Killer Be Killed (The Frontier Book 1)

by Travis E. Hughes

  “Why, is that a fact?” Dogg said in earnest.

  “Ain’t that where you’re from?” Wells asked. Wells was clearly star struck with Dogg.

  “I am, yes sir,” Dogg bobbed his head and smiled. “Our friend here, Mr. Brown fought in the same campaign as you, only he fought for Earth.”

  Dogg appeared almost giddy with amusement, hiding his mirth behind pressed lips. Roslyn tensed. Talbert shook his head at Dogg and squinted.

  “Yeah?” asked Wells, tilting his head back to get a better look at Talbert. “Where’d you fight?”

  “Annabellus,” Talbert said, plainly.

  “Didn’t you tell me, Montgomery City?” Dogg asked, pretending to remember.

  “You didn’t fight under General Devil Bill Talbert did you?” Wells pulled back his long jacket.

  “No,” Talbert half lied. He didn’t fight under that particular General.

  “Who’d you fight under then?” Wells asked.

  “General Wolfe,” Talbert fully lied.

  “You’re lucky. I don’t know about Wolfe’s crimes. But, General Talbert can go to hell,” Wells spat. “That man’s pure evil. They say he’s still out there somewhere. People say he’s gone back to Earth. Some say he’s a Fink Agent. One of my old war buddies said he was an assassin. Who knows the truth, right?”

  Talbert’s face turned pale. He feigned a grin and nodded.

  “You ever want to hear a real horror story?” Wells said, looking at Roslyn. “Listen to the story of how Devil Bill rose to be a general so fast and so young. He may be a hero to them but he’s a devil to us.”

  Roslyn wanted to figure out a way to make Wells stop talking, but another part of her wanted to hear. What kind of man had Talbert been when he earned the name Devil Bill? What kind of man was he now?

  Talbert fought every urge to keep from putting this fool down.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Why’d you do that to me back there?” asked Talbert walking back to Dogg’s hotel. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  “Oh, now Bill, I get ornery sometimes,” Dogg said, with a quick laugh. “I apologize if I offended you. But Lord was it funny to watch you squirm.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t like that shit,” Talbert said. “Like I said, don’t ever do that again. You hear me?”

  “Oh, now, Mr. Bill Brown, are we cross?” Dogg asked, stopping in front of a liquor store tent.

  Talbert stopped and turned around to face him.

  Roslyn wanted to scream and draw her gun. But she waited. Hattie however stepped up next to Talbert, her hand on her gun.

  “Oh, now, howdy, little darling,” Dogg said, smiling and tipping his hat to her. “Bill, I have apologized. Best to drop it now. I was just funning. I have a twisted sense of humor, all right, so go ahead and get over it.”

  Talbert nodded at the reasoning. Cooler thoughts prevailed.

  Despite the tension between Talbert and Wells they managed to agree on a four percent payment to get them to the station. There awaited larger, more powerful space ships that had the ability to withstand the pressures of the Vincent Bridges that took people and things between planets. Wells was only the pilot taking them to the space station in orbit, and he was costing them four percent. Would everyone reach out and grab a hunk along the way? They were putting themselves into harms way more and more. Laws protect the rich more than the poor, she thought. Now that they had all this money, they needed the law to protect them. The problem being, there was no real law. There were codes and understandings, but nothing that stretched beyond local jurisdictions. Nothing but her father’s agency.

  On their way back to Dogg’s hotel, Roslyn noticed Talbert had diverted them in a round about way, to avoid passing Star’s hotel. Was he afraid of her?

  She couldn’t stop replaying the things Wells Wallace said about Devil Bill, the war criminal. What had he done? How much of it was propaganda and how much was truth? Wells hadn’t gone into details, but he gave the sense that Devil Bill was Hitler incarnate. She worried about Hattie. What was the idiot girl doing, shacking up with a war criminal? How deranged was he? He hid it well, which made it that much more frightening. She also thought about her father and how he had protected and defended Devil Bill, the war criminal. It turned her stomach.

  They bid Dogg ado at his hotel and continued on to their tent. Roslyn kept quiet, looking at Talbert but not directly. She knew she could never ask him, but she ran through endless scenarios, trying to imagine his crimes.

