“You need to heal up,” he said.
“No time,” I said.
“Pop could take the next run,” he said.
“No way in hell will I send Pop into that place. He stays on the Farms. He’s too important to be putting him in the hands of that bunch.”
“You’re probably right.”
“It sucks, but it is what it is.”
“That’s going to put you back in the city by the end of next week,” he said. “Not giving yourself much of a break.”
“There are some places I can’t send my people,” I said. “Who’d have thought the Circus would be a bad place?”
“I know, right?’’
A name can be deceiving in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 46
I sat beside a headstone holding a squirming girl who’d just learned to walk and wanted to be free.
“Go ahead, Allie,” I said and let the kid loose. There was an old oak tree near the cemetery, and I watched the Geno, Jaela, peek around the tree trunk to watch Allie.
“Come on out, kid,” I said. “You don’t have to hide behind the tree.”
She eased out from the tree, still watching the girl.
“Is there something wrong with the little one, Mister Zee?”
“Not that I know of,” I said.
“She’s so small,” Jaela said. “She’s not growing?”
I chuckled. Jaela had been fully grown by the age of five, and she was puzzled at the slow growth.
“You’ll see, she’s growing at the same pace as almost any of the children who haven’t been modified by the genetics. Most kids grow slowly, like this.”
“How will she be useful?”
“Most kids aren’t really useful until they’re a little older,” I said. “Once she gets to be about ten or so, she can work with some of the others in the fields and do some of the household chores.”
“How will she please the men?” she asked. “I’m very puzzled by this place. I offered to please Mister Grady, and he ran away. Miss Deli told me I shouldn’t offer to please anyone, but I don’t know what I’ll do to be useful.”
“What was done to you girls was tragic,” I said. “In time, I hope you understand it yourself. We’ll do our best to protect you from it now, even if you don’t understand yet. One day you will.”
“I should not offer to please you?”
“No, listen to Deli. She can help you understand better than I can.”
“That’s what Mister Eddie said, too. And his mate, Yvonne, has offered to help us too. But I don’t know what help they keep talking about. You’ve fixed my wounds and given me food. You’ve helped me already.”
I stood and grabbed Allie before she could make her escape from the graveyard.
“The help they offer is to understand what you are and what you can be. You don’t have to be what they made you to be. You’ll have so many choices to make in your future, and they’ll help you understand those choices.”
“Then why didn’t they just say that? It was much easier to understand.”
“Frankly, I don’t know. If you’ll be patient, they’ll get everything sorted out.”
“Then I’ll wait.”
She stood back up from where she’d settled beside Neave’s headstone with me. “Good fortune on your trip into the city. It’s such a scary place. Everyone wanted to hurt us.”
“It’s a bad place, but it’s getting better every time we go in. I hope this one is as successful as the last.”
The last caravan hadn’t needed to fire a gun for the entire trip. Of course the one to the riverfront had more than made up for it. We’d had to use a lot of ammunition. Perhaps the next trip to the waterfront would be more pleasant.
I looked at the headstone as Jaela walked away. I remembered Neave’s hair in my face as she cuddled against my chest, and I wondered if I was disgracing her memory when I thought of brown eyes and dark hair. What would she have wanted for me? She’d have wanted to live instead of being gunned down in the streets of Philadelphia. I scowled and wondered if I’d ever get past the hate I felt for the city. Allie grabbed my ear and yanked downward.
“I hear you, girl,” I said and turned away from the headstone. “Let’s see if we can find somewhere a little more cheerful before I have to leave again.”
I walked with my daughter in my arms toward the horse pasture. Dagger and Bogs were running around the field again. Pop leaned on the rail beside the barn and watched them.
He glanced over as I approached.
“That damn horse is even bigger now than when he left. You been feeding him Raiders?”
“He may have eaten a wolf,” I said.
He grinned. “I heard about that. He’s a hell of a horse, son. He’ll throw some good offspring.”
“He’s a gelding, Pop.”
“You haven’t been paying much attention, boy,” Pop said with a grin. “He’s bred three mares in the pasture already.”
“What?”
“Three of the mares were in heat, and he bred ‘em.”
“How the hell—”
“It ain’t just muscle mass he’s gaining,” he said. “He came back packing.”
“I didn’t think the nanites would do that, or I’d have used them on him a long time ago.”
“You had them when he needed them,” he said. “He’s got some pretty scars on his neck and side. I don’t know how they saved him if those were as deep as the scars show.”
“It was close,” I said. “He’s too damn tough to die.”
“You two are a lot alike,” he responded. “Jimmy tells me you got shot again. Wouldn’t tell me how many times.”
“A few,” I said. “I’m starting to believe people don’t like me.”
“Why don’t you sit this one out and let me and Jimmy do this run?”
“Not happening,” I said. “You don’t need to be anywhere near that bunch, Pop. They’d take you out just to see if the place could hold together.”
“They’re that bad?”
“You’ve heard what they did to those people before we brought them home with us. I’d thought the woman might be a little better than the two men, but then I found Lacey.”
