by Stone, J.
He decided to first stop off at the shop where Erynn had been going to look for parts. There was no sign of any confrontation outside the building, so he walked inside. A man sat behind the counter reading a newspaper.
Approaching the man, Vincent asked, “You have a redheaded woman in here yesterday, old man?”
Shifting his eyes up over his glasses but not moving his head the man said, “We have a lot of people in here, mister.”
Vincent pulled out a coin from his pocket and slid it across the counter. “I suspect you’d remember this one. Young, pretty, red hair, green eyes, top hat with goggles on the brim.”
The man put down the paper and picked up the coin, placing it in his pocket. “That does sound familiar now that you mention it,” he said. “Yeah, she was in here. Bought a couple things and then left. Another woman stuck her up just outside though. Sounded like they were taking her over to the sheriff’s.”
“Damnit,” Vincent said. “These women are going to be the death of me.”
He left the store frustrated and angry that he had to continue cleaning up other people’s messes. Nevertheless, that cure, he thought, just might be worth the hassle.
When he arrived at the sheriff’s jailhouse, he scoped out the building before entering. He couldn’t see Erynn through any of the windows, but he didn’t have a clear line of sight to any of the jail cells either. Inside he saw a sheriff and at least two of his deputies.
He turned back towards the front of the building, when he spotted a group of the Cultwick Corps walking through the street. He hid behind a building, as he took a closer look at the soldiers. The operative he had seen outside her hotel room the night prior led them through the streets.
In the middle of the group, he could plainly see Erynn bound and covered in dried blood. He expected that they had likely been torturing her for some time. But why were they moving her? And where were they taking her? He decided to follow them to discern exactly that.
They were making their way toward the opposite side of town, which was where the hotel they were staying in was. Vincent wondered whether she had given up their location or their plan. Had she given him up as well?
The group walked right passed the hotel, however, and instead went inside the train station that was just a few buildings down. Vincent waited outside for a few minutes and then walked inside as well.
In the train station, he found the soldiers still guarding her closely after seating her on a bench. They looked to be waiting for a train to come. The only one on the schedule for today was the same one they had been planning to rob for the medical supplies.
Vincent went back to the paired hotel rooms and found Pearl sitting with her shotgun in a chair pointing toward the door. She aimed it up when he came in, but lowered it as soon as she realized it was just him.
“Did ya find Ryn?” she asked with a tremble in her voice.
“The Cultwick Corps has her down at the train station,” Vincent explained. “Looks like they’re planning to take her on the train with the meds. We can still get on board when it comes, but we’ll need help.”
“The rest of the resistance is either back in Chrome City or up in Pendulum Falls,” Pearl said. “How are we suppose’ta find anyone else on such short notice?”
“I might be able to get a mercenary interested,” Vincent replied. “There’s at least some operating out of Willow Switch. Sounds like one nabbed that Clover of yours. We’re short on time though, so you need to get all our stuff together and be ready by the time I get back. I’ll deal with the rest.”
“What about the things in the other room?” Pearl asked.
“When I come back, we’ll deal with that too,” he said, leaving the room brusquely.
The bounty hunter made his way over to the Broken Branch Saloon. It was a fairly high-end place, but odds were good that he could find someone worth a damn willing to take a big risk to make some money. Mercenaries and bounty hunters tended not to have much loyalty to the empire, but they certainly knew enough to be careful about messing with them.
Vincent lit the cigarette he had rolled the previous night, as he walked into the establishment. The barkeep was wiping up the counter, and he paid him no mind as the bounty hunter entered. The place was fairly empty except for a corner table full of men playing a game of dice.
Behind him, he heard a woman’s voice, “Vincent goddamn Rourke. I heard you died down in Gulch Hollow.”
Turning to face the woman, he said, “I suspect it was more than something you heard, Lucy.”
“Come now,” she began. “You’re not honestly suggesting that little ol’ me had something to do with that job going south, are you?”
“Someone spiked me with the plague. Don’t suppose you know anything about that?” he asked.
Lucy smiled at him and said, “You’re fucking paranoid, honey. Besides the way I heard it, you couldn’t even take in a simple cattle thief.”
Vincent took a long drag from his cigarette before continuing, “It seems someone tipped him off that I was coming and right after our little spat no less.”
“That just sounds like a bit of fucking bad luck right there, honey,” she responded.
“Mmhmm,” he said taking another drag. He sat down at a stool at the bar and waved a finger to the bartender, who soon came over to him.
“What can I get you, mister?” he asked.
“Whatever whiskey you got,” Vincent said throwing a couple coins on the bar. “Just bring the bottle.”
The bartender took the coins happily and grabbed a tall bottle from below the counter. “Here you are,” he said and went back to the other end of the bar.
Vincent pried the cork out of the bottle and took a considerable gulp from the whiskey. “Where are your goons?” he eventually asked Lucy.
“Kirk and Gaston?” she asked. “I suspect they’re off celebrating inside a whore or two somewhere. We just came into some money.”