  The first thing Roslyn noticed was Puff was gone. Their cots had been turned over and storage bins ransacked. The dirt had been dug up and sure enough, upon inspection, the diamonds she’d originally found were gone. It was nothing compared to the amount of diamonds they had buried in the gully, but still it was significant.

  “What is with this bitch?” Roslyn asked, shaking her head, growing angrier with each breath. “You know what…?”

  “What?” asked Hattie, concerned.

  “I’m going to talk to her,” Roslyn said. “It’s time to have a face-to-face.”

  “Ew, I don’t know,” Hattie said, looking to Talbert for help.

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said, staring out the door flap.

  “Why not?” Roslyn asked.

  “Because she might kill you, or worse,” Talbert said, raising his voice.

  “We all come in force, we bring Dogg,” Roslyn said. “We show up fully loaded. Then I ask her to sit down with me and work this shit out. Like adults.”

  Talbert shook his head and grinned.

  “You think that’s funny?” Roslyn asked.

  “I think its naïve,” Talbert said, turning back to his flap and the busy thoroughfare outside.

  “It’s one thing to steal our diamonds,” she said. It was her turn to get loud. “But when you fuck with Puffy…”

  Tears formed. Her chin quivered. Talbert’s shoulder fell. He knew they were all in now. He’d have to back her play.

  Guns fully charged and Hattie’s sword freshly poisoned, they made for Dogg’s hotel. Outside of his room they halted, embarrassed and uncertain what to do, they lingered.

  It sounded like Grace was being strangled or tortured, but there was a pattern to it that suggested extreme pleasure. They waited down in the lobby until Roslyn could no longer hear Grace’s rapture.

  Dogg answered the door wearing a T-shirt and pants, he put up the suspenders as the door swung fully open. Grace closed the bathroom door just as she came into view.

  “Why, aren’t we seeing a great deal of each other lately?” Dogg said, fixing his hair with his fingers.

  “She robbed us,” Roslyn said. “She took my dragon.”

  “Are you here to accuse Grace of this?” Dogg asked, glancing at Talbert, then Hattie.

  “What? No.” Roslyn shook her head. “Star Belly.”

  “I’m afraid she isn’t here at the moment,” Dogg said, turning to show them the vacant room. A half empty bottle of whiskey sat beside the bed.

  “Well, we were on our way to her hotel,” Roslyn said. “I think it’s time for her and I to have a chat. Set some things straight. Maybe even come to an arrangement.”

  “Well, well,” Dogg said, grinning. “Look at you.”

  Dogg fetched his socks off the floor, sat down on the soiled bed and put them on.

  “So, are you in?” asked Roslyn.

  “Well, if it means we can finally cash those diamonds in, then mark me down for a yes.” Dogg stepped to the bathroom door and rapped softly. “Darling, we’re going to go stand up to a bully. We may need you to stand look-out.”

  What started as a merry table for five, now made a line of five coming up the thoroughfare, armed and intent. People moved aside and some ran to alert the camp that something was coming.

  They rounded the last corner and sauntered up Main Street. From an alley stepped Wyatt and Drago. Seven guns suddenly rose in unison and everyone froze.

  “We got you e
xtremely out gunned, here Mr. Wyatt,” Dogg said with a slight rasp. “This wouldn’t be much of a sport.”

  “We’re not here to fight you,” Wyatt said.

  “She fired us,” Drago continued. “She no longer trusts us. But she didn’t kill us, so that’s good news. She brought in a group of mercenaries in our place.”

  “Where’s Bat Matters?” Talbert asked.

  “He left town after Roslyn shot him. He figured he’d lost his intimidation factor after that,” Wyatt said.

  “And we’re supposed to trust this by your good word?” Roslyn asked.

  “Ros,” Drago softened toward her. “I wouldn’t do that to you. You know that.”

  “I sure as shit don’t know it,” Talbert said.

  “We worked pretty good together on that whole Krave Allison mess,” Wyatt reasoned. “Why not put in with you guys?”

  “So it wasn’t you that ransacked our tent?” Roslyn asked.