“Lacey? The girl with all the burns?’’
“Yeah, she told me Rosalyn did that to her just to see her reaction. That woman is evil, Pop. Never doubt it.”
He nodded.
“I’ve found others she’s used as toys,” I said. “You’ll never be anywhere near those people as long as I live, Pop. I sure hope there’s a God, because there’s certainly a Devil, and she lives right next door.”
The more I talked to the people we’d pulled out of the Circus, the more I knew we were walking a tightrope with the Corporate Heads, Lasko, Reynard, and Rosalyn. We were playing poker with demons, and they were holding all the aces.
Perhaps we could find a Joker in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 47
Martin, or Slammer as he was called at the Circus, was standing in the street when the wagons rolled past the old FBI building. The one he’d called Funboy was standing beside him. I’d left Dagger at home for this trip, because he was still eating every two hours while the nanites did their thing. None of us knew where that was going to take him. The three mares he’d bred with his new equipment had all successfully taken. I wondered if the nanites would pass on to the foals, or even pass to the mares. It was something that might have a direct bearing on me. What happens when an Agent does the deed? Do they pass on to the woman and kill them? The child if there is a pregnancy? There were a lot of unknowns in my life, things I’d need to figure out if I planned to do anything with the situation on the riverfront. The situation with Lee.
“Pratt,” Martin said. “Time to start the negotiations.”
“Yep,” I said, looking at the Agent. I actually felt sorry for the guy. He was a tough bastard, like the Agents I’d seen during the war, but he d
idn’t seem to fit this twisted persona he was playing for the Heads. The need to follow those orders is hardwired into the imprints.
I wondered if Jimmy had that hardwiring, too. I hoped he hadn’t gotten enough of the imprint to get that, but I didn’t intend to put him in the position to ever find out for certain.
“We have seventy-eight slaves, and they want five times the allotment for each. We’ll deal with the two per augment you initially offered, but we want an additional twenty-five for the Heads.” He shrugged as he saw my expression. “Eight fifty-pound bags of flour, three bags of cornmeal, seven bags of the oatmeal, and three of your horses for meat.”
“No way in hell do you get the horses for meat,” I said. “You want the proteins? We have beans. The horses are not, and never will be, on the table. We need them to do the job.”
“They’re willing to negotiate on the horses.”
“There’s no negotiation on the horses. They’re not available.”
“And I was told to remind you who you are dealing with,” he said.
“I know who I’m dealing with, and the situation hasn’t changed. We need to use the horses to supply the food. Horses are not the food. They’re necessary for the job. Not happening.”
The radio clicked, and he looked at the screen.
“Seems they want to see you again,” he said. “Unarmed.”
I drew the Colts and handed them to Ray, who stepped forward to take them. Unslinging the rifle, I handed it to him as well, and the three blades I’d stashed in various places.
I turned back to Martin, whose head was cocked to the side just a little.
“Looks like you’ve been in a fight,” he said. “The scar on the cheek is new, and you’re favoring the ribs. How did that happen?”
“Grizzly bear Genos,” I said as I walked alongside the man toward the Mint. I almost liked the Agent.
I’d spent a lot of time with the prisoners taken from this zone the last time, and none of them could remember Slammer as one of the tormentors. There had only been one of the tormentors who’d been augmented. It wasn’t absolute proof; they could kill their victims. But I had my suspicions about the Agents who were dressing the part.
“That sounds uncomfortable.”
“Nanites had to completely rebuild the ribs on the right side, and part of my skull after I had an unkind meeting with a wall.”
“You’re still here, which speaks volumes.”
“They’re not,” I said.
I didn’t miss the quick upturn of his mouth for a split second.
“I have a thought you know the bears I’m talking about.”
“It’s possible,” he said. “Not my place to say.”
“Understood,” I answered.
As we entered the double doors, I looked up at the dim lights hanging along the hallway. He saw where I was looking and shrugged.
“Generators,” he said.
I nodded as we entered the stairwell and climbed to the top floor. They were in the same room with the three thrones, sitting in the same order. This time I knew who was pulling the strings, so I faced Rosalyn.
“You don’t seem happy with the terms,” she said and stood up in a fluid movement. The body sculpting was probably the best money could buy. Her honey blonde hair and full lips had been the highest fashion before the Fall. Her beauty was the kind of thing that would have started wars in the days I’d studied about in the old textbooks.
“There are things we just can’t accommodate,” I said as she walked forward, her full lips pursed.
If I didn’t know who she was, I’d have been just like most of the men she’d ever run into in her life. Smitten by her surreal beauty. But I also knew what she liked to do to people. She was a monster.
“You are not dealing with the common rabble!” Lasko snarled from his throne. “We are Obsidian.”
“Obsidian is dead,’’ I said to the fat man and turned my gaze back to the woman who stood less than a foot in front of me.
