“So why should I work with you?” Eli growled.
“We need to atone. You need help.” Cord looked down at the dirty asphalt between his knees. “I’m asking you, please let us be good guys again.”
All of Cord’s men nodded their heads, expressions miserable.
Ghost Wind looked at Eli and raised her eyebrow. Eli glowered at her a moment and looked at the others. They all looked back at him expressionless. He was stuck making the call.
“I’ve talked a lot with this man, when he wasn’t stuck sitting out at some Shark checkpoint,” the older man, the doctor, spoke up, walking from the side of the van to where the men kneeled in the dust, “Everyone here was forced to be with the Road Sharks. No one liked it and none of us wanted to be there, but we weren’t given any choice. It was quite literally do or die for us.”
Eli ran his hand over his face. “Horace? Can you have two of your people ride with the women, the kid and the doctor back to New Hope?”
“Sure!” The long-bearded farmer replied. Ghost Wind wasn’t surprised. A doctor, medical supplies plus four new females was a treasure to the small farming community.
“Kita,” Ghost Wind said, “if I’m not mistaken, Willard here is a fusion cycle mechanic?” The older man nodded. “Maybe there might be a place for him with us.”
“What about us?” Cord asked. Ghost Wind turned to Eli, who reached deep into an outer pocket of his duster. His hand came out with a ragged and dog-eared map of old Oregon and he took it to Cord.
“Get up,” he said. Eli pointed to a spot on the map. “Up here, near the Columbia River, there’s an old farmhouse, about a quarter mile east of this bridge. You’ll know it because the front door had a little shotgun accident. Get whatever food you need from what you got from the Sharks. These others will be well taken care of, so don’t worry ‘bout them. I will show up at the farmhouse in a week, week and a half. If you’re there, we can discuss if you can be of real help or not.” Eli’s face grew bleak. “If you’re not there, well… best stay out of my territory from now on, as I’ll assume you’ll play me false from then on.”
“We WILL be there, Eli,” Cord said. “We WILL!”
“Then get your guns and gear and get the hell going.”
****
The van drove off, and Cord and his men were preparing to leave, when the dark haired man walked over to Ghost Wind and Eli.
“Looks like you’re going to get some payback on the Sharks. I drew up a little map of their building while I was there. I needed to know all the quick exit points and places to stash stuff I pilfered from that bunch.” He handed the much-folded piece of old sketch paper to her. “If you need some more guns, me and the boys—”
“If you’re going to follow my orders, then follow orders,” Eli said gruffly.
“Yeah. Guess I deserved that,” Cord said. “Just so you know, Axyl, is packing up, intending to go somewhere in Nevada to lick his wounds. They’re probably leavin’ tonight. I strongly doubt they’ll be taking the back roads south. You might want to think on that” With that, he walked over, got on his fusion cycle and rode north.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Pay the Piper
****
It was getting dark, and Kita was still positioning people.
Ghost Wind had spent the last ten years of her fairly young life working mostly alone, finding and spying on the enemies of the Clan of the Hawk. All this coordinating with an untrained group was starting to chafe at her. In addition, her aching body and tired eyes were screaming at her that she at least needed a catnap. She told Eli where she was going to be and told him to wake her when all was ready.
She had hidden herself under a pine tree that had been a small ornamental when it had been planted and now was a good thirty feet tall. She wiggled down into the needles as she leaned against the base, and watched the Road Shark base. She fully intended to watch for activity, for signs the Sharks were headed out and did so right until the moment her chin found her chest.
“Wake up.”
She looked up, was it time move already? Looking around, she realized she wasn’t under the pine tree. She was on a huge rock spur, with a deep cave at the top, looking over a peaceful river valley.
Fear spiked through her. She wasn’t in the decaying city of Bend any more, she was several hundred miles north, at the Roost, the scout base where she had lived and trained. She was in Clan of the Hawk territory, and the banishment of the clan was nothing to be taken lightly. She had been banished on “pain of death.”
