“Not to worry,” said Kaliis, “the alternate route appears to be clear.”
Fine by me. It may have been a few steps longer but with Papaw’s wounds and Riki’s immobility – we had no choice. We left the bank and walked to our left until we came to a cross street. I was in the lead and Papaw gestured for me to go right.
Riki began to moan as he came around. Alonzo carried him slung over his back and Riki swayed to and fro like a three-quarter full sack of potatoes. The smoke grew thicker because the burning building was now completely ablaze and we were headed straight for it. Embers fell on the surrounding structures, igniting them as well. Fires were popping up all around.
Two lizards suddenly came running for their lives out of the smoke. They ran past without paying us any attention.
Kaliis jumped out of their way and told us the mass detector indicated more creatures ahead and behind. A burning two story building was also ahead. We could see that the adjacent buildings were afire as well. The street t-boned at the inferno and, if possible, we wanted to go back to the right in order to exit Mandalatown where we entered.
Alonzo was having a tough time with Riki who had finally gained consciousness and was demanding to be carried in a more dignified manner. Alonzo said nothing but I imagine he was ready to kill Riki himself.
By the time we got to the corner, the heat from the fire could not be faced directly and so we had to duck to cover our hair and faces. Kaliis helped Papaw, but the old man was limping badly. They were, however, better off than Alonzo and Riki.
Alonzo was behind us. With the smaller Riki splayed across the larger man’s back, Riki couldn’t cover his head with his trapped hands and he started screaming again with renewed vigor because his bald spot was burning. “Please, please, stop it, you’re killing me.” So pitiful were his pleadings that as soon as Alonzo got some distance between himself and the blaze, he set Riki on the sidewalk.
Riki dabbed at the red area atop his head. “First my foot,” he said, “now my head.”
I paused and told them, “We can’t stop.” Papaw and Kaliis continued down the street until a portion of the building collapsed and we all watched it for a moment.
“Come on,” I urged, “let’s go.”
Alonzo looked at Riki and shook his head. He said something in a language I didn’t know, but I understood what he said all the same. Alonzo was about to bolt and he’d told his employer that he couldn’t carry him any further.
Riki stretched out his hand but Alonzo did not take it. He backed away instead. Riki said something in that unknown language and I recognized the pleading tone. I didn’t need to ask where Alonzo was going. He was dropping the load to save his own life. A reasonable choice among thieves. Alonzo said something, probably good-bye, or sorry, and turned and ran down the street after Papaw and Kaliis.
Riki’s shifty eyes turned to me. A lizard ran out of the smoke back at the T-bone and looked wildly about. It gave us a hard look before turning away and running up the street the way we’d come.
Riki started pleading again, this time in Spanglish. “No me abandone! Por favor ayúdeme! Te haré Rico! Please!”
Down the street, Papaw threw me a look and waved his arm. “Oh, all right,” I muttered as I took Riki’s hand and pulled him up. He hopped on one leg and put an arm around me and I put an arm around him. We moved forward like a couple in a Sunday Social sack race.
Riki was short and pudgy. I think his type is referred to as swarthy, which means that he is dark-skinned and dark-haired. Dark, wiry hair with, in his case, a big premature bald spot on the back of his head.
I was taller than Riki and able to effectively pull him along as he hung onto me. Ahead of us, Papaw and Kaliis let loose on a lizard. The resonating sound of automatic weapons fire lasted two seconds and didn’t stop anybody’s forward progress. Behind us, the corner of the building collapsed into the street.
We ran past the dead lizard, still twitching, to the next corner where we hung a left. Papaw and Kaliis were making good progress and were halfway down the block already. There was no sign of Alonzo; he was, apparently, long gone.
The street ended at the bombed-out entrance to Mandalatown and even from a block away, I could see where we could pick our way through. Riki was doing well, hopping along on one foot, breathing like a bellows, unable to speak for lack of breath.
