by James McEwan
“I’m glad you figured right.” Doctor Hammer replied.
“Well we can talk more top-side where it is safe, the crab spiders usually hunt alone, but that one there was female. I, for one, don’t want to run into any of its offspring. They are more trouble than the big ones. They are too stupid not to mess with armed humans.”
They made their way to the surface where they found that they hadn’t been that far underground, or far from the tall grass that started it all. Thad shook Rawhide’s hand. “Thank you for the help, and I, for one, am glad that you and your men were in the area.”
“No problem son, we who work on the range take care of each other.” he was looking at the way Quincy was dressed. “Somehow I get the feeling you all aren’t range folk.”
Thad chose not to lie to this man, as he seemed like the kind of man who would see through the lie anyway, not to mention he just saved all of their lives. “You are right, we are not range folk. We are just on our way to New Houston.” Thad said.
“City slickers, I can tell them a mile away, not to mention your queer here is a dead giveaway.” Rawhide said as he tilted his head towards Quincy.
Thad laughed while Quincy tried to defend his manner of dress. “I’m not queer! It was dark and I was in a hurry!”
One of the other cowboys said. “Yeah, I bet! That’s what they all say.” The other cowboys burst out laughing, but Quincy just got more and more irritated.
“I will have you know that I have a lot of girlfriends!” Quincy said in defiance.
“Oh yeah, what are their names, Bobbie or maybe Frankie?”
“Knock it off! The lot of you, these city folk here don’t know any better, queer or not.” Rawhide said.
When Rawhide said the word “not”, Quincy shouted. “Not, definitely not.” from behind him.
“These folk here are under our protection until they get to New Houston.” He finished his sentence.
“That is really kind of you, but really we can get there okay on our own.” Thad said.
“Nonsense, we are heading that way anyway. See, we are running supplies to the Twilight Ranges, so it’s not out of our way and besides, clearly the recent turn of events shows you would not last two hours out on the range without us.”
“Look Rawhide, I really do appreciate what you did for us and helping us get to New Houston could be ...” Thad paused. “well, unsafe for you and your men. We are wanted men with a 'shoot on sight' order hanging over our heads.”
One his men handed Rawhide a tablet with the wanted bulletin on it. “What! This silly thing? When you have been around as long as I have, you learn to smell the bullshit where it is, and it ain’t with the bulls today.”
Thad was impressed. “How do know that we aren’t the blood thirsty killers they say we are?”
Rawhide smiled. “Simple son, first of all, one look at your queer over there, if he is a bloodthirsty killer then I’m a puppy dog. Second, a man with Doctor Hammer’s fame overnight becomes the leader of a bunch of ruthless killers? I don’t think so.”
“Not queer!”
Thad noticed he hadn’t mentioned him. “What about me?”
“You son, now, well, you are a killer. I can see it in your eyes, but a willingness to sacrifice yourself to save the others.” Rawhide paused. “No, not the act of a cold blooded killer, if you ask me. I think that you would kill if necessary, but I don’t think that you kill in cold blood.” he answered Thad.
Thad smiled and clapped Ray on the shoulder. “You are all right for an old cowboy.”
“Who you calling old, city slicker?” Rawhide said as they laughed.
Chapter 7
St. Claire didn’t have to wait long before the security feed was cut. “They’re here.” he whispered. Outside his apartment door, a five-man breaching team was stacking up ready to go in. The team leader stood in the last position in the stack and he had been the man who had been following St. Clair earlier.
The frontman slipped a fly bot under the door. It took off and flew around the room beaming back the images from its tiny cameras. The men outside the door watched their target as he sat on the couch calmly drinking a scotch. The team leader gave the go signal and the team moved in. The breach man placed a device over the electronic lock and in a second, it flashed green and the door slid open. He tossed a flash-bang into the room.
Boom! The flash bang went off, filling the room with disorienting light and sound. Then the team stormed in breaking right and left. The men moved with the practiced grace of professionals. They all opened fire with suppressed needle rifles. The small black projectiles passed through the hologram harmlessly.
