Danger's Race Page 7

  He was a good four meters in front of me. “Not exactly, but close enough.”

  That version of the facts was a little different than the one he’d given me three minutes ago. Three minutes ago, he’d been positive we were heading in the right direction. “If we didn’t have Maisie, I’d be worried,” I quipped. “Trying to retrace our steps coming back in this landscape wouldn’t be fun.” The earth beneath our feet was a mixture of sand, dirt, and dead vegetation mixed with water. It was a soggy mess.

  “I’ve walked in this way before,” he said. “No matter which way I veer, it leads to town. I’m just not sure which part of town we’ll end up in.”

  Daze trudged behind me, not complaining. The kid definitely had guts. When I’d woken him up, he’d been raring to go. I wasn’t going to lie, I’d felt a little trepidation about bringing him along. But leaving him in Seven for who knew how long, when the militia was likely after us, hadn’t been a good idea either. It was best to have him close.

  “Let’s go over the plan again,” I said, quickening my steps to come even with Case. “You think your sustainee sister Wendra is the better bet. Your sustainee brother Freedom is a handful, but might know something.” What kind of a name was Freedom anyway? I had no ground to stand on, with a name like Hollywood California. Names ran the gambit around here. In fact, I knew somebody named Gambit. “Do they live near each other?”

  “Not exactly,” he answered, his voice tight. “They live on opposite ends of town. They don’t like each other much.”

  “You said Wendra’s residence has neighbors, but that Freedom lives more remotely and in a bigger group.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “What do you mean by bigger group?”

  “He has a lot of wives.”

  Wives?

  It was extremely old-fashioned to have even one wife. Nobody bothered with ceremonies anymore. No one cared that much. You sort of paired up, and that was the end of it.

  “That’s…odd,” I settled on.

  “My sustainer parents were Sun Optimists. They did things the old way. There was a lot of praying and honoring past rituals. Most of my siblings continue to do that.”

  “Okay, then I find Freedom first,” I said. Made sense to me. “Since he’s in a more remote location, that works better.”

  “Yeah, but Wendra is known for having good information,” he countered. “If there’s gossip about Tandor, she’ll have it. It’s early enough, depending on where we come in, we can probably get her alone before the others wake up.”

  “I’m the one that’s going to get to her, not you. We’ve already been over this, Case. The militia doesn’t know about me.” Yet. “We don’t want you linked to Seven. There’s a greater likelihood they’ll decide to back off if you’re not in the picture. A lone woman is much less of a threat.”

  “I’m not sure what you’re going to get. Tribes are very close-knit, and they don’t like outsiders.”

  I glanced back to make sure Daze was still behind us. He was, but the excitement in his step had dwindled. “Are you doubting my abilities to get someone to talk? And I never mentioned it would be easy. I just know my way around these things. Gaining information is my specialty.” First, I asked nice, then I didn’t.

  Case was quiet for more than a minute. When he spoke next, I had to strain to hear him. “I killed a few people before I left, so it’s best if you go in alone. I won’t be welcome here.”

  I shook my head slowly. He couldn’t see me, because he was a few steps ahead, but my tone took care of the rest. “And you left that out of our previous discussions, why?”

  “Because it doesn’t matter,” he said. “We would’ve come here even if I hadn’t killed anyone. We need to find the sodium alginate, and to do that we have to figure out where Tandor came from. That’s our mission. What I did before doesn’t matter.”

  “It certainly does,” I retorted. “How your siblings will react to seeing you, even before the militia factored in, is pertinent information. It affects the plan. Running into a little bit of trouble with your tribe doesn’t equal getting killed the moment we step foot into town because you blew people up and didn’t tell me.”

  “I didn’t blow them up.”

  I was about to tell him exactly what I thought of his glaring omission when Daze hurried forward and cut in with, “Who’d you kill?”

  “I killed two of my sustainee siblings,” Case muttered, clearly not wanting to discuss the matter.

  Yeah, Case not being welcome here was an understatement.

  “Why’d you do that?” Daze asked. The kid’s tone had turned contemplative. Killing family was a big deal.

