoculars by now and he'd even learned to use one of our sixty power spotting scopes. All reports had him in the tower, scanning around during the day and fucking like a little mink for most of the night. I even heard through Big'un that Chaylee, the Sergeant's widow that was now Queen of Chungi's harem, had only needed to spank Ceelicee's naked ass once to make her glad to lie down and spread her legs for Chungi.

But Chungi considered himself our chief scout by now and he'd come running from the tower to let me know that Kaltaken's caravan was headed our way.

"What do you know about him?" I asked.

"Kaltaken is an honorable man. He has always been fair in his dealings; at least that's what others have said. Unfortunately, I have little previous experience in dealing with caravans," Chungi said.

"So, Raastan will not be getting any help on the shit detail?" I asked.

"He already has more help than he deserves and he is living longer than I expected. Your decision to put all known thieves and cutpurses on that detail has been useful in persuading future thieves, like I was, to try finding honest work," he said.

"Well come along to the gate with me while I meet Kaltaken."