“How did she fake the bullet wound and blood on the back of your head? I saw the live video. Were you in on it with her?”
“Not faked. I’ll be a month growing back that patch of hair over the entry wound she caused.”
“That bitch is as good as dead, now. Her lying father claimed your big cat killed her in revenge, but she won’t live to enjoy my money.”
“I do believe you’re right. I mean, I think she’s dead. By her father’s hand, not by mine, or even Kit’s doing. But you do seem to have a completely unfounded faith in your own future, to make threats against her or against anyone.”
“Not unfounded. I think you want to deal. That’s why you didn’t kill me. I’m still the richest man on the planet.”
“What? Do you think I saved Travis here because of the money he’s saved up killing people for you? Perhaps I need someone to testify against you in a court of law.”
“Court? You must have heard by now how it works on Chisholm. The wealthy control what happens here, and scum like him can’t change that, no matter what he says I did or paid him to do.”
Clampton looked at him with mutual contempt. “I love you too, you rich sorry shit. If he doesn’t kill you, I will.”
Egerton shook his head. “If I didn’t control fifteen percent of the wealth on Chisholm Ethan here might have already killed me. But he didn’t, and you nearly went over the edge just now with Wilkins, so he didn’t care a damn about you.”
Ethan said, “Well, I would have grabbed him before he fell. I do want something from him.”
He holstered his pistol, and shoved Egerton’s weapon in his front waistband. “Give me your right hand Clampton. I have a few questions.” There were screams from another hilltop, fresh roars, and gunshots, and groans and cries for help from the fallen survivors below them.
“Ignore those distractions.” He advised Clampton. “I brought a few friends with me. All of the roars over here were recorded for me by Kit, but she’s over at another hill, the one where you just heard the screams. There is a Kobani friend and his sibling ripper attacking two other hills the same way Kit and I did. What you heard over here came from the external speakers on my military armor, which I left on a ledge just below us, to sound the newer distracting roars I needed everyone to shoot at.”
He grabbed Clampton’s hand. “Tell me who he’s paid you to kill, and who you killed on his behalf that he didn’t specifically ask you to do.”
“Uh,” he paused as he concentrated on NOT thinking about certain things, which were racing through his mind. “I conducted some night raids, and we hung a man…, or two, and I fired twice in self-defense…, and…”
“Cut the bullshit Clampton. You couldn’t block your thoughts if your life depended on it, and it did. You didn’t want to tell me some things, and they were partly blocked, but others leaked right through. You shot and killed a woman on the ranch next to this one. That was the Danner place, and then your men killed her husband. After that, you set fire to the house to cover it up, and in the process killed their children, who were hiding under the floor. Where did you put the money this scum or others in the CCA paid you?”
Clampton didn’t speak a word. “Hmm. Good try, you’re learning.” Ethan told him. “Except, you let it slip that Jace also hides his money in a DNA sealed locker, set in the floor of the same shack on the Lazy S, where you each change clothes between murders. I think I know a way we can get into either of those lockers without triggering the failsafe destructs. You won’t like it, because all I think we need is your hand. At least you still have a tidy sum in yours. I hope Jace was just as thrifty.”
Ethan looked bemused for a moment. “I can see I seriously underpriced Kit and myself when we offered our services here, but then we were never going to work for the corrupt wealthy men that pay you. The entire SGA probably couldn’t afford what the five richest CCA members have paid only to you. I now also know now the names of the other rich men we need to expose. Next, I have questions for you, dear Mr. Edgerton.”
The man was afraid, but not cowed. “I’ve done some studying on you Kobani, and what’s known about Mind Tapping, as you call it. I’ll not be so easy to read as this halfwit.”
“Really? My friend, Carson, has just informed me that he captured Gregos alive. Seriously wounded, but alive. Did you share the secret of mind blocking with him? It’s easy with practice. Even our children learn. However, pain makes it hard to do. As you’ll find out.”
He dropped Clampton’s hand and turned his back on him, and started moving towards Edgerton who was backing away. Clampton seemed uncertain for a moment, as if he needed to make a major decision. It wasn’t really a hard one to make. He reached for his pistol. This inexperienced off worlder just couldn’t break bad habits, turning his back on an enemy.
Ethan was still striding towards Edgerton as Clampton’s hand grasped the gun butt. Never looking back, Ethan’s right hand was held well clear of his holster. Clampton triumphantly lifted his weapon, and suddenly realized that Ethan’s left hand had just dropped away from his front waistband. Too late, he remembered the gun taken from Egerton. Never looking back, Ethan swiveled his left wrist inward and back at waist height, and snapped off a single round, as Clampton’s pistol barrel lifted to nearly level.
A red dot, neatly centered between Clampton’s eyebrows, replaced the look of triumph with an expression of surprise, followed by blankness as he silently toppled backwards.
Still never having looked back, Ethan said to Egerton, “Genes taken from a large bat-like analogue gifted us with the ability to build a detailed mental matrix of what’s in the space close around us. My only question was if your gun was already empty or not when I took it from you. It would have been a very close thing if I’d had to drop and pull my own weapon. I’d have killed him anyway, but he might have winged me.”
