by Bella Knight
She rode out right after dinner, after helping the kids gear up. Rhodes and Chance had worked together to make the full Valkyrie fighting regalia. They included elbow and knee pads, vambraces for the wrists, and leather padding from the shoulders to the knees. Rhodes and Chance had wooden knives with a rubber coating, and they had designed and created their own shields of wood, coated with metal, the standard, round, Valkyrie shield. They also fought with staffs. They faced off in the backyard just outside the glassed-in workshop, and Herja helped them stand, center, and begin.
Freya felt a combination of a fierce joy and an equal sorrow at leaving her family behind. But, the girls needed new moves and new warrior knowledge, and a fierce aunt had a better chance of getting the knowledge into her girls’ hard heads.
She took the warm desert night into her mouth, and let out her breath. She put on her helmet, zipped up her summer-weight jacket, and hit the US 95. She flowed with the curves, reveled in the wide open spaces. The bike she’d torn down and rebuilt by hand flowed well. It could go off-road, so it was perfect for desert life. She smelled dust, creosote, and oil. She felt herself lean, curve, and then straighten out. She exulted in the road, and listened to AC/DC, perfect for hugging the road, and those straight shots.
She stopped off for an egg, cheese, and bacon sandwich, and orange juice at a diner. She ate at the counter. She got back on the road, and felt herself rush toward Reno.
Freya found the blue-roofed inn just outside of Reno with the attached coffee shop. The woman inside hid her hook within a light jacket. She caressed her coffee cup with her other hand, a metal carafe nearby. Her hair was still cut, military-short, a whiskey color that matched her eyes. She wore a battered, light brown, leather jacket.
Freya walked in and sat down. “Captain Reyes,” she said. “I am Freya.”
The captain nodded. “Freya.”
“We have two choices,” said Freya. “First, we can go to Pahrump now. My children want you to stay with me, and learn from me and from Herja. There are other female Soldier Pack there, Colonel Hicks and Major Thanos, and Private Ruiz too. Most of them are partway through; they all arrived at the same time. I’m assuming you will want to move into a shared house with them; they tend to rent houses and share rooms, or apartments. Or, they spin out; we think Hicks will end up out by Death Valley. She loves the heat. That means in a three-bedroom house or apartment, that you will get your own bedroom.”
“So, not Vegas?” Captain Reyes had a whiskey voice to go with the hair. Freya was surprised to find a hint of green in those eyes, giving them a khaki color. Reyes sounded as if they were talking about the weather.
“That’s still on the table, if you so desire,” said Freya. The server came over, but Freya kept her away with the tips of her fingers. “We have to give the bike to Henry in Vegas anyway, and Bonnie is there. Bonnie trained Herja, and I learned from her.”
“So no difference, one way or the other,” said Reyes. She took another sip of her coffee.
“Not really, except that you have multiple choices after your training as well. You can go up here to Reno, and Elko and Winnemuca in the north. Or, go west into St. George in Arizona, or farther north if you like snow, like to Boise, or you can hit up the seaboard if you want to get rained on, from Bend, Oregon on and over. We suggest small towns. You tend to make friends, and not have much competition with people rebuilding bikes. You can ship them all over, or ask and pay Valkyries, Nighthawks, Iron Knights, other Soldier Pack, or occasionally we use Gearheads to get a bike you’ve refurbished to where it needs to go.” Freya grinned. “Probably none of this is on your mind yet. So, the current choice is; to stay here and sleep in the inn, or head to Vegas now. It’ll take most of the night. Or, we can wait until the morning, and take about an hour longer and go through some natural forests on the US 395. Very pretty. Your choice, I love all the roads.”
“We both can stay awake,” said Reyes.
“We can,” said Freya. “I’m a warrior. I was never in the military. But, we don’t have to.” She grinned. “This bike will pay for a hotel room for the night.”
“Seems a waste,” said Reyes. “The open road and a warm night.”
Freya gestured to the waitress. “I’ll have some of her coffee,” she said. She poured some, and doctored it a little with a touch of cream, and a touch of sugar. “So, Vegas or Pahrump?”
Reyes shrugged. “Let’s figure it out later.”
“Good,” said Freya. “You want food?” Reyes shrugged.
