"Sure. I've got a second."
She dangled a spare com unit from a finger. "I'm going to give him this and put him back to work."
Olivares held the door for her. "Think he's up to it?"
"Hope so," Debbi said. "I need him. I'm in over my head."
Chapter 26
The call came through Debbi's comlink around midday. She was in the Ranger headquarters.
"The Reapers are at the south gate," it said with crackling, horrible simplicity.
She felt a numbness seep through her limbs.
"How many?" she asked.
"I see six," came the militiaman's reply.
"Six? Six what? Six companies?"
"Six people. And a shuttle. They're flying a white flag."
Curtiz broke in that he was near the south gate and was in route. After a few tense minutes, his voice came over the com.
"Dallas, I make six of them all right. Looks like they want to parley." He paused, and then Debbi heard him take in a sharp breath. "Dammit! That's Nicolai."
She sent out a general call. "I want all militia on the walls and every Stallion in the air. Keep your eyes open in all directions. Curtiz, try to make radio contact and find out what they want. I'm on my way."
She heard Ross on the com. "I'm right behind you."
Debbi stepped outside the office and went to a militiaman who stood guard. "Go round up as many of the Town Council as you can and escort them to the south gate." He saluted and hurried off.
She made her way through the nearly deserted streets of town.
Those people who were out scampered quickly, their eyes in all directions. Debbi kept her own eyes peeled for batrats. She did see a few black shadows dangling under the eaves of roofs or in the dark hollows of dilapidated structures, but none were on the wing.
In fifteen minutes, she arrived at the foot of the ladder leading to the makeshift watchtower at the south gate. The gate itself was closed and barred.
She saw Ross hobbling toward her. His face was grim and his powerful stride showed hints of returning, but it still hurt to watch him. He probably hadn't slept in the last two days since she'd enlisted him to help coordinate the exterminator squads from his hospital bed. The squads were working, slowly. Casualties were decreasing, slowly. Last night, only four people died and fifteen were wounded. A small, disgusting victory at best.
Ross was still buttoning his shirt as he neared. He had garnered a new hat and another black duster from somewhere.
She didn't even try to argue with him about straining himself as he reached the base of the ladder and started climbing. The skin on his face was peeling from the sunburn. He was breathing roughly, and sweat already dotted his brow.
She said, "I sent for the Town Council."
He looked down at her with narrowed eyes. "What? Why the hell didn't you check that with me? Dammit." He shook his head in dismay and climbed to the tower.
Bristling but silent, she followed. He wasn't a man who took forced inactivity well. She chalked up his reaction to that and let it go.
In the tower, he took binoculars from Curtiz and scanned the horizon.
Half a mile away stood six men. They seemed very small and insignificant standing out on the wide, flat, rocky plain amidst the funnels of dust ripped up by the wind.
Debbi joined Curtiz and Ross. Five militiamen were on the parapets outside the confines of the tower nervously waiting. Two Night Watchmen sat in the gunner seats of a pair of heavy autocannons mounted on either side of the gate. Their eyes were glued to the sights and the guns aimed at the distant Reapers.
Curtiz said, at first to Debbi and then with an apologetic glimmer at her, to Ross, "Haven't been able to raise them. Either they can't hear. Or they won't."
Ross kept staring. There was a shuttle behind them, a converted freighter with light armament. Temptation's fleet of ten Stallions rose into the air over the city. That distant group of six men appeared to be the extent of the Reapers' contingent. The landscape stretched out flat for many miles around; there was no place for an army to hide.
Ross handed the binoculars back to Curtiz. "If he wants to talk, let's talk. Dallas." He pointed at four militiamen. "All of you come with me." Then he grabbed another's arm. "You. Get a squad and stop any Town Councilmen from coming down here. Tell them there's been an outbreak of zombies. Or batrats. Whatever. Just keep them away." He cast a severe glance at Debbi as he said the last, and then climbed stiffly down.
