“What am I thinking?”
“You want to go to Hamlock to see if it’s the same ones that attacked Longmire.”
“That’s not what I was thinking,” Keo was going to say but didn’t.
Because, well, it was.
He said instead, “If it is them, and they’re using Hamlock as a staging point, we need to know.” He glanced down at his watch. “We still have seven hours until nightfall. One hour to reach Hamlock, and one hour back. That gives us five hours to work with.”
“No,” Lara said.
“Lara—”
“No, Keo.”
He sighed. “Give me one reason why not.”
“Because I don’t want you to,” Lara said. She put her hands on his shoulders and leaned into him. “And because it’s too dangerous.”
“It’s daylight. We have the advantage. Hell, it might be our only advantage. Even if we can take out just a few of them, it’ll be worth it.”
“He’s not wrong,” Bunker said. He was leaning against the door, and Keo had almost forgotten he was even still in the room with them. “If nothing else, it’ll give us a better idea of what we’re dealing with. I don’t like the fact that they took out Longmire. There were eighty-plus people in that place, and we’re not talking about a bunch of hippies here. They survived The Purge. They survived everything that happened after that. And for them to go out in one night?” He shook his head. “We need to find out what we’re dealing with. If it takes going into Hamlock to do it, then so be it.”
“We need to do reconnaissance,” Keo said to Lara. “Right now, they’re calling all the shots, because they’ve had two months to prepare. We’ve had one day. Less than one day. We need intel, Lara. Bunker’s right. We need to know what we’re dealing with. We need something.”
She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s probably the least dangerous thing that’s going to happen from this point forward.”
She took her hands away from him and sat back down, but didn’t say anything.
Keo kneeled in front of her and smiled. Or put on his best bluff, anyway. “In and out. No meandering.”
Lara frowned. “That’s what you said last time. And you almost died.”
“I didn’t exactly have any choice in the matter.”
“Excuses. This time, you better mean it.”
“I do.”
“You better.”
“I promise.”
“Barf,” Bunker said from the door. “I’ll be outside when you guys are done. This century, I hope.”
The rancher left, leaving Keo and Lara alone in the room again.
Keo picked up her hands and squeezed them. “We need to find out what kind of forces we’re dealing with. Right now, all we’re doing is playing defense. Blindly. We need intel. You know that. Wars are won and lost by intel.”
Lara didn’t answer.
“You know this is the right move,” Keo said.
She pursed her lips. “One hour.” She stared at him with the kind of look that other men would shrink under, but Keo knew it was just concern for his safety. “Do you understand me? You don’t waste more than one hour in Hamlock. I don’t care what you see or don’t see. You spend one hour there, find out what you can in that hour, and you head right back home. Do you understand me, mister?”
He smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
Four
Bunker wanted to tag along, but Keo wouldn’t let him.
“I need you here,” he told the rancher.
“What for?” Bunker said.
“Lara.”
“You want me to babysit your girl?”
“She’s more than just my girl.”
“Same difference.”
“It’s a big difference. She’s going to be the mother of my child. Besides, you really trust Thuy? I don’t. Especially not after everything Lara told me about how it’s been communicating with her.”
“You mean all that stuff about psychic links and shit?”
“They’re not shit, Bunker. They’re real.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“I’ve heard stories of it happening to others. Besides, Lara wouldn’t make something like that up. The things she’s seen, done, and survived…” Keo shook his head. “She wouldn’t make any of those things up.”
“So I don’t just gotta worry about it tearing me apart limb from limb with its bare hands, I gotta worry about the fucker getting into my brain, too?”
“The good news is, you don’t have to worry about it getting into your brain if it does tear you apart limb from limb.”
“Yeah, that’s good to know.”
“Back to Thuy…”
“Don’t worry about her. She’s harmless. And I’m a very good judge of character. Especially the ladies.”
“You like her, don’t you?”
“I’m not going to say she’s not attractive… Besides, you should know by now, I’m into yellow fever. Why did you think I let you stay here in the first place?”
Keo narrowed his eyes back at the rancher. “Please don’t ever say anything even remotely close to that to me again, Bunker.”
Bunker chuckled. “It’s a compliment.”
“Yeah, no.”
“Whatever. Don’t get your balls shot off,” he said as Keo climbed onto Annabelle.
“Getting them shot off isn’t what I’m worried about.”
“Don’t get them chewed off, then.”
“I’ll be back ASAP.”
“That’s what you said last time. And we all know how well that worked out.”
Keo grunted. “Why does everyone have to keep reminding me of Paxton? It wasn’t like I had any choice in the matter.”
“Oh, you had plenty of choices. You just made all the wrong ones. As per usual, if Lara’s to be believed, and I’m wagering she is.”
Keo rolled his eyes. “Four hours, tops.”
“Swing by Carlos’s while you’re at it. I tried to convince him to come join us here, but he said thanks, no thanks.”
“He said that?”
“Something to that effect.”
“He knows what we’re dealing with, right?”
“You mean our blue-eyed problem?”
“Yeah.”
“He knows.”
“And he still isn’t coming here for the night?”
“I couldn’t convince him, but maybe you’ll have better luck in person.”
