Hell Is Empty (The Frontier Book 3)

by Travis E. Hughes

  “Seeing as how one of them has just climbed into a hover cart,” Siringo said. “He might be trying to do what we’re going to do with the wagon.”

  “Have they made you?” Roslyn asked.

  “No,” Siringo crackled back.

  “Can you take them out of the equation?” Roslyn asked, staring at Frank the whole time. He nodded his agreement.

  “Kill or stun?” Siringo asked.

  “Stun,” Roslyn said quickly. “We aren’t starting a war.”

  “Heard that. Even though they started it yesterday by shooting at us,” Siringo said. “Copy.”

  Frank then removed his ridiculous white hat and fringe jacket. He swiped the feather cap off of Kidd Wylie and replaced it with the white hat. He then placed his smart goggles over the kid’s eyes and tied a kerchief to his nose and mouth.

  “What is this?” Kidd asked.

  “Don’t worry,” Frank said. “We got this.”

  Frank removed the kid’s jacket, which proved difficult over the Da’akvine but he managed and then he draped the duster over the kid’s shoulders. Frank popped the kid’s bowler on his own head and slid into his jacket. The large blue feather bent to accommodate the ceiling of the truck’s trailer.

  “You’re a sneaky bunch of bastards,” Kidd Wylie said.

  Three minutes later, the armored truck passed by two Red Scarves leaning against each other, napping in an alley. A bottle of whiskey held limply in the fat one’s hand. Siringo had done his job well. The whiskey bottle was a nice touch, Roslyn thought.

  The other seven Red Scarves scrambled when their plan didn’t pan out. Roslyn could see their flustered and confused expressions as they continued up the street toward the mechanics shop.

  “All hands on deck,” Roslyn said over the transponder. “They are regrouping and trying to find another spot further along to jump us.”

  Puff swooped down and made a series of clicks and whistles that Roslyn believed to be warnings. “Thanks, Puffy. Stay out of sight now. Stay in here.”

  Siringo confirmed her prediction as he spotted the seven Red Scarves hurrying through another alley to get to Second Street. Then two more Red Scarves on hover bikes entered the picture on D Street. Frino Bornstall reported about the hover bikes. He was stationed further along the route. Other junior agents were in place as well. The bulk of them were stationed around the shuttle port for what Frank considered to be the final battlefront.

  Three Red Scarves kept eyes on the armored truck, while the rest moved ahead to set up their next ambush. But a wagon pulling out of an alley derailed that plan.

  The armored truck swerved to miss it and ran into a column. The wagon, to avoid being hit, swerved into the lot of the mechanics shop. The inertia spun it around so that the front faced the street, while the bed backed to the garage side of the shop.

  The accident caused people to crane their necks to look. Barry Gould hopped out of the seat of the cart and hurried to make sure the driver of the armored truck wasn’t hurt. He acted very apologetic. The truck’s left bumper was bent out of place and the column was cracked. Hassan swerved at an angle to obscure the rear of the truck from the view further up the street.

  While Barry Gould and Hassan argued over the bumper of the truck, Roslyn hurried Kidd Wylie, dressed in white hat and fringe jacket toward the lobby of the mechanics shop.

  “The Red Scarves seem very confused,” Siringo said over the transponder. “They sent two guys back down the street to see what was up. The other three following are explaining the situation to them.”

  Once inside the waiting room of the mechanics shop, Roslyn and Kidd met Sixter, Grace, and Hattie.

  Hassan gave Barry Gould a shove and returned back to the truck. Bent bumper aside, he pulled back away from the cracked column with short beeps and continued up the street toward the shuttle port.

  They were within a block of the station when lasers flew at them from both sides. The armor deflected the bolts but two hover bikes sped toward them at full speed. The one on the right pulled a small detonator from his jacket and tossed it beneath the hover truck’s antigravity magnet. When it went off the truck slammed to the ground in a heap of dust. As the seven Red Scarves descended on the truck, Talbert fell in behind them, as did Siringo from the opposite angle. Talbert stunned the first three before they could realize what was happening. Siringo took out one before they returned fire and he had to fall back behind a corner.