And then we had one of those “suddenly” moments because that’s how fast it happened. Like I said, suddenly, lizards began coming out of the buildings on both sides of the street. It was as if they were lying in wait and had timed their ambush. They came out of doors and they came out of windows, both open and closed. The sound of breaking glass was soon drowned out in the roar of Papaw’s Vimbacher and Kaliis’ blasters.
I dropped Riki and raised my Vimbacher, choosing targets that were threatening to my Grandpaw and my teacher. I shot quickly and four lizards went down in the same number of shots. Papaw’s Vimbacher roared again and a big one fell at his feet. Kaliis had a blaster in each hand and fired one after the other hitting targets with every shot. I looked up along the edge-line of the roof and saw more of the creatures.
Pulling Riki to his feet, his foot, actually, we started out again. Riki grabbed me around the waist and tried to match his good leg to my steps. I heaved and pulled and somehow we moved down the street.
Papaw was waiting at the “tunnel” entrance, urging us forward. “Kaliis is on the other side,” he said and then turned to face two lizards attacking in tandem.
I pushed Riki into the tunnel and leveled my weapon just in time to shoot the second beastie. Grandpaw had missed his first shot and shot again, but it gave the second one the tiniest edge and she took it, leaping for Papaw’s neck with a banshee shriek. Had I been a moment later, my Grandfather would have been killed. I have no doubt.
Riki moved slowly, hopping through the tunnel, a failed gangster with a broken foot and a burned crown. I heard Kaliis’ voice from the other side asking Riki to take his hand, but Riki refused and waited for me to emerge.
I came out of the tunnel and Riki was standing to the side. Papaw came out immediately behind me and walked towards Kaliis who was already halfway to the leaning gate.
“Come on,” I said to Riki, offering my shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
Before he reached for me, he said (in Spanglish), “I want to tell you thank-you so you will know I am not so heartless, eh?”
“Sure, sure, whatever. Let’s go.”
Riki reached around me for a grip on my waist but reached higher to slide under my upper arm and cupped my breast. I stopped. “What are you doing?”
The slimy little rat smiled at me. I pushed him away and he hopped on one foot with me following until he tripped and fell backwards. He looked up at me and, at first, smiled, thinking what he had done was funny, but realizing maybe it wasn’t, the grin fell from his face.
I looked through my viewfinder and locked onto the center of his forehead, then curled my finger around the trigger.
Papaw called to me. “Don’t kill him, baby girl. His daddy is going to have to buy him back.”
I looked at Papaw, dark bloodstains all down his left pants leg. He shrugged and said, “They started it.”
As much as I hated to do it, I helped Riki up and made sure he got safely out of the gate. As we exited, Papaw shot another lizard. Taking his knife, he bent down and cut off the principal digits on each front foot. Stuffing the claws into a bulging pants pocket, he had to double time on his bad leg in order to catch up with us.
We weren’t surprised to find the bus gone. Riki said, “No problem,” and pointed the way to what appeared to be a vehicle weigh station with a guard shack and a maintenance building farther back. None of the buildings looked particularly sturdy.
Grandpaw told him, “These places aren’t strong enough. We need to be farther from the center of the blast.”
“We’ll be all right,” said Riki, “you’ll see. Go to the maintenance building.”
>
Papaw kept looking at his watch and I made it a point to not ask how much time we had remaining.
Kaliis, wearing his servo-enhanced exoskeleton, was the first to reach the padlocked door. Without pause, he moved a laser cutter back and forth across the rounded steel bolt until it was cut in two and fell away.
As I approached with Riki, I noted the place appeared to be made from tin – not much protection from a nuclear shockwave. I was getting anxious as well as tired of carrying Riki.
Up the incline of the hill, at least a kilometer away, was Senor Gomez’s house. I imagined him at the wide windows that faced Mandalatown, watching us as we sought shelter inside a tin box.
Kaliis swung the door open to reveal a single room. In the middle, coming out of the floor at an angle, was a steel door. “Open it, open it,” urged Riki, indicating a counter-weight arrangement with a single, obvious switch. “Lift the lever,” commanded Riki and Kaliis did so. The heavy door was pulled open and we could see steps leading down.
