Ryan lifted himself up to the top of the water tank and took a look over the rim. In the distance he could see the sec men patrolling the fence and searching the trees. There were a few sec men closer in, but they were headed west to join the search with the others.
Ryan turned to scan the eastern stretch of the farm and spotted a pair of sec men walking the fence, looking more as if they were patrolling rather than searching. One last quick look around and Ryan was convinced that it was time to move.
He lifted himself over the top of the tower and climbed down the ladder to the ground. His clothes had left a wet trail down the side of the tower and on the ground beneath his feet, but with any luck the midday sun would dry any tracks he left behind.
The slaves' quarters were about fifty yards away, across a stretch of fine, tan-brown dirt. To the left were patches of grass and weeds that would cover his trail but would add another twenty-five yards to the distance he had to travel.
He decided it was better to hide his tracks.
But instead of running, Ryan walked slowly, almost casually, as if he, too, were looking for the one-eyed outlander. Hopefully, if anyone saw him from a distance, he would look like just another sec man out on patrol.
He was halfway to the closest cabin when he heard voices shouting loudly.
"Do you see him?"
"I think so!"
Ryan wanted to run or dive for cover, but he was out in the open. He heard no more voices, and he thought that he'd be hearing blasterfire at any moment, but no one fired a shot.
He took another look and saw two sec men standing near the main building. They were pointing at something out past the main gate.
"That's a mutie, you triple-stupe bastard!" one of the sec men said.
"It could have been the one-eye."
"Yeah, and I'm Baron Fox." Ryan picked up the pace slightly and reached the cabin without further incident. He put his hand on the doorknob and turned it. It was unlocked. Without another moment's hesitation he opened the door and slipped inside.
"Who the—?" a man said.
"Don't stop now, baby!" a woman urged.
Ryan stood motionless inside the doorway as a man and a woman halted their rutting and lifted their heads to see who had just joined them.
"Afternoon," Ryan said.
The woman smiled. "It's the outlander."
"Hey, they're looking all over the place for you," the man said.
Ryan reached over his right shoulder to touch the hilt of his panga just in case these slaves thought about turning him in. "I thought I would hide here for a while. Till dark."
The woman's facial expression turned coy, and she ran a hand over one of her full and heavy breasts.
"You're welcome to join us if you like."
"No, thanks," Ryan said. "I'll just wait till dark."
"We heard something might be happening tonight. Something big," the man questioned. "Is that right?"
Ryan was glad to hear it. Krysty and Mildred had done a good job of spreading the word. "You heard right."
"Well, you're welcome to stay," the man said. "The sec men have already been here twice today."
Ryan nodded. "Thank you."
"Maybe we should help him," the woman said.
"After."
"All right."
Then the couple turned and looked at him.
"Don't let me interrupt you," Ryan said.
They got back to rutting.
Ryan took a look around the cabin and found that it was little more than a single room with a bed set against one wall and wash and toilet facilities against the other. He picked out a comfortable spot near the door and sat on the floor. Then he tried to rub out the cold ache the water had left in his legs, but his joints and muscles were still stiff and would need more time to recover.
Luckily, several hours remained before darkness fell, and judging by the way the couple was going at it on the bed, they would be busy for the next little while, giving him enough time to rest and recover.
Chapter Thirty-Five
"Traders at the gate," the sec man said.
The baron stood at the north window of his office watching the sec chief and his men search the orchards. "Where are they from?"
"Someplace called Reichel ville. It's on the south shore of Erie Lake."
"Are they armed?"
"Yes."
"With what?"
"Remades and handmades."
"Are there any breeders among them?"
"No."
"What have they brought to trade?"
"Fish."
The baron wrinkled his nose at the thought of fish, but knew that it wouldn't hurt to supplement his slaves' diet with an alternate source of protein. "Are the fish fresh?"
"No, baron. Preserved with salt. Some are smoked."
"And what do they want in exchange for their fish?"
The sec man hesitated.
"Speak up, I can't hear you."
The sec man cleared his throat. "A breeder."
Baron Fox laughed heartily. "A breeder, for salted fish?"
"Yes, Baron."
"Number One," the baron said to Norman Bauer. "Trade them some fruit and vegetables and send them on their way."
Norman nodded and left the baron's office.
The baron turned to the lone sec man left in the office. "Find sec chief Grundwold and tell him I want an update."
WHEN THE COUPLE had finished rutting, the woman got up from the bed and walked naked across the room to the wash facilities, where she towel dried the sweat from her body and combed her hair. The man lay back on the bed and watched her.
"So," she said, approaching Ryan, "what's happening tonight?"
Ryan wondered if they could be trusted, but realized that if they were loyal to the baron they would have turned him in hours ago. "Some people will be coming to get me and my friends."
"What people?"
"Other outlanders."
"An escape?" the man asked from the bed.
"Yeah."
"Can we come with you?" he said, sitting up.
"I won't be taking anyone with me, but you'll be free to leave if you have the chance."