Vincent took another drink from the bottle and said, “Well anyway, putting our bad blood behind us for the moment, I’ve got a job I need help with if you’re interested.”
“You sure you can trust me?” she asked coyly.
Ignoring her question, Vincent took another swig before continuing, “You’ve probably heard about the woman the empire’s been looking for, Erynn Clover. Seems she got herself up and caught.”
“I may have heard something about that,” Lucy said leaning an arm onto the tavern bar.
“Well, they got her down at the train station right now,” he continued. “My guess is that they’re going to put her on the train that’ll be coming through shortly.”
“What is she to you?” Lucy asked, tilting her head.
“Nothing like that, I assure you,” he said. “We’ve got a business deal going. We’d planned to hijack that train anyway, but since she’s been caught, we could use another person. I’ve got one woman waiting for me, but Clover was the third.”
“You’ve already moved on from the pet names and started calling her by her last name, huh?” she inquired smiling. “So you’re getting pretty familiar with this one.”
“You want in on the job or what?” he asked irritated.
“What’s on board that’s worth this risk?” she asked.
“Medical supplies mostly, but we took down the bank in Ash Cloud a week back. You can pretty much name your price,” he explained.
“Alright,” she said. “What’s the plan?”
“We’ve got the papers to get on board,” he began, “but that’ll limit us to the passenger car. I’ll need an extra gun hand to get through the security.”
“You need me, hmm?” Lucy asked placing her hand gently on his cheek. “That is so goddamn adorable.”
Pushing her hand away, Vincent asked, “Do you think you can handle that?”
“Of course I can fucking handle it,” she answered. “What are we waiting on?”
Vincent stood up from his seat at the bar and walked outside w
ith Lucy close behind him. Vincent took her back to the hotel room, where the corpsman was still posted outside Erryn’s room smoking. He eyed them warily, as they entered the adjoining room but let them pass unmolested.
Pearl stood up when they entered and asked, “This the mercenary ya were after?”
Vincent closed the door behind them, sighing and answered, “Lucy, this is Pearl. Pearl, this is Lucy... my wife.”
Pearl couldn’t help but let out a quick laugh. “Ya have a wife?” she asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Did anymore guards show up, while I was gone?”
“Just the one sittin’ out there now,” she explained.
“Lucy, I need you to go distract that corpsman out there,” he began. “I’ll sneak in from behind and take him out.”
“Mmm,” she said smiling. “I do so love when you order me around.”
Lucy walked out of the room, leaving Pearl staring at Vincent with a horrified expression.
“We’re separated...” he said.
Pearl raised her hands and looked away. “Didn’t say a thing,” she noted.
Frustrated, Vincent approached the door and carefully undid the lock and twisted the knob. He pushed the door open a crack and could hear Lucy chatting up the guard. Pushing it open a bit more, he looked around the room to ensure the guard outside was the only one still posted.
When he had ascertained that he was alone, Vincent walked into the adjoining room and snuck behind the guard. Just before he could grab the guard, however, Lucy pointed past the guard to him.
“Look out!” she screamed.
The guard turned to see Vincent about to attack him. He tried to pull his pistol, but Vincent punched the man in the face. The corpsman’s pistol slid away, as the two men continued to brawl. Lucy, meanwhile, picked up the gun, slid it between her hip and her belt, and watched the fight unfold.
The two exchanged blows, and Vincent eventually gained the upper hand. The bounty hunter knocked the corpsman to the ground and climbed on top of him. In a blind rage, he proceeded to pummel his opponent, until his fists were covered in both his blood and the guard’s. He didn’t stop until after Pearl came up behind him and pulled Vincent off the unconscious man. Afterward, he realized his temper would have allowed him to kill the man if not for the intervention.
“What the hell was that about?” he yelled at Lucy.
“I wanted to see if you still had some fucking fight left in ya,” she explained with a sneer. “Guess there’s at least a little.”
She walked casually into Erynn’s room, playfully dragging a finger along his shoulder, as she passed him. Scowling, Vincent dragged the corpsman inside the room and Pearl joined them, shutting the door behind him. They began packing up Erynn’s things, including the remaining pieces of Tern, the creations she had made for the train job, and whatever else she left behind.
“Get everything ready,” he said. “We’ve got to make it to the train before it departs without us.”
Chapter 25. Rowland the Hero
The sun had fallen several hours prior, as they made the journey from Pendulum Falls to the nearby farm run by Cultwick authorities. Germ, Hirim and his rebels, Samuel, and several other men that worked for the engineer joined Rowland in this expedition.
Chief among Samuel’s workers were Robinson Smearl, whose wife and three daughters had all been taken, and Seymour Rice, one of the men who they had made an example of when the empire had taken families. Seymour had publicly spoken out against helping rebuild the Cultwick-based skyship, so the corpsmen murdered his wife in front of the whole factory.
It was unclear to the professor how many people had been taken already, but what was made certain was where they were holding them. The farm produced soybeans that were broken down and used as biofuel for many of the empire’s machines.
The scouts had ascertained that the Cultwick Corps had put the families to work on the farm during the day. At night, they were kept in a series of barns on the property. Their goal for the evening was to find and free all the family members.
