by Scott Moon
“I don’t like him. He’s a big, cocky jerk,” she said.
“Some people probably think he’s jovial,” Thaddeus said.
“Not funny,” she said. “If you want to tell him, go ahead. I’m just telling you she’s out there.”
Thaddeus was trying to decide what to do with the information when he realized she was hesitating. He looked at her until she talked.
“The canyon wolves have a den near the oasis. If the White Skulls don’t find her, and I don’t think they’ll treat her well if they do, then the wolves will. They’re always hungry. Normally hunt at night, but she’s right there in front of them if she’s where Zach says he saw her last.”
“Why didn’t Zach pick her up?”
“He says he couldn’t get to her,” she said. “What are you going to do?”
“Talk to Zach.”
* * *
Thaddeus found the man standing behind one of the fuel trucks. This one didn’t carry any recovered materials and only served to keep the other trucks moving. It was parked at the far side of town, where they didn’t expect there to be fighting. The driver had other jobs to do now that his mobile fueling duties were over. Somehow, from what Amanda said, Thaddeus knew right where he would be.
The truck looked ancient. The giant wheels were scarred from years of driving over rocks and other rough terrain, and more recently from smashing down bits of the train wreckage. He thought the paint had been white, but now was a sort of reddish-brown—darker near the bottom and around the wheel wells. He looked at the cab, but didn’t see any obvious signs of someone inside. Walking with purpose but not too quickly, he circled the vehicle.
Storming in and telling the man to do his job would only frighten the coward and send him running. He might not be a coward, Thaddeus thought.
What he found when he came around the back of the truck was a middle-aged man with a weathered face and tired eyes. The truck driver leaned against the back bumper, one hand supporting his weight and the other hand holding a metal flask.
“What you got there?” Thaddeus asked.
“Whiskey.”
“You all right?”
“Tired as hell. Thinking about that girl.”
Thaddeus wasn’t sure about the man or his motivations, but thought maybe he was just someone stuck in a hard place. That didn’t make him any less pissed off that Zach left a young girl in the middle of a desert surrounded by wolves and raiders. He took a deep breath, then let it out. “Amanda says she was near the oasis.”
Zach nodded. “Can’t drive the fuel truck anywhere near that place. It’ll sink in the sand. She looked like she could run faster than I can, for sure. She had one of them damn pig-dogs with her. Those things scare me more than the wolves do.”
“What about the White Skull raiders?”
Zach took a sip of his whiskey. “Well, there’s only one squad, but I happen to have seen these guys work. The only ones rougher than them is White Skull’s personal crew. They come down hard and fast on anybody that crosses them.”
Thaddeus considered the information.
“I seen one full squad, armored and rested. Look like they were breaking camp. Two guards on the perimeter, to packing up gear, into going over some kind of map tablet.”
“Did you serve?”
Zach nodded. “I drove for mechanized infantry. Seen combat. Never went to Centauri Prime or anything like that, but I got a medal once.”
“Thanks, Zach. What’s it gonna take for a ground pounder like me to make it to that oasis?”
Zach considered him. “You look fit for an officer type. I bet you get there in less than an hour, depending on if that big horse going with you can run at all.”
Thaddeus laughed. “I’ve got a feeling he can move quicker than you might think.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Showdown
“You don’t even have to ask,” Sledge said. “Once we pick up the girl, we can deal with these Jack-wagons together.”
Thaddeus checked his blaster, then pulled his hat tighter on his head. “All we have to do is take out twelve men in full armor, steal a girl who’s probably gonna run from you as soon as she sees you, get my stupid dog-pig to listen, and then fly the White Skull’s ship to the mines and save the day.”
“Easy,” Sledge said. “Maybe you and I will get along after all.”
Thaddeus held his good humor in check. He wished he had his ground forces company with him. He could almost hear their pre-combat shenanigans. This wasn’t the time to laugh and cut up. Ruby needed them, and so did the miners. He was beyond caring about the stolen exotics, but knew it would be best if he could prevent that as well.
