“Yes, sir,” a particularly rough-looking man at the far end of the line spoke up. “Some of the men who were part of the group that…” He hesitated. “That captured and tortured some of your slaves before… before the big fight, they told us about it.”
I walked over to stand in front of him. “So what does it mean?”
“It means we’re slaves for the town. Means we serve our time and, eventually, we get the chance to work our way out of it.”
“It means you would get a chance to live!” I hissed. “So what makes you think I should let you live?”
They looked at one another wildly. It had apparently never occurred to them that we might not allow them to become slaves. “But we brought you-” He stopped as he realized what he had brought us.
“You brought me another friend I had to watch die.”
I remembered an argument with Ken. He had wanted to kill a man, the last surviving member of the group who had killed his neighbors. I’d won that argument, and Billy had lived. And he’d gone on to become a fine person, even a friend. But now I knew firsthand what Ken had felt that day, the deep desire to punish someone, and the frustration of knowing it was not to be.
“All right,” I told them. “Assuming you don’t give us any trouble, and that you survive this trip, you’ll get your damned tattoos.”
I turned back to Sarah. “Tie them and put them in the back of a truck. If they so much as blink wrong, kill them where they stand.”
“Yes, Sensei.”
“There. In the brush to the right, just before the road curves. About twenty feet from the edge of the road.”
I searched closely where Rene indicated and saw nothing. “You sure you saw something?”
“Si. Keep watching.”
I had just about decided that the tension had finally gotten to her when the branches of the juniper swayed, and I finally discerned the camouflaged figure behind it. Once I saw what to watch for, I found several others in the area. “I see them. Looks like about a half dozen or so.”
“More on the other side,” Billy whispered from his perch on the limb above us.
I shifted the binoculars across the road. Sure enough, another group waited there. “Damn.” I sat down with my back against the pine I hid behind and rubbed my eyes. I was so tired I couldn’t see straight. I was tired of driving, tired of sneaking through the woods, but mostly I was tired of the fighting. And just down the road, it looked like Larry’s boys were settling in for one hell of a fight.
Time to review options. “Any ideas?”
Rene thought for a second, then shook her head. “Sorry, Jefe, I got nada.”
I sighed. “Go get Sarah and Megan,” I told her. “Tell them what we’ve got here, and I want all three of you to start thinking of some way around this situation. I want some ideas by the time you get them back here.” She slipped off through the woods to get the others. Damn it, Ken, why’d you have to go and get shot?
“Billy?”
“Yes, Sensei?”
“Think you can get around those jokers and see what else is down there?”
The young man nodded. “Easier done than said.”
“All right. Be back in an hour.”
“Yes, sir.” Billy started to slip away.
“Hey!”
“Yes, sir?”
“Make sure you don’t get your ass shot off.”
He grinned nervously. “That’s my number one priority.”
It was a long hour.
Chapter 21
December 2
A L’ennemy, l’ennemy foy promise
Ne se tiendra, les captifs retenus:
Prins preme mort, amp; le reste en chemise.
Damne le reste pour estre soustenus.
To the enemy, the enemy faith promised
Will not be kept, the captives retained:
One near death captured, and the remainder in their shirts,
The remainder damned for being supported.
Nostradamus — Century 10, Quatrain 1
I jolted awake to the sound of soft scurrying from the trees behind me. “Sensei?”
I lowered my pistol. “Here,” I whispered back to Rene.
A few seconds later, she slipped up beside me, accompanied by Sarah and Megan. Sarah’s head swiveled around curiously. “Where’s Billy?”
“Scouting.”
I noticed her worried demeanor. Something going on there?
She saw me looking at her and immediately lost the expression. “Just curious,” she muttered.
I smiled. “He’ll be back any minute now.”
“Whatever.”
I’ll be damned.
Before I could comment, Billy stepped out from the trees behind us. “Any minute is right.”
I glanced at Sarah and saw definite signs of relief in her face as he sat beside us.
“What’d you find out?” I asked.
“Looks like this is it.”
My heart began to beat faster. “What do you mean?”
Billy cleared the pine needles away and grabbed a stick to draw with in the dirt. “Road curves around to the right up here and, about half a mile further up, they got a little camp set up. Looks like their last Humvee gave up the ghost. They got the hood up, and they’re goin’ apeshit tryin’ to do something to it.”
“Larry’s there?”
Billy nodded. “Down there screamin’ at ‘em to get the thing runnin’ before he shoots them all. The way they’re jumpin’, seems like they believe him, too.”
I was afraid to ask, but I had to know for sure. “What about Zachary?”
“He’s there. The big Chinese dude has him.”
Megan asked what I should have. “How many of them did you see?”
“Just up ahead, there’s about twenty of ‘em waiting to ambush us when we hit the turn in the road. They have one of the Humvees just ahead of that. It’s blocking the road, with two flat tires and a fifty-caliber aimed right where we would come around the bend.
“About half a mile past there, there’s an old highway rest area. That’s where Larry’s having his screamin’ fit. He’s got another dozen or so with him. Including Zach. All together, I’d say they have about thirty to thirty-five people.”
