by Ric Beard
Ruby nodded. Know your enemy.
“Radio your lieutenants. Send out a warning. Send it out wide. Let the Black Ghost hear it. I know they’re listening, or else they wouldn’t have been able to find and attack this truck. Tell our people to go on about their business, but to be diligent. Let them know they can’t coax us into imprudent action.”
“Okay, boss.”
“Miller tells me we got another dead lawkeeper in your territory, town called Plattsville to the southeast. Check it out, and let me know what you find. Make a visit to Blacksburg on the way back. I have a contact there who isn’t too happy about things.”
“Like Simms?”
“For one. I think he’s also starting to see that unifying the currency makes sense.”
Ah, the great deal breaker. Proctor’s refusal to accept MidEast marks.
When Proctor had met with Sampson the second time, the time she’d told him he could leave the town empty-handed and like it, they’d discussed the unification. Sampson had even agreed to use Blacksburg’s vendor marks as the universal currency, but he had nothing with which to bargain for enough of them to distribute throughout the MidEast. Proctor was against the idea the whole time, but she agreed to let the citizens vote. Since the Blacksburg marks had proven so valuable that they were already kept and traded by people outside the city, Sampson had been hopeful he’d be able to print marks to replace the MidEast marks over a period of a year. But then Proctor proceeded to talk almost all of them into voting against it. It was the only explanation that made sense.
Had Sampson actually found a way to get his foot in the door and reverse the sentiment?
Sampson slid out of the truck and slammed the door behind him. He twirled a finger and the men who’d found the bodies of their comrades-in-arms followed him back to their truck and wheeled out of town. Ruby picked up the radio handset from the dashboard as she waited for her men to bury their dead.
“I need a region-wide message relayed,” Ruby said.
Chapter Twenty
TESTY
20
It would’ve been comical to watch the jumbo dude on the ground as he tumbled onto his butt because he couldn’t support his weight, but Lexi wasn’t in a laughing mood. The vague inkling that a laugh might get her face blown off was deterrent enough, but the black, stretched material on her forearm beneath her combat suit where the broken bone was trying to push through distracted her. She cradled it in her good arm, but suppressed the instinct to rock back and forth. The oaf tried again, cradling his knee as he cursed loudly and rolled back onto the dirt. Death’s glimmer shot from his eyes as he leveled them on Lexi and sneered.
I want to laugh at you. I really do.
As if a telepathic connection revealed the thought in her mind, he twisted and started to drag himself toward her with both hands digging into the earth, pulling him forward on his good knee as the bad leg dragged behind him like a limp sack. A murderous shade of red infused his face.
“I’m gonna kill you, bitch.” A long strand of drool stretched toward the ground as he pronounced the final word, but the crawling slug made no effort to wipe it away.
That would be an easy job with your friend waving that rifle at my head.
Throwing a glance over her shoulder, she located the third asshole, who’d circled around behind her. Leaning forward, he was trying to look down the front of her shirt. He wouldn’t see anything with her combat suit hugging her body beneath her clothes. A century of having men gaze at her, trying to sneak peeks, didn’t leave her appreciating him. After a quick look up at his face, she frowned.
Kill me now.
From here she could see the anti-magnet systems on the bike were busted, its hull slanted sideways on the road. A longing for her pulse rifle clamped into its magnetic side mount made her fingers twitch. The tension her knives created in the back of her suit near her shoulder blades made them itch, but any chance of getting the drop on this group was neutralized by the skinny prick with the patchy beard leveling the weapon.
Mister Jumbo was within a foot or two now, his outstretched hand grasping for her leg. She scooted backward to test the waters.
“Hey!” Patchy beard shoved the rifle closer.