They stopped firing the second they knew they had been had. St. Claire stepped out of the bedroom. “Looking for me!” he said just before unleashing Hell. The auto shotgun roared like a cannon in the small enclosed space. Men and gear were torn to bloody messes as he sprayed the room with buckshot.
One of the attackers got off a small burst of needles that bounced harmlessly off his body armor. St. Claire turned the shotgun on him and tore him apart before he could get another round off. The total time from breach to the apartment going quiet was less than a minute. When it was finished, the gory mess was all over the front room.
St. Claire had killed all but the last man, the team leader. He was badly wounded, sitting with his back to the wall, bleeding from half a dozen holes. St. Claire walked up to the wounded man and crouched down near him. He placed the hot barrel of the shotgun to his forehead. “For professionals you are not very good at your job. Twenty-three years on the force and five years in the Police Corps, you didn’t think I could spot a tail a mile away. Now who the Hell are you people, and what makes you think you can kill me with impunity?”
The man said nothing; he just looked up to meet St. Claire’s eyes. He smiled. “What are you smiling about?”
He opened his hand and let a fragmentation grenade drop out of his hand. It hit the floor and rolled. St. Claire could see that it was armed. “Shit.” he said as he dropped the shotgun and made a mad dash for the balcony door.
The balcony was his closest exit so he took it. He was in mid jump to clear the safety railing when the grenade detonated. There was a loud thud behind him and the sound of shattering glass, then a fraction of a second later the other men’s grenades detonated. This secondary explosion was huge, with the combined force of all the other explosives creating a large fireball that belched out of the door.
The force of the secondary explosion sent St. Claire flying wildly out of control, flipping him end over end as he plunged to the ground. His apartment had been on the eightieth floor of a hundred and twenty-story building and this gave him precious seconds to try to stop his spinning and fire his jet belt. He threw out his arms and legs to try to control the spinning. After what seemed like an eternity, St. Claire was able to stop the spinning and get himself upright. The ground was coming up fast. He wasted no time in trying to start the jet belt.
He pushed the start button and it sputtered but did not fire He had an older twin tribune model, which was not equipped with the new emergency anti-grav, in case of failure. He had no time left if it didn’t start; he would pancake on the ground. He pushed the button and again it sputtered. St. Claire felt his heart stop, as he looked the ground getting big and bigger. At the last second, the jet fired up, and he could feel the force of the jet belt pushing upward slowing his decent. He landed on his feet hard, but no harder than any other landing he had before. He went to hit the cutoff, but he didn’t need to. No sooner did his feet touch the ground, did the turbines sputter and quit.
St. Claire was glad his heart was beating again, but he didn’t have time to enjoy his death-defying leap. The sounds of sirens were filling the streets around him. He unclasped his armor and let it fall. The sirens were getting closer, and he didn’t want to be standing around when they arrived. St. Claire took offat a run and he was long gone by the time the first of an army of emergency vehicles
pulled up to the building.
Sergeant Jimmy Rathbone had just called out of service for a break. Sitting in his patrol car he lifted a large jelly donut. “Ah, my arch nemeses, you may have won this one, but be assured that we will do battle again.” He opened his mouth and was just taking a bite of the jelly-filled pastry when the back door to his patrol car opened and a man slid into the back seat. Startled, Jimmy bit down too hard forcing all the jelly filling out the backside of the donut and down the front of his uniform. “Ah, shit!”
“Still eating the filled ones, Raspberry, if I remember right.” St. Claire said as his face popped between the seats.
“Damn it, Dom, you scared the crap out of me. What in the hell are you doing here? Don’t you know that there is a BOLO out on you? I mean what the hell is going on?” Jimmy rapid fired the questions.
“Good to see you too, Jimmy.”
“Sorry, but what the hell man?” He asked, but before St. Claire could answer, he rattled off the latest news. “They are saying that you are in league with wanted terrorists. They are also saying that you helped them escape and then blew up your apartment killing some special ops team from the 101st Police Corps.”