I clapped Billy on the shoulder. “I’d say you’re right then. Looks like this is it.”
Sarah grinned. “Half a mile away. We can finish it.”
Megan tempered Sarah’s enthusiasm with a bitter comment. “About damned time.”
“Yeah.” I turned back to Rene. “How many people you think you’ll need to ambush the ambush?”
“Why fight them at all? We can just go around them and hit Larry.”
I shook my head. “If we do that, we’re likely to end up with Larry in front of us, and the ambush jumping in behind us. Our best bet is to use our numbers to hit them on both fronts at the same time. Keep both groups busy and overwhelm them.”
She thought it over. “All right. Gimme fifty people, and Sarah to take half of them.”
Sarah nodded her confirmation. “No problem, we’ll hit ‘em from everywhere but where they expect us. Should be over before it starts.”
“All right,” I agreed. “We head back to camp. You ladies pick your squads. Take anybody you need. Billy, you’ll lead the rest of us to where you found Larry. We leave in an hour.”
“Uh, Sensei?”
I realized then that Billy had been conspicuously quiet while the rest of us practically gushed. I could see from his bearing that it wasn’t going to be good news. I sighed. “What is it, Billy?”
“Well, I think Larry and his group are going to be a little harder to take than you think.”
“Why?”
“Well, while three or four of them are working like crazy on the Humvee, he’s got the rest of them setting up some pretty good defenses around the restroom in the park. It’s all concrete, and they’re using the picnic tables and benches as barricades all around it. It’s like a freaking f
ortress.”
The walk back to camp was tense as Billy filled in the details. The old rest area was equipped with concrete picnic tables that Larry’s remaining troops had dismantled, building a barricade around the public restroom. Reinforced with mounds of dirt, they made excellent small bunkers, which they festooned with hundreds of sharpened stakes. The topper was the fifty-caliber machine gun on the roof.
“But I think I might have an idea on how to get them out,” Billy finished. He told us what he had seen on the way back, and Sarah covered her mouth. I couldn’t tell if she was going to laugh or gag.
“Geez, Billy,” Megan said.
“What? I really think I can pull it off.”
“Yeah but, the whole idea, it just…”
“What?”
“It stinks!”
Billy grinned with the rest of us. “I’ll need some people to help me.”
I slapped him on the back. “Take whoever you need. I think Ben Summers is probably one of the best bow hunters we have with us. And you’ll need Mark Roesch, of course.”
With a brief glance at Sarah, Billy trotted ahead to find Ben and Mark.
It took nearly an hour before we were all ready. During that time, I saw Billy leave with his group to get things ready. It took the rest of us another two hours to slip around the ambush and get into position in front of the entrance to Larry’s makeshift fortress.
Then we waited for something to happen.
When Billy caught up to us, his arrival was hard to miss. People involuntarily gasped as he slipped past them. And when he settled down next to me, my eyes began to burn.
“Holy crap, Billy!” I took care to breathe through my mouth. “How can you stand that?”
He grimaced. “You think this is bad, just be thankful Ben and the others stayed back. They’re the ones that did the dirty work.” He pointed back toward the woods,and I saw Ben, Mark, and the other men readying the giant slingshot. “Oh, by the way, we got four, and Ben says you owe him big for this one.”
“No doubt of that. So you’re all ready?”
“Yes, sir. We took a little time to do some practice shots. Never shot anything this light before. Mark says that the best way is going to be-”
I put my hand up to stop him. “Does he think he can make the shot?”
“No problem.”
“That’s all I need to know.”
Billy looked up and down the line. “So now what?”
“Send a runner to Sarah. Tell her we’re ready as soon as she is.”
“Already done. I figure it’ll take about half an hour for them to start. All we need to do is wait.”
“Good. Then, pass the word. No one starts shooting until I do. We want as many of them outside as possible. First objective is to take out the men on that fifty cal. No one is to fire anywhere near my son.”
He nodded. “Got it. Anything else?”
“Yeah, don’t get dead,” Megan told him. “Sarah would be royally pissed off.”
He grinned shyly and slipped off to pass on my orders, while Megan and I waited the last few minutes before Sarah and Rene started their attack.
I unslung my rifle and checked my ammunition. Twenty-seven rounds. I checked to make sure my machetes and knives were ready for use and tried not to worry too much about the next few minutes. Beside me, Megan strung her crossbow and stuck two rows of the handmade thin-iron bolts into the ground within easy reach.
The next few minutes would determine my son’s fate. If I screwed it up, he could die. It was a hell of a thought. So don’t screw it up.
I closed my eyes at that thought and tried to calm my nerves, waiting for my cue. The wait was a short one. One minute, all was calm, the next, the sound of distant gunfire and shouting punctuated the evening.
“It’s started.” Megan stated the obvious and dropped a bolt into her crossbow.
I held up my fist and signaled up and down the line, making sure everyone knew they were not to open fire. Everyone held firm, and I turned my attention to the enemy ahead.