  “Do I shoot this one if he saying he did it?” Grace asked, aiming at Drago.

  “Stand down,” Roslyn said, holding up her hand and lowering her gun. Drago was next to surrender.

  “No. She kept telling us to rob your tent, but neither one of us would do it,” Drago explained. “That’s part of the reason she stopped trusting us. We kept finding excuses. Someone or that dragon was always there. We both admitted you weren’t a bad person.”

  “So you don’t know where Puffy is?” Roslyn asked.

  “No idea. I never heard anyone say anything about that,” Drago said.

  “What about me shooting you off the back of the truck?” Talbert asked, still aiming at Wyatt.

  “About that,” Wyatt may have grinned but his thick mustache obscured it. His eyes sort of shone.

  “Your tubby friend here shouldn’t have tried to play at being a big shot, saying that shit about it being two against one,” Talbert said out of the side of his mouth, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “I just had to see that look in his eye when I leveled the field.”

  Drago shook his head.

  “I was damn mad,” Wyatt nodded. “But you were doing your job. Given the situation I would have done the same. It was just a stun bolt after all.”

  The two men lowered their guns and shook hands. They’d crossed paths several times over the post war decade and had developed a quiet, but mutual respect.

  “The look in his eye, though,” Talbert said, pointing his bony thumb at Drago. He laughed. Wyatt chuckled. Drago turned to him as if to recite Caesar’s famous line to Brutus.

  The party of five expanded to seven and stretched the full width of the muddy boulevard. They marched, guns ready, the next two blocks in a line, sweeping up the road, pushing people onto porches and behind barrels.

  They reached the Belle Star Casino and surrounded the large tent’s opening. This was a better place to fight, reasoned Roslyn, if it came to it, than the hotel with its balconies and upper floor windows.

  “Miss Star Belly!” shouted Roslyn from the street.

  Dogg motioned for Grace to take cover in a parking garage. It was a fresh addition to the camp. It was well shadowed. She could lurk and not be seen.

  “Has anyone seen Miss Star Belly? She’s the proprietor of this place,” Roslyn shouted through cupped hands.

  The mercenaries, wearing matching red scarves exited first. The biggest one wore a purple scarf. He was the leader. There were seven of them that fanned out along the boardwalk. They had yet to draw their weapons but they were clearly well armed.

  Roslyn made eye contact with Hattie first. She indicated which merc she wanted her to take out.

  “I’ll take three, please,” Dogg said in a slow drawl.

  Star Belly finally made her exit and stood in the mouth of the tent, perhaps so she could dive back inside if the laser bolts started flying.

  “What’s this?” Star asked squinting at Wyatt and Drago. “That didn’t take long. Huh. So I was right not to trust you two.”

  “No,” Wyatt said. “Not trusting us, or better yet firing us, was your last mistake.”

  “Are we really going to have a blood bath right here in the street?” asked Star, holding up her hands, palms skyward, shoulders shrugged.

  “That or you and I are going to have a little chat,” Roslyn said stepping forward.

  “Are we?” Star asked sarcastically. “So now she wants to talk? Last time you just shot first. I didn’t like that much, by the way.”

  “No?” Roslyn said, walking up the street. “Let’s take a walk.”

  Star stood staring at her incredulously. She almost smiled. It had been a long time since someone had spoken to her anywhere near this way.

  The two women walked up the thoroughfare while their armed parties stalked them on opposing sides of the street.

  “You stole from our tent,” Roslyn accused.

  “I took back a small fraction of what you stole from me,” Star said.

  “I’m the one who discovered the diamond cave in the first place,” Roslyn said. “So you’re stealing from me. You have seven. I have seven. I’ve never heard of any of your seven. At least three of mine are infamous and one’s one of the most deadly human beings alive.”

  This made Star laugh. “I helped start this camp. This is all my land. You see, dear, you’re on my property.”

  “Are you fucking with me?” Roslyn asked, with a small chuckle.

  They turned a corner and momentarily they were cut off from their armed escorts. Roslyn thought of quickly slitting her throat, but that wasn’t the goal. They had turned into a vacant lot between two buildings.