Debbi worked her jaw, feeling smaller under his gaze, but refusing to let him see just how much that stung.
Once on the ground, Ross and Debbi went silently through a small door next to the gate. Outside, the wind blasted them, unimpeded by walls or buildings. It was full-force Banshee wind and it nearly drove them off their feet. As the door slammed behind them and a militiaman locked it from inside, Debbi was overcome by an unusual sense of isolation. The two Rangers started walking, followed by the terrified clutch of militiamen. There was no hint of injury in Ross's stride now.
"I'll do the talking," Ross said over the sound of the wind and their crunching footsteps.
Debbi didn't answer.
"Don't be surprised if I decide to take this guy out."
Debbi again didn't answer. Her stomach knotted. Her eyes were locked on the distant figures that slowly grew larger as she plowed through the wind and dust.
A tall man in a long, black coat waited patiently in front of the group of armored soldiers. As the Rangers came within fifty yards, he slowly moved out from his coterie. The Rangers put their hands on their guns. The Reaper troopers lifted their rifles to a ready position against their chests.
When the Rangers were fifty feet away, Nicolai made a slow and deliberate motion with both hands to open his coat and show that he was not armed. He smiled.
Ross and Debbi stopped twenty feet away from him.
And they waited.
Nicolai spoke, "Thank you for coming out."
Ross was silent.
Debbi was fascinated to hear Nicolai's voice. It had a resonant power; it cut through the wind. She'd heard so much about him. To finally hear him speak made him a real person. A real person with so much blood on his hands.
"You're Captain Ross, aren't you?" Nicolai said. "I've heard a great deal about you. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"We've met."
"Really? Where?"
"Eighty-one. The Colonial Rangers came to arrest you at Carson."
Nicolai turned up his eyes, thinking back. Then his face lightened. "Oh. I remember." He shook his head with good-natured bonhomie. "That was a near thing. You nearly had me that day."
"I lost two friends."
Nicolai nodded and took a deep, empathetic breath. "I've lost friends in this war too. We're very much alike, you and I."
Ross cut him off. "What do you want?"
Nicolai's eyes flashed with anger. He looked down to cover it. When his head came back up, he was calm. He glanced at Debbi briefly, sizing her up, and then returned to Ross.
"Very well. Down to business. I would like to talk to your political leadership. I believe you have a Town Council."
"Talk to me," Ross said.
"I have an offer of a political nature."
"Not interested."
Nicolai smiled. "Your Town Council may have a different opinion."
"They're not here."
"Perhaps you've heard," Nicolai continued, "that I have declared a Banshee Free State. I want Temptation to join. You would profit immensely from it."
"Not interested."
"I think your Town Council would be. The advantages would be great.
The burdens of survival would be shared among many. The advantages of development would be equally shared. I've heard that Temptation has lately suffered enormous hardships that have your population confused and frightened. These hardships will be alleviated by an alliance with the Banshee Free State. I guarantee that."
"Like you alleviated Ghost Rock
City's hardships?" Ross said.
Nicolai shot back, "We liberated the means of production of wealth from the fossilized remnants of the colonial war machine. Ghost Rock City is thriving and happy. Its mines produce more ore now than before it joined me. I would be happy to escort you there for a tour. You can interview my new mine administrator. And he will demonstrate the new, efficient, ore-processing regime we have instituted there."
"Slavery can be real efficient."
Nicolai turned to Debbi. "Surely you wish to save your beloved city?"
Debbi remained silent.
Nicolai raised his hands, growing impassioned. "We are taking control of our destiny! Banshee will not survive any other way. In fact, isn't that what the Colonial Rangers are all about? Keeping the peace? Maintaining order? Well, there is currently no order to maintain. Everything is chaos. But under the Banshee Free State, everyone will join hands, human and anouk, to forge a new reality. The anouk will no longer raid human settlements. There will be no more need for brutal reprisals against anouk villages. With freedom from fear comes the freedom to build and develop. Families. Businesses. Friendships. We will all be united! Together! A free people! A free planet!"