“Ghost Wind.” She looked up. Jannelle Longwalker sat across a small campfire, looking at her with concern.
“Sifu!” Ghost Wind looked around warily. “How did I get here? I’m not supposed to be here!”
“This only looks like the Roost,” Jannelle replied. “You’re safe for the moment. I need to tell you something.”
“You’re alive! I can hear you! Oh, Sifu! I had a terrible dream!”
“No,” her teacher bluntly said, “you didn’t have a dream. You ARE having a dream now.”
“What?”
“This is the only way I can get through to you other than in tiny fits and starts. Had someone paid more attention to their meditation and shaman studies, I wouldn’t have to resort to waiting ’til you fell asleep!”
“Oh Sifu, I’ve wanted to tell you for so long how sorry I am about what Axyl—”
“Yes, yes, I know all that.” Jannelle told her, “You’re forgiven for being a very young and foolish girl, dammit, so let it be! This is important, and Eli is about to wake you. Listen to me, I must tell you two things!”
“But—”
“SHHH!!” Ghost Wind’s teacher raised the well-known finger of silence, “Listen! I can’t say much, so listen closely! You want so badly to kill the snake by destroying the body, but you must cut off its head! Also, your dealings with the Clan of the Hawk are not done, so be on your guard.”
“But what are you talking…”
“That’s all I can say to you…”
“Ghost Wind, wake up!”
Ghost Wind’s head snapped up, Eli was lightly shaking her.
“Ghost Wind, you were out, girl!” he said. “It’s time to move.”
****
Had it been a dream? Or had she actually had a moment with the spirit of her teacher? Ghost Wind’s confusion mixed with hope until Eli tapped her shoulder. He pointed across a wide broken parking lot to a lighted building. It was go time.
She had expected getting close would have been a lot harder.
As Ghost Wind and Eli crawled through the big parking lot to the old municipal building, she could see the Sharks guarding the place were spread thinly. None of the guards looked that focused on their jobs either, often looking back at the building with worried expressions.
As close as they were to the river, the untrimmed vegetation ran riot, and the Road Sharks were too arrogant to realize that their lack of care could be used against them. The scouts reached the edge of the north wall, and moved silently into a tangle of ornamental shrubs being overtaken by weeds and maples.
“Is it just me, or do those guards look like they want to be somewhere else?” Eli breathed into Ghost Wind’s ear.
“They’re getting ready to leave their base and move into an unknown future.” Ghost Wind’s voice was more quiet than the slightest breeze. “Some of them are probably thinking Axyl is crazy to leave this fortress for someplace in the middle of Nevada.”
“Yeah, and no one likes to leave their home, even these vermin.”
“I think we can convince them otherwise,” Ghost Wind said, a grim expression on her muddy face. “It will be full dark soon, then you and I can sneak in and cause them enough damage that they’ll panic and hopefully run south into Kita’s ambush.”
Eli patted the satchel he had dragged with him. “Not to mention make sure they’re never gonna use this place again.”
They sat, leaning against the wall and watching t
he light slowly leave the western sky in varying shades of pink and purple. It was so beautiful. Ghost Wind thought that everything always looked better before a battle, before danger. Things usually ordinary took on a special meaning simply because she didn’t know if they’d ever be seen again.
“Look, Eli. The guards.”
Both of the men they could see were growing more agitated, as if they could somehow sense trouble was coming and things were going to go bad for them. The man to the north began a slow walk toward his compatriot to the south, and in a few minutes they were standing only a few yards from the hidden infiltrators.
One of the guards, a short stocky man whose jeans had enough holes in them to qualify as a net, looked at his fellow guard, a Latino looking man with a scar that made his mouth turn down in a permanent sneer.
“Jorgé, all that activity inside there, we really leavin’ the place?”
“That’s what ol’ Axe Man says, Frank.” The Latino had a surprisingly boyish voice for such a large man. “I can’t see how we’re gonna take even half our stuff with us, though, with just our bikes and them three vans.”