Egerton was cowed by that casual display of competence. “You were lucky then. I think I was down to one shot, firing at your phantom tiger.”
“Nope, as I drew your pistol there was more time to get its feel. I paid attention to the balance. That told me you had two rounds left.” As proof, he shot Egerton in the stomach with the last round.
He calmly tossed away the pistol, and added commentary as he advanced on the wounded man. “Now, you tell me you think you’ve learned how to block your thoughts. Can you do that knowing you’re bleeding to death, and while you’re in considerable pain?” He grabbed the man’s hand as he sank to his knees, and Ethan crouched down to look him in the eyes.
“Do you keep detailed records of who you have bribed in government?”
To an onlooker, it would sound like there was a one-way conversation happening, but only Egerton was staying silent. At least verbally. He couldn’t shut off his racing and frightened mind as each question arrived.
“OK. Good. Are those records encrypted?
“What’s the code key or where will I find it? Fine.
“Are there records of your dealings with other CCA members, when you meet to decide on your campaigns of terror? Really. Where are those recordings?
“Excellent. We might finish this in time to get you to a med lab, provided you haven’t been too bad for too long a time.
“How many people have you paid to have killed, and are there records of who did it, and how much they were paid? Oh. Which other CCA members were present?
“I’ll need the lists of judges, lawyers, sheriffs, and marshals on the CCA payroll. All stored in the CCA AI in Queensland, called Jeeves? What will it take to get it to provide the president of Chisholm access? Hmm. That might be tough, but I think they can gain entry if we decrypt the files, change the code keys and passphrases and either bypass the biometrics, or use your corpse.
“Now about the number of deaths you’ve paid for. You seem to be good with money figures. How many have you had shot, versus the number you had lynched, and any idea about the number of those burned alive or trampled?
“I see. Well, you
had best try harder to remember those names. Particularly those three sheepherders and their families, which you had trampled in a stampede driven over their camp. Ah. So you never asked the names of their kids. That’s a real shame, because this will slow things down a lot. I insist you recall at least how many women and children you’ve had killed. Oh no, no. An estimate won’t do.”
Sadly, Egerton eventually employed a method of mental block that even a Kobani couldn’t break through, when pain was no longer felt and the mind ceased to function. He finally began to appreciate the ripper’s attitude about sensing their prey’s death. However, he didn’t find himself sympathetic to the man’s fear of death, nor feel the least interested in eating the meat either. So there would remain that difference between rippers and Kobani.
Nevertheless, there was a great deal of information to share with Chastain and his people, once they got around to letting him know that he, his family, friends, and remaining comrades would survive this night after all.
He contacted Carson, and learned that Gregos was being very cooperative, and he would live to stand trial. So would some of his men, who were confessing a great many sins, many at the order of Gregos. At least, they did after they saw what the wages of sin could be, for those that met terrible ends.
Jace was a particularly unfortunate example of a very bad ending, although he was still largely recognizable, and everyone knew his face, which was the least damaged part of his anatomy that Kit preserved. Strangely, the average cowboys that had participated in the posse all managed to escape into the dark, along with a considerably reformed Sheriff Ackerman, who seemed entirely sincere in his new found sense of honesty.
****
“Mr. Chastain, Kit and I sincerely regret that when we were hired, it provoked your main CCA opponents into initiating this precipitous attack on you, your family, and those that have allied with you. Egerton will certainly never bother you again, and I doubt Gregos or Brethard will either, but nothing can bring back the four of your friends they and their men killed last night.”
Chastain nodded in acknowledgement. “I frankly didn’t expect any of us to live another twenty four hours, when they shot Garman Franklin and Jake Tisdale out in the yard, as the last to arrive. They picked off Fred Gaston through a covered window and Jose Mendez when he peeked through the front door peephole. We knew then they had infrared sights, and some heavy rifles. They took some random shots between the front logs, and one of those nearly killed Sharon, my wife. Unable to stand at the doors or windows very long to shoot back, they were certain to try to burn us out.”
“Don’t you have more support than just those here?”
“Oh, certainly. Many decent citizens in Bison and Plains, and on dozens of ranches and farms around here. Some of them would have come to our aid, if they knew what was happening, except they would never have realized how many we were up against until they arrived, and it might have been over by the time they rode from Bison or Plains. It might have been hopeless for us even then. Except we couldn’t call out for help. I don't know if they blocked our signals somehow, or what they did. We couldn’t get four different satellite phones to work to make a call for help. We don’t have landlines out here, and they can be cut anyway. Without your help, we’d have died. We are grateful to all of you.”
“We’re grateful we got here in time. I nearly let you down, and without my best friend coming to help, and his ripper brother, we might not have been successful. Kit and I would have been hard pressed to take out the hardcore gun hands alone, and convince the volunteer deputies to run for safety. By now, most of them have found many of the horses we ran off, but our ship’s AI says they aren’t headed back here. We earned our pay last night, but this isn’t over.”
