by Thomas Hall
“That’s good,” he said. “It’s good to have family.”
“And you?” she said. “What do you plan to do next?”
“Keep going,” he said. “There’s more places to visit that I can see in a lifetime.”
“Is that what this is to you?” she said. “You’re a tourist?”
He smiled. He hadn’t heard the word in a long time. “Something like that.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of man to wander without a purpose.”
“And yet here we are,” he said.
“You aren’t looking for anyone?” she said. “There’s no lost love waiting for you to return home?”
“Not on this side of the wall,” he said.
She nodded and fell silent.
“Has anyone tried to rescue them before?” Kade said.
“We’ve tried. We’ve begged Travis to let them go, but he won’t be reasoned with.”
“Perhaps they were doing it wrong?” Kade said.
She shrugged. “Guns can be very persuasive, I understand.”
Kade didn’t respond. Some people thought that guns solved anything, and it was useless to try and change their minds. Until they’d been in the searing heat of a gunfight they couldn’t understand.
They stopped a street away from the brothel. Kade could hear music and, despite the early hour, drunken voices singing along with it. He’d thought that the tavern was bad, but this place smelled like the pits of hell. Madeline held out a hand and he stopped.
“What is it?” he said. “Is something wrong?”
“We need to wait here,” she said and offered him no further explanation.
Kade felt the familiar itch in his fingers. He knew from experience that guns blazing was rarely the best approach to take.
The brothel stood on a main road, a little outside the main strip. Alongside it there was a casino where men threw money at cards. Kade didn’t partake in either vice, but he could see the appeal for weaker men.
He felt Madeline grip his arm and turned with her to see a tall, slim figure approaching them.
“Is that you Maddie?” the figure said, his voice that of a man but retaining something of boyishness about it.
“Jareth?” she said.
When the man stepped into the light he was older than Kade had expected. Grey-white stubble covered his face, but his hair was dark. He wore guns on his belt.
“This him?” Jareth said.
“Kade,” he said, stepping forwards and offering his hand.
Jareth looked at it but didn’t shake. He was wearing a pair of black leather mitts.
“Kade, this is Jareth,” Madeline said. “He works in the casino.”
“You work for Travis?” Kade said, surprised.
Jareth nodded. “Security, lot of coin passing through.”
“I bet,” Kade said. He looked at the man and tried to work out whether he was honest, but couldn’t get a good reading on him. Madeline seemed to trust him though, so that had to be good enough to be getting on with. “Can you get me inside?”
“The brothel?” Jareth shook his head. “Only if you’re willing to buy.”
Kade considered it. If he had the coin then it might have been useful to talk to the girl, but what could she tell him? Best case scenario was that he walked out after an eye full with no useful information. Worst case scenario was that he gave the game away and blew the whole operation. “Maybe another time,” he said.
“Do you think you can get her out?” Madeline said.
“Soon,” Kade said. He took a step away from them to get a better look at the twin buildings. There were guards, Jareth was proof of that, but they were well hidden. “How many men are on security?”
“Now? Maybe a dozen,” Jareth said. “After dark you can double that.”
“Can I count on you if there’s a need?” Kade said.
“Of course,” Jareth said, there was no hesitation or deferment from him.
“You know how to shoot those things?”
“Better believe I do.”
“Guess I’ll have to,” Kade said.
He turned away and started walking.
“You’ll hear from me,” he called back.
He heard Madeline saying goodbye to Jareth but kept moving.
“Slow down,” she called from behind and he obliged her. She caught up with him before they reached the main strip. “What do you think?” she said.
Kade turned to her. “I think you’d better start telling me the truth.”
“The truth?” she said, her mock indignation was insulting.
“You heard me, start spilling lady or I’m walking out of here. I ain’t risking my neck for a lie.”
“What do you mean?” she said, still holding to her story.
“I mean, no weeping sister has a ‘man on the inside’. Something else is going on here and you’d better tell me what it is.”
To her credit, she didn’t try to deny it. She lowered her head and once she had recovered she looked back up at him. “You’d better come with me. I’ll explain everything when we’re back at the mill.”
When Madeline said the mill, Kade assumed she meant the house next door to it. Instead, she led him into a narrow passage that ran through the middle of the mill itself.
A staircase led down. The walls were concrete but covered in ash from the desert.
His fingers itched to take his gun out, but if this was a trap, then the last thing he wanted to do was go in shooting. If she was the enemy and he was still alive, then it had to be for a reason.
They reached a door at the bottom of the stairs and she knocked.
“You don’t talk much, do you?” she said.
“Nope,” Kade replied.
A metal shutter slid across the door and someone looked out at them. Kade couldn’t see more that their eyes and nose, not even enough to guess whether it was a man or a woman. His hand moved towards his gun again but he forced himself to stop. The shutter slid back and the door opened.
