Grant watched the road ahead, swerving hard to the left to avoid a pothole that had become more of a pit over years of hard use. The wag plowed over small trees and snapped off branches. Swerving back at the last moment, Grant caught the front bumper on a tall oak tree. Metal screamed as it caved in under the impact. Fortunately, the wag only shivered and slowed for an instant before the tires found traction again.

  Without warning, a small wag burst free of the forest on the left, coming straight at Grant.

  Chapter 15

  Craddock's screams of agony echoed throughout the gaudy. "Thomas!" He choked and gagged for a moment, then spit up blood as he flailed weakly. "Wilson! Pettit!"

  Kane stood up from the table, his gaze raking the gaudy's upper floor.

  Domi gave the man no quarter. She dropped the handle from the pitcher and stepped forward. Placing one foot on Craddock's face, she kicked and banged the man's head against the floor.

  "What the hell?" one of the men sitting on a nearby stool shouted.

  A knife gleamed in the albino's hand. "Kane," she called. "I got you," Kane growled, remembering the flash of blue he'd seen at Craddock's throat. "I saw it, too."

  Craddock clawed frantically for the handblaster at his hip as blood continued to cascade from his broken mouth. Domi's blade licked out, scoring deeply into the underside of the man's forearm. When Craddock touched the blaster, his hand was too weak to grip it.

  "Fiddler!" one of the men bellowed, pulling out a blaster and pointing it at Domi as she closed on her victim. "She's gonna chill that poor bastard!"

  Kane pointed his M-14 at the man. "Point that blaster away or I'll kill you."

  The man hesitated only a moment, then he lowered his weapon. He stared at Fiddler.

  At Kane's side, Fiddler drew the .40-caliber S&W handblaster and pointed it at the side of his face. She started to say something, but Kane interrupted her.

  "Trust me or die," Kane told her, turning to face the big- bore blaster head-on. "Do it now."

  Indecision raced across Fiddler's features. She lowered the pistol, frowning uncertainly. "Leave it, Jonas. Let him and the albino play out the hand they've dealt."

  Kane returned his attention to the second story. "How many men did Craddock bring in with him?" He had doubt that the woman would know.

  "Four or five," Fiddler answered.

  One of the upstairs rooms opened and a man shoved a blaster out, following it with his face. "Craddock?" He glanced down into the gaudy's bar. "What the hell's—?" He broke off when he saw Domi standing over Craddock with her bloody knife. The man pushed his handblaster forward, taking deliberate aim.

  Kane lifted the M-14 and put the open sights over the man's head, then squeezed the trigger. Even as he was riding out the recoil and the man's head emptied in the hallway above, another man stepped out into the hallway still pulling at his pants.

  The second man was covered in tattoos and had unkempt, shoulder-length hair. He dropped his pants and lifted the assault rifle on a sling over his shoulder.

  Kane stroked the trigger again. The heavy 7.62 mm round cored through the man's heart, punching him back through the open door. A woman started screaming in terror from inside the room.

  Another door opened to the left of the other two, drawing Kane's attention immediately. A naked woman stepped out into the hallway. She was young and hard bodied, her breasts jutting cones capped with large areola. Her dark pubic bush was carefully trimmed in a neat triangle.

  She also had a pistol at the back of her head.

  "Don't shoot!" the woman screamed. "Don't shoot! I ain't got no blaster!"

  Kane swiveled the M-14 to the left, tracking across the woman and settling on the partially open door behind her.

  The woman stared at Kane, wide-eyed with disbelief. "He made me come out here! He said he was gonna chill—"

  Kane squeezed the M-14's trigger twice quickly. Both rounds cored through the flimsy door and hammered the man hiding behind it. Judging from the slack way the man fell, Kane knew he'd killed him.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Kane saw that Domi had Craddock locked into place with a knife at his throat. Despite all the sudden death that had erupted in the room, Domi looked serene and feral. Her bright white teeth showed through her parted pale lips, almost smiling in anticipation.

  With a nod, Kane went up the stairs, holding the M-14 at the ready. Fiddler had said four men and maybe five; three were down.