  Back at the mechanics shop, Hattie turned to Kidd Wylie and tapped him in the head with her katana. He fell over, out cold. Sixter took his arms while Grace took his legs and they loaded him onto the wagon, sliding him beneath the tarp. Roslyn slid in behind him.

  From out of a laundry mat further up the street stepped Frino Bornstall and two other junior agents. Talbert led the ambush and took out the remaining three Red Scarves with ease as Frino and the others distracted them.

  Meanwhile Barry Gould drove quietly past the mêlée toward the shuttle port. He tipped his hat to Hassan as he passed. Hassan, who was helping pull Red Scarves off the street, nodded back. Keeping his head down, Frank posed as Kidd Wylie. Hassan marched him at gunpoint toward the station. Once clear, they all rendezvoused at the ticket counter.

  There were two more Red Scarves stationed at the port, but they held up their hands and refused to engage the small army of Peace Keepers. They also seemed confused about which one was actually Kidd Wylie. The one wearing the big white hat looked groggy and barely conscious. The one with the feather in his hat seemed a bit too short.

  PART THREE

  CHAPTER ONE

  The shuttle had recently upgraded to provide holoscreens that played old movies and the latest broadcasts of Channel One. In between classic films, the news feed would provide local commentary and information. Frank suggested that whoever owned Channel One most likely donated the holoscreens to local businesses and the shuttles. It appeared New Vegas was going modern.

  The headline of the day was still Devil Bill defeating Wild Bull McQueen in a stun duel. Other smaller stun duels had taken place around the area since the great match. Roslyn felt strange about it, but decided if people were solving their differences by stunning each other instead of killing each other, then that was an improvement. She really had made some change. Her head swelled and she tried to remember to stay humble and keep perspective. There was a long way to go.

  The footage of Talbert shooting Wild Bull played from three different angles, the last one in slow motion. She had to admit, it was pretty badass. Her cheeks flushed and the veins in her neck throbbed. She turned to Kidd, who watched with big dewy eyes. He agreed with her. The stone cold expression on Talbert’s face in that last slow motion shot was one of the coolest things she’d seen in a long while. Pride of being his friend expanded under her ribs.

  They were in the cargo bay of the shuttle to Yanker. She was taking no chances in the passenger car. Her transponder chimed. It was Frank.

  “We have about thirty minutes until we reach Yanker,” Frank said over the transponder. “Want me to relieve you?”

  “I’m good for it,” Roslyn said. “Stay Safe.”

  “Stay You,” Frank said as the traditional salutation went and hung up.

  “You too,” Roslyn said, turning back to realize Kidd was no longer seated on the crate he’d been dangling his boots over. How could she have been so damn stupid? She wasn’t certain what he hit her with and from what direction exactly, but it had come from above for the most part.

  When she came back to the world, she had her own gun pressed to her head. Daylight spilled into the hold casting most of the figures before her in silhouette. She counted three.

  “I’m not taking my chances with Mr. Grover,” Kidd said, pulling Roslyn closer to him. She could feel the heat of anxiety coming off of him. “Let me go and I’ll be long gone by sundown.”

  “Kidd, we aren’t going to turn you over to him,” Roslyn said. “I promise you we’ll protect you. We just want to
get paid for our work.”

  “Yeah, well, what if we get there and he’s hired another crew of Dead Bunnies?” Kidd asked. “What happens if they have you out numbered? And they want to hang me on the spot? Nah, I’ve been thinking this whole time, I don’t want to take my chances on anything right now. I just want to get back to my girl. You just keep stunning them and pissing them off, excuse my language, but, they’re out for blood now.”

  “How about this?” Frank said. He was the shorter male figure on the left. “How about I go scout the route?”

  “That again?” Kidd said. Roslyn could feel his hold easing slightly. He was thinking about it. Did he trust them?

  “I’m pretty sure it worked out well last time,” Frank said, lowering his gun. Hattie and Talbert followed his lead.

  “You go and see what we’re walking into, is your point, I take it?” Kidd asked pulling the long barrel of her pearl handled Kirkwood Nine slightly away from her temple. If she had to, she could spin and grab the gun out of his hand. He was distracted enough. But she waited. He needed to come to it on his own.

