Pepper

by Carol Buhler

  “The hospital aide who originally passed word to me about this fellow said he was constantly begging for his helmet,” Firth commented during one of their discussions. “The aide thought the don wanted his helmet to protect him from something he greatly feared—or perhaps hated.”

  “Could he have feared or hated his fellow don?” Pepper asked, puzzled. “It seems funny that they would turn him over to humans to treat. Why didn’t they care for him themselves?”

  Firth stood and walked to the window, staring out at the land in front of the house. “What if you ask him? Can you put a microphone in there?”

  “Of course. What would I ask?”

  “Ask if he wants his lead helmet. Promise to get it for him. It might work.”

  The next night, while Firth and Jill were dining with Lucy Shef again, Pepper installed a microphone and asked his prisoner if he wanted his lead helmet. The man went berserk inside his room, screaming and shouting about killing someone or something. He threw himself against the door and the walls. Pepper heard him smashing into things but couldn’t determine exactly what he was saying. He got no clear answer to his question.

  Firth returned from a business trip to the north and Pepper still had no answers. “I’ve had the manufacturer in Zron design and start a line of lead helmets,” Firth said blandly. “I think that’s what we need—what he’s trying to tell us. If they don’t work for something useful, we can always sell them for costumes. Lead is cheap compared to steel.”

  Pepper shrugged. He thought it was a waste of money and material, but that night he tried a different tactic with the prisoner. He told his captive about the manufacturing process of making lead helmets and said they were turning out thousands in a single day. The captive grew quiet as Pepper rambled on. When he stopped, the prisoner said, in a husky voice raw from his raving, but clearly and lucidly, “Yes. Lead helmets to block telepathy. Only way to defeat the bastards.” Then, he fell back into his usual ranting.

  Holding his breath, Pepper hoped for more, but the don finally ran out of words and fell asleep.

  The next day, Pepper relayed the words to Firth who said, triumphantly, “I thought so. I’ll get our place in Whay to make lead nets.”

  “For what?”

  “To capture reeth, of course.” Pepper didn’t like the evil smile on Firth’s face. Is he thinking of taking hostages? I don’t want to try that.

  **

  After the revelation of the lead helmets, Firth embarked on a whirlwind tour of several of his holdings, taking Lady Jill and Pepper along. They stopped in Zron and examined the lead helmets. Firth told his wife a story about an historical society re-enacting the human’s first landing on the planet and ordering the helmets for a vast battle scene. Pepper didn’t comment.

  Then, they went to Fell where, for the first time, Firth showed Lady Jill his pride and joy, an ancient stone castle that overlooked steep cliffs to the sea and was surrounded by desolate highlands. Jill didn’t express her dislike in words, but her face was easy enough for Pepper to read. Firth didn’t seem to notice.

  Next they went to Quor, where to Pepper’s surprise, Jill showed the first signs of anger at the fact that her husband had been hauling her around the continent yet treating her as an unnecessary encumbrance. He would leave her alone in luxurious hotel suites with maps to study and books to read, but always took Pepper with him as he went about his business.

  One night, after what must have been a stormy confrontation that Pepper was glad to have missed, Firth gave her a fine fur coat in apology and took her along to inspect the nets being made of lead at Firth’s Quor manufacturer. While he fingered the nets and praised the creators, Pepper worried at their intended use. He noticed Jill frowning at them. Maybe she senses something awful about them as I do.

  Finally back in Juel, the lives of the three went back to something like normal. Firth and Jill dined every evening, with Firth acting the charming gentleman. Pepper kept both informed of new land and building purchases, and Jill lunched with Lucy Shef and corresponded with her daughter, Lady Kelt.

  Pepper took up listening to the prisoner again.

  He carried the prisoner’s dinner down the stairs with him after the household had gone to bed. As he reached the bottom step, he felt a slight movement of air and threw the heavy tray he carried at whatever was lurching at him from the shadows. It bounced off the don’s head but did nothing to stop the charge. Pepper felt himself hefted into the air and thrown against the wall of the supposedly secure room. He slid to the floor, rolled, and struck low at the don’s knees. The tall figure fell heavily, crashing into rattling items on the floor. Pepper scurried to the stairs but the don caught him and threw him again. He hit with his head this time instead of his back.