They ran along a dried-up creek that was nearly invisible from a distance. If one of the airships made a patrol, it would easily see them, but for now, they were moving well toward the oasis. Sledge set the pace a bit slower than Thaddeus would’ve liked. He was glad he had been doing calisthenics and flipping tires in the vacant lot between the Mother Lode and the industrial area behind the saloon.
“What did she do?” Thaddeus asked.
Sledge jogged a few more steps, catching his breath before he spoke. “It’s not what you think.”
“I think you have more combat experience than any SagCon special investigator I’ve ever met. I also wager you’re not the only one looking for her. So what did she do that justified sending one of SagCon’s top guns after her?”
He looked at Thad with the sly smile Thad was starting to get used to. “It would be better if you just left it alone. It’s not what you think.”
“Let’s stop here. I want to go up top and get our bearings,” Thaddeus said. He climbed to the top of the creek-gully and scanned the area with binoculars. He decided to drop something on the SI that the man probably didn’t see coming. “I ran into her brother a while back.”
“Ike? Now that’s interesting,” Sledge said. “He’s damaged. How long ago was that? I should have been updated on his whereabouts if he had been seen.”
Thaddeus put away the binoculars. “You just missed him. How about you answer my question?”
“Are you trying to protect her?”
Thaddeus stared him straight in the eyes. “Yes.”
For once, the big SI allowed his face to be serious. “Okay, good. She’s done some things that can’t be undone. But that’s not why I’m after her. SagCon wants her. The law wants her. I work for both, but the family is who sent me.”
“You came all this way just to take her home?”
Sledge exhaled. “All of this is going to depend on her. I’ve been in some bad places, including my share of battles on Centauri Prime. I’ve been scared a lot of times. The most scared I’ve ever been is when dealing with this kid. She’s smart, fast, and more ruthless than you think. So if I can grab onto her, I will. I’ll take her home, but she’ll probably escape at least three or four more times.” He nodded toward the canyon. “Why do you want to protect SagCon’s financial interest so bad?”
Thaddeus answered without hesitation. “I know the miners up there. They’re not going to let somebody take all that they worked for. They’re not soldiers and they’re not armed. It’ll be a bloodbath. I want to help them just as bad as I want to help Ruby.”
“Noble. Stupid, but noble. We have to be smart about this.”
Thaddeus slipped back into the dry creek and led the way around the oasis to where Zach had described seeing Ruby and Maximus.
The plan was simple. He hoped for at least one lucky break and got it. Just as it was starting to get dark, he saw a pair of eyes staring at him through the gloom. They were low to the ground like a wolf…or a pig-dog-thing. “Maximus, is that you?”
The creature moved forward without a sound.
“What’s that smell?” Sledge asked.
“Maximus,” Thad said. He reached forward and scratched the creature behind its ears until it squinted its eyes and made an odd sound from deep in its throat.
Sledge looked on s
keptically. “Are you sure it likes that? You could get your hand bit off. I’ve heard those things are omnivores.”
Thaddeus patted the animal’s head. He squatted down and spoke carefully. “Can you take us to Ruby without being seen?”
Maximus turned around and headed toward the end of the creek. The direction it went wasn’t what Thaddeus would have chosen, but he followed the creature anyway.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Sledge said. “We’re heading away from the oasis.”
“Maximus!” Thad hissed. “Take us to Ruby.” He saw the dog’s head shaking side to side and imagined it was rolling its eyes. Instead of stopping to argue or turn around, the animal picked up the pace.
“I’m not feeling the humor in this situation,” Sledge said as he laughed under his breath and searched the night for potential ambush.
Maximus crouched lower as it ran until it slowed down.
Thad wanted to think the animal was taking them around a guard post or dangerous terrain. Every minute that passed made him doubt the animal was intelligent. He half-expected the thing to crawl into an abandoned animal den and take a random nap. It never looked back, or side to side, or stopped.