Riki, still hopping on one leg, fairly flew down the stairs followed by me, Kaliis, and Grandpaw. The door slammed behind us and Grandpaw paused to engage three bolts before following us down.
We all had flashlights, even Riki, so we could see where to go. We made it to the bottom of the stairs, shut another heavy door behind us and gathered in a small, squalid room that smelled remotely like urine.
No sooner than the door was bolted that a great rumbling filled our underground space. A muffled racket came from overhead as the tin maintenance shack was blown away by the blast. The sound filled my head as I looked at Papaw. He was eating a BeHo. When he offered me one, I took it. It didn’t keep my mind off what was happening outside, but it gave me something to do.
Grandpaw looked at the ceiling and listened before turning his light on Riki. “That’s not a neutron bomb,” he commented.
“Naw, it’s a suit-case nuke.”
“You just flattened your town to get rid of the lizards when I was prepared to set a neutron device.”
“It wasn’t just about the lizards,” said Riki. “Which reminds me,” he added, “can I have my diamonds back?”
*
Kaliis checked rad levels and determined we could walk out of there as long as it was in the opposite direction of Mandalatown. So, after climbing out of the bunker, we hiked up the hill toward the house where we’d last seen Gomez. I had my doubts about finding him there, about finding anybody anywhere, actually. I’d just been through a nuclear explosion and I was still alive. But the expected devastation wasn’t there. Oh, it was like a big, powerful wind had come through, but we were far enough away to avoid any heat or radiation. Like Riki said, it was only a suitcase nuke. Never thought I’d hear myself say such a thing.
“What if Gomez isn’t there?” I asked Grandpaw.
“He’s there.” Papaw stopped and glassed the house from two hundred yards away.
“See anything?”
“Not really. The walls are up. The gates are open. Whoops. Wait a minute. Dude with a gun looking right at me.”
We all stopped and squatted. I scoped the guy with my rifle and he responded by backing away.”
“They’re gonna kill you,” Riki taunted.
“Well, if they do, you won’t know it.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to kill you before they kill me. You can take that to the bank.” Papaw slung the heavy Vimbacher across his back and drew the pistol grip Mossberg from a scabbard attached to his pack before turning to Riki and hitting the thug hard across the face.
Riki released his grip on me and fell to the ground. He sat on his seat in the dust as his hands searched his face, surveying the damage. “Why’d you do that?” he managed to say.
Papaw glanced to the house again, then turned back to Riki. Holding the shotgun with one hand, Papaw stretched out his arm until the steel barrel was inches from Riki’s head.
I didn’t care for Riki and I fully understood that Papaw and Kaliis and I had been duped. Worse still, it appears their plan, had Riki been able to pull it off, would have eliminated us before we ever left Mandalatown. Yet, I don’t think I could make myself kill someone in cold blood. I was certain Grandpaw could and would, if he needed to in order to get what he wanted. All the same, I didn’t want to see it and turned my head away.
A sound came from the direction of the house. Someone calling. I looked and saw Gomez running down the road toward us. He had no weapons and was shouting for Papaw to please not shoot his son. Two gunmen stood in view at the house, waiting for orders.
“Don’t shoot,” said Gomez again. “You can have anything! Just don’t kill my son!”
When he was within five meters, he dropped to his knees in front of Papaw. Lifting clasped hands in supplication, he made his simple offer again.
Papaw kept the shotgun trained on Riki’s skull. Half the time, Riki was squinting his eyes and attempting to duck while the other half was spent mugging and making threats. Riki was a strange little dude.
His father told him to shut up and Gomez stood and shouted to his men to bring the car.
Inside a minute, a four wheel drive vehicle was coming at us. Gomez never stopped talking, asking Grandpaw to put down the shotgun; why don’t you put down the shotgun? he asked, we had a deal, there was nothing to worry about, so why don’t you put down the shotgun, oh here’s the car please don’t shoot my son… and on it went until we forced Genoa out and I got behind the wheel and drove Kaliis and Papaw and myself out of there.
