The Search

by Darrell Maloney

  It was John, with the help of Frank Woodard and Marty Haskins, who’d orchestrated the attacks on the city of Eden when it was overrun by outlaws and needed to be cleaned up.

  But John was dead now. Frank and Marty were on the far side of the county, on two different roads, knocking on doors in their ongoing search for Sarah.

  And Bryan, for all his honorable traits, was a hothead. Everyone in the camp knew it.

  Luckily, he knew it himself. And was man enough to admit it.

  Bryan looked to David.

  “If you let me take control of this, I’ll screw it up. I’ll go storming in there demanding to know where my Sarah is, and will probably shoot any man I might think have a gun. And if it turns out that it isn’t Sarah, it may be too late. I may already have ruined some lives. Tell me, David, how best to handle this.”

  David was a dentist by trade, and certainly not a tactician or an expert on military operations. He’d survived the assault on the compound and its eventual retaking, though, by keeping cool and using his head.

  In the battle of Eden, he did the same thing, and was able to help rid the town of some of the meanest men in central Texas.

  David wished John were still alive to take charge. But he knew that he was capable in John’s absence.

  He hoped he could solve the mystery about the unidentified woman with no one getting hurt. And he hoped that in the end, when they left the farm this day they’d be taking Sarah home with them.

  “Okay, first off, we don’t know what we’re up against, so we have to make a few assumptions. We have to assume that if there are women on the farm, that there may well be children as well. So we simply can’t go in with guns blazing and hope for the best.

  “Second, we cannot just assume that was Sarah that Brad and I saw earlier. Bryan, you’re right. If it was her, there was no logical reason she wouldn’t have just walked away, naked or not.

  “So unfortunately, that lessens the chances that it is Sarah. And it also greatly increases the importance that we can’t shoot first and ask questions later.

  “At the same time, we have to accept the possibility that it is Sarah, and that she’s being held in a way we don’t yet understand. Any men hostile enough to hold her against her will won’t have any problem with shooting us without provocation, or in the back as we leave. So we have to take precautions.

  “That means we will take our weapons, but we’ll be smart about it. It also means we need to be ready to fire, but hold off unless it looks like Sarah or one of us is in danger. Agreed?”

  He looked from one man to another. All three of them nodded.

  “Okay. Bryan, you and Brad are much better shots than I am. Bryan, you take point. Then me, then ‘Army guy,’ and Brad you follow up in the drag-ass position. Take positions thirty or forty yards apart so we’re not all bunched up if it turns ugly. Find a solid tree and take cover behind it. Not bushes. A tree.

  “I won’t be able to see anyone else, so I’ll wait five minutes to let you get into position. Train your weapons on the front of the house. That’s where I’ll approach it.

  “I’ll approach the house unarmed. I’ll leave my weapon at my position where I can get back to it if I need to, but I’m still hoping this is a family of friendlies, and it wouldn’t be right to scare the hell out of them if we don’t need to.

  “Hopefully I can talk to them and if Sarah’s there they’ll bring her out and wish her well. If anything else happens, we’ll just wing it and try to take out the bad guys before they get us.

  “Any questions?”

  There were none.

  “Okay. Let’s head out. And make sure you’re chambered and your safeties are off. That extra three seconds may make the difference in whether you go home tonight.”

  Chapter 50

  Bryan crept up the driveway, crouching low to the ground. David waited until he was out of sight around a bend, then whispered to Bryan Too.

  “I’m going to take a position just inside the woods directly across from the front door. You take yours on this side of it. If you can see me you’ve gone too far.”

  Bryan Too nodded. Although he was a soldier, he’d never seen combat. He was nervous, but David saw no fear in his eyes. Only the determination of a good man on a vitally important mission. And although David didn’t know him personally, he did know Bryan. And Bryan spoke highly of the man. And that was good enough for him.

  David set out.

  Bryan Too waited until he was out of sight and followed. He was lucky in that he found an ancient oak, split into a fork about shoulder high. Each of the forked trunks was easily a foot thick, and he could easily rest his rifle in the tree’s crook. It was a prefect shooter’s nest, and an adversary would have to be a hell of a shot to take Bryan Too out.

  But he, like the others, hoped this didn’t turn into a shooting war.

  David said he’d wait for five minutes, but it seemed an eternity.

  Finally, he left his rifle and handgun behind his cover position and moved into the clearing between the woods and the house.

  Totally unarmed, he was a sitting duck and he knew it. But it was important that he not appear shady or afraid. So with hands held high, he strode confidently to a position forty yards from the house.

  It was closer than he wanted to be. But he had to be close enough to be heard from within the house to avoid having to go any further. If shooting broke out, he’d have to rely on his comrades giving him cover while he made his way back to his firing position.

  “Hello in the house,” he shouted.

  There was no response.

  After ten seconds he tried again.

  “Hello in the house!”

  This time the curtains in the living room window were pulled back.

  David was being watched. He hoped it wasn’t through the scope of a rifle.