“You didn’t hear? Cord and his boys took off with the bakery van, and half our parts and all the meds. Doc Mullins went with him. Took the slave girls too!” Frank told him. “Best try not to get injured, now. We got no one to patch us up.”
“And no one to screw either.”
“Oh, I dunno. There was that little piece Shell’s got chained in his bedroom. I’m thinking’ she’s still there, and Shell sure as hell ain’t got any use for her. Nice and young and tender.”
“We could go up, do her and be back here before Axe even knows we been gone. Be fun to give it to the boss man’s chica.” Jorgé grinned an evil grin.
“Then why the fuck are we still standing’ here? I call first, man!” Frank returned the vile grin.
“You’ll take sloppy—” Jorgé’s eyes opened wide.
His fellow shark looked at him curiously, “Dude? What’s wrong?”
Jorge fell forward on his face. Looking up from his comrade, Frank saw the woman standing behind him, covered in dirt and leaves, bloody knife in her fist.
“Shit!” He started to raise his rifle when a huge shape exploded from the weeds, knocked the gun from his hands and grabbed him by his chin and the back of his head. “Eli?” he said, terrified.
The last thing the Road Shark heard was the sound of his own neck snapping.
****
“Well,” Eli said, “I guess we’re starting our attack a bit early then.”
He let the body of the guard fall to the ground and walked over to where Ghost Wind was starting to clean the blood from her knife on some broad mullein leaves.
“You’ll pardon me,” she said, “If I’m a little intolerant of men planning to rape someone. Anyway, that’s two less we have to worry about.”
“If we could catch them two at a time like this,” Eli said, looking down at the two bodies, “we could get rid of the whole nest. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure they’re concentrated around the garage at the moment. We’re probably not going to get more than a few unless we’re willing to take some huge risks.”
“That’s not the plan. We stick to the plan.”
“Yep. We just need to terrorize them a bit. That’s where that C-4 I brought comes in. We’ll make them believe it’s time to run, and in a hurry. They zoom out, into Kita’s ambush and maybe the Road Sharks won’t ever threaten anyone ever again.”
“I’ve been through an ambush with Kita,” Ghost Wind said, slipping back into the grass and brush, “I’m not as confident that her part-time warriors will be able to get the job done. Either way, we’ll deprive them of their best base up here in this area.”
They moved from their hidden position, and carefully slipped around the side of the building away from the main entrance. Twenty yards down on the south side, they found a rusty fire door, the lock corroded and the handle hanging loosely.
“No… it can’t be this easy,” Eli said. “Hell, it even swings inward!”
“Give it a try, QUIETLY.”
“Uh, yeah. I got that.”
Eli began to slowly exert pressure on the elderly door, and it moved forward, inch by painful inch.
“What the hell is stacked against this thing?” he growled.
Ghost Wind carefully peeked through the open crack.
“There’s about a dozen pieces of large furniture stacked against…” She paused. “Hold it. Wire.”
“Relaxing tension, or tightening?”
“Tightening. Push that door much farther and something bad is likely to happen.”
“Can you cut it? I have side cutters in my coat pocket.”
“As long as we don’t increase the tension, I can disarm it,” she said, reaching into Eli’s pocket. She stuck her arm into the narrow opening and with great care snipped the wire. Nothing happened and they both breathed out in relief. He pushed the door in a few more inches and she stuck her head in, moving it from high to low.
“I don’t see anything else. Just be careful sliding the door in or something will fall over. Noisily.”
Eli slowly slid the door far enough and Ghost Wind wiggled over a desk, slid off and rolled to her feet. Eli followed and they both stood in a dark hallway, coated with dust and cobwebs.
“They don’t seem to use this exit a whole lot,” Eli said.
“Hopefully no one will come down here now.” Ghost Wind noted, pointing down at the tracks they were leaving in the floor’s half-inch thick dust.