He looked up at the woman standing in front of Ryan, and it was obvious that they had something more in common than just rutting.
"What can I do to help you?" she asked.
"I need you to let my friends know where I am."
"Sure. Where are your friends now?"
"One's a healer working in the nursery. The other is the redhead, and she's staying in the visitors' quarters."
The woman nodded. "I can get to the nursery easy."
"What's your name?" Ryan asked.
"Debby. He's Maurice."
"All right, then, Debby, here's what you need to tell her when you get there," Ryan said.
A BREAKER HAD CUT OFF the electricity flowing through the main gate. Norman Bauer had stepped through the open gate to negotiate the trade, and it was still open.
"We don't trade breeders for anything but blasters," he said, the ledger open in his hands. "From the looks of the remades you're carrying, you don't have anything we want. Not for a breeder, anyway."
"We're from a small fishing ville," sec chief Ganley said. "All we have to trade is fish, and we need new breeders to keep the ville alive."
"Not my problem," Bauer said. "You want to trade fish, we can give you some fresh fruit and vegetables for them."
Ganley nodded. "If we bring blasters to trade next time, might we trade for breeders then?"
Bauer was impressed. Obviously this was a man who understood the nature of trade. Established trade partners got better deals than new ones. "Your chances of taking a breeder back to your ville would be better, yes."
"Then we'll take your fruit and vegetables now, and return another time for a breeder."
The two men shook hands, exchanged goods and went their separate ways. The fish went straight to the cafeteria, where it would be included in th
e next meal. Most of the fruit, however, was dumped by the raiders while on the way back to camp, since it was too heavy to carry such a distance when they'd be needing all their strength and energy for the raid later that night.
The raiders were sorry to see the sec chief come back empty handed.
But the muties along the way were happy for the fruit, and now thought of the raiders as friends.
DEBBY RETURNED to her cabin an hour later.
"Did you find Mildred or Krysty?" Ryan asked.
"I found both of them in the nursery," she said, handing a few fresh fruit to Ryan. "Thought you might be hungry."
"How were you able to get there and back without arousing suspicion?" Maurice asked.
"I told the sec men along the way I was having women's problems. They didn't seem too interested in hearing the details and let me through to the nursery."
Ryan took a bite of an apple. "Did Mildred and Krysty tell you anything?"
"They sure did. Mildred said to tell you they were healing a sec man who the one-eyed outlander cut with a leaf-bladed throwing knife." She said the last four words very carefully so as to not make a mistake.
Ryan was confused for a moment, then understood that Jak was somewhere close by.
"And Krysty wanted me to give you something."
"What?" Ryan asked.
"This." She pulled Ryan's SIG-Sauer from beneath her dress, and two full clips from the deep cleavage between her breasts. "She said you'd know what to do with it."
Ryan took the blaster in his hand, quickly checked it over to see that it was in good working order and then stuffed the clips into his pockets.
"And I guess she was right," the woman said.
"Did she say anything else?" Ryan asked.
"Yes. She said, 'See you after dark, lover.' "
Chapter Thirty-Six
J.B. sat on the hood of the wag, wiping down his Uzi. The .50 calibers and the cannon were in as good a working order as he could manage. The wag was running better now, too, but it was clear that one or more of its eight cylinders was dead, and there was no guarantee it would be running long enough to get them all out of the farm complex.
They'd get in on the back of the wag, but getting out might just have to be done on foot.
Just then Doc called out to him. "I believe Jak and young Dean are returning from their recce."
"Are they alone?" J.B. asked.
"Afraid not. Jak seems to have picked up a wild hare or some sort of squirrel."
J.B. jumped down off the wag to meet the two youths.
"There's something happening on the farm," Dean said excitedly. "There's sec men all over, but Jak sent a message to Dad. Man, what a message—"
The information was coming too fast, and with too much noise for J.B.'s liking.
He waved his right hand at the boy to cut off his words and turned to Jak. "What happened?"
"Slaves all inside. Outside looks someone escape. Mebbe Ryan, mebbe not. Sec men on triple red. Stuck sec man in leg with knife. Send message to Mildred. No mistake. Tonight be ready."
J.B. nodded.
"I could have told you all that," Dean said, visibly disappointed.
"I know, but I wanted the facts first."
Doc interjected. "Quite often, young Mr. Cawdor, someone's life will depend on the rapid exchange of information. Although we have got plenty of time to go before sundown, it is still a good rule to obey."
"All right," Dean said, dejected. "I'll make a note of it for next time."
J.B. put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "C'mon, you can tell me all about it while Jak puts those squirrels on the spit."
Dean's face lit up in excitement. "Well, there was only a six-inch gap in the fence and…"
"FRUIT?" RHONDA ASKED, holding an apple in her hand.
"Said they don't trade breeders for food," Ganley said.
"But you told us that they send wag trains to the eastern villes all the time, trading breeders for all kinds of supplies. Not just blasters."