Keo nodded, but knowing Carlos as well as he did, he didn’t think that was highly likely at all.
Carlos’s spread was at least five times as big as Bunker’s, but of course Carlos also had five times the manpower to keep it running. Besides himself, the rancher had his brother Jose and their wives, Donna and Gwen, respectively. Like Bunker, the family had ended up on this patch of South Texas ground after The Purge and claimed it for their own. The people in Longmire hadn’t bothered to take care of the ranch and its surrounding property, and if not for Carlos and his people, this would just be another rundown section of Texas forgotten to history.
Instead, Carlos’s family had kept things churning, fixing the outer perimeter fences and raising livestock. The lack of other nearby ranches other than Bunker’s meant they had plenty of grazing land for their pigs and cattle. They had more than enough to feed themselves and traded with nearby settlements, including Longmire, with the rest. While they had horses, they weren’t the horse people that Bunker was. Then again, Keo hadn’t met many people who were.
He rode through the ranch’s front gate, sunlight glinting off the homemade CR sign, pounded from metal, on top of the wide arch in the center. Wandering pigs scattered as he rode up the driveway toward the two-story house. A big red barn on the left greeted him, but the place was mostly dotted with pens for livestock, including a massive one on the right for young cattle.
Jose, Carlos’s brother, was sitting on one of the corrals when Keo entered. The man glanced over and waved. Even from a
distance, Keo could see that Jose wasn’t wearing his usual work clothes. He had an AR rifle slung over his back, and there was a pistol in a hip holster. The only thing missing were ammo pouches. The presence of guns was enough to let Keo know that the brothers were on high alert after what had happened to Longmire.
Keo returned Jose’s wave and watched the younger brother jump down before turning to help his son, Mikey. He gave the five-year-old a quick spank, and the boy raced off toward the house. To fetch Carlos, Keo guessed.
He slowed down as Jose walked over to meet him.
“Keo,” Jose said. “You come about those ghoul tracks we found?”
Keo nodded. “You told Bunker they were headed toward Hamlock?”
“Either that or some other place nearby, but if you put a gun to my head, I’m thinkin’ Hamlock.”
Mikey didn’t run all the way to the main house, but instead to a shack that was halfway across the big property. He’d gotten there fast, which was probably why everyone, including Bunker, called him Lightning Mikey. Keo, in Annabelle’s saddle, could make out Carlos as he came outside to stand with Mikey, before shielding his eyes in Keo’s direction.
Keo waved to him, and Carlos returned it.
He climbed off Annabelle and walked toward the rancher with Jose alongside him. Jose was a good foot shorter than Keo, but they were both shorter than Carlos. Jose made up for the lack of height with a wide chest and thick arms. He also had tree trunks for legs, and looking at him, Keo didn’t have any trouble believing Jose used to throw around livestock back in the Nuevo Laredo farm where the brothers both grew up and slaved away in the hot sun until The Purge upended society and opened up new opportunities for them.
“So you’re not 100 percent sure that the ghouls actually went into Hamlock?” Keo asked Jose.
“Nope,” Jose said. “After the trail died, we sort of gave up. You know, we get ghouls every now and then. Nothing we can’t handle. Usually they steal a pig or two, or one of the chickens. If we don’t nail them someone else does, so…” He shrugged. “We didn’t think much of it—pretty sure we forgot about it—until this morning.”
“How many are we talking about?”
“Not sure, maybe half dozen. Could be more. It rained that morning, so the tracks weren’t as easy to read.”
“Bunker said these ones attacked some livestock?”
“They took a couple of pigs and cow. Dragged one of them about half a mile. Carlos and me figured they only abandoned it because they ran out of night.”
Lightning Mikey had returned, having easily outrun his uncle. The kid, with a bushel of red hair like his Caucasian mother, raced past them without slowing down. Jose did get a good swipe at the boy’s behind just before he could get completely away. Mikey didn’t break stride for one second as he hustled back to the cattle pen.
“What do you feed that kid?” Keo asked, looking after the boy.
Jose chuckled. “His mom gave him some natural milk when he was feeding.”
“That’s all it takes?”
“That, and lots of protein and bacon.”
“Protein and bacon. Gotcha.”
“When’s Lara due?”
“Five, six months?”
“You not sure?”
Keo shrugged. “As long as it’s not the next few weeks. Things are a little messy these days.”
“Yeah, Longmire. Can’t believe that happened.” He looked over at Keo without making it too obvious. “Bunker says it might be a blue-eyed ghoul?”
“He said that? ‘Might?’”
“Something like that.”
“It’s a blue-eyed ghoul.”
“I hate those hijos de puta. If I never run across another one again in this lifetime or the next, it’ll be too soon.”
“Yeah, that about sums up how I feel, too.”
Keo looked over as they reached Carlos. Keo was no midget, but the Mexican rancher had him beat by a good two inches. He wasn’t nearly as strapping as his younger brother, and was longer than he was wide, but like Jose, he’d been raised on a farm, and the years since The Purge had only increased his country boy frame. Keo had no trouble seeing the older brother in Mexico’s National Army uniform.