“Well, at least they got something right.” St. Claire said. Jimmy gave him a strange look in the rearview mirror. “I killed a special ops team that is true, but they were not 101st. They were wearing static uniforms and for the record, I shot them only after they tried to kill me. As far as blowing up the apartment that wasn’t me, one of the bastards set off a grenade.”
“So who were they, Dom?” Jimmy asked.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is, ever since I started looking into this case of the so-called wanted terrorists my life has been ruined, my normal accounts are frozen, my police status has been revoked, people have been trying to kill me and I’m now on the run. All of that since this morning, by the way. How is your day going?” St. Claire said with a sarcastic tone.
“Sorry, Dom. Sounds like you kicked a horny-backed thrall right in the nuts, but you can be assured that I and most of the boys don’t believe the shit they are shoveling.” Jimmy said.
“That is the firstbit of good news I have heard all day. Look, Jimmy, I need a favor.”
“Yeah, what can I do to help?”
“Before I ask anything, you must not say anything to anyone about seeing me or helping me, The people that are behind this burn job will burn you too if they know you are helping me. Got it?” St. Claire said.
“Got it, Dom, so what can I do?”
St. Claire handed him a memory chip through the open window in the cage wall between them. “Here, I need a file that I have stored on the main police system, but I can’t get to it.” Jimmy took the chip and slid it to the side of his screen. “Now, the file is on the main police server, I hid it under a budget file.”
Jimmy tapped on his holo keyboard. “I see it, the one labeled the Dungier Investigation Budget?”
“Yep, that is the one, copy it on the chip for me. Then I will need you to do one more thing for me.” St. Claire slid him a credit card through the window. “I need some new clothing. Here, please use this to get me some new stuff. My sizes are on the card. I will meet you back here just after shift change in the morning.”
“Where are you going to go tonight?”
“Don’t worry about me. I have a storage locker under an untraceable name and I will be hiding there until I meet back up with you.”
“Care to tell my why you have that?” Jimmy asked confused.
“It is better you don’t know.” St. Claire said as he exited the patrol car. He started to walk away, but then returned and stuck his head into the car’s driver window. “By the way, you have some jelly on your uniform.” St. Claire stuck out his finger and wiped some of the jelly onto it, then he tasted his finger. “Yep! Raspberry, you never change do you?”
“Damn it, Dom, I just had this uniform cleaned and pressed.” He tried to wipe away the stain with a paper napkin. When he looked up again, St. Claire was gone.
Chapter 8
Back at the cowboys’ camp, there were two more men staffing the camp; Cookie the crew’s cook and quartermaster, and their engineer, or 'Gears' as they called him. Gears could fix just about anything mechanical, but he was horribly shy so he didn’t talk to the newcomers. Thad and company were able to wash up and were given new clean clothing that they replicated at the camp. This time, Quincy made sure his clothing looked more like the others and less like a cowgirl princess.
Thad was impressed with their operation, as they sat in an air-conditioned tent that was more like a pop-up building than a tent. They were sitting around a large table where Cookie had laid out a huge meal. The steaks were the size of Thad’s head and the potatoes were bigger than his fist. There was fresh corn on the cob, baked beans, and biscuits, as well as a host of other great food to eat.
Quincy took one look at the food. “Now that is what I call a meal! I’m starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten in a day or two. Wait, I haven’t eaten in two days.” Quincy dove right in, not waiting for the others.
Doctor Hammer was also impressed. “Mr. Rawhide you run a really impressive operation here. You must tell your cook that he did an outstanding job on the meal. It looks wonderful.”
Rawhide was filling his plate. “First, it is just Rawhide and second, thank you for your kind words. As far as Cookie is concerned he does keep us well fed, and by the way, it tastes better than it looks.”
Thad ate till he was full and it was wonderful, but it also made him miss home. The food reminded him of Carl’s cooking and he so wanted to be back at home on Nome enjoying a great meal with his wives.