  He reached the second-floor landing and knew that Fiddler was at his back. He didn't know if she was covering him or insuring that he wasn't going to get away with the violence he'd just perpetrated. Having her there made him feel uneasy, but it also kept anyone else in the room from risking a shot at him.

  At the top of the second-story landing, Kane's Magistrate training took over. He made certain the two men in the hallway were dead, then moved forward and checked the man he had shot behind the door.

  The dead man lay stretched out inside the room. One of the bullets had missed the man entirely, but the second had ripped away his throat. Kane returned to the hallway where the naked woman stood.

  "Did you know these men?" Kane demanded.

  The woman held a trembling hand over her mouth. Her eyes stayed on the dead man in the room. She shook her head, but said, "I knew them a little. They've been in before. That one, his name's Bodine. He ran with Craddock Bodine; always said he liked me."

  "What about the other two men?"

  The woman nodded. "They ran with Craddock, too." "How many men were with Craddock today?" Kane asked. He swung her head so that she looked at his eyes. "How many men today?"

  "Four."

  "Four with Craddock?" Kane repeated.

  "Yeah."

  "Where's the fourth man?" Kane glanced around the other rooms.

  The woman pointed toward a room at the corner.

  "Is he still in there?" Kane watched the door to the room.

  The woman shook her head. "I don't know. Gracy, she had some jolt that Fiddler didn't know about. But this guy, he wanted jolt, not just sex. I seen him go in, but I didn't see him come out."

  Kane crossed the landing to the room. He took a position beside the door and raised the M-14 parallel to his body. A glance down at the first floor assured him that Domi still had things under control there.

  He waved at Fiddler and the naked gaudy slut, motioning them out of the field of fire. Then he rapped his knuckles against the door, drawing them back quickly, expecting immediate shooting.

  When nothing happened, Kane turned quickly and lifted his leg. Pain immediately flared through his bruised chest and cut off his breath. Ignoring the pain, he drove his foot into the door, shattering the lock.

  The door shuddered open.

  Kane let the rifle lead him into the room. A girl lay supine on the swaybacked bed, face up and staring at the ceiling with unseeing eyes. The room's furnishings were simple. Besides the bed, there was a trunk against one wall and a small, mirrored vanity that held a pitcher and bowl for washing up.

  Kane strode into the room, his eyes attracted immediately by all the blood staining the bedsheets. A glance at the girl told him that her throat had been cut. Dark bruising across her lower face advertised the fact that whoever had done the cutting had also prevented her from crying out.

  The girl was young, not even twenty. Curtains blew up from the open window.

  Kane crossed the room and pulled the curtains aside. He recognized the street in front of Chantilly Lacey's.

  Harsh scraping to Kane's left drew his attention and, combined with his quick reflexes, saved his life. He turned and spotted a bearded man with pinpoint eyes staring at him down the muzzle of a shotgun. The man stood on the building's eaves.

  Kane ducked back inside the room just as the man fired. The load of double-aught buckshot ripped into the window frame and smashed it to splinters.

  Continuing to step back, Kane marked off the distance the man was from the window and the height he'd been at on the eaves. Firing as quickly as he could pull the trigger, Kane stitched a ragged line of holes through the wall, which wasn't thick enough to stop the heavy 7.62 mm rounds.

  A hoarse shout of pain followed Kane's fourth shot. He punched two more bullets through the same area for good measure. When there was no return fire, he stepped forward and peered cautiously through the window.

  Bullet holes stood out in sharp relief on the wall, and there was no sign of the shotgunner on the eaves. Kane glanced down and spotted the man lying in the middle of the street, barely moving.

  Aware that machine gunners on the opposite building were already tracking his movements, Kane pulled back inside the window out of sight. "Your team on the roof of the building opposite us," he said to Fiddler.

  The woman nodded and stepped out into the window carefully. She waved, then turned back to face Kane. "It's okay. They saw me."

  Kane joined her at the window and peered down at the man again. The man gave a final convulsive shiver, then stopped moving.

  Fiddler glared at him. "Are you through chilling people?" she asked.

  "If Craddock only brought four people with him," Kane replied, "I am."

  "What's the problem with Craddock?"

  Kane turned and headed out of the room. "Remember earlier when you said Baron Samarium was sending spies to infiltrate slave-rescue operations?"