Chastain looked sheepish, as he glanced around the room at the others. “Ah. I know you couldn’t have done it without the other man and the ripper to help, and we don’t honestly know how even four of you managed what you did. But we don’t have the Hub credits to pay them right now. We don’t deny we owe them, and we intend to pay for the risks they took on our behalf, but we simply don’t have the deep pockets of the CCA members. Not to pay you two, and also them right now.”
Carson had been sitting quietly by a wall, looking out through a sizeable bullet hole between two large hardwood logs, located at a sitting man’s head height at the front of the ranch house. He spoke up now.
“Kobalt and I were introduced to you briefly, Mr. Chastain, and we spoke a little then, but I want you to know that although we were willing to help you, we both actually came here on behalf of our friends. Ethan is my best friend, and Kobalt is a biological brother to Kit. The four of us grew up together, and fought the Krall together. I don't think you knew that Ethan was ambushed two days ago, and went missing for a day, shot by someone he trusted, but who was paid by Egerton to kill him. We came here for him. You don’t owe us any money.”
Surprised, everyone looked at Ethan, seeking signs of his wound. With a sigh, and an annoyed look at a smirking Carson, he removed his hat and turned around, pointing at a small bald patch the size of a thumb joint in his hair, at the back of his head. “It was a stupid mistake on my part, which does not require further explanation!” He was looking at Carson when he emphatically said that.
Flustered, Chastain said, “Oh. None of us knew about that, obviously. I’m sorry. Are you alright?” A shot in the head didn’t seem like something one bounced back from in such a short time.
“Thankfully, Kobani bone structure has also been genetically enhanced, and we are very hard to break. Even our heads.” Another look at Carson, who merely smiled innocently.
This was a good time to broach the subject of payment. “Your conflict with the CCA isn’t completely resolved, and until it is, Kit and I don’t expect final payment. However, there are other forms of compensation, which we intend to share with my friend there, and Kobalt.
“I think you would rightfully call this blood money. These were payments made to Travis Clampton, and to Jace Wilkens. Pay for murders and raids they perpetrated on your neighbors. Those two dead killers can’t be punished any further for their crimes, but I know where they each hid the money they haven’t spent. I wish to share that with Carson and Kobalt, as compensation for their helping Kit and me fulfill our obligation to you folks. We do have to try to acquire this cash from two failsafe, and self-destruct equipped caches, but that’s our problem. I’d like your opinions about this.”
Startled at not only the revelation made, but for making a request for their opinion, Chastain looked confused. “Why would we have any claim on this money? Or want money paid for the killings of our friends or neighbors?”
“I didn’t think so, but I also don't believe it should be allowed to fall to those relatives or friends of the two dead men, who might believe they have some claim to this money, earned in such a foul manner. For us, this seem much like the spoils of war, where even now we travel in ships built by the Krall, and use the weapons we took from them. This is the first example where credits were involved. We would be uncomfortable in keeping it if you objected.”
A quick survey of those present, and it was unanimous. “Keep the money, assuming you can extract it safely.” They didn’t once ask how much it was, and Ethan, in deference to their pride, was unwilling to diminish the far smaller sum they had offered in hiring him and Kit. Now he had something of value to offer to them, which potentially could make that blood money sound a small poker pot.
“We have obtained details of the conspiracy by the CCA, principally its five richest members, of their plan to subvert your President Birmaldi’s land grant program, and of their authorization for violence to accomplish that plan. They are all complicit, and I can tell you where the evidence is located, some of it is in the form of recorded video sessions by a member, Egerton, who didn’t trust his fellow conspirators.
“You can learn who knew what, how much was paid, who authorized lynchings, raids, assassinations, and paid bri
bes to which corrupt local officials, or members of the planetary government. I’d think there would be grounds for lawsuits, for which you might even obtain Planetary Union oversight for prosecutions of individuals who have overcharged the PU for beef through price fixing, and blocked Chisholm imports of PU manufactured goods in order to maintain the control the wealthy here have over what you buy, and how much you pay.”
“My God. That’s more than what we’ve been hoping to find out. Is this legally obtained?”
“Well if it was done by a citizen of Chisholm, or the government, I think the answer would probably be no. But we are not citizens here, and we’ll be gone when this over, and beyond the reach of Chisholm law. I think your problem is that to get this information widely disseminated and into the public domain, it will be difficult or impossible for any of you try to do it. The bought officials, and owned media outlets will be against you. However, if it reaches enough people, and the video evidence is seen by those who are not on the take, and are not part of the minority that controls things, I think a wave of popular support will form from the majority of your average citizens.”
Chastain cocked his head. “Why do I think you are going to suggest how this can be accomplished?”
“Because I am. It may mean you lose some of the lawsuits you could file to recover losses you’ve suffered, but even if the knowledge and files becomes public, it doesn’t mean it isn’t true and usable in court. The main thing I think could happen is that the control of the handful of power brokers might be broken, and your president could get people elected to the planetary government that will support his agenda to improve things for the average citizen. We can’t give that to you, but we can make certain the most incriminating details, and the criminal acts they have perpetrated, are no longer hidden, and will be broadcast to the entire planet for anyone to check and verify for themselves.”
“How? You don’t own a Tri-Vid studio or a news network.”
Koban Universe 2: Have Genes, Will Travel Page 31