  He knew it, I knew it, Case knew it.

  “Because they helped kill Frankie.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Frankie had been Case’s nephew, the son of Carmen, his sustainee sister who died along with Tandor and most of his crew on the gorge that day. Frankie was the reason Case had come to the city, why he’d followed Tandor, and why he’d wanted his revenge.

  Daze didn’t know most of that, and when Case didn’t offer up any details, I filled in what I knew. “Frankie was Case’s nephew. He was killed on Tandor’s orders.” I left out that he’d been killed by his mother and, it now appeared, some others.

  “You killed some adults for hurting a kid?” Daze asked Case, awe in his tone. In Daze’s world, kids were disposable. Nothing more than irritations.

  “I did,” Case said tightly. “I have no regrets. They deserved to die.”

  I suspected they did, as Case had told me that Frankie’s death had been horrible. “In light of this new information,” I said, coming to a stop, “I think you two should stay here and let me go the rest of the way alone. Not only do we have to worry about the militia finding out you were here,” I said to Case, who was still walking, “but there’s no need for your siblings to know either.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Case said, calling over his shoulder, not slowing.

  The sky was beginning to lighten incrementally, an indication that the sun we couldn’t see was about to crest over the horizon. I caught up with him, grabbing his arm to pull him to a stop. He was being stubborn, but I wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Listen, things have changed now that I have most of the facts”—I wasn’t going to pretend that I had them all, because Case was cagey like that—“and we need to formulate an appropriate plan, which includes you staying clear of anyone who would recognize you. If you murdered your siblings, and the family remains close, they aren’t going to negotiate with you—they’re going to kill you—and us, if we’re with you. On sight. I go in, extract the necessary information however I can, and we’re out of here. That’s the only way this is going to work.”

  He looked like he was going to argue, but instead focused his gaze over my shoulder. “Fine,” he said through an extremely tight jaw. “But the kid and I stay close enough to be on hand if any danger arises, which is at least another kilometer.”

  “My only requirement is that you stay out of sight.” I drew a tech phone out of my pocket. Lockland had given a phone to Case yesterday morning. I turned the dial. “We can use these. There’s a way to keep the channel open, but the volume has to be almost all the way down or the static comes through.” Case brought his phone out. I took it from him and set the dials to the same frequency. There wasn’t a radio receiver here, as far as I knew, but I wasn’t interested in talking over the channels. We just needed this to operate as a two-way communication device. A mic chip would’ve worked better, but I’d lost my earpiece to Dill and the radium ball and didn’t have a spare. I gave the phone back to Case. “We have to be within sixty meters for them to work accurately, which won’t be a problem,” I said. “Basically, while mine’s on, you’ll hear every word I’m saying. If I need you, I’ll let you know.”

  “I have one, too,” Daze said as he pulled out the tech phone Lockland had given him before Tandor had kidnapped him outside his residence. I
hadn’t known he still had it. I took it from him and set it to the same channel. Then I handed it back.

  “Be careful not to let anyone hear the static. Keep it in your pocket,” I told him. “It might be better if you and Case split up. That way we can cover ourselves better. Did you bring your taser with you?” Daze grinned as he lifted up his shirt to show me that it was strapped to his waistband. It was smaller than the laser gun he’d taken from the cave, but not by much. “Set it to most pain inflicted,” I told him.

  “It’s not a full tase, it’s just half,” he replied glumly. Tasers were made with varying amperage. The one I carried could stop a heart if it was set at high. It was called a full tase, or just a taser. Daze’s put out less amperage, and its official name was a stunner, since it only had the capacity to stun. But most referred to it as a half tase.

  I bent over to whisper in his ear, “I’ll let you in on a secret. You can make yours more powerful by not letting up on the trigger. Bender rigged this one so it has a longer continuous burst. As long as your finger stays connected to the trigger, it continues emitting current.” I wasn’t going to tell the kid that Bender had given him a half tase because he thought he might hurt himself. Instead, I was going to build it up as a secret weapon, which it kind of was.

  I was an emotional architect like that.