  “Yes,” Frank said, holstering his pistol. “I go see who Mr. Grover has working his security detail these days.”

  “How can I trust you?” Kidd asked.

  “Why the hells would I walk us all into an ambush?” Frank said in an irritated tone, playing up his elder role on the kid. It worked as Kidd shrugged and lowered the gun. Roslyn snatched it out of his hand without a fight. He’d shot off the Da’akvine she realized as it rested in a charred heap against the bulkhead.

  “The idea here, Wylie, is that you face down this problem with Mr. Grover and it’s in the past, behind you,” Frank said. “You know? You don’t want to have to keep looking over your shoulder all the time because of it.”

  “You killed those men because they were rapists and fiends,” Roslyn continued the pep talk. “Not out of any affront to Mr. Grover.”

  “Nah, that’s true,” Kidd admitted. “Too bad they don’t get Channel One out here. Then they’d have seen my side of the story already. But you’re probably right. I should put it to bed.”

  “All aboard!” announced the computer.

  Without further struggle, Kidd moved with the agents out onto the tarmac and toward the station. Once inside the newly constructed shelter, Roslyn bought five bottles of water and distributed them. With a grateful nod and a long drag off of the bottle, Frank set out to Grover’s store.

  A pair of Red Scarves strolled past the muddy lot that was the shuttle port. Theirs were not fringed on the ends and not as silky as the ones in New Vegas. These men worked for Lu Yanker. Roslyn echoed Kidd’s sentiment of being thankful for Yanker being out of broadcast range of New Vegas. It was a matter of time before it was shared, but Yanker was far from any sort of network or broadcast station.

  Forty-five minutes later, Frank returned from his route scouting.

  “He has in fact hired a new group of mercenaries. From what the drunken fisherman told me, he’s hired about a dozen men. They are called the Roach Guard,” Frank said. “Does that mean anything to anybody? What about you?”

  He was addressing Kidd, who nodded. “Yeah, I’ve heard of them. They’re an older group. The Dead Bunnies split off from them.”

  “So we have a problem?” Talbert asked.

  “Could be,” Kidd said. “Some of those guys are blood related. You have like older brothers and cousins from the Roach Guard, still around.”

  “We need to set up a meeting,” Frank said. “In a neutral place.”

  “What about at Lu Yanker’s joint?” Talbert asked. This caused Hattie to laugh, but then she realized he was being serious.

  “Man,” Frank said with a quick snort. “Talk about playing with fire. If word reaches these Red Scarves about what we did to their brothers in Vegas… How we humiliated them on TV and all that…”

  “We’ll be fighting Red Scarves and Roach Guards,” Roslyn said.

  “We need to get them to fight each other,” Talbert said, leaning against the Da’akwood wall of the shelter, one foot up. He toyed with his hat and then brushed off some dust and put it back on his head.

  “No. We don’t need to start a war between them,” Roslyn said, shaking her head. “Get a bunch of people killed.”

  “A bunch of bad people killed,” Talbert corrected.

  “We just need to set up a meeting at a place we can secure,” Roslyn said.

  “Correct,” Frank added.

  “Why don’t you go scout the route again for that?” Talbert said. Again Hattie laughed behind her lacy-gloved hand. He winked at her as he walked pass.

  “I believe I will,” Frank said looking down the thoroughfare in both directions, before choosing to head south out of the camp into the desert.

  “What guarantees us that he’ll agree to meet on our terms?” asked Talbert. Roslyn wished Frank were still there to answer the question. She didn’t have the right one.

  She contemplated going back to New Vegas and gathering more troops. The idea of demanding Arjun Grover to pay them now, seemed a bit far-fetched. And this mission or whatever it was, had become increasingly expensive. At what point did the bounty money stop being worth it?

  That question became mute when Frank returned with Arjun Grover and six of his newly hired Roach Guards.

  “I’m sorry, guys,” Frank said as he approached them. One of the Roach Guards had his rifle aimed at Frank’s head. “They insisted I bring them here to have this meeting immediately.”