Freya saw the hollows of her eyes, her cheeks. Before training, Freya guessed that Reyes was lush and curvy. Now, she was all hard edges. Some of that was from the nightmares. This woman didn’t want to sleep. But, all those hard angles needed fuel.
“You on macros, or any diet plan?” she asked Reyes.
Reyes snorted. “Nope, burn it up. Jogging.” She grimaced, and moved her blade infinitesimally.
“The Soldier Pack in Vegas does kickboxing. And, yes, with blades, before you ask.” Freya called over the server, and ordered one egg, bacon, and a biscuit. “You like breakfast sandwiches?” she asked. Reyes gave a tiny nod. “Same thing for my peep here.” Reyes gave a tiny smile. She ordered orange juice for them both. She reached into her pocket and brought out her cell phone. “Here are the kids.” She showed off Chance and Rhodes. “They’re learning Latin and loving Mediterranean food.”
“Cute kids,” said Reyes. It was a placeholder, what she was supposed to stay.
“Here is the pod they sleep in. They want to build one for you.” She showed the inside of the pod. “Standard, twin bed size. Like what you would find in the military. With a shelf at the head with a light, and a fold-down desk. Just push it up, and it locks back above you.” She showed a picture of it up, and one down. “Another desk at your feet. One side is stairs with storage underneath, or a ladder if you so desire, and the other side is a dresser. Directly underneath can be a couch, bed, or whatever. The girls have red for Rhodes and bronze for Chance. I’ve seen them in almost any color. I’d suggest gold for you, if you want one.” She grinned. “Or black.”
“Gold,” said Reyes, with a twitch of a smile. Freya sent Rhodes and Callie a text. It would be there in the morning.
They ate quietly. Freya paid the bill, and they used the restroom and headed out. “You know how to lean?” asked Freya, while Reyes split up the contents of her duffel in between the saddlebags, then slid it all in.
“I do,” said Reyes.
“Do you go by your first name, call sign, or just Reyes?” asked Freya.
“First name Christine,” said Reyes. “Prefer my call sign, Cobra. Was a tank gunner.”
“Okay, Cobra,” said Freya. “Let’s do this.” Reyes accepted the second helmet, put it on, got on the back, and held onto Freya with ropy arms. Freya let the Harley give out a throaty roar. They slid out onto the road, and were soon one with the desert night.
Shiva
Henry saw the bleary-eyed women, and cursed a little under his breath. He got why the ex-soldier didn’t want to sleep. Nightmares tended to ensue. Freya didn’t need to go on with no sleep.
“Freya,” he said. “Go bunk in the training office.”
“Yes,” she said. She handed Henry the key to the bike, nodded at Cobra, and ran up the stairs.
“You,” said Henry. “You can go without sleep, but Freya cannot.”
Cobra nodded. “I… should have chosen differently.”
“Yes,” said Henry. “Your nightmares aren’t another rider’s problem.” He looked her up and down. “Did you eat?”
“Just outside town,” she said.
“Good,” said Henry. “I’m Henry. You are?”
“Cobra,” she said.
“Cobra, take these helmets and the saddlebags, and go up to the office on the third floor, second door on the left. Take the elevator. Sleep on the couch for at least four hours. If you do have a nightmare, just wake up, touch the floor or the wall, and try to go back to sleep.”
“Go,” said Henry. She took the helmets, slung the saddlebags over her shoulder, and headed in. He sighed.
His phone vibrated. Cobra’s going home with me, said Freya.
Good, he texted back. She’s sleeping in the office.
He put the bike away in the off-road bike garage. He then walked over to Bonnie. “That one’s going back to Pahrump. Call the next one on the list.”
“Already ordered,” said Bonnie. “She’s coming from Alabama, be here in a few days.”
Henry grinned. “How did you know that Freya would keep her?”
Bonnie snorted. “Bob told me he met Freya at an accident site by the side of the road. She had stopped to help. She offered to pick the woman up in Reno, and Herja’s ladies are partway through. Room in the garage, not sleeping spaces. I knew she had a couch.” She shrugged. “I guessed.”
“Excellent guess,” he said. He hugged her, making her snort. He headed back across the street to the Nighthawks’ clubhouse.