Sledge quit complaining. In his head, Thad created several backup plans and alternate routes back to the oasis but continued to follow Maximus. “You better know what you’re doing, mutt.”
Maximus dusted him with a silent but deadly fart in response.
“Oh my God!” Sledge wheezed.
“It takes getting used to. I really hate this creature sometimes,” Thad said.
Maximus slowed to a near-stop and crept forward like a cat. Thad and Sledge low-crawled after him to stay lower than the lip of the creek that was nearly gone now.
Ahead of them sat a single man guarding a White Skull ship. He had his helmet off. Staring at the moon, his blond hair and beard marked him as Stacy Rings, White Skull himself.
Maximus stared at the outlaw for a moment, then twisted around and crawled toward Sledge. He poked the big SI in the face with his snout, jerked his snout back the way they came, and left.
“He wants me to follow? Really? I could have just waited back there,” Sledge said.
“Dumb thing has been on the money so far. He must want you to help Ruby. Don’t forget our bargain,” Thad said.
Sledge looked him in the eyes but didn’t answer. A moment later, he was crawling after Maximus.
Time could drive a soldier crazy or save his life. Patience, not one of Thad’s natural attributes, had served him well during the Centauri Prime campaign. A hard-assed advanced infantry training NCO had taught him the lesson and he had passed it along to every member of his company. Now he dusted off the skill and watched Rings until he was sure the man was alone.
Should I ambush him? Shoot him in the back?
Thad couldn’t do it. He knew he should, but it went against every fiber of his moral code. He slipped out of his fireman’s coat, placed it over a rock, and moved quietly into the sandy clearing around the ship.
Rings turned around. “Good evening, Sheriff. I’m surprised to see you.”
“I bet.”
“I should have tossed a blasting charge in your new office, but my men have a fondness for the Mother Lode,” Rings said. He stood, reaching for his helmet and long-blaster on the rock next to him.
Thad drew his blaster and aimed from the hip.
Rings pulled back his hands. “You’re going to lose this contest. I may not have my helmet on, but I have armor and you have a shirt that needs to be washed. What’d you do, crawl all the way from Darklanding?”
Thad looked over the black combat armor and the sloppy white skull painted on his chest. He didn’t see loose pieces or damaged areas. If he shot the man, it would need to be in the head. At this range, he could knock him down with a torso blast, but it wouldn’t be enough to take him out of the fight. He glanced at the ship, fearing he was wrong about the crew.
“Nice of you to guard the ship while your men are out getting killed,” Thad said.
Rings laughed. “They’re hunting and gathering, so to speak. Once they’ve marked the exotics in this area for pickup, they’ve got my permission to claim some Ungwilook wolf pelts. They’d have some Glok trophies as well if not for this damn A19.”
“You thought you scared me off,” Thad said.
“Thought you were smart,” Rings said. “But you’re as dumb as my brother.”
“Well, I’m sorry he stole your girlfriend.”
Rings cursed and lunged for where his long-blaster leaned against the rock.
Thad fired, clipping him on the shoulder plate near his head. The force flipped the outlaw over the rock, but he was able to grab the blaster by the barrel and drag it over with him.
Thad sidestepped, then rushed forward.
Rings popped to his feet and fired where Thad had been a second ago.
Thad fired twice and moved again.
Rings circled the rock in the opposite direction, squatting low as he hopped sideways with the long-blaster pulled tight to his shoulder to aim as he moved.
Thad sprinted, grabbed his coat from the rock, and threw it like a net.
Rings fired, punching a hole through the dark shape of the fireman’s coat.
Thad aimed and squeezed off a single blast, striking Rings in the knee. The armor held, but the outlaw went down hard.
Thad rushed forward, firing on the move.
Rings rolled onto his back and aimed awkwardly as he pushed with his feet, sliding backward in panic. He held the trigger down to spray blaster bolts at Thad.