"They do. I've seen them do it." The sec chief shook his head. "Felt to me like their trader was busy with some other problem right now and just wanted to get rid of us, quick as he could."
"I got that impression, too," Franz said.
Ruznicki nodded. "Me, too."
"So," Rhonda said, "what do we do now?"
"We wait for dark," Ganley said, pulling a peach out of the bag of fruit they'd brought back to the camp.
"And then we take from them what they wouldn't give us in trade."
CLARISSA RETURNED to the wag late in the afternoon. She was being trailed by a few muties, but they were hanging well back and seemed more concerned with the farm than following her.
"Muties are ready?"
"They can't wait to get inside," Clarissa said. "But there's something else you need to know about."
"What's that?" J.B. asked.
"Traders at the farm today."
"We saw them," J.B. said. "Did their business and went away."
Clarissa shook her head. "Not quite. There's more to the group than the ones trading. They're camped to the south of the farm."
"What want?" Jak asked.
"Not fruit—that's for sure. They dumped half of what they traded for on their way back to their camp."
"That is strange," Doc commented.
"The muties loved it," Clarissa said. "They've circled their camp waiting for more."
Jak looked at J.B. "Call off tonight?"
J.B. was silent a moment, noting that the sun was low in the western sky and less than an hour from sliding below the horizon. "No. There's no time," he said. "Ryan, Mildred and Krysty are expecting us tonight."
"What about the traders?" Clarissa asked.
"If they wanted more than fruit, my guess is that when our blasters light up the dark, they'll be on our side."
THE SUN WAS ALMOST GONE from the day and the sky was streaked in a rainbow of fiery reds, glowing oranges and searing yellows. Flashes of greenish-blues cut between the hues like portals to another time.
It was a beautiful sight, one few had the time to admire.
For Grundwold, the setting sun meant he had failed. The one-eyed outlander was still hidden somewhere on the farm, and his chances of escaping the complex outright would improve with every minute of darkness.
"Should I call back the sec men to guard the main building through the night?" Fillinger asked.
Grundwold considered it, but knew he couldn't tell the baron that the outlander was still on the loose. And as long as he kept searching, he hadn't failed. "No more than a dozen men," Grundwold ordered. "Turn on the lights and leave the rest of them out there in the orchards."
"But they'll be easy targets to chill for a single man in the dark," Fillinger stated.
The sec chief realized he was putting his men at risk, but there was no other choice; the search had to continue. "If one of them gets chilled, then at least we'll know where the one-eye is."
Fillinger was silent a moment, then said, "What about the baron. He'll want a report."
"Find Norman Bauer," Grundwold said. "Tell him to send two breeders to the baron's quarters. That should keep him busy for a while."
Fillinger nodded, then turned to carry out the sec chiefs orders.
"Now," Grundwold muttered. "Let's go find the outlander."
THERE WAS a single knock on the door before it opened.
Ryan had been sitting on the edge of the bed and only had time to dive to the floor between the bed and the wall. His SIG-Sauer was in his hand and ready to fire, but he resisted the temptation to rise up with his blaster blazing. He'd be able to take out the first sec men, but there would be more coming through the door without another way out of the cabin.
"What is it?" Maurice asked. "You've already been through here twice today."
Ryan slid under the bed and looked out from beneath it through a slit in the overhanging sheets.
The sec man had ignored Maurice's comment and was
looking at Debby, who was still lying on the bed. "You," he said to her. "Let's go!"
"Go where?" she asked, dutifully getting up from the bed and putting on a bathrobe. "What have I done?"
"Nothing wrong," said the sec man. "You're going to see the baron."
Debby looked over at Maurice with a pained expression, then at the bed where Ryan had been only second before. "Is it a celebration? Did they find the one-eye?"
"Not yet."
"Then why is the baron calling for me?"
"Not the baron, sec chief Grundwold," the sec man said. "He wants the baron kept busy while we continue the search."
"Oh, my pleasure," Debby cooed, in what Ryan knew were words solely for the sec man's benefit. She was in love with Maurice and he was in love with her, but they could never admit it. Not yet, anyway.
"Let's go."
At the door she stopped, turned back to face Maurice and said, "If you get busy tonight, please don't forget about me. Don't leave me behind."
"Never," Maurice said.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Baron Fox was lying back on his round, oversize bed, looking through another stack of predark hard-core skin mags. This one was called Dominas and featured naked and provocatively dressed breeders subjugating men in a variety of different ways.
The baron turned the page and there were two women, one dressed in red, the other dressed in black, standing on a naked man. Each of the women wore spike-heeled shoes and the heels were pressing into the man's flesh, threatening to break the skin at any moment. In photo after photo they moved slightly so that their deadly shoes pressed against the man's arms, throat and face. In the last photo, the woman in black had taken her shoes off and was smothering the man with her stocking-covered feet. The man seemed to be turning red from lack of oxygen, but like in all the other photos, he had an enormous erection.
Axler, James - Deathlands 61 - Skydark Spawn Page 21