  The kid withdrew it, turning it over in his hand, looking back at me, his skepticism showing. “Really?”

  “Really,” I said. “It’s a badass weapon. If you have your tech phone on and you hear me call for help, have that thing ready to go.” I didn’t stick around to see his expression change to wonder. I was already moving.

  We walked the remaining one and a half kilometers in silence. The sky brightened with each step. It was always hard to tell what was going on with all the cloud cover. I’d wanted to hit the town right at dawn, so our timing was pretty much on target.

  We rounded the top of a short hill, and Case came to an abrupt stop. I followed, taking his cue. He was tense.

  The sound hit my ears a second later.

  Props.

  Shit.

  Maisie followed with, “I detect an incoming craft, eleven kilometers and closing.”

  The militia was going to make our trip here harder than it had to be, assuming it was the militia.

  “Are there a lot of crafts in the tribe?” I asked Case.

  He shook his head. “Not a one.”

  “Damn. I have to get to town before they land,” I said, starting to jog. I took in the landscape around us. It was similar to what we’d traversed all morning, but in front of us more dead trees had begun to spring up, and the landscape was noticeably less hilly. Case and Daze followed me. “Can you tell whose house we’re closest to now?” I asked Case. “Does the area look familiar?”

  “We’re closest to Freedom’s,” he said as he gestured to the right. “If you continue around that bend, you’ll see it. It’s nothing more than an oversized shack made of reclaimed steel and graphene. Many of the tribe members live underground, or partially underground, but Freedom prefers above ground.” He muttered, “He never did well below.”

  “Got it,” I said, slowing to a stop. “This shouldn’t take too long.” It was a bummer we weren’t near Wendra’s, but by the sound of the props, we picked the better end of town to come into.

  Case grunted. “Freedom is…peculiar.”

  I glanced over. “Peculiar? In what way?” If I was going to do this job, I needed as much information as I could get.

  “He was struck by falling debris when he was a child,” Case said as both of us waited for Daze to catch up. “It’s made him unstable.”

  “Unstable, as in violent?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “If I knock on the door, will he come out and talk to me alone?” I asked.

  “Not likely,” Case said. “You’re going to have to be more forceful to get his attention. His wives and children will be inside, but he won’t let you talk to them.”

  Children? Damn. I drew out my Gem. “So, you’re telling me I’m on my way to deal with an unstable man with a tendency for violence with a houseful of women and children?” I wasn’t going to state the obvious, that these details would’ve been helpful to have before now. I rechecked my Gem to make sure it was full of nano-carbon cubes. I snapped the cap back into place, put it back in my belt, and drew out my taser. “Don’t answer that. I know what to do.” I glanced at Daze, who was bent over, hands on his knees and wheezing from the effort of running. “You and Case stay back here while I go in. I’ll alert you if there’s an issue.” I took off, not waiting for either of them to respond, sticking to the trees and bushes lining the hill as best I could.

  As soon as I came around the corner, I saw the wobbly shack. Case hadn’t been kidding. It was fairly large, but made of nothing more than a bunch of rickety metal pieces welded together. I scanned the sky. The props had gotten louder, but I couldn’t see anything overhead from this vantage point.

  I crept forward, a bunch of different options about how to get Freedom to cooperate pinging around in my brain. I could knock and hope for the best. I could kick the door in and take everyone by surprise. Or I could knock loudly, then step out of sight until Freedom came out to see what all the ruckus was about. That would effectively get him away from his wives and children. The last thing I wanted was for innocents to get hurt if the situation with this unstable guy spiraled out of control.

  With the props getting closer, I had to move.

  I chose option number three.

  Once at the front door, I wasn’t entirely sure that knocking wouldn’t make the entire shack collapse, but I took my chances. I rapped the butt of my taser against the flimsy metal. It sounded like a macro-sledge echoing on a steel drum.

  Then I vanished around the corner.

  The structure didn’t have a single window, so I wasn’t worried about being seen. My plan was to stay put until Freedom came looking.