On the other side, there was a small room. There was little furniture but some sort of electronic device occupied a whole wall. Two people were sitting at it with headphones on while red lights flashed in front of them. Madeline saw Kade looking at it.
“It’s called a computer,” she said.
He nodded as if he’d heard the word before.
“The old one’s used them for pretty much everything.”
“What do you use it for?” he said.
“Listening,” she said.
“Listening?”
Madeline nodded. “There’s a network. We can communicate with people in other towns.”
“No,” Kade said.
“Yes. How do you think we knew you?”
“Through this?” he said.
“That’s right. They told us you were coming this way, that you might be able to help.”
“Who’s they?” he said.
“Friends.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“I’m sure.”
“And it’s powered by the mill?”
“We’ve got a generator as well.”
It was the most technology that he’d seen in one place and more working technology than he’d seen in his whole life. It was mind blowing to be in the presence of something as old and powerful as this computer.
“This isn’t what we came here to see,” Madeline said.
“It’s not?” Kade said. If she wanted to impress him then she had succeeded. He’d almost forgotten that they were there because he’d caught her in a lie.
“You wanted to know what’s going on?”
Kade nodded.
“Then follow me.”
Madeline took him through another door that led into a room where there were two chairs and a table. Kade had been in police cells before and he recognised it.
“Take a seat,” she said and closed the door behind her.
Kade sat down on one of the hard-wooden chairs. He watched and remai
ned calm on the outside, regardless of how he felt on the inside.
Madeline sat down in front of him and smiled. “What I told you about my sister isn’t a lie,” she said.
Kade nodded. In situations like this, he found, it was better to let the other person do most of the talking.
“Travis forced to work in the brothel.”
He nodded again.
“But there’s more.” Madeline sighed. “He made her his wife.”
Kade nodded. It was a surprise, but he chose not to show it and let Madeline continue.
“Travis is a menace to this town. He’s a cancer. If we don’t get rid of him then he’s going to kill us all.”
“The whole town, or just your secret society?”
She smiled. It was good to see her smile. “The whole town. He started mining operations.”
“Mining?” Kade said, surprised. “For what?”
“Damned if I know. He doesn’t share his plans with me.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“We’ve got guns,” she said. “We’ve got people who will fight for this.”
“Then why do you need me?” he said.
“Because my sister is still on the inside. I can’t… I won’t let her get hurt in this.”
Kade nodded, let her continue.
“I want her out before this begins. That’s all I need from you.”
“That’s all?”
She nodded.
“There’s nothing else I need to know?”
She seemed to hesitate but he couldn’t expect her to reveal everything to him. It was too soon to know whether they could trust one another. “The rest of our plans don’t concern you. If you rescue my sister, then you’ll get your payment. Do you think you can do that?”
“I said I would.”
“Then as a kindness to you, we will wait until you’ve left town before we move against Travis.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Unless you would like to fight with us…”
Kade shook his head. He could do it, but he wouldn’t. If these people were going to win their freedom, then they needed to do it themselves. He had places to go, things to do.
“Then we’re done here.”
Kade nodded. He hated to see her looking so hard, but it was the world that they had all grown up in. Life was hard and so that’s what they became in order to survive. There was nothing he could do to change that.
Chapter
The music was loud enough to shake the floor. Kade watched the doors open and two men come stumbling out. A woman in red underwear stood behind them. She shouted a few choice words and then went back inside and slammed the door behind her. The two men picked themselves up, laughed and started walking. Kade watched them until they had gone far enough that they wouldn’t be able to turn back and see him.
He clutched a small bag of coins in his left hand, leaving his right free to pull his gun if he needed it. He walked towards the brothel wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into.
The door opened as he neared and the music came out, hitting him like a shock wave. The lights were low, but after spending the last thirty minutes in darkness, they were bright enough to see everything.
There were more women in red, so he couldn’t distinguish the one who had thrown the men out from any of the others. They walked from table to table, delivering drinks and talking to the men who were sitting there. It wasn’t like the tavern. Even from the door, Kade could see that drinking wasn’t the main vice here. The tables didn’t have chairs and the bar was no more than a pile of crates.
“Can I help you?”
He turned to the woman and did his best to look her in the eyes. He smiled. “Maybe later.” Kade tried to walk further into the room but she held up a hand and stopped him.
“No guns inside sugar,” she said. “You’ll have to check it if you want to come in.”
Kade hesitated. A fool and his gun were easily parted, but he needed to get inside and see what this was all about. He drummed his fingers on the hard wood handle and then decided to give it to the girl. She smiled as she took it and handed him a pink ticket.
“You can pick it up on your way out.”
Kade smiled, but he felt far from happy. He felt as naked as the girls were without his revolver.