Debbi looked at the ground. Her hands clenched into fists. She could hardly breathe. The thought of the irreparable harm Nicolai and the Reapers would do to the cause of a free Banshee enraged her. Even rational people would reject the notion if it became associated with the Reapers.
"You finished?" Ross calmly asked Nicolai.
Nicolai said, "Do you understand how many people you are dooming to needless deaths by refusing to do the right thing? Do you have that authority?"
"You can leave first," Ross stated, indicating the parley was at an end. "Tell your pilot that if your shuttle comes even an inch closer to Temptation, our defense batteries are under orders to shoot you down."
"Very well." Nicolai let his hands slap loudly against his thighs in defeat. "This is a fateful decision you have made this terrible day. History will condemn you for what you will bring on the people of Temptation. You will become the villain of these dark times. The city's children's children will whisper about you like a boogey man, about how you nearly destroyed Temptation. But I will be remembered ultimately as their savior."
"You try to take Temptation and the only thing you'll have in common with our Savior is you'll be dead."
Nicolai stared at Ross. "I have no interest in storming Temptation. You've delivered your town to a fate so horrible, the people will soon realize that the Reapers are the only thing that can save them."
"Stop talking and go away."
Nicolai's expression made it clear he hadn't anticipated being turned away. It left a sour taste in his mouth. He had truly expected to be welcomed with open arms. His eyes smoldered for just a moment, but then he inclined his head in resignation. He backed up until he was among his armored troopers. Then he turned imperiously and marched away. His troopers backed away, facing Ross and Debbi all the way to their shuttle.
The Reapers filed into the ship. The door closed and the craft lifted up and gracefully slipped away.
Ross watched the Reaper shuttle disappear in the cloudless sky.
He said in a quiet voice, "That's twice I missed putting a bullet in his head."
Debbi reminded him, "You're a lawman, not an assassin."
Ross grunted, wheeled around, and started back to town. Lost in thought, he watched his feet as he walked. His limp returned. The militiamen talked among themselves.
Debbi let the militia move ahead before she asked Ross, "So what happens now?"
"Business as usual."
"You know, it might've been nice to at least see if we could've worked out some sort of deal to get our power relays repaired. He controls Ghost Rock City. We could use the lights."
"We'll find another way."
Debbi asked, "What do you think he means about our horrible fate?"
"I think he likes to hear himself talk."
"You think he's behind the zombies and the batrats and everything else?"
"Doesn't matter."
"But what if he's got something worse in the wings?"
Ross glowered at her. "Then it gets worse. What do you want to do, join this Banshee Free State and open the gates to the Reapers?"
Debbi actually missed a step at his sudden assault. Then she ground her teeth and continued, "What the hell is your problem?"
Ross shook his head and kept walking.
Debbi said, "Look, I thought it was right to alert the Town Council. They are the government here, after all!"
Ross said nothing.
His silence annoyed her. She said, more to herself, "And, to tell the truth, something like a Banshee Free State is a good idea."
Ross exhaled sharply and pointed back toward the vanishing Reaper shuttle. "Well, damn, Dallas, you just missed your ride then."
"Oh shut up!" she snapped. "Damn you! Did it ever occur to you that the world isn't black and white? No, not Dave Ross. For him, public policy comes off a wanted poster. There are good guys and bad guys. Period."
"Yep. Worked so far."
"Life's not as simple as you want it to be."
"Oh really? I didn't realize. I'm sorry. I guess I should've listened to Nicolai. He's not a murdering psychopath; he's a political theorist. I'm just too simpleminded to understand the depths of his vision. Gosh. I should've called a special session of the Town Council so those spineless nothings could cozy up to that blood-soaked son of a bitch!"