Pudgy’s gonna gouge my eyes out, and there isn’t much I can do about it. Well, guess I should kick him one good in the head if I’m going to go out like a—
Out of the corner of Lexi’s eye came a screaming flash of blue light from the north. Impact rocked the rifle away from Lexi’s face as hot blue light illuminated Patchy Beard’s shoulder. Lexi’s arms jerked up to protect her face and a shriek of pain she’d guess was something like being struck by lightning made her yowl and tuck the arm against her. Patchy Beard convulsed twice and dropped the weapon as his weight plopped to the ground. It was apparent that Mister Jumbo’s initial surprise at his comrade falling was trumped by his desire to wring Lexi’s neck as he dragged himself the final few inches to grip her leg.
Lexi shot a glance behind her as the last man raised his rifle and waved it back and forth in confusion, as if he didn’t know who to shoot. The black figure sauntering—walking!—toward them from the northwest wielded a long black rifle. She gave no consideration to the scope mounted on the stock; there was no sign in the steady jaunt that the woman in black was the least bit nervous or concerned with her aim as she wielded the weapon at her hip. Lexi noticed the dog pacing low, right at Sasha’s feet, as if waiting for something. The animal’s hackles were up: its long, milky teeth revealed. She didn’t launch, but she looked like she really, really wanted to.
Waiting for orders…
A gripping pain in her knee brought Lexi’s eyes down to focus on Mister Jumbo as he used her to pull himself the final distance and raised a fist over his head.
Another shot rang out from the pulse weapon in Sasha’s grasp, and the man behind her dropped.
Lexi smiled.
Her hand shot over her shoulder, grasped the cool handle of the long blade sheathed in her suit, and swung its razor-sharp edge. A line drew itself down the center of the man’s face from forehead to chin as the skin on either side peeled away from bone. Lexi rolled to one side as the purple tint of the flesh beneath opened into a flood of crimson, and his nose divided neatly in half. Mister Jumbo raised his hands to his gushing face, but she doubted his eyes were able to focus on the gore pouring into his hands as they rolled restlessly out of control in their sockets.
He rocked back and forth like a pendulum, with blood flooding through the cracks between his fingers as Lexi pushed herself to her feet. Careful to hold her broken arm to her chest, she raised her eyes.
“Think you could move any faster? You don’t seem to be in any hurry.”
The figure in black and the dog were twenty feet out now. Sasha’s lips hinted at a smile beneath the shade of the wide-brimmed hat.
“Apologies, I didn’t realize you had somewhere to be.” Her face changed as she looked down at Lexi’s cradled arm, and Sasha jogged the final paces. “Shit! Is it broken?”
The dog pushed its face close to the rocking man’s face and began to bark.
“You want to quiet this asshole?” Lexi slapped her hip with her good arm. “I don’t seem to have my pistol handy.”
“Happy to comply, mistress.” Sasha swung the weapon down, flicked a switch with her thumb, and sent a luminous purple bolt into his chest.
Purple? That’s new.
“Did you kill him?”
She raised her shoulder in a half-shrug. “I didn’t think his quality of life was going to be stellar after you sliced his face in half. Was I wrong?”
Lexi smirked in response.
“What’d you cut him with?” Lexi retrieved the blade and handed it to Sasha, hilt first.
“Wow!” Sasha said as her eyes traced the long blade with a curve midway leading to a fat, rounded head. “Wherever did you get this wonder?”
“It’s just a blade,” Lexi said.
The dog was stil
l growling at the dead man with the split face as it sniffed at the wound.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Huh? Oh! Yeah. My uncle brought me knives from all over the world before my parents died. You could call him a feminist. My mother wasn’t a big fan of the concept, but dad talked her into picking her battles.”
“Feminist?”
“Someone who professes that women are equal to men.”
“Who the fuck wouldn’t think women are equal to men?”
“I love your perspective, Sasha. I really need to learn more about your people. Could we—”
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to see the whole world, like your uncle. Moss says it’s much bigger than the badlands.”
“It is, and so much of it is beautiful.”
“Very nice, but hey, we should get your arm fixed. Oh, and do me a favor?”
Lexi looked around at the bodies strewn about and shrugged.
“Seems I owe you one.”
The dog started walking from body to body, sniffing the lengths of the dead men’s forms before moving to the next. The low growl was quieter now.