The pair moved carefully down the hallway, and the growing twilight, coming in from dirty ground floor windows did little to give them away. They occasionally came to lit areas where old LED solar lights had been scavenged and repurposed as interior lights, but these were fairly few and far between. The people of 2057 A.D. were used to low or no lighting after dark, and areas that were not used much had only the light from the darkening sky.
Approaching a junction of hallways, Eli kneeled and gave the old republic military signal to stop. Ghost Wind dropped down beside him noiselessly. Ahead, she heard voices, many voices, all sounding very stressed and busy.
“They’re getting ready to leave,” she said. “We need to figure out a way to give them some incentive.”
Eli hefted the haversack he carried. “Oh, I might have sumpthin’…”
“It’s too bad we don’t have enough to bring down the building.” Ghost Wind eyed the pack as if it was at fault for its lack of destructive power. “I think, though, if we can take out one main support, it will make the whole building too risky to use.”
“We’ll have to do it in the basement level or maybe the ground level might work, but ground level has a lot of Sharks scurrying around,” Eli replied.
“Basement it is, then.”
****
The basement was not well guarded, in fact it wasn’t guarded at all.
In an odd way, that made sense. No one was likely to attack them from the basement, other than maybe the rats and mice, and the door was unlocked. As Ghost Wind and Eli descended the dark stairwell, Eli pulled a small device from his thigh pocket, and handed it to Ghost Wind.
“It looks like it gets pitch black father down, take this, and spin this little handle clockwise,” he said.
Ghost Wind did so, and as she cranked the near silent little motor, a soft glow began at one end. As she turned the crank a little faster, the glow became a dim beam of light.
“Beforetime tech, I guess. Thank you, Eli.” she said, “But won’t you need this?”
“Not really. I can see pretty well in the dark.”
“How well?”
He hesitated a moment, “Well, a cat’s got nothing on me.”
“Part of your big secret?”
He nodded, and started down the stairs. Ghost Wind noted the stairs had no dust to speak of.
“Looks like they come down here on a regular basis; let’s watch out.”
T
hey reached a large fire door at the bottom, marked appropriately enough basement, and they entered. The room had been used more than they believed it would be. Piles of cordwood lay all around, and the large HVAC units had been ripped out and stuffed to one side. In their place was a very elderly, very battered furnace that had obviously been brought in from somewhere else.
“So that’s how they keep warm in the winter! Using the air ducts as chimneys, I bet,” Eli told her, looking at the battered furnace. He opened the unit’s door and saw only slightly glowing coals, about to burn out. “So much for modern technology.”
“Must be horribly smoky,” Ghost Wind said.
“Depends if they could get the vents to draw or not. Either way, beats freezin’. Looks like they’re not keeping it going now that they’re buggin’ out.”
“You’d think in a city this size they would have found a fusion generator to power the place.”
“Those things are finicky. Keeping a motorcycle gen running is a lot different from keeping one of the big generators functioning. The furnace at least would be easier for men of lesser intelligence to keep operating.”
“Look! The main load bearing support is just behind the furnace, Eli. We can not only make the building unsafe, but also unheatable.”
“I love a two-fer,” he said, smiling grimly. Eli took the three remaining C-4 charges and carefully placed them at the base of the support pylon. With exceptional care, he stuck a detonator in each then pulled out his remote to make sure the power light was still lit. “We’re green. We can be a quarter mile away and still detonate.”
“And this will take out the pylon?”
“Yep, right at the base, and then this end of the building will be unsupported. It may not collapse right away, but it WILL collapse, at least on this end. Be pretty unsafe to live in after that, but if the Sharks want to try, it’s fine with me!”
Ghost Wind smiled in a bit of a shark-like manner herself. “Let’s see if we can find that girl they were talking about and get her out of here. Maybe the blast will catch a few of the Sharks before they decide to take off.”
The Road Sharks Page 19