  The don was shrieking with fury in indecipherable words. Pepper again rolled and came to his feet in a crouch. The don moved slower, but he was still coming and Pepper didn’t think he would survive another toss against the wall. He tried to talk to the figure. It only responded with more high shrieks and plunged toward him. Pepper ducked left and smashed the side of his hand down on the don’s neck. He fell, but he wasn’t as stunned as Pepper would have hoped. He was clambering back to his feet when Pepper shot him twice in the head.

  Firth clambered down the stairs. “What happened?” he whispered. In a daze, Pepper thought that exceedingly strange, then remembered Lady Jill sleeping upstairs.

  He shook his head. "Sorry, sir. He went crazy on me. It seemed to give him extra strength and I couldn't subdue him at all."

  "I heard him. We knew he was crazy when you snatched him from the mental hospital. At least, he's served his purpose. Get rid of him and get this mess cleaned up before Jill comes down in the morning."

  Pepper hoisted the dead body over his shoulder with a grunt and struggled up the stairs. Remé opened the back door and Pepper slipped out with his burden after a soft, "Will do."

  When he returned the next morning, he was told Lady Jill was sick in bed with the flu. Good. I wouldn’t have wanted her to see what happened here last night.

  Chapter 19

  Pepper had severely bruised ribs and shoulder from the fight with the don. Also, he had a sizeable knot on the left side of his head. Firth told him to take it easy for a few days and Pepper gladly did so. When he received a call from one of his apprentices, he deeply wished he hadn’t dropped out of sight for a couple of days.

  The excited voice came over the phone, “Where’ve you been?” It was Jason, the youngest of the three and the one Pepper worried the most about. “You missed the absolute most fun time possible.” He sounded like a drunk teenager at a carnival.

  In his typical unruffled manner, Pepper asked, “What have you been doing?”

  “We’re in southern Juel. Mr. Firth had us transport all the farmers to this canyon-like area and turn them loose.” The excited voice rose higher, as if in ecstasy. “We’ve been hunting them down and shooting them. It’s a blast! Too bad you missed it.”

  Pepper fell back onto the bed behind him, shocked to the core. He’d known Jason was a natural-born killer, but he’d never dreamed his boss could issue such orders. “Did Mr. Firth tell you to shoot them?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Jason dragged out the word, making it sound like an orgasm. Wallowing in kill lust. “He said it was our reward for learning so well.”

  Convulsively, Pepper swallowed, trying to stop the contents of his stomach from spewing over the floor of the room he’d rented. He was no saint, but he hadn’t reveled in the killings he’d performed. His victims had mostly been bad guys in their own right, not innocent farmers that he’d conned into abandoning their homes. I promised them a better life—not murder.

  Jason was still talking. “Pepper? You still there? Mr. Firth told me to meet you in Palmyra tomorrow night for more fun.”

  He stifled a groan. “I haven’t talked to the boss. I’ll call you back when I confirm those instructions. Don’t do anything more until you hear from me.”r />
  “Oh, we’ve already gone into Kavv. Couldn’t be seen near those ravines, of course. I’ll tell the others to wait ‘til you call. Sorry you missed it!”

  Pepper closed his eyes, then ducked his head between his knees as dizziness threatened to overwhelm him. Fortunately, he guessed, he couldn’t bring to mind a picture of any of the farmers or their families that he’d talked to. A black cloud of rage began to consume him. What is Firth doing? Why such blatant slaughter?

  He had no time to wallow in regrets as his phone rang again. It was Firth. “Hope you’re done healing. It’s time to move. You fly to Whay and collect the lead nets. They’re ready. Bring them here to the castle to practice with. And I need you to check out my lead cages—see if you think they’ll hold a don and reeth.” He paused but just talked louder when Pepper tried to interrupt. “You will kidnap that royal don kid first. Show the others how it’s done. Then we’ll send them to Delt to see if they can capture one of the other don brats and their reeth.”

