Killing Rhinos

by Herb Hughes

  “He did,” Avery said. “I’m sure of it.”

  “When I know Sheffie is okay, I’m going to find Greg Bonner. It’s time to do something about him. Permanently. I’m sorry, Avery. I know I need to be here helping you, but this can’t wait.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Avery said. “I know Dokie made it. That little man has the determination of three people. We’ll have the repeating rifles soon. You do what you have to do. Braindon and I will direct things here.”

  “What a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Braindon’s low voice said. “We’re going to get killed.”

  “But I know we will come through with a resounding victory,” Braindon’s high voice said. “I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  With eyes suddenly wide, Durban and Rose and Stan looked at the cart, where the voices had come from.

  “Perhaps now is a good time for that explanation,” Durban said.

  Chapter 54

  “You are so tense,” the software construct, Lucy, said as she massaged Ethan’s shoulders and back. “You have not been this tight during your entire assignment, perhaps ever.”

  “It’s this mess with Diana. Mental illness in this day and age? Unbelievable! I never would have expected to run across anything of this sort. It’s the first thing for which I did not immediately have the answer.”

  “You are a good leader…”

  “Of a tiny outpost in an insignificant area of space. The proverbial big fish in a small pond.”

  “Don’t belittle yourself, Ethan. This space station may not be large, but it is critical to our species survival. You have saved thousands, no, hundreds of thousands of lives during your tenure. That is something to celebrate. To honor!”

  “Yet I don’t even have an answer for a problem as simple as mental illness.”

  “Because,” Lucy said, “It is a problem we have not experienced for generations. It might be that there is no good answer. You did what you had to, and what any prudent leader would have done.”

  Ethan rolled over and looked up into the image’s eyes. “Thank, you, Lucy. You are always so comforting to me.”

  “As always, it is my great pleasure to serve you,” Lucy said.

  “Bend down,” Ethan said. “Closer.”

  Chapter 55

  With the desert sun high and bright at mid-morning, Mac and Toadstool ambled back into an empty oasis. The pair loved their morning ride. It gave Toadstool some exercise and Mac something to do besides split fibers in his bed.

  “We’re back, Toadstool. I sure hope you like living here. This is home. This is where I want to stay till I die. Not much to graze on besides the grass and weeds that grow around the trees and the edge of the pool, but there’s plenty of that. I think we can make do.”

  The old man dismounted and stooped beside the bed he had slept on for so many years. He began to scoop out the bark shavings and other tidbits of soft material in one corner. Then he dug at the loose sandy dirt that was at the bottom until his fingers struck a hard object. “Here it is, Toadstool. This is all I have to this world. If we ever leave here, I’ll need to take it with me. You remember that, now. Don’t let me go leaving without it. I’m bad about forgetting things.”

  Mac pulled a crude wooden box out of the sandy earth, sand spilling from all sides as he lifted it. He had carved it himself when he was a much younger man. He brushed the rest of the sand off the top with slow, careful strokes, blowing the final grains away, and held the box in front of him. It didn’t look like much, simple raw wood and crude carving. But it was sturdy. He didn’t build it for looks. He built it to last. It had.

  Turning in a full circle, Mac looked at the surrounding desert. Nothing was stirring. He pulled the key from a thin strap of leather around his neck and inserted it into the lock on the front of the box then unlocked and lifted the lid.

  “Well, Toadstool, come on over and look at the treasures I’ve collected. Damned sad, I know, but this is danged near my entire life.”

  There were several folded pieces of paper inside, letters from his parents, the last letters they wrote before their passing. Mac carefully lifted them out, opened them and read them again, reading out loud so Toadstool could hear. He had read them dozens, perhaps hundreds of times. The paper was old and fraying along the folds so he handled them as gingerly as he could. They were all he had left to help him remember his parents.

  “Ma, pa, I guess I didn’t turn out quite like you hoped I would. But I did find all those underground rooms. And Jack says that’s important. And I did help that inventor fella, let’s see… Avery. Yeah. That’s his name. I helped him so he can talk to those brain things. Maybe that’s some important, too. I done that much. Maybe that’s not too bad.”