  “I have some very powerful investors who purchased all this land; from as far as your tiny little eyes can see,” Star said, pointing to the volcanoes in the distance.

  “Earth has no say out here,” Roslyn countered. “There was a whole war about it.”

  “But money still talks just as loudly,” Star said. “Maybe even more so.”

  “But at the end of the day, dear, that matters for two things,” Roslyn listed them off with her long fingers. “Jack and shit.” Then leaving the middle one extended, she presented it to her.

  “Oh, fuck,” she heard Hattie twitter. Both parties took the sign as a declaration and aimed their weapons across the street.

  Star stared at her, sucking the inside of her lip between her teeth.

  Grace appeared on the balcony of a building, but slid back into shadow.

  “Chill the fuck out!” Star yelled to her Red Scarfs.

  “You really shouldn’t have fucked with Puffy,” Roslyn said.

  “Who’s Puffy?” Star asked.

  “My dragon,” she answered.

  “We just scared her away is all,” Star said. “Has she not come back yet?”

  “You better not have hurt him. Puffy’s a boy,” Roslyn lifted her eyebrows.

  “Sorry, I didn’t see a penis,” Star said with an apologetic shrug.

  “It retracts up in his belly. It comes out when he pees. It’s disgusting,” Roslyn explained with a wave of her hand.

  This caused Star to laugh. “What to do with you?”

  “Here’s what you’re going to do,” Roslyn said. “You’re going to let us transport that wagon full of diamonds off planet to cash in for bytes. You aren’t going to come after us, you aren’t going touch a hair on any of our heads.”

  “Is that right?” Star asked.

  “It absolutely is, yes.” Roslyn nodded her head and held her stare. “Once we’re gone, we’re gone. You won’t have to see us again. You can find a whole other set of problems to deal with besides us.”

  Star stared almost through her. Her eyes seemed to be calculating an elaborate equation.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  B oth parties slowly backed away from one another and went their separate ways with a suspicious truce.

  “I’d say we get these diamonds off of this planet ASAP,” Roslyn said, walking back to Dogg’s hotel. Grace joined them on the next street o
ver.

  “You did very well, darling,” Dogg said kissing her.

  “I was having nice time sneaking around in da shadows,” Grace said, dangling from his arm. Hattie giggled at her from behind her lacy hand.

  Drago, who until recently had been a resident of Star’s hotel, was now homeless. Given the tension between Talbert and Drago, Roslyn didn’t think it prudent to offer him to share their tent. Luckily Wyatt offered his tent, which he’d abandoned when he worked for Star. But now he had to put it further south, out at the new edge of the camp; nearly twelve blocks from their tent.

  Early the next morning, Roslyn and Hattie left Talbert at the tent to go and search for Puff. Talbert had the last watch and fell asleep when the girls woke up.

  “She said they scared him,” Roslyn explained, searching the sky and the gutters.

  “What does that mean?” Hattie asked.

  “Exactly,” Roslyn said. “And where the fuck does she get off saying she owns this entire camp? The property belongs to her? Seriously?”

  Hattie shook her head. It irritated Roslyn when Hattie didn’t directly agree with her. Did she disagree?

  “Am I wrong?” Roslyn asked after a few more steps through the muck.

  “No, I was just thinking is all,” Hattie said, looking distant.

  “Oh, sorry, am I boring you?” Roslyn asked. “Am I interrupting some profound thought?”

  “No,” Hattie said with a simple shrug. They continued along. The sound of someone pouring water out of a pan onto the mud issued from their right, while repeated hammer blows heralded from the left. People laughed in a tent, it was a chorus of bass to altos. Clothes whipped on a line, flapping in the steady wind. The air was ripe with foul acrid reek, but they’d almost become nose blind to it all. It was when you returned to the camp after having been out in clean Mother Danaus, when you really noticed the stink.

  Furry insects hummed by their ears.

  “So what were you thinking about, already?” Roslyn asked, slapping the outsides of her hips.

  “The Avians,” Hattie said with a sad sigh.

  “Well, if it isn’t Miss Stun Gun and her Ninja friend,” said Purple Scarf, stepping out from behind a hover van. Two more Red Scarfs appeared out of an alley behind them.