  "Of course."

  "I think Craddock is one of them." Kane walked down the staircase, aware that every eye in the room was on him. If anyone in the room decided to make a move against him, Kane knew the whole gaudy would erupt,

  "I've known Craddock for over a year," Fiddler replied. "He's brought in several escaped slaves during that time."

  Kane didn't break stride, reaching the bottom of the stairs in seconds. "How long has it been since he brought in slaves?"

  "Only a few weeks."

  "Longer than normal?"

  "Maybe." Fiddler sounded defensive. "Things are getting harder. Baron Samarium is paying more jack than Lindstrohm. Plus, you don't have to worry about being shot by the baron's sec troops if you're working with them."

  Kane nodded to Domi.

  Somewhat reluctantly, the albino stepped back off her wounded prisoner, but not before she got one last kick in to the side of his head.

  "The motorcycle we rode into the ville," Kane said, "belonged to a young woman who died trying to get here. She still had manacles on her wrists. I think she only escaped a slaver recently."

  "She was coming here to escape?" Fiddler asked.

  "I think she was coming here for something more than that," Kane said. "I think she was coming after revenge. She rode through the worst of that chem storm last night. That's why she didn't make it—the storm killed her. When we found her, we took the motorcycle and Domi took the necklace she was wearing."

  The albino lifted the blue gem stone from her throat with the blade of her knife. The blue gem glittered as it caught the light. "Craddock wearing necklace like this one," the albino said.

  Holding the man up by his bloody shirt, Kane opened his shirt lapels and showed the blue gem necklace gleaming at Craddock's throat. "I'm thinking that he killed the other person who wore this necklace, then he kept the necklace."

  "Fuck...you," Craddock gasped through his ruined mouth. "Stupe bastard. You...you don't know what...the hell you're...talking about."

  "Is this necklace yours?" Kane asked.

  "Yeah," Craddock replied. "I’ve had that...that for a long time."

  "Are you sure he's not telling the truth?" Fiddler asked.

  "I'm sure," Kane answered. He centered his attention on Craddock. "I'm also sure that there's another reason he's here now." He locked eyes with Craddock. "I want to know what that reason is."

  Craddock hacked a mass of blood and phlegm, and prepared to spit in Kane's direction.

  Reacting calmly and efficiently, Kane reached out and jabbed Craddock in the throat hard enough to trigger a swallowing convulsion. He watched as Craddock gagged and nearly threw up. Bloody, stringy foam covered his mouth and chin.

  Domi held a knife in each hand and stepped into Craddock's personal space. He tried to escape her, but Kane forced him back against the bar.

  "Get him up on bar," Domi said. "I make him talk." Her ruby eyes glinted malevolently.

  "Fiddler," the bartender said hoarsely, "you can't just let them—"

  "Shut up," Fiddler ordered. "If Craddock has turned on us, we need to know about it."

  "And if he hasn't?" another man asked.

  Fiddler's voice remained flat and neutral. "Then we need to know that, too."

  Kane hefted Craddock up on to the bar and laid him out despite his efforts to get up. The damage Domi had inflicted was telling, leaving him weak.

  Domi flicked her knives and set to work in a cold-blooded manner. She cut away the crotch area of Craddock's pants, leaving his genitals exposed. Grinning mirthlessly, the albino placed the keen edge of one of the knives against Craddock's sac. "Cold steel not agree with you," she said. "Cause shrinkage."

  "Get that...that fucking freak...away from me!" Craddock yelled in fear. He tried to sit up, and he tried to push Kane away.

  His own stomach rolling slightly, Kane blocked Craddock's weak blows and yanked the man's jacket back down over his arms, creating an impromptu straitjacket. Stepping behind Craddock, Kane held the back of the jacket against the bar top, restraining the man.

  Craddock's feet drummed the top of the bar. Domi easily avoided them and kept her knife in place.

  Domi looked at Craddock. "Sac open enough, I castrate you easy. Mebbe you want see how big a man you are."

  "Fuck you...you mutie bitch! I ain't done nothing—"

  Domi didn't even let him finish. Her knives flashed and a thin, high-pitched scream tore from Craddock's bloody mouth. Crimson sprayed into the air.