  Before Pepper could utter a word, Firth had hung up. He knew I’d be angry over the mess in Juel. He wants to keep me busy so he doesn’t have to listen. Why has he escalated everything?

  Taking several deep breaths to steady his heart rate and anger, he called Jason back and said, again in his signature monotone, “Plans have changed. Meet me at the castle three days from now. Don’t get into any trouble until then. And DO NOT go to Palmyra.” Not letting Jason respond any more than Firth had let him, he clicked off his phone.

  I’m supposed to show them how to kidnap a don and reeth? I have no idea.

  Pepper had years of experience putting unpleasant scenes out of his head, but what Jason had described had him alternating between anxiety and anger on the flight to Whay.

  “I don’t want to do this anymore,” his better self said. “Not like this.”

  “If I try to get out,” another side countered, “Firth will send Jason and the other two after me. I’m getting too old to hold off all three.”

  A third voice, sounding like Byron in his stressed thinking, reminded him. “Firth gave you my address.”

  Can’t risk it. Have to wait.

  Firmly he pushed the slaughter scene Jason had described to the back of his consciousness and collected the nets. When he arrived back at the castle in Mont, Firth and Lady Jill were already there. Jill didn’t seem happy. Pepper didn’t blame her. The old castle was currently staffed with soldiers and the current butler, who’d replaced the pleasant housekeeper from earlier, was burly, gruff, and without social manners. If the situation weren’t so dire, he’d have laughed at the look on Lady Jill’s face when the fellow served dinner their first night. She didn’t venture out of her room the next few days, except for dinner, as the castle housed more and more soldiers.

  Pepper learned that while he’d been running other errands for Firth, his boss had been hiring mercenaries by the hundreds. His excuse for the debacle with the farmers was that they’d refused to fight for him, therefore showed their disloyalty and had to be killed since they knew an attack on the city-states was coming. Pepper didn’t comment but the statement reaffirmed his thoughts about his own desire to duck out of the upcoming war.

  As far as he was concerned, somewhere, when his attention had been elsewhere, his boss had lost his mind. No matter how many men he hires, they will not be loyal for mere money, and when faced with people defending their homes and families, will cut and run if the going gets too difficult. I want out.

  How?

  Got to protect Byron.

  Then, Jason and the others arrived with two extra men they said they’d been training. Pepper groaned to himself. Worse and worse. Nevertheless, they practiced throwing the lead nets on wooden figures fashioned to roughly imitate a reeth, the theory being that once the reeth was captured, the child wouldn’t be much of a challenge. Pepper hoped the theory was true as he had no way to test it before he went after the boy, the Supreme Don’s son, and his reeth mate.

  Surprisingly, the nets weren’t difficult to handle. But the soft lead tore fairly easily, so he began to rethink the process. They practiced with the electric prods, hoping to control the reeth, to stop it from ripping the net to shreds, through pain lancing through the kid. An electric jolt to each of the assailants made them confident of its efficiency and convinced them to be extremely quick with its application.

  On their third day of practice, word came from Pith that someone had discovered the dead bodies in the Juel ravine. Hundreds of humans, don, and reeth had flown there to bury the remains. Firth was ecstatic. “Not something I planned, but that should make capturing the don kid easier. You need to get on the road.”

  They left in three cars and headed for Palmyra. The next evening, six men crept from different directions toward the small cottage where Pepper had observed the birth of the boy he would now kidnap. Three of them carried lead nets, three held electric prods. All were tense and jittery.

  The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows from the date palms. Pepper winced as one of the new “trainees” stepped on a twig and it snapped into the stillness of the air. We’ll never get close to that cottage at this rate. Even though each wore a lead helmet, their noise of movement could give them away whether or not a reeth in the vicinity was able to read minds like he’d heard.