“Perhaps there may be something you can do,’’ she said, and her left hand traced the newest scar along my cheek. “It seems someone has killed poor Jaimie Galloway over on the waterfront. Killed his pets, too. An impressive feat. One wonders what a man who would do that for some quest to save the city would do for others.”
She moved closer with a sinuous step.
“Dear God, woman.” Reynard frowned.
She smiled, and I couldn’t help but think I was staring into the eyes of a reptile instead of a human. Her lips and her body all screamed one thing, but her eyes were cold and dead.
“Your augmenting interests me,” she said. “I understand it’s recent. You’ll be mine for twelve hours. All the slaves will be freed. I didn’t know you on our last encounter, Zebadiah. I’ve learned things since that intrigue me. I understand you lost your wife to Raiders from the city. Poor man. My sources on the waterfront tell me things. Perhaps it’s time to move forward.”
These words from someone like Lee were an enticing offer. I missed Neave greatly, and that rage was always right under the surface. But Lee was a good person.
Rosalyn was looking at me as a predator looks at prey. She wanted to torture me in the way she thought would hurt me the most. It told me more about the Corporate Head than anything I’d seen yet. She’d looked into me, seen the weakest link in my armor, and pressed the buttons when given the opportunity.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “As attractive as the offer is, I must decline.”
Her smile changed as she turned. I caught the shift in that fraction of an instant before she was turned the other way. It was a cruel smile that fit her eyes so much better than the one she’d been sporting.
“Then you have nothing I want. We’ll take what we need from whomever we choose, whenever we choose.” She reseated herself on the throne and smiled that cruel smile. “Slammer, escort this…farmer…out of our territory. Then execute the slaves.”
My eye was twitching as Martin stepped between me and his bosses. He motioned toward the door. He was tense as a coiled spring, and I knew the other three Agents would be on me before I could reach any of the Heads.
I turned and let him steer me out into the hall and back to the stairs. As we entered the stairwell, he switched off the radio.
“Why didn’t you just do it? Look at her. It’s not that horrible a fate. It’s just sex.”
“It’s not about sex, Martin. It’s about power. She’s negotiating. Turn the radio back on.”
He looked confused but turned it on.
As we walked out of the Mint the radio clicked.
He looked at it and looked back at me with an eyebrow raised. “New deal. Non-negotiable. Ten times the script for the slaves, the sixty per augment you initially offered, an additional fifty script for each of the Heads, eight fifty-pound bags of flour, three bags of cornmeal, seven bags of oatmeal, ten bags of beans, and you’ll leave a single horse. Or I have to continue with the previous order.”
“A piece of work, that one,’’ I said. I couldn’t let them murder seventy-eight people and walk away, and she knew it. The horse would hurt the worst. We need them. The diesel and the trucks would last awhile, but the horses were our lifeblood.
“Done,” I said through gritted teeth.
I turned to Sam Atten. “Get off the horse, Sam.”
The radio clicked, and he raised it again.
“Keep the horse,” he said. “She says she’s feeling magnanimous, and perhaps the next time you’ll choose more wisely.”
Sometimes every choice is a bad choice in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter 48
“Those damn clowns give me the creeps,” Ray said.
“Yep,” I said.
“Would you have shot that one who tried to snatch the girl?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
I’d caught one of the imprints trying to steal a girl from the last wagon after we’d finished the initial swap.
“Idiots.”
I left the clown with him, and we’d finished our business.
“That place gets worse each time we come here,” he said. “What are the Heads like?”
“They’re worse than the Psycho Imprint,” I said. “Sociopaths with their subjects hardwired to do whatever they say. You really want to know what they’re like? Go talk to the prisoners we brought out. Find the ones who’ve been used by the Heads. Talk to them if they’ll talk. You’ll learn everything you need to know about those three. They’re evil.”
“We can’t keep giving them more and more,” he said.
“They have us at a disadvantage,” I said. “We’re working on that. We may have just the thing we need.”
“I sure hope so.”
“Me, too.”
I looked back down the line of wagons. ‘‘What do we have left?”
“Enough for five or six small zones, or one big one.”
“That guy Wilderman isn’t too far off. Let’s pay them a visit. I have questions for the guys at the Obsidian place. Jimmy said he comes from there. It means they’re keeping another Agent down there. I’m curious if the guy is still screwed up, or a possible ally against the Circus.”
“We get enough Agents to side with us, and who knows what we could do?”
“We’re a far cry from matching the Circus, but allies are good. We’re going across the river into the Jersey zones soon, and Agents are always good to have in a caravan.”
“You reckon the other side of the river will be as bad as this side was?”
“Some of that area is still suburbia,” I said, “but a good-sized chunk of it is going to be just as bad as the center of the city was on this side. I served most of my time a little further south, so I’m not even sure what we’ll be dealing with. If we’re lucky, we can reach the ocean without radiation. I know the area around Atlantic City was growing like crazy before the Fall. There was more construction out this direction going on than we saw moving west. When Obsidian declared the state borders were just lines on a map, no one could argue. The area exploded. Pop told me there were skyscrapers going up all over the place.”
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