  “Who the fuck is there?” a loud male voice boomed. It was deeper than I’d anticipated. When I didn’t reveal myself, he called again, “Tell me who’s out there or I’ll separate your head from off your body!” A child began to cry. Not the response I’d hoped for. Who didn’t answer their door? How many visitors could this guy have at daybreak? My guess was zero. Zero visitors. This should warrant some action on his part. Couldn’t he hear the props?

  A woman’s voice soothed the crying kid in hushed tones. The walls—that weren’t really walls—were painfully thin. I could hear everything.

  There was movement inside, but nobody opened the front door.

  I sighed.

  I was just about to make my way back to the front door to do it all over again, when a tiny voice came through a crack next to me.

  “Who are you?” The voice was almost too quiet for me to hear.

  I dropped down to a crouch, finding the seam, and was greeted by the eyeball of a small child. My best guess was the kid was no more than three or four years old. “I came to see your daddy,” I whispered as softly as I could. “Is he in there?” Instead of the kid answering, the eyeball moved up and down. “Can you make him come out and talk to me?” The props were getting louder by the moment. I glanced upward, but still couldn’t see a craft. I was running out of time.

  The eye shifted side to side, then got wider. I could see white all the way around. The kid was petrified of his or her father. Poor thing.

  “Sampson, who you talking to?” an angry male voice screamed as the kid was violently dragged away. I stood, easing around the back corner of the house soundlessly. “I said, who you talking to?” There was a loud smack, and the child screamed.

  It was a blood-curdling sound.

  Freedom hadn’t just hit the kid, he’d pounded him. I knew firsthand how that felt. Though I’d been eight, not four, the first time I’d been struck like that.

  Enough.

  Freedom was more than violent—he was a fucking psychopath who didn’
t hesitate to hurt a child. The only way I was getting the information I needed was by force. And teaching this asshole a lesson in humanity had just jumped to number one on my to-do list.

  I took out my Gem, keeping my taser in my left hand, and dragged both weapons along the back of the house as I ran, drumming them as loudly as I could, yelling, “It’s me, you son of a bitch! Come out and play!” The only language this guy understood was violence.

  I could adjust, no problem.

  A shot exploded through the back wall, and shards of broken metal and debris sailed into the dead trees lined up behind the residence. It’d been pure luck that I hadn’t been standing in that particular place.

  Freedom had a Blaster. The same weapon Lockland used.

  It was a dangerous fucking gun to have with all those little kids around, and I was looking forward to remedying that situation for him.

  I circled around to the front and kicked in the door, because it was the last place he’d be looking for me. True to my assumption, he was facing the back wall, gun raised, waiting for me to goad him again.

  I tackled him before he had a chance to turn around, tasing him in the neck as my elbow locked around his throat. As he fell, I braced his body against my chest, my knee jammed into his spine, forcing his legs to buckle and keep holding some of his weight.

  Once I knew he was down, for at least the next several minutes, I glanced around the pitiful scene that was the inside of the house—house was a loose term. The place was a rathole. Dirt floors, broken furniture, trash strewn around. The only available light shone through several gaping cracks in the ceiling, along with a constant stream of drizzle. The stale scent of garbage and mildew wafted up my nose.

  Three women stood facing me, each one in a corner. They had shoved various children behind them, stark fear on their faces.

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” I told them. “Except this asshole.” I shook Freedom hard enough for his head to bob around. “I’m here for information, and that’s it.” I watched each of their faces, looking for a perceptible facial change that would indicate who I was dealing with. I saw it in the woman who had the most children behind her. After a moment, she took a step forward. I was going to make this easy on her, so I preempted with, “Do you want him to keep breathing?” When she didn’t readily answer, I asked, “I need a yes or no. He won’t know either way.” Very slowly, she nodded yes, but I could see the hesitation in her eyes. He must provide them with something that would warrant his continued existence. I inclined my head, so she’d know I’d heard her. Then I reached down and holstered my Gem and withdrew a knife I had concealed at my waist. Dragging Freedom with me, his legs bumping over the dirty floor, I walked over and set the blade in her hand. “This is for you. He won’t know you have it. Use it when you need it and don’t look back. Do you understand?”