  Then luck smiled on them. Through small openings in a brush hedge, Pepper saw the golden tones of the boy’s reeth shining in the sunlight. He motioned for his cohorts to freeze, and to his relief, they did. He carefully parted two branches to see more. The pair was strolling, just the boy and his reeth, toward them as if they had not a care in the world.

  Pepper slipped quietly back and shook out the net. He pointed at Jason to take the other end and with silent motions, indicated that they would throw the net over the hedge and capture the pair as soon as they drew alongside. He didn’t have time to position a net and two handlers on the other side, so this try had to work.

  To Pepper’s amazement, the net flew over the hedge just as he’d planned and settled over the pair. He scrambled after, shouting at the others to pin the net to the ground before the reeth could shake it off. With six men standing on it, the reeth couldn’t dislodge it but it was starting to tear. Pepper whipped out the electric prod strapped to his leg and jabbed it toward the boy, hitting him on the shoulder. He screamed. Pepper shouted, “Hold still or he gets more!” The reeth stopped struggling.

  Jason ran up the road to bring the lead-lined box van, jumped out, and opened the back doors. Using his electric prod on the boy, Pepper forced the pair into the dark van and Jason slammed and locked the doors. All six men flopped on the ground, breathless more from adrenaline flooding their bodies than from actual labor expended in the attack.

  “That wasn’t so hard.” Jason grinned like a mad man. “Wonder if they bleed the same as us?”

  “You’re not going to find out.” Pepper glared at Jason even though his voice was calm. “We have to have this pair in good shape in order to force the don to follow Mr. Firth’s directions. You keep that in mind when you go to Delt.” Pepper frowned at the gleam in Jason’s eye. “Better yet. You come with me. The others can go to Delt.” He swung to the four that had backed away from Jason. “Don’t you get carried away, either. If you manage to catch a reeth or a don child, don’t hurt it!”

  “Yes, sir,” they muttered.

  Pepper climbed into the cab of the box van content to let Jason drive the first leg of their trip back to the castle. When Firth answered his call, he said bluntly, “We have him. On the way now,” and hung up immediately. Leaning against the hard seat back, he squirmed his way to a somewhat comfortable position and went to sleep.

  Before they reached the castle, word had come from the other team that they’d managed to capture two don children and their two reeth companions. Firth was thrilled. Pepper wasn’t. I hope those kids are okay.

  At the castle, Pepper opened the truck cargo door to find that the boy had wiggled him
self out of the net. He hadn’t been able to free his reeth mate from the locking straps that surrounded her belly and head, holding the net firmly in place. He prodded the boy with the shock stick although he’d turned off the electricity since both he and his reeth seemed to be reconciled to cooperation. For the time being.

  The huge garage door opened into the basement of the castle and Pepper directed the boy to enter a boxed-in room on one side. He did. The golden reeth followed him in. Pepper closed and locked the door, then threw in a key through the feeding slot. Then, he hollered, “You can take the net off now.”

  A thump hit the side of the wall assuring him that they had. He turned and came face-to-face with Firth. “Good job. The other van will be here before too long. I need you upstairs.” He turned to Jason who was rolling the lead garage door back closed. “Stay here and help unload. Should be a couple of hours yet.”

  “Mind if I grab some beers?” the young man asked.

  “No, go ahead. But watch for that other truck.”

  Pepper unfastened his lead helmet, placed in on the rack to one side, and followed his boss up the stairs.

  “So, it went well,” Firth said quietly.

  “To my surprise.” Pepper didn’t try to dampen his sarcasm.

  They’d reached the kitchen where the ugly butler was making some sort of stew. Lady Jill won’t like that. He glanced at the soldiers filling the room. Not for her, I’d guess.

  Firth began handing out shortwave radios and issuing instructions. Pepper readily gathered that each soldier present was meant to command forces in a different city. Firth was pointing at maps and laying out attack routes. What does he know about tactics?

  “Pepper, come here,” Firth said as soon as he realized his aide hadn’t joined him. “You need to know the plan as well as I do.” Reluctantly, he joined the briefing.