“Can I get you a drink?” she said. “Or do you want to go straight to the entertainment?”
“Whiskey,” Kade said. “Neat.”
“Find a table, I’ll bring it over.”
The girl walked away. He watched her go and then forced himself to stop. He knew that brothels were an established part of life now, but that didn’t mean he liked them. He had seen too much misery come from places like this, he couldn’t pretend that it didn’t exist.
He found a table near the door and looked around. The girls in red seemed to work for the place, but they weren’t the people he was looking to help. He watched one of them walk over to a bearded man a few tables away and take his hand. She led him across the room to one of the doors. She took him inside but returned a few moments later, walking over to the door to wait for the next man to enter.
“Your drink,” the girl said, placing a small whiskey in front of him. From the colour, he could tell that it was watered down. “Have you thought about what you’d like to order?”
Order, he thought. She made it sound like he was here to eat.
“You get one drink,” she said. “Then it’s time to make up your mind.”
“What about you?” Kade said.
She had already started to turn away but looked back at him. “Me?”
“What if I want to order you?”
The girl smiled. “I’m not on the menu. You’ll need to find something else.”
He looked at her slim wrists and thought he could break her in two if he tried. Then back at her face. Kade smiled.
“What?” the girl said.
“Is the boss here?” Kade said.
Her eyes widened enough to tell him that she knew what he was talking about, but she was a professional. She shook her head. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. Do I need to call security?”
“No, we’re good. When you see your boss, tell him there’s someone here to talk to him.”
“You’re not here to cause trouble, are you?” she said.
“No trouble,” Kade said, and he meant it. “Just want a friendly chat.”
She nodded and backed away.
Kade sipped his drink and watched the men coming and going. He was almost at the bottom of his glass when a shadow fell over the table. Whoever was there loomed but didn’t say anything. Kade took his time before looking up and seeing a blond man with a stubble scarred face looking down at him.
“You’ve been asking for me?” the man said. He didn’t sound angry, more amused.
“Take a seat,” Kade said.
The man chuckled to himself and sat down. Kade could see the girl hanging close by, the man turned to her and told her to bring them the bottle.
“You’re Travis?” Kade said.
“That’s right. And am I allowed to know your name?”
“Kade.”
“So you’re Kade? Well, I didn’t think we’d see you in here.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
“Indeed.”
The girl returned and placed a bottle of whiskey on the table. Travis opened it and poured them each a glass.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure? If you’re looking for a discount I’m afraid I can’t help. All our girls are premium quality.”
Kade nodded.
“What’s your interest?” Travis said. “Blond? Brunette? Redhead?”
Kade said nothing.
“You’d prefer something a little more masculine?”
Kade said nothing.
Travis sighed. “If you’re not going to talk to me then you’re wasting my time. I’ve got things I should be doing.”
“Your girls,” Kad
e said. “Are they happy?”
“Happy? I’m not sure I… oh… oh I see.” He laughed, to himself. “You’re working, aren’t you?”
Kade said nothing.
“Who sent you? Are they paying you well?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“Because I hope they’re paying you well if you’re prepared to go up against me Drifter.”
Kade watched the cloud come over the man. He was no longer smiling, he looked close to furious.
“I run this town,” Travis said. “If you set yourself against me you’ll be sorry.”
“You’re telling me the girls aren’t happy?” Kade said.
“I’m telling you that it’s none of your goddammed business Drifter. I’m telling you that it’s my business and I’ll protect it with every inch of my will.”
“I understand,” Kade said. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected to get out of the meeting. Perhaps he’d needed to meet Travis and offer him the chance for a peaceful resolution.
“I’m not an evil man,” Travis said. He sipped his drink and the redness in his face decreased. “This is a difficult world and I’m trying to make a living. I look after Swift Creek, these people, they’re my family. We’re not so different.”
“We’re very different,” Kade said, not liking the fact that he was now on the defensive. He wanted to be the one asking the questions, posing the riddles.
“Are you sure about that? I sell people, but you… you sell yourself. I don’t kill for money, but you do. Ha! If I’m wrong, and we are different, that makes you the bad one. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,” Travis put his empty glass down on the table. “I’m going to give you a choice. How does that sound?”
Kade was non-commital.
Travis continued. “I’m going to let you leave tonight, I won’t try and stop you and I won’t have any of my men attack you in the street. You’re free to go, back to the tavern, or wherever it is you’re staying. Spend the night there, have a good breakfast in the morning and then leave.”
Kade picked up his whiskey and swirled it around the glass. This was why he’d come. This was what gave him the upper hand in the confrontation. Men like Travis were all the same. So confident in their own power that they were willing to let someone who planned to kill them walk away.
Kade picked up his hat and stood.
“Be gone by noon,” Travis called after him. “Otherwise there will be trouble.”