  Toadstool bobbed his head, but he had listened enough. Besides, he was thirsty. He walked over to the pool and started drinking.

  Mac carefully folded the letters and placed them back inside then he took out the glass-smooth black rock his older brother had tossed to him when they were out playing one day, many decades ago. His brother had found it and given it to Mac because they were not only brothers, they were also best friends. A few days later his brother took sick. Not long after, Mac’s tears were flowing as he watched his brother being buried. That made the rock his most valuable possessions. “I miss you, Carl. Miss you bad. Maybe if you’d lived and growed up and set some sort of example, I wouldn’t have turned out so useless. You, too, mom and dad. I miss all of you.” He carefully placed the rock back in its corner of his treasure box.

  Across the bottom of the box, three small gold coins and a handful of other metal coins were scattered about. They weren’t worth much, but that was all the money Mac had in this world. He laid the box back down in the bottom of the bed and stood and walked over to the pool where Toadstool had finished drinking. The mule stared out at the desert in one particular direction, intent on something.

  “What do you hear out there, Toadstool? You’re staring like there’s something out there besides sand and rocks.” Mac stared a moment but saw nothing. “Hope to god it’s not a Rhino.”

  Mac bent down and drank from the pool. When he finished, he got Toadstool to turn around long enough to share a snack.

  When they finished eating, Mac bent over the edge of the pool and took another sip. As he began to raise his head, he saw something moving in the ripples of the water, a reflection. He jerked his head to the side but was too late to avoid the hard blow of a boot. Mac rolled on the ground, his head throbbing with pain, but he was still conscious. He turned his head up to see Greg Bonner towering over him, laughing.

  “That’s for always trying to make me look bad, old man. Who’s looking like a stupid old fool now, eh?”

  Toadstool hee-hawed loudly and kicked hard, catching Bonner in the stomach. The big man moved instinctively, turning out of the way quickly enough to avoid the full force of the blow. But he was hurt. He doubled over, holding his ribs, rage clouding his face.

  “That’s it, Toadstool!” Mac cried from the ground. “Kick that asshole again!”

  The mule arched its back to throw another kick, but Bonner moved like lightning, pulling his Rhino knife and sliding it between Toadstool’s ribs over and over again, each jab taking only a fraction of a second. The huge man moved the blade in and out so quickly, the mule had no chance. After more than a dozen rage-filled jabs, Toadstool fell to the ground, air seeping from its lungs.

  “NO!!!” Mac cried. He scrambled over and put his arms around Toadstool’s body, his hands and fingers trying to force the flowing blood back in through the knife slits.

  Chapter 56

  Jack rushed into Dr. Mathers’ office, which also served as the Borderton Hospital since Mathers was the only doctor in town. A nurse was reaching into a cabinet. When she turned her head and saw Jack, she pointed to a room and said, “In there.”

  “Oh, Jack,” Sheffie said as she spread her right arm out to hug him. Her left arm was in a thick cast from wrist
to shoulder. Jack kneeled down and let her free arm wrap around him and buried himself in her badly bruised face. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered in his ear. “I was ugly to you when I left Lisbon. It was wrong of me.”

  “I deserved that and more. Are you going to be okay?”

  “You do no such of a thing. I thought about it all the way home. That Rhino that attacked us near Wilsey. It was so horrible! You were right to use whatever you could to keep yourself safe.”

  “Insignificant now. We’ve got repeating rifles. I suspect Lobie is forging them as we speak. And somewhere in the future, we may be able to eliminate Rhinos altogether. Avery is going to work with Braindon on a permanent solution. But what about you?”

  “Who’s Braindon?”

  “The last of the original people on this planet, the people who built the Spine. Mac’s room turned out to be real. The old man was not seeing a mirage. But it’s a long story. I’ll have to explain it to you later.”

  “I can’t wait to hear.”

  At that moment, the nurse brought Dr. Mathers in.