Tito and Nico were there, eating breakfast sandwiches and gesturing. “What are you two doing here?” asked Henry. “I know you have two separate offices…”
“On two different parts of town, and this is halfway between,” said Tito. “Besides, we needed to stare at each other. We’ve been running around like chickens for two months.”
“Two and a half,” said Nico. “Been rehabbing houses and apartment buildings like it’s going out of style. Invested, rehabbed, sold, just like clockwork. Hired a dozen new people from all across the spectrum, even got us a green engineer. She’s getting solar into all of our new places, got one geothermal.”
“And our cabinetmaker is making closets under stairs, or storage,” said Tito.
“And our safety engineer makes sure everything is safe, both for us and our clients,” said Nico.
“And everything’s up to code, have all the permits at least a week in advance in case we get a hole and can get someone in to begin demo,” said Tito.
Henry watched them talk, his head moving back and forth as if he were watching a tennis match. He scooted back his chair to see both of them more clearly.
Wayfarer, the huge man with the tiny hands, gave Henry coffee, straight black. “Thank you,” he said. He grinned. “So, you forgot what each other looks like.”
“We did,” said Tito. “And my kids and his don’t hang out together most of the time. Our wives actually see each other more than we do, and we work together.”
“Together, but separate,” said Nico.
“Please feel free to use the Nighthawks’ clubhouse whenever you want to see each other,” said Henry. “Do you have any Nighthawks business? Or Soldier Pack? Is there a home or apartment house we can purchase?”
“With what?” asked Nico. “You’ll be at it for years to pay back what you borrowed to buy the land and build the buildings next door, and create that motorcycle track of yours.”
“I’m busy, too,” said Henry. “I’m thirty percent over expectations, every month, at my school. Bonnie is churning out bikes with the Soldier Pack and selling them; the Pack pays their rent just fine, as well as eating well, buying clothes, and the like. We’ve got a new woman coming in, about three days out. One dropped off a bike that’s going back to Pahrump. Bonnie raised her own rent, because she has a brand-new place, and now I’m forty percent over expectations, every damn month.”
“I stand corrected,” said Nico. “Is that even with paying Gregory to do the Evade classes?”
“Yes,” said Henry. “That’s the key draw, or one of them. The other is Bonnie and her lectures on the brand-new Harleys. They let her tour their factory and she talked their ears off. Got names and numbers. She has people coming to her who wrecked their new ones, and she does work on them, while under warranty.”
“Whoa,” said Nico.
“Righteous,” said Tito. He bumped fists with Henry. “Okay. Well, I have an actual job.”
“And so do I,” said Nico. “And no, on the new structures. We have to rehab and sell a bunch of the other stuff to pay for another house. We’re about six weeks out from rehabbing another one. Hard to get a useful one at auction. Gotta send someone down to waste their time, do research. But, yeah, gonna do it,” he said. “I’m out,” he said, and then he stood, and went to throw the detritus of his meal into the trash can. Tito did the same. Henry hugged them both, and they left.
Henry put in an hour, keeping track of the school and the funds. He paid Gregory, and went to walk the track and check on the classroom. He sent out the electronic booklets to the next class, and taught the kids at the Nighthawks school Paiute and how to make dream catchers, the circles of wood woven with yarn, and beads and feathers, purported to catch bad dreams.
Henry met Alo for a late lunch at a barbecue joint; the young man came up with reusable bags and barrels of his horse and rabbit feeds, sold in local feed stores. Alo had purchased two more hydroponic beds himself, for the beets he used in the horse feed.
“I’ve nearly got my degree,” said Alo. “I’ve been going year-round. I’ve got so many credits for the stuff I’m doing that it’s just silly. I co-wrote the hydroponics eBook with Nantan and April, and April and I both got credit for that, too.” He stared at Henry. “They asked me to teach a class. An actual class. And I don’t have a degree yet! But, I know every bit of that equipment; even know how to fix it. No one at the university works with hydroponics like we do. Plus, we have it hooked up to solar, and that makes the green people wriggle like happy dogs.”