They were scurrying about, ducking behind their barricades, trying to decide whether or not they were in any immediate danger. We held still. It was an eternity later when I saw Larry come out with Han dragging Zachary by the arm.
“Oh, my God.” Megan’s words echoed my thoughts. “What the hell have they done to him?”
My heart clenched at the sight of my bedraggled son. He wore a shirt several sizes too large, dirty and torn in several places, and his body slumped with a haunted countenance, as if he had seen too much of the worst of the world to ever hope again.
“He’s been through a lot in the last few days,” I said. I sent him a mental message, Don’t give up just yet, son. We’re here. We’re coming for you.
Larry listened to the sound of the battle for a moment, and my heart leapt into my throat as he turned and studied the trees where we hid. I froze, convinced he could see us, that he could see me. I was so convinced that I nearly gave the order to attack. Then, he turned to Han, and they had a quick discussion. The distance was too great for me to tell what was said, but it became obvious when Han tapped half their men on the shoulders and started to lead them away.
“They’re gonna try to help their ambush team,” Megan whispered.
We had known that was a possibility, and we couldn’t let it happen. Sarah and Rene didn’t have enough people to withstand an attack from the rear.
I turned and looked back at Mark. He was a hundred yards back and already watching me, waiting for my go ahead. I pumped my fist at him, and he signaled his men.
Seven men popped up wielding Mark’s giant slingshot. The pullers backed up to their preset distance where Mark waited with his bloody ammunition.
He loaded four skunk scent glands into the pouch loader, adjusted the aim a little to one side, and splattered the fetid payload against the inside wall of the restroom. Larry wasn’t stupid, and I assumed he would know that the sudden, overwhelmingly foul odor was bound to be a ruse to keep him out of the protection of the building. I just hoped the stench would be so strong that he would have no choice but to stay out, in spite of that knowledge.
Immediately, confused and angry shouts were heard as the men scrambled away from the stench. A second later, two more men staggered out of the concrete restroom. Coughing and retching, they kept their backs to the concrete wall.
Han and his men stopped their departure and dropped behind the shelter of the barricades. Larry held Zachary as a shield in front of him as he edged around to the other side of the building.
Our plan appeared to be working, mostly. Larry and the others scrambled along the wall putting as much distance between themselves and the reeking stench of concentrated skunk scent as possible. Zachary cried openly as Larry put a pistol to his head.
Troutman screamed to the trees, “Leeland! I’ll kill him!”
It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I tore my eyes away from my son’s plight and took aim at the men manning the fifty-caliber on top of the building. My shot was the first of many as ten others down the line made short work of the poor wretches. Three seconds after I fired that first shot, the two men were lying slumped across the concrete benches they had dragged up for protection. We had finished our first volley.
As soon as the shooting started, Larry had scrambled madly for cover behind a picnic table lying on its side.
“Larry!” I shouted. “You’ve got fifty men around you!” Megan raised her eyebrows.
“How’s he going to know any different?” I whispered.
“And I’ve got your son!” he shouted back.
“Let him go, and you get to walk away. But if you hurt him the slightest bit, I’ll kill you so slowly, you’ll beg me to let you die.”
Larry was silent. It took me only a minute to realize that everything was silent. The sounds of the battle at the ambush were gone.
“You hear that, Larry? Your ambush is finished. Your men are either dead or captured.”
“What makes you think it isn’t the other way around?”
“Think about it. We obviously knew they were there, or there never would have been a fight. And if we knew they were there, why would we split up our group unless we had the numbers to be sure of success? We sent eighty men against your little group,” I lied. “Do you really think your people had a chance?”
He laughed, and the timbre of his voice frightened me. He sounded as if he was completely desperate and trying to conceal it. I knew that now was when he’d be most dangerous.
“You don’t exactly give me much reason to keep the boy alive, Leeland.”
“How about a compromise?”
There was no response for a moment, and I peeked around the tree to see if he was still there. “Since we seem to be at an impasse,” he responded, “I’m curious as to what you have in mind.”
“I suggest we simplify things. Take out all the variables.”
He was silent again, probably trying to figure out where I was going with that. Suddenly, he laughed. “Leeland? Are you suggesting a shootout? I do believe the sun has baked what little gray matter you have left. Why in the world would I want to enter the dueling floor with you? What possible gain is there for me?”
“No shootout, Larry. No guns.” This was where it would get dicey. I had to appeal to his vanity enough to get him to overcome his caution. “You once told me that you were a pretty good martial artist. Let’s see how good. Just you and me. You win, and we let you go. No more pursuit, no more running battles.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think your people are going to simply pack up and go home if I kill you.”
“Think it through, Larry. We’re not talking about an after-school brawl, here. This is it. It ends here. The way I see it, there are a limited number of possible outcomes to this fight. I kill you, or you kill me. If I win, we take my son and leave. At that point, I don’t think you’ll have any further say in the matter.” Larry’s only acknowledgment was a grunt.
“On the other hand,” I continued, “if you win, you won’t have any further use for him. You turn him loose, and my people will let you go.”
Half Past Midnight Page 35