“I used to blow stuff up,” Carlos had said when Keo asked him what he did in the army when they first met.
“That could be anything,” Keo had said.
“Exactly. Why did you think it was such a fun job?”
Keo had met another man who liked blowing things up recently. His name had been Felix, and he’d saved Keo’s life by doing just that.
Too bad you didn’t finish the job, Felix.
Too bad…
“Heard you got on the wrong side of a blue-eyed ghoul, amigo,” Carlos said as he stuck out his hand and Keo shook it. Like Jose, he had added a gun belt with a handgun in the holster to his wardrobe this morning.
“You heard right,” Keo said. “I was just asking Jose about those ghouls that took a bite out of your livestock six nights ago.”
“Yeah, we think they came from Hamlock, but I can’t be sure.”
“But in that direction?”
Carlos nodded. “In that direction. You going there?”
“I have to.”
“You ‘have’ to? You don’t gotta do anything, my friend. Not out here. Not anymore.”
“I gotta find out if they’re the same group that hit Longmire.”
Carlos exchanged a glance with his brother. Apparently Longmire, as with Keo, Bunker, and Lara, had been a big topic of discussion in the household all day. Keo guessed it was going to be that way for some time.
“Eighty-two people,” Carlos said. “In one night. Crazy.”
Eighty-three, Keo thought, but he said, “It’s a crazy world.”
“You think it’s the same ones that took shelter in Hamlock?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m going there. To find out one way or another.”
“Well, if you’re going to a ghoul nest, you picked the right time for it,” he said, glancing up at the bright sun.
“Where’s Bunker? He’s not going with you?” Jose asked.
“I need him back at the ranch,” Keo said.
“Lara,” Carlos said.
Keo nodded. He looked past Carlos at a blonde woman coming out of the house and shielding her eyes as she glanced over in their direction. Donna, Carlos’s wife. Not that the two had a piece of paper making it official or anything. Then again, no one did these days. Or cared if they did or didn’t.
“Lunchtime, guys!” Donna shouted. Then, “Hey, Keo! Where’s Lara?”
“She’s back at the ranch!” Keo shouted over.
“Tell her I said hi!”
“I will!”
“Stay for lunch,” Carlos said.
Keo shook his head. “Wish I could, but I only have a few hours to spare.”
Again, Carlos and Jose exchanged a knowing glance.
“This as bad as we think it is?” Carlos asked. “I guess that’s a dumb question after what happened to Longmire last night.”
“It’s pretty bad,” Keo said. “You went there?”
Carlos nodded. “We went this morning, after you guys left. Eighty-two people in that place.” He shook his head. “Eighty-two souls…”
“A Blue Eyes,” Jose said. “It’s been a long time.”
“You guys have gone up against one before?” Keo asked.
“Back in the day, outside of San Antonio,” Carlos said. “One of those ghoul collaborator towns. T-something; I forgot. We stayed there for a few months, “donating”—he made air quotes with his fingers—blood to the nightcrawlers until we finally got our chance to slip out one bright shiny morning. We never looked back.”
“They’re creepy motherfuckers,” Jose said, and Keo thought he might have shivered slightly but couldn’t be sure. “Don’t ever want to meet one of those again.”
“Bunker says one of them is here?” Carlos asked.
Keo nodded.
“Yeah. At least one.”
“You say at least one? So there might be more than that?”
“There’s a good chance of that, yeah.”
“Madre de dios,” Jose said. “One’s bad enough…”
“You guys need to be careful,” Keo said.
He was looking past Carlos and at Donna as she corralled a couple of girls, both under ten, into the house. Gwen, Jose’s wife—and Mikey’s mom—was coming out of a supply building with a bucket. Keo only knew she was Gwen by her bright red hair.
“Jose!” Gwen called.
Jose waved over. “Yes, dulzura?”
“Get your son over here for lunch!”
“Right away!” Jose looked over at Keo. “You sure you not staying for lunch, Keo? We can talk about this more.”
“I can’t.” He smiled. “I’m on a time limit.”
“Well, if you change your mind…” He jogged over to where Mikey was, feeding the cattle back at the pen. “Hey, Mikey! Lunch time, mijo! Stop playing with the cattle and get your butt into the house pronto!”
Keo focused on Carlos, who was looking back at his family. “Do the girls know about Longmire, too?”
“They know,” Carlos said. “We’re trying to keep things normal-looking for the kids, but I think even they know.”
“They probably heard the shooting and saw the fires last night.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Look, don’t take any chances at nightfall, okay? This thing is dangerous.”
Carlos looked almost offended. “You don’t have to tell me that, Keo. If I didn’t know they were dangerous, Longmire sealed the deal.”
“You guys have a shelter under that house, right?”
“In the basement, yeah.”
“How strong is it?”
“It’s strong.”
“How strong?”
Carlos gave him a questioning look before understanding what Keo was trying to ask him without actually doing so. “You’re talking about the Blue Eyes.”
“They’re strong, Carlos.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Carlos nodded. “I’ve seen them, Keo. They’re strong. Stronger than the Black Eyes.”
“And what about this shelter of yours?”
Road to Babylon (Book 9): The Ranch Page 5