  “Hello, Jack,” he said. “You’ve got a strong woman, here. What that monster did would have killed most women. Hell, it would have killed a lot of men, too.”

  Jack held Sheffie’s hand and said, “It’s going to kill one more person before I’m through.”

  “I’m not much for killing. I try to heal people. But, honestly, I wouldn’t cry too many tears over Bon…”

  The doctor’s words trailed off as Captain Demetrius Strombus stepped in. “Hello, Jack.”

  “Demetrius.”

  “We’ve just got word. Colonel Andropov is dead,” Captain Strombus said. “Shot trying to ‘evade’ the rangers. We lost a good man.”

  Jack lowered his head, his teeth clenched. “He was my friend. I’m afraid the rangers are in the wrong hands now.”

  “Yes, we have discussed this amongst ourselves at the station. I believe you are correct. Oh, by the way, I have a warrant for your arrest. It was delivered some days ago. The warrant authorizes the use of deadly force if you resist in any way.”

  Dr. Mathers looked at Jack and back at Captain Strombus. There was a confused look on the doctor’s face.

  Sheffie squeezed Jack’s hand and said, “You can’t arrest him, Demetrius. Please. He’s on our side.”

  “It would be impossible to arrest Jack,” Demetrius said. “After all, I am not here. My men and I are all in the woods northeast of town, chasing down reports of a dangerous Rhino on the loose.”

  “Thank you, Demetrius,” Jack said. “I’ve got something I’ve got to do. Greg Bonner did this. I have to answer. You’ll have some more charges against me when I get back.”

  “No more charges,” Demetrius said. “There’s no law against killing animals.” He smiled, tipped his hat, then turned and left the room.

  “I knew I liked that guy,” Dr. Mathers said. Then he turned back to Jack and said, “She’s strong, but she needs her rest. The back spasms become severe if she moves around too much. The good news is I believe that, except for a slightly crooked left arm, she is going to make a full recovery. But it will take time, a long time. Please don’t visit too long, okay?” He winked at Sheffie and walked out of the room.

  “Why did Bonner do this? What did he want?”

  “He wanted to know where you were. I told him the truth. I said I didn’t know. That wasn’t good enough.”

  “Do you have any idea where he went?”

  “He said he was going to the oasis. He wanted you to meet him there. That was days ago. I don’t know if he’s still there. He said he would kill Mac if you didn’t show up.”

  Jack’s eyes widened. “Oh, God!”

  “He said if you had anybody with you, the first thing he would do is slit Mac’s throat. But you can’t go alone. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I don’t need help. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

  “Please be careful, Jack. He’s so big. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Jack bent over and kissed Sheffie on the forehead. Her lips were still too swollen and bruised to kiss. “I’ve been hunting for a long time,” he said. “And I’ve still got an ace up my sleeve. I’ll be fine. Greg Bonner won’t.”

  As he rode through the desert, Jack continued to look to each side, staying well clear of scrub tree patches or rocks that were large enough to hide behind. Bonner’s message indicated that he would be waiting at the oasis, but Jack knew the ruthless Rhino hunter would think nothing of lying to give himself an advantage. He could be hiding anywhere along the trail.

  Hour after hour passed, still, the trail remained quiet. It was mid-afternoon when Jack caught his first glimpse of frond-tipped trees. Killer instinctively slowed the pace as they got closer. Jack could see something. He wasn’t sure, but it looked like someone standing in front of an oasis tree. Was Bonner standing in the open waiting for him? That wasn’t what Jack was expecting. Greg Bonner was the ambush type.

  As Jack got closer, he squinted his eyes and looked. The man he saw was too skinny to be Bonner. Mac was waiting for him! It would be good to see the old man again. And Jack was happy to see him standing. He had been so afraid for Mac.

  As horse and rider got closer, Jack realized he was not seeing things correctly. There was something funny about Mac. After riding a little closer, he understood what he was seeing. It was Mac, all right, but he was upside down, tied to the tree.