  "Just nicked sac a little," Domi said patiently. "Haven't done anything really bad. Yet. Will, though." She held the bloody blade up. "Tell about girl, necklace."

  Craddock glanced wildly at Kane. "You can't...let her... do this!"

  Kane held the man's gaze levelly. "I'm not going to stop her."

  Beside him, Fiddler's face turned as pale as paper. "Fiddler!" Craddock pleaded.

  The woman shook her head slowly. "Not my play, Craddock."

  The other men around the bar took a step back. They were all hardened, used to the violence that had haunted their lives, but none of them wanted any part of what was happening to Craddock.

  Kane couldn't fault them. He couldn't, have done what Domi was doing, even as a Magistrate in Cobaltville, there were limits to the violence. Killing a man—or a woman— was cleaner than what the albino was doing to Craddock.

  "One more chance," Domi said coldly, "then you never be daddy. After that, I fix so not even have toy to play with. You piss sitting down."

  Kane knew Domi would do it, but he didn't know if he would be able to allow it. However, stopping Domi might not be an option, either. The albino was determined to get the truth. Maybe it was the memory of the dead woman they had found that morning, or maybe it was just the link between the two cheap necklaces.

  More than anything else, though, Domi knew she was right, and Kane knew it, as well.

  Craddock's nerve broke. He started crying, weeping and screaming. "Don't chill me! Please, don't...let her...chill me!"

  "Tell about woman," Domi demanded. She wiped her bloody knife on Craddock's shirt. The knife didn't come clean because blood covered the shirt, but Craddock felt the blade against his skin again.

  "My men...found her." Craddock took a deep, rattling breath, sucking his own blood into his lungs and choking on it a moment. "They...chilled her before I could...I could stop them. They were... drunk, stoned out of their heads...on jolt."

  "Lying," Domi accused in a thin, unforgiving voice. "I know when lying." She turned her attention to Craddock's crotch again. "No more lies."

  Craddock screeched in terror, lifting his head and shaking it wildly. "No! No, no, no! Don't cut me no more!"

  Domi looked at him dispassionately. "Tell about girl. Tell about necklace."

  "They were...sisters." Craddock hiccupped and crimson bubbles burst in his mouth. "We caught them...a few days back. Some small, no-name... ville northwest of here."

  "You were selling slaves," Kane said, "not freeing them."

  Craddock turned his head to look at Fiddler. "You don't...understand. They got you. They're coming...coming for you."

  Fiddler's face hardened. "Who's coming?"

  "Baron Samarium." Craddock's throat worked, swallowing the blood filling his mouth. "There's a whole...detachment of Magistrates ... on their way...here now."

  Instantly, angry voices filled the gaudy.

  "When?" Fiddler demanded.

  Craddock swallowed, gazing around the room and finding no sympathy. "Soon. Mebbe only minutes."

  Kane immediately thought of Brigid and Grant out on the open road, totally exposed.

  "I didn't...have a choice," Craddock said. "Fiddler, I...I swear I didn't. Baron Samarium's Mags ...caught me...me and my men. Said they was ...gonna chill us...if we didn't... didn't cooperate."

  "What did you do?" Fiddler asked.

  "They knew...knew about...Fiddlerville," Craddock whined. "I didn't tell them...anything there...that they didn't know... already."

  Fiddler drew the big pistol from the cross-draw holster at her waist. She rolled the hammer back, and the man on the other side of the bar got out of the line of fire.

  Craddock's mouth opened in a wide, bloody O of surprise and fear.

  Without a word, Fiddler shot the man through the mouth, blowing his spine through the back of his neck. Blood sprayed over the age-spotted mirror behind the bar.

  Kane released the dead man's jacket and glanced at Fiddler.

  The woman holstered her blaster. "Just making a long story short. There was nothing else he could have told us, and every moment we spent here listening to him was another moment we didn't have."

  "Could have told us more," Domi argued. "Could have told us how many Magistrates."

  "Would it have mattered?" Fiddler asked. "We're already here and they're coming. In the meantime, I've got friends out on the only road leading into this ville. And they're overdue."

 

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