  The front door opened, and Nathan Martel, a mountain of a man, walked out onto the porch.

  In his hands he cradled an AR-15 rifle.

  “What do you want?”

  David could sense the sheer meanness in the man’s voice, and began to wonder if he’d made a dreadful mistake.

  “My name is David. I am unarmed and come in peace. I mean you no harm…”

  Martel interrupted him.

  “I didn’t ask you your God-damned name! I asked you what in the hell you’re doing on my property!”

  “I am looking for a woman. Her name is Sarah. She was in the forest not far from here and lost her way. She is injured and may have gone looking for help. I’m asking everyone in the area whether they’ve seen her.”

  “I ain’t seen your damn woman. Hell, I ain’t seen a woman in months.”

  David knew it was a lie but wasn’t about to call the man on it.

  He continued, “She’s about five three with brown hair, and a lot of good people are broken hearted that she’s missing. If she happens along, would you help her get home?”

  “Is there a reward if I bring her back?”

  David was caught off guard by the question, but recovered quickly.

  “Of course. We will make it worth your while, certainly.”

  “What do you have to trade?”

  “We have livestock. Cattle and hogs and chickens. And we have seeds. I noticed your garden. It looks good. You must put a lot of work into it. But I’ll bet we have seeds you could use. Coffee beans, berry and watermelon seeds…”

  Martel interrupted him again.

  “Bullshit. There ain’t no cattle anymore, except what the Army’s got locked up behind high fences in San Antonio.”

  “No, sir. That’s not true. When the Army came for our stock we made a deal with them. We gave them half in exchange for their word they’d take no more. So far they’ve kept their word.”

  David knew he’d catch hell from some of the people in the compound for giving away that information. But if this man had Sarah and was willing to trade her for livestock, it was imperative he believe the livestock existed
.

  While David and the big man were negotiating, Bryan kept one eye on Martel’s gun and the other on the house.

  He saw, in an upstairs window, a curtain being drawn back and a woman’s face appear.

  The face was badly bruised and the hair was up. But the face was unmistakable.

  He’d kissed it a thousand times.

  It was his sweet Sarah.

  She peered out with some curiosity, but mostly she looked frightened and worried.

  She was in fear for her life, Bryan knew.

  He fought, with every fiber of his being, the urge to stand up and start firing bullets into the body of the big man.

  Only two things held him back. First was knowing that his friend David would likely be one of the first to die. And second was he didn’t know the situation in the house. There was in all likelihood at least one other man, holding a gun on Sarah and threatening to shoot her if things got ugly.

  For once, Bryan kept a cool head.

  For once his brain overruled his heart and told him he had no choice.

  Martel was toying with David now.

  “Now as I said, I ain’t seen no women for a very long time. But say I come across her, how many cattle and pigs would you give me in exchange for her?”

  Again, David was in a difficult position. But he had to come up with numbers.

  “We’re willing to give you a bull and two cows. A hog and two sows. You can breed them for butchering and have an ongoing supply.”

  Martel laughed.

  “An ongoing supply, huh? You sound like a college boy. You a college boy?”

  “I went to college, yes.”

  “I hate college boys. I hate ‘em with a passion. You college boys suck up all the money that workin’ folk should be gettin.’”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, sir…”

  “And I believe you’re trying to shortchange me, college boy. I believe the going rate for a woman is two bulls and four cows and four roosters and ten hens. You can keep the pigs. I hate the stinkin’ creatures.”

  “We would be amenable to those terms, certainly.”

  Once again, Martel mocked him.

  “Amenable to those terms? Stop it with the college boy crap. You’re giving me a headache. And my finger gets twitchy when I get a headache.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “She your wife, this woman?”

  “No, sir. She’s the wife of a very good friend.”

  “Well, college boy, I ain’t been with a woman in ages. If I come across her, I’ll likely fuck her real good before I take her home. In fact, I may fuck her so good she won’t want to go home. What do you think your ‘good friend’ would think of that?”

  “Please don’t do that, sir. She’s a good Christian woman. That would harm a lot of good people unnecessarily.”

  Martel laughed.

  “Well, I ain’t seen her. If I do, how do I find you to swap her for some animals?”

  “You’d never find us. We live down a series of unnamed and unpaved roads. She knows the way and can show you.”

  “Fair enough. Now get the hell off my land and don’t come back. I can already feel my finger starting to twitch.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  David turned and walked back toward the tree line, certain he was going to be shot in the back at any moment.

  Bryan had his rifle trained on Martel’s head, fighting hard the impulse to ease back his trigger finger. Bryan Too and Brad had their sights trained on Martel’s cold heart.

  To Martel’s credit, he chose not to raise his rifle in David’s direction.

  If he had, he’d have fallen dead before he could have gotten off a shot.

  David made it back to the tree line and disappeared into the woods, amazed that he was still alive. He picked up his weapons from behind the tree where he’d left them and made his way back to the rendezvous point at the end of the caliche drive.