Thad dropped to his stomach, scrambling forward. He reached the rock where Rings had left his helmet and circled it. Popping up to one knee, he aimed with one hand and fired twice.
Rings screamed as his left hand disappeared and a second bolt hit the sand next to his face.
Thad rushed him, stepping hard on the outlaw’s good hand. “You can die right now.”
“Wait.”
“Now you want to talk? What was that about blowing up my office?”
“Wait. I can call back my men. Just help me. My hand’s gone!”
Thad reached down and unlatched the breast plate of Rings’s armor. “Your wrist was cauterized by the blast. Get that armor off and put these on.” He dropped his binding cuffs on the ground next to the outlaw.
“I only have one hand!”
“You’ve got a hand and two ankles. Pick one,” Thad said. “I promise not to post videos of you trying to walk on the thug-net afterward.”
“You’re crazy,” White Skull moaned.
Thad tipped his head sideways and narrowed his eyes in mock concentration. “The term I think you’re looking for is ‘winner.’ Say it with me, Sheriff Fry wins every time.” He picked up his coat and pulled it on, ignoring the large hole in the middle of its back panel.
Rings swore as the pain of his injuries caught up to him.
* * *
Ruby waited for the dog-thing to return. She needed to slip away from the crews of the two ships that had inconveniently landed on both sides of her hiding place while she slept. Which really pissed her off because she had been getting some serious rest for once.
Odd how the middle of a desert clouded with A19 and God only knew what else brought peace. She’d crossed half the galaxy looking for a good night’s sleep, or it sure seemed like it. Maybe her nightmares and demons didn’t like Ungwilook.
Lying on her stomach as she watched the two ships, she rolled her right foot to forestall a cramp. As long as she moved slowly, she doubted she would be seen.
There were two ships and three crews of outlaw mercenaries in the ridiculous White Skull armor. She listened to bits and pieces of their conversations on the wind. Their boss had let some of them go hunting Ungwilook wolves, which they had no intention of doing. They preferred drinking a stolen cache of whisky and telling stories about the girls at the Mother Lode.
Ruby needed to tell Dixie
about that. She didn’t think it would be hard to spot men posing as miners. These grunts weren’t secret agent types. She’d faced assassins and spies who understood how to blend.
“I’m bored,” she said.
One of the soldiers looked around, then went back to drinking.
“Boys and their booze. Gets ‘em every time,” she said, not too loudly. She wasn’t totally crazy.
No one heard her this time.
Something like an owl called in the night. She answered with a perfect imitation of an Ungwilook night bird, then waited for Thaddeus and his dog to join her hiding spot. It surprised her that the sheriff didn’t do better bird sounds.
“Hello, Miss Miranda,” a deep voice said.
Ruby locked her teeth together and glared at the new arrival. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Taking you back to your grandfather,” Sledge whispered.
“Oh, really. I thought you worked for my mother,” Ruby said, not whispering.
“She pays me. A lot of people pay me. That’s why I’m always so happy. Now before you do something stupid, just listen to me for one minute. Sheriff Fry’s a decent man. He needs to get to the mines and stop a bunch of his friends from being killed during the real raid these assholes have set up. I told him I’d help. So if you are going to run again, can you please do it after I honor my obligation?”
She studied his face in the dim, A19-muted light of the twin moons. “I’m not into charity cases.”
“Charity? Call it a temporary alliance. Could be fun. Remember that time we busted up that bar in Tagolin 5?”
She snorted. “I convinced everyone to attack you then felt bad about it. You think that was fun?”
“Fighting and free drinks afterward. What’s not to like?”
A pair of armored feet stepped near their faces. A fully armored White Skull merc stared down at them, speaking through his helmet mic. “Well, look what we have here.”
Sledge winked at Ruby, then grabbed the man’s ankle and flipped him onto his back.
Ruby scrambled away from the fight.