Doctor Hammer noticed his face and asked. “You okay, son?”
Thad smiled at him. “Just a little homesick, you might say.”
“Well, this is the first time since you saved my life that we have had a minute to talk. Would you care to talk about it?” Doctor Hammer said.
Thad thought about it. They had been running ever since they met, so he felt that he owed the Doctor that long overdue explanation. “Now is good a time as any, I guess. As you know, that I came to you to ask for was your help.” Doctor Hammer nodded his head in agreement. “What you don’t know is why.”
“I have been wondering when you were going to fill in the details.”
“I guess it is time to do just that.” Thad said as he picked up his glass. He took a long drink of the cold, clean water to wet his throat for what he knew was going to be a long explanation. “Remember when I told you I could prove my story?” Again Hammer nodded his head. “Well here it goes, my name is Thaddeus Jay Hammer, and you found me in the desert nearly dead. Left to die by the very same pirates that later killed you (or your alternate at least). You gave me a bunch of your new enhancements and you also took me in like a son.”
“So that is why your name is the same as my son’s, then.” Doctor Hammer mused.
“Oh! You have a son in this dimension, well good for you.” Thad was truly happy for this version of Doctor Hammer.
“I also have a wife and granddaughter.”
“Ah, anyway, you had been working on a device you called a singularity ...” but Thad didn’t finish the sentence.
“Scalpel, but no one knows about that, but me.” Doctor Hammer said finishing Thad’s sentence.
“I know you couldn’t get it to work right. Damn thing always put everything out of phase, not just the parts that you wanted.” Again, he shook his head in agreement with Thad. “I couldn’t get it to work correctly either. However, I was able to adapt the device to work with my Mark V combat armor. When activated, I can walk through walls or have bullets or laser beams pass right through me without hurting me at all. A handy device, however,it had a downside. Apparently, when you damage it in a fight, it likes to overload. Consequently, I phased all the way out of my dimension and into yours.”
Doctor Hammer understood now. “So with a damaged unit you thought t
hat the one person in the universe that could fix it was the one who invented it in the first place, am I right?”
Thad smiled. “You got it.”
“If we can get off this planet in one piece and get to my lab I should be able to fix it.” Doctor Hammer said.
“Great! As soon as we get to New Houston we can book passage to Nome.” Thad said.
Doctor Hammer looked at him like he was speaking Greek. “Nome? Where in the hell is Nome? You’re not talking about Nome, Alaska on Earth are you?”
Thad was a little surprised. “You don’t live on Nome ... a small moon on the edge of human-controlled space?”
“Heavens no, my wife would never let me live anywhere but Earth. I live and teach in London, my lab is at City University.” Doctor Hammer said.
“Then we will head for Earth.” Thad said.
Quincy overheard. “Earth! We are going to Earth?”
“Yes Quincy, but let’s not shout it to the moon, okay?” Thad said.
“Yeah, no problem. It has been a long time since I have been home. It will good to see my mom” Quincy said, not thinking about the danger he would put her in.
“Quincy, until this whole mess is over you can’t go home. You would just put your family in danger.” Thad hated to point that out to him, but he had to know.
“I hadn’t thought of that! Man that sucks.” he said as he went back to his glass of beer.
“You know Thad, that brings up a question. After I fix your device and get you back home, where does that leave me? After all, I have a methodical killer after me?” Doctor Hammer asked.
“You worry about fixing the device, I will worry about Marcus. I will not leave until he is either turned to the light side or until he is dead.” Thad said. Doctor Hammer smiled at the old movie reference.
“So I still like twentieth-century films then?” He asked.
“Yep, I have watched hundreds of them with you, well the other you.”
They smiled at each other, but now the food and the last two days of events had taken their toll. Thad felt tired to his very bones, it was time for a rest. Rawhide showed them a sleeping tent where the temperature was perfect for sleeping and was completely blacked out. All three men crawled into bunks and soon were asleep.