There had also been several disappearances of the factory workers themselves, but the corps had not claimed responsibility for that. Either there was more going on than the empire holding hostage the families or they truly weren’t responsible. Rowland was unsure which it was, but he was eager to learn more about the situation.
Corpsmen roamed the property at all hours of the day, so the night would only bring them so much aid. There were at least thirty guards on the property, though the expectation was that many would be asleep at this late hour, so they may have a certain element of surprise. Their scout had reported that the barns kept roughly fifteen individuals each, and that there were five barns total.
“Rowland,” Hirim whispered as they approached the rows of plants. “You take Germ, Robinson, and Seymour with you to that barn.” He pointed to the leftmost barn, visible beyond the growth. “Samuel, take a group to the far right barn. I’ll take the rest to deal with the patrols. We’ll all meet up in the center barn.”
The professor nodded to the rebel leader and took the others with him toward the barn. They ducked through the rows of soybeans, trying to give themselves some cover from the short plants.
Outside the barn walked a pair of corpsman, patrolling the perimeter. In addition, one guard was posted at a large, closed door leading into the barn. Rowland toggled the settings on his spectacles, zooming in through a window at the side of the structure. Inside he could see the outlines of what looked like makeshift beds lining the sides of the room.
“Seymour, Robinson,” the professor began. “You two handle the pair roaming. I’ll deal with the individual at the entryway.”
The two men nodded and waited for an opportunity to present itself in which they could approach the corpsmen from behind. When they made their move, so too would Rowland. Germ waited in the crops for them to clear a path to the barn.
Robinson had a shotgun pointed toward the back of the guards, while Samuel was wielding a revolver. The professor carefully crept toward the barn door, as he watched their progress. They fired their blasts at the guards when the pair turned a corner, and Rowland fired an invisible, concussive blast of wind that knocked his guard into and through the barn door.
The man landed inside the structure and rolled backwards before stopping motionlessly in the middle of the room. No other guards appeared to be posted inside the barn, so Rowland gestured for Germ to join him. Outside, the gun blasts had alerted the other corps guards, and a bleating siren was permeating the farm.
Hanging from the guard’s belt was a key ring that the professor grabbed. Rowland and Germ went from bed to bed, unlocking restraints and getting people up and moving them toward the exit. Germ led the families back through the farm away from the barns and the other corpsmen guards.
From there Rowland moved on to the next barn, accompanied by Seymour and Robinson. Outside of the structure were five corpsmen huddled closely together.
“Ooh!” the professor exclaimed. “Want to see something fun?”
Seymour and Robinson exchanged nonplussed glances and shrugged their shoulders. Rowland rolled his fingers back and forth in his gauntlet hand, as electricity bounced back and forth from his fingertips. The sudden light, caused the corpsmen to spot the trio, and they prepared to fire.
Rowland, however, pointed his hand at the group of soldiers, as a bolt of electricity erupted from his palm and hit the first guard. The beam then bounced from him to the other four corpsmen. Smoke billowed up from the guards, standing motionlessly in front of the barn. After a few moments, each of the guards fell limply to the ground.
“You’re a pretty scary guy, doc,” Seymour commented, as they approached the barn.
Robinson knelt down to pick up the keys from one of the guards, but he recoiled at the touch of metal.
“Be careful,” Rowland said. “Those are probably hot.”
“Thanks for the warning,” the rebel replied.
The three men released the next batch of imprisoned families, as Germ returned to them. The rat also led this next group away from the farm and toward Pendulum Falls.
Rowland, Seymour, and Robinson meanwhile targeted the middle barn. They approached the door, not seeing Samuel or anyone from his group yet. Robinson opened the door, and he was immediately knocked backward by a shotgun blast. Rowland and Seymour both ducked to either side of the door to escape the ongoing fire.
Seymour yelled out to Rowland when the gunfire stopped, “That was Burrows, the bastard in charge of all this.”
Rowland looked down at the ground to see Robinson’s body still twitching despite the deadness in his eyes. He found it difficult to look away, as the blood gushed from the man’s wounds, spilling out to the dirt and grass below.
Seymour peeked his head around the corner, but quickly pulled it back as another cacophony of gunfire was released. “He’s got Eva,” he explained. “And there’s three other guards in there with him.”
Rowland continued to stare at the body, his mind displaced from his current situation.
“You still with me, doc?” Seymour asked.
“Hmm?” he responded looking across the doorway to the rebel. “Apologies. I was just thinking of a kind of rock candy I ate when I was a boy. Where are Hirim and Samuel?”
Seymour leaned around the other side of the structure slowly to see a couple of rebels leading off the group of families from the right barn. Heading toward him were Hirim and Samuel. Both men looked to Robinson’s body lying misshapen on the ground.
“What happened to Robinson?” Samuel asked.
“It was Ian. And he’s got Eva inside, Sam,” Seymour said, as they approached.
Samuel switched places with Seymour to get a look for himself. Another barrage of bullets came, and he ducked back to the safety of the wall.