  “Like my old man used to say, ‘ain’t time to pray when the devil comes,’” Talbert said, brushing back his jacket.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Roach Guards all had the same emblem on their jackets. RG encircled by flames patched above their hearts. Some of the jackets were leather, while others denim. They were made up of grizzled, middle-aged men that Roslyn assumed had been war vets. She imagined rebels, but couldn’t tell.

  Arjun was dressed impeccably in a silky grey suit and velvet top hat. He looked sharper even than Frank, who’s tailored suit looked mundane in comparison.

  Roslyn stood with Talbert outside the ropes of the port, as the little man approached them.

  “So I hear you’ve brought me the mass murderer?”’ Arjun said, turning to look at Kidd Wylie seated on the bench across the road from the shuttle port.

  “He wants to explain something to you,” Roslyn said, suddenly feeling like a schoolteacher speaking with a contentious student’s parents.

  “Does he?” Arjun said, raising his thick white eyebrows. He then stopped when he saw Frank. He frowned and gave his head a quick tilt. “I know you.”

  “Hey, Mr. Grover,” Frank said.

  “Freddie Tong, from Mars,” Arjun said snapping and nodding in celebration for recalling the data, but then his frown deepened. “What are you doing with these detectives?”

  “Mr. Grover,” interrupted Roslyn. “Mr. Wylie would like to explain his reasoning for killing your men. Wylie.”

  Kidd stood and nodded toward Arjun. He took off his hat and held it before his belly. The feather nearly tickled his chin.

  “Sir, I killed your men because they did something very bad to someone I care very much about,” Kidd said in a sincere voice that was matter-of-fact and void of malice.

  Arjun stared up at the boy with an empty expression. It was as if the words refused to fully process through his brain.

  “I then, after the fact, looked around at the situation and realized I’d done one greedy son-bitch, excuse my language, sir, but you know what I mean,” Kidd stammered slightly but refused to stutter. “I read the situation and I realized that Mr. Yanker up on the hill there just had the scales completely tilted his way. I’d done that. I deserved to get paid for that. So, I went to him. After what he saw me do to your men he sure as heck wasn’t going to risk his security detail on fighting me. He did what was the best play for him, he paid me.”

  “Kidd, are you full of shit, or what?�
� Arjun finally said.

  “My kid brother was among those you killed, you piece of shit,” said the bulky Roach Guard behind Arjun. Arjun turned and held a hand up to calm his soldier.

  “Your kid brother helped gang rape a sixteen year old girl!” Kidd shouted and spat.

  “Todd would never gang rape a teenage girl. Not all of them did that,” shouted the Roach Guard back.

  “He protected those who did,” Kidd said through a snarl. “And that’s enough to get your head blown off, far as I’m concerned.”

  “Okay, enough,” shouted Arjun over everyone. Todd’s brother spat in Kidd’s direction. Kidd made kissy lips at him.

  “The point of all this,” Roslyn interjected. “Is to let you know that when you lie with fleas… You get the rest. My point being, we’ll collect the bounty, but you won’t be taking Kidd Wylie from us. He’s been found innocent.”

  Arjun laughed and turned to Todd’s brother. The bulky RG cocked his gun to full charge.

  “I don’t think you’re seeing the big picture here,” Arjun said. “You answer to me. It’s my warrant you’re honoring.”

  “You said you wanted to hire us because we served the Holy Avians, correct?” Roslyn said. She was so very proud of Bill for putting that into his report. “Our ordained judge found him innocent.”

  “Well, yeah, but that’s different,” Arjun said after a few seconds.

  “How is it different?” Roslyn asked.

  “It just is,” Arjun said, exasperated.

  “Well, we serve the Avians,” Roslyn continued. “So, when an ordained judge declares something, we abide by it. It’s the code we live by. Do you live by another one?”

  Arjun’s nostrils flared but his lips pressed against each other as way of surrender.

  “Okay, well, time to pay us and time for us to be on our way,” Roslyn said. “We came for our bounty.”

  Arjun snorted through his nostrils.

  “You find that funny?” Roslyn asked.

  “I can do the math here,” Arjun said with a coy smile. “We have you out gunned.”