"Oh, good eye, Ross. That's exactly what I'm saying. I think the planet ought to be a better place and that it's a complicated matter, so God knows that means I support the Reapers." Her tone was bitter and pained.
Ross screwed up his face. "I don't even know what the hell you're talking about anymore."
"I'm talking about you and how you see the world. This isn't about the Reapers and Temptation. We're on the same page there, and if you don't know that, I really don't know what to tell you. This is all about peace and order, and how badly people want them. Nicolai may be a blood-soaked son of a bitch, but he is not stupid. He wants power. If he can get it through a gun, he will; but if he can get it by offering peace, he'll do that. I'm worried you think that your will and a few overworked Rangers will always be able to hold this town on your side. Temptation is not your personal property. You ought to think about what happened to Olivares. When push comes to shove, the Town Council will make the decisions, unless you're going to hold a gun to their heads. If you've got the right answer, you better convince them. Maybe you should trust them once and a while."
"Maybe you're just too naive to carry a badge."
Debbi stopped. Her lip curled into a harsh sneer. "You've got a hell of a nerve saying that to me."
He turned and jabbed his finger at her. "Don't let your mouth run away with you, Dallas! And I'm telling you now, don't ever get up on your hind legs with me like this in front of anybody in town or I'll slap you down so hard you might not want to get up. And I don't want that to happen."
"Oh yeah. There it is. Pull rank. That's your answer to everything. Well, I got news for you, Ross. One day that won't work. One day you won't be able to win just because you say you're right. And then you're going to be in trouble. Because that's the only bullet you've got in your gun."
She stormed past him and back to town.
He stood alone on the windswept plain and watched her go. His leg hurt and his ribs ached. He looked at Temptation looming up in front. It was a sad sight. Broken and harried, the town was nothing like it had been in its heyday. It was held together with only spit and baling wire and sheer willpower. He had pledged his loyalty to it and thought that would be enough. Now, he wasn't sure.
He took a long, halting breath. In the sharp acrid dust, he could smell the faint odor of heavy rain in the distant mountains.
He loved this place. It had been his home for many years, along with the harsh prairies and mountains of Banshee. He'd
do anything to protect it. Over the long years, his authority had been questioned frequently, and the questions were usually answered with a strong fist or a fast gun. But at least there had always been an underlying sense of rightful authority.
It was different now. Life teetered on the edge of becoming an endless cycle of violence that could only be contained by more violence. And that just wasn't good enough. Debbi was right; most everyone wanted peace. Humans and anouks. Ross had always taken pride in the idea that his job was providing peace. Now, he wasn't sure.
After the chaos and horror of the last few weeks, he was starting to have doubts about his ability to maintain basic order in his town. That was exactly why Ross knew he needed to keep the Town Council from hearing Nicolai's offer. As sure as he was breathing, if the politicos thought there was even a chance Nicolai could end the town's parade of misfortunes, they'd roll out the red carpet for him and their fate would be sealed. Debbi couldn't know them the way Ross did.
Ross smiled at the thought of Debbi's passionate temper. She was the only Ranger that stood up to him like that. Ross had few real passions of his own and he normally found them annoying and destructive in others, but in her they had a fire and purity that broke through his staid outlook. She was smart and perceptive; he liked to watch her mind work, even when it was working against him. Of course, it also could have been the angry flare of her nostrils, the animated flash in her eyes, or the color that rushed to her cheeks when she argued. It was seductive to have the power to create such an intense reaction in a woman like her.
He knew Debbi had only the best intentions. She was young and ambitious with big dreams for Temptation and Banshee. And she was right that eventually something would have to be done to fill the political vacuum created by the UN's departure and to create a new future for Banshee. Dinosaurs like Ross would have little role to play in that future except as glorified traffic cops.
But that future wasn't today.
Ross pushed the door open and went back inside the walls. She'd see it his way when she calmed down.
Chapter 27
Banshee Screams Page 27