Sasha’s cheeks ticked up. “Let’s just not mention this whole affair to Moss. He’ll give me the third degree.”
“About what?”
“Killing people. He doesn’t like it when I take it lightly.”
Jenna wouldn’t usually approve either. Maybe that’s why she and Moss got along so well. Somehow, I think this circumstance called for it.
Lexi read Sasha’s expression, her cheeks raised in their pleading tautness, and shrugged.
“Fair enough. Your secret’s safe with me.”
The woman in black gave a curt nod. “Let’s go take care of your arm.”
They turned toward Lexi’s bike. Her arm complained with each step, the bone on fire inside.
Man, I don’t want this thing to start healing until I get it set. This is where advanced healing rates are a bad thing. While she waited for it to go into shock and quiet itself, she created a distraction to calm her mind.
“Let me ask you a question.”
Sasha nodded and folded her arms across her chest. “Go ahead.” Her head swiveled slowly left and right, as if the horizon held more interest than the conversation.
“What is it you and Moss want?”
Sasha’s head stilled, and she blinked. “That’s an interesting question.” Her arms unfolded and dropped to her side as she looked up at Lexi beside her. “Peace.”
Lexi struggled to keep her cool, but her arm was screaming at her, making sustenance of her composure a challenge.
“Peace?”
“Yes.”
“Could you maybe elaborate on that?”
“Yes. After I set your arm.”
“Set—” Lexi looked down and glared at the bump a second time.
Have I become this accustomed to pain?
“It’s okay. I can fix it.”
Lexi’s eyes shot up. “You can fix it? Is there anything you can’t do?”
Sasha waited two full breaths before she answered, but her expression remained stony. There was no indication that she was bothered by the question…nor amused.
“I’m not the greatest dancer.”
About twenty yards from her vehicle, she spied her yellow-framed SmartGlasses lying in contrast to the grass and yanked them off the ground without breaking stride. They seemed undamaged.
“Lexi?”
“What?”
“Are you angry about something? I get the impression you’re angry about something.”
They stopped next to her ruined bike, and Sasha turned to face her.
“You mean besides my broken arm and busted bike? Yes. I’m angry. I don’t like it when I don’t know the score.”
“The score? What’s that?”
“It means I don’t know everything that’s going on.”
Sasha flipped a hand in the air next to her shoulder. “How could you possibly know everything that’s going on?”
Is she for real? Man, there’s something really strange about this one.
“I don’t like that I don’t know who you and Moss really are, why you keep saving our asses, and what it is you want from us.”
Sasha clicked her tongue. “Now that’s the rub, ain’t it?”
There’s an expression she seems to know.
“We’re The Black. When Moss was excommunicated for a crime he didn’t commit, we left Plains City with him and lived according to the old ways.”
“You just left?”
“Nothing is ever that simple.”
You’re telling me.
“The city was moving in the wrong direction. The abbot made a deal with the horde that goes against a century of tradition we weren’t willing to give up.”
“Principles, then?”
“I’m sure it sounds like some kind of joke to you, but we take it seriously.”
“What, you think I lack principles?”
“Enough.” Sasha stepped forward and grabbed Lexi’s shoulder, staring up at her with a determined, rigid expression. “This is really bothering me.” Her hand lingered slowly down to the bump where bone protruded into Lexi’s skin. Lexi made no effort to resist as Sasha tapped her glasses, slowly raised the arm in both hands, and scanned the arm from shoulder to wrist.
Sasha nodded. “Broke clean. Shouldn’t have to roll up the sleeve, either. Lucky.”
“I don’t feel so lu—”
Pain jolted the arm from elbow to wrist as the woman in black suddenly jerked her hands.
“Waaaa! The fuck?” Lexi jumped back and twisted the arm away.
Sasha stepped close, and Lexi held up a warning finger. Sasha slapped it away in a blur of motion and grabbed the opposite shoulder again.
“Show me the arm.”