We had a two hour drive and Kaliis helped Papaw clean up the leg wound and put on a fresh bandage.
When it was done, Papaw sat back and sighed. I asked him how he felt and he said, “I’m good to go.”
As it turned out, he was only partially correct.
Chapter 18
Poor Papaw had a tough time getting through check-in at the airport. His leg had stiffened up but he didn’t want to be noticed so he suffered until one of the many Braithwaite attendants brought him a wheelchair.
“I saw you all the way across the lobby,” she said, looking up. “Land sakes, you are tall. Here, have a seat and I’ll push you where you need to go. Where are you going anyway”? My name’s Chanelle…” and that was the routine until Chanelle finally deposited us at the bullet’s open hatch. “Have a nice trip. Bye-bye. Hope you get feeling better, Mr. Jennings.”
The flight attendant showed us to our seats and Grandpaw nearly collapsed into his. He thought I wasn’t looking, but I saw him take a couple of pills.
“Pain killers,” noted Kaliis.
Papaw put on headphones provided by the attendant, closed his eyes, and reclined his seat. Kaliis and I watched and felt everything as the giant rail gun came to life and, propelled by the inertia from opposing magnetic fields, shot us at g-forces that would have flattened us against the inside bulkhead of the bullet had it not been for inertia dampers, or stasis field, or force field, or whatever you want to call it.
The entire process was amazingly smooth. Even the exit from the end of the rail gun. Papaw slept through it all.
Holographic menus floated around the compartment past the passengers’ noses so we were practically forced to read when one came by. The first part was a short menu of drinks and snacks with a price attached to each. A pretty price too, I might add. After items were selected by touch, a sign off algorithm asked for your permission to complete the transaction. It was all very confusing to this country girl, but I ordered something called a strawberry fizz because I love strawberries. Kaliis refused to order anything.
“Aren’t you thirsty?” I asked.
“Yes, but I’ll have water if I can manage to catch the attendant’s attention.” He rose in his chair and looked for her.
“Are you allergic?”
Kaliis looked at me, his round, old-before-his-time face streaked with grime. “To a great many things,” he replied, “but not water.”
“Strawberries?”
/> “Can’t have them,” he said. “My throat swells.”
“Liver pâté?”
“Sounds marvelous over shellfish.”
“Ew. Can you drink beer?”
“Cooked water and grains?”
“Well, yes, I suppose.”
“Probably. I’ve never tried.”
I jabbed at the menu with a forefinger. “There you go. I just ordered you a beer.”
“Will they require identification?”
“There’s no drinking age on Dreidel.”
Kaliis did not respond and his face remained placid. He could, however, convey emotion with expression just like anyone else – when he tried. Kaliis had informed me long ago that facial expressions were “frowned upon” in Tec’Lissir culture, adding, “You don’t want someone to know what you are thinking, do you?”
It actually made sense.
An attendant brought my nonalcoholic strawberry fizz and a beer for Kaliis. The beer floated in a beautiful, pilsner glass. It was the first time I’d seen one and the attendant patiently explained the style of glass was “…used for many types of light beers, including pale lager or pilsner. Pilsner glasses are generally smaller than a pint glass. As you can see, they are tall, slender and tapered. The slender glass reveals the color and carbonation of the beer.”
I couldn’t believe it, but after she said all that, she rattled on some about how the name Pilsner came from the city of Pilsen in a country called Bohemia on planet Earth. “The Bohemians enjoyed their beer,” she said. “Can I get you anything else?”
No, I shook my head. Kaliis, as was his custom, did not respond.
The attendant, smile plastered on her face, turned about and went on with her duties as I sipped thoughtfully on my fizz.
“Something’s not quite right about that attendant,” I told Kaliis.
“Oh? What do you mean?” He took a suspicious sip of the beer and drew away licking his lips, or at least licking his mouth where his lips would have been had he been human.
“She seemed so… mechanical.”
Kaliis raised the pilsner glass to his mouth again and took another sip. “I shouldn’t be surprised,” he said.
Jennings' Folly Page 16