  Jack needed to cut him down quickly. The blood rushing to Mac’s head could hurt someone of his age. But he had to be careful. No doubt Bonner was watching from somewhere. Jack looked all around but saw nothing.

  This had to be a trap. Jack avoided the temptation to rush in and cut Mac down. Bonner had to be waiting to ambush him. He would have to do everything deliberately and carefully. Jack kept riding toward the oasis, slowly, looking in every direction. Closer and closer, horse and rider together. Still, Bonner was nowhere to be seen.

  As Jack rode into the oasis, he slowly looked around, but the trees were not large enough to hide a man of Bonner’s bulk, even if Bonner turned sideways. Jack took in the entire desert in a slow turn. No Bonner. Where the hell was he?

  Perhaps he was hiding under the pool, breathing through a straw? No. That didn’t make sense for an ambush. Bonner would make too much noise rising out of the water to surprise anyone. And he wouldn’t have his homebuilt under water. Wet powder was useless. Bonner had tied Mac up then left. It didn’t make sense.

  Jack looked at the old man more closely. “Oh, my God,” he moaned aloud. Mac was not tied to the tree. There was an iron spike nailed through the crossed feet on top and another through the crossed hands at the bottom. The bark of the tree was a dark reddish-brown from the blood that had streamed down and dried.

  Jack rushed into the oasis and jumped down from Killer. He checked Mac’s neck for a pulse. Nothing… no… There! There it was. A faint beat. Mac was still alive! But the second beat did not come in rapid succession. It was a long moment before there was another beat. The pulse was weak, so weak and so slow. Mac had lost way too much blood.

  Jack tied a rope to the head of the lower spike and then tied the other end to his saddle. Killer backed up and pulled the spike out as Jack held Mac’s hands, trying to keep them from being damaged any further. They removed the top spike as Jack held Mac’s body. When the spike came out, Jack lowered the old man to the ground. Killer came back so Jack could reach a skin. Jack tried to revive the old man by wiping his forehead with water and putting drops in the old man’s mouth, around ragged lips and shattered teeth. Greg Bonner had severely beaten Mac before nailing him upside-down.

  Mac tried to talk, but Jack heard only a gurgle. A large piece of tooth dribbled from Mac’s lip and fell to the ground. His jaw was so badly broken the old man’s mouth could not move correctly, but he was trying so hard to say something. Jack leaned over and placed his ear directly in front of Mac’s mouth. In a hoarse, weak whisper the old man said, “Bon
ner. Kill that piece of shit.”

  “I will, Mac. But first I’ve got to get you to Borderton, to Doc Mathers.”

  A bloody hand trembled badly as it reached up and touched Jack’s shirt then flopped back down. Jack leaned over again.

  “No good,” Mac got out around a slow, ragged breath. “I’m dead. Kill Bonner.”

  “I can’t leave you, Mac. I…”

  Mac’s body went limp. There was no more breath. Jack desperately felt for a pulse but could find none. He picked Mac up and walked over to Mac’s bed, then carefully lay Mac down on the soft tree fibers.

  Chapter 57

  “Dokie would have brought this first load himself,” Slim said, “But he’s not in good enough shape to travel yet. I’m Slim Ryman.”

  “Stan Whitson. Good to meet you,” Stan said as they shook hands. “I’m happy that Dokie’s still alive.”

  “It was close,” Slim said, “But that little guy is pretty tough. He rode for hours with a ball in his lung. Darn near bled to death. He’s screaming about getting out of the hospital, but the doctor has ordered him to stay in bed and rest. That won’t hold him back much longer.”

  “Maybe not,” Stan said. “Dokie never has been a stickler for rules.”

  “Rules are more like targets to Dokie. He hits a few, but he misses an awful lot.”

  “Yeah,” Stan laughed. “But his heart’s in the right place.”

  “Sure enough. Lobie did a fine job on these rifles. Where do you want me to put them?”

  Stan glanced both ways to make sure the streets were clear. “Downstairs. There’s a few guys here to pick up the second edition of my newspaper. They circulate the bundles to the delivery people in the streets. I’ll get a couple of them to help you unload.”