Lexi stared at her, but her eyes suddenly jumped in their sockets as a new wave of pain coursed through the arm.
A gloved hand appeared in front of her eyes and gave a muted snap.
“The arm, Lexi.”
“Fine!”
Sasha scanned again, gripped Lexi’s wrist and squeezed the forearm with her other hand. She slid the hand up and down the arm, causing Lexi to wince, but she relaxed when she realized Sasha’s touch wasn’t painful.
“Good. It’s set. Get your gear and follow me to my bike. I’ve got a wrap to keep it stable.”
“I’m sure you do.”
Once her pack was loaded and strapped across her back, Lexi brought up the rear as her companion turned west. Though Sasha was half a foot shorter than she, her powerful thighs propelled her along at a good clip, forcing Lexi to use her long strides to keep pace.
When I have a gun shoved against my head and a grizzly of a man crawling toward me with murderous intent, she saunters casually. Now that we’re out of danger, she’s in a footrace.
The best Lexi could tell, the woman in black was made of stone. Her butt was a testament to good genes, perhaps good training. In the old world, she’d have guessed her thighs were the products of childhood gymnastics practice.
She could break a man’s neck with her those legs.
Her black hat twisted to the left and right as Sasha crossed the field. Lexi had noticed the habit the previous evening, how Moss and Sasha both scanned their surroundings at intervals. It was a sort of dance they did, each taking a turn, the other taking the next. She found herself adapting, turning her head in the opposite direction as Sasha’s.
There are things The Foundation could learn from these people.
Curiosity nagged at Lexi’s brain. Since the day she’d first seen Moss on a backstreet during the whiteout of a rare Triangle City blizzard, she’d been plagued by questions. For one, how had he so effectively masked his movement speed with the long leather trench as he zipped down the alley, covering so much ground so quickly? Against the winter-white backdrop, it had seemed like he was hovering inches off the ground.
“Hop on. I’ll take your bag.”
The dog obeyed before Lexi did, jumping onto the seat of Sasha’s bike and climbing into the cargo box. Sasha slid Lexi’s bag into a slot beneath.
“You want me to stow your rifle?”
“I’ll wear it. Where are we going now?”
“After I wrap your arm, we’ll head over to Blacksburg. We’ll just have to stop, so I can change.”
“Change?”
“My clothes.” She said it as if Lexi were a little slow.
“I understand you meant your clothes. I’m asking why you’d need to change.”
“Because someone has been spreading lies about The Black, and we’re wanted.”
“About the lawkeeper?”
“Ah, so you’ve heard.”
“Yes. I’ve heard. So, it wasn’t you?”
“Fuck no!” Sasha barked.
Testy.
Lexi searched Sasha’s slightly-angular face for deceit and found none, but if anyone was likely to be able to mask their emotions, it was Porter Moss and what she assumed was his subordinate. Hell, he hid his true identity for years right in front of Jenna’s face. Not an easy accomplishment.
Sasha’s face relaxed. “I get it. You don’t know us. But trust me, we wouldn’t kill the ones who keep the law when it’s the boss we’re trying to take down.”
“You’re after Sampson?”
“We were until we figured out you were in the area. Moss wanted to work together. He seems to respect your Foundation. So, plans change.”
Lexi nodded, though she didn’t really know what any of it meant.
Chapter Twenty-One
WHY I'M USING IT
21
If it hadn’t been for Sean’s SmartGlasses, the darkness would’ve shrouded the yellow pasture flowers and thistle creeping through cracked concrete across the all-too-familiar warehouse district he had last seen three years before. Various breeds of bare trees poked up at random at the edges of the buildings, and rusted out train tracks wound their ways in both directions as far as he could see. Another warehouse nearby was caved in on two sides, and the way the remaining segment of roof in the middle slanted against the girders, it resembled a ramshackle pyramid. Zooming in on the mammoth wind turbines struggling in the epic battle of wind versus weight atop the massive city wall, caused his stomach to quake and an inkling of chill to traverse his spine.