  Bryan Too and Brad were both waiting for him there, ready to plan their next move.

  Bryan, on point, had positioned himself the farthest away. He therefore had the most ground to cover coming back to the rendezvous point, and would take the longest.

  The other men tried to be patient, but after ten minutes it was painfully obvious Bryan wasn’t coming.

  “Damn it,” Brad said, voicing the same sentiment all of them felt. “What the hell is he up to?”

  Chapter 51

  Martel lingered on the porch for a couple of minutes after David disappeared from view, and Bryan held his position. Once Martel seemed satisfied that the stranger wasn’t coming back, he turned and went back into the farmhouse.

  Bryan left his position and skirted the edge of the woods, staying just out of sight until he worked his way around the house and on its west side.

  Once again, he was letting his heart overrule his head. Common sense would have told him to rendezvous with the others and devise a plan that would get Sarah out of the house with little chance of her or anyone else getting hurt.

  But Bryan had never been much on thinking logically. All he knew was that his wife was alone in that house with at least one very bad man.

  And possibly others.

  He knew that the man on the porch had threatened to rape her, and for all he knew could be doing just that at this very moment.

  And he knew that Sarah had looked out the window for help.

  He wouldn’t let her down. Damn common sense. Damn a game plan. He had no time.

  He was making his move now.

  David would have insisted that they wait until dark. After dark they could sneak up to the house and peer inside the windows to see what they were up against. How many bad men were there. How many were armed. Where they were in the house.

  And, most importantly, where Sarah was in the house.

  By the time David and the others realized Bryan wasn’t coming back, though, Bryan was already at the kitchen door, slowly turning the knob. And praying that it opened.

  It did. It was unlocked.

  His luck was holding.

  He slowly eased the door open and peered inside. There was no one in the kitchen.

  He slipped off his shoes while holding his handgun in front of him, and used his socked feet to push them to the side.

  Then he slowly made his way through the den and then the living room. He expected to be challenged at any moment, but the first floor appeared to be completely empty.

  Then he heard Martel yelling loudly in an upstairs bedroom.

  “What do you mean, ‘honey, who was that man?’ Here’s better question, you stupid little bitch. What in the hell were you doing looking out of the window when I told you not to? Am I gonna have to punish you again?”

  Then Bryan heard a voice that was distinctively Sarah’s. There was no mistaking it.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I was just worried about you, that’s all. Please don’t handcuff me to the bed again. I…”

  “Handcuffs are the least of your worries now, bitch. I may just have to kill you this time.”

  What Bryan heard next sickened him, and spurred him into action. It was the unmistakable sound of flesh on flesh, as when someone punches another.

  And he could hold himself back no longer.

  Caution be damned. Bryan sprang up the stairs and into the open door of the master bedroom.

  Sarah was cowering in the corner of the room and trying to cover herself from the additional blows she knew were coming. Martel was towering over her, a hulk of a man. Instead of bending over to punch her, he let loose a vicious kick to her midsection.

  What alarmed Bryan the most was what Martel held in his hand: a Bowie knife with a nine inch blade.

  Martel started to let loose a stream of profanities at her, then noticed someone rushing him from the corner of his eye.

  He half turned and said, “Who the hell are…”

  It was as far as he got before Bryan hit him square in the mouth, knocking out his two lower teeth and busting hi
s lower lip wide open.

  Chapter 52

  Outside the house, at the end of the long drive, David faced a dilemma.

  Bryan had had plenty of time to return to the group. And he hadn’t.

  That could mean he’d done something rash and very stupid. That wouldn’t have been a surprise to any of them.

  Or, it could mean something else.

  It could mean that he was scouting the perimeter of the house, looking for a good way in, so the group could better plan their assault on the structure.

  The others looked to David for guidance.

  “Hopefully he didn’t go all John Wayne on us. Surely he’s not that stupid.”

  “He might be. But I hope not.”

  “Let’s work our way back through the woods to where we left him. Brad, he left his radio on, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. Don’t talk into it, in case he’s in or near the house. Key your microphone three times every thirty seconds or so. See if he responds. If he hears the duress code, he should respond. If he’s able to talk, he’ll answer and we can ask him where the hell he is. If he responds in kind, we’ll know he’s close to the house and can’t speak.”

  “What if he doesn’t respond at all?”

  “Then he’s an idiot who needs his ass kicked. That means he’s turned his radio off and has gone in alone.”

  The trio quickly worked their way around to the front of the house, just inside the forest’s tree line and just out of sight of the house.

  They were hoping against hope they’d stumble across Bryan, on his way back.

  But there was no sign of him. They found his position, and he and his weapons were gone.

  There was nothing they could do but follow his path and continue around the side of the house.

  On the west side they found the same kitchen door that Bryan had found.

  It was closed, and Bryan was nowhere in sight.

  “Where in the hell is he?”

  At that moment, a blood curdling scream came from within the house.