Henry laughed at the visual. “Teaching a class is making a presentation, cutting down your dialogue to only one to three points per slide, adding free pictures, and practicing. You should only talk for twenty minutes, and have something for the students to do, or talk about.”
“Like constructing miniature hydroponics systems?” asked Alo. “I can made 3D renderings in Sigrun’s lab. Kind of easy, actually. I need to buy my own 3D printer. Some kid’s not gonna be missing a hand because I was making my models. Then, I can do my models, and let them use the machine as long as they use their own supplies.” He grinned. “I can put in some time modeling, setting up, or packing the arms —we’re not fully understanding how to do blade legs yet, but Sigrun’s people are working on it. Anyway, I can get it done.”
“Your thought processes improve every day,” said Henry. Alo ducked his head and grinned. “What will you do when you have the official degree?”
Alo rocked back and forth, his way of entering into very deep thought. “I think I will want to work with Nantan and Chayton. Perhaps I can help the Montana Wolfpack set up and run their beds. I can also help them run my business up there, give me a little cut. Kind of like licensing.”
Henry grinned. “I have never regretted creating the Wolfpack. But now, just now, was one of my brightest moments.” Alo ducked his head and grinned again.
Henry said goodbye to Alo. In the parking lot he laid a kind hand on the young man’s shoulder. “You walk a good path,” he said.
“Thank you, Grandfather,” said Alo. Then, they went on with their day.
Henry worked on his website. He was getting close to needing an admin to do all of this for him. He could ask Wraith, but the woman worked what seemed like a million hours a day. He texted Tito. Where do I get an admin?
Contact Tanvi, was the reply. Tanvi was the admin for Tito and Gregory’s company.
Henry did as he was told. A gorgeous voice came over the phone. Henry explained his business. “I need someone, very part-time, who loves Harleys.”
She laughed. “You should ask the Valkyries.” She thought a moment. “My workmate Eir does not have the time. But, she will know someone.” She laughed again, and then gave a little gasp. “Wait, I know someone. She calls herself Shiva. She delivers Harleys to customers, and flies back, mostly around California. She says she wants new digs, that California is ‘expensive as hell.’ She may locate your way. If she does, she’ll wan
t to be near water.”
Henry thought furiously. “I know I can find a place near Boulder City for her, but that’s pricey. There’s also Lake Las Vegas. Can get something cheaper there, but kind of cookie-cutter. A woman on the road may not care.” He grinned. “And we have Valkyries. Lots and lots of Valkyries.”
“I’ll contact her, and I’ll be in touch,” said Tanvi. “Have an excellent day.” She hung up.
Henry taught the same dream catcher lesson, and a far more advanced Paiute lesson, for the swing shift kids. He left them learning Mandarin, and realized he’d missed dinner. He stopped off at a waffle house, and loaded up on pecan waffles, bacon, butter, and syrup, with a glass of orange juice to wash it all down.
Henry knew Shiva when he saw her. She was dressed head to foot in black leather, vented for summer. Her skin was a deep brown, almost coppery. Her eyes were a huge and liquid black. Her hair was braided on one side, with tiny onyx and crimson beads woven in. Her wraparound shades were on her head. She walked like a lion, absolutely sure of herself.
“This isn’t an interview,” she said, plopping down beside him. “I spoke to Sigrun. She says this can help. I’ll still be on the road most of the time, but I’ll be there on class days, from breakfast to dinner. I’ll be useful to deliver bikes as well. The Los Angeles-Vegas route is a good one, but I think Lake Las Vegas can work. Boulder City works too, really don’t care. Found a place, with a pool, rent to own. Going to look at it after I eat.”
He wordlessly handed her a menu. She ordered a chicken sandwich and fries, with honey mustard and a Coke. “How did you find me?”
She grinned. “You’re one of the people under our protection. You need us, we’re physically there,” she said. The server brought over her Coke, and she drank deeply.
“An app on my phone, or my bike?” asked Henry. He sipped his orange juice.
“Both,” said Shiva. “But I didn’t get it until Sigrun gave it to me.”
“So,” said Henry, “what do you want to do with the business?”
“I want to add a day. Pay your debt off as fast as possible. But, in order to do that, I need to take the class from Gregory. Then, I can teach the class.” She sipped more Coke.
