by Mel Odom
“Of course not.” Riley smiled flawlessly. However, his eyes never lost their bleak hardness. “But for future reference, Dr. Trammell suffers from a mental disorder. A near breakdown. Some days she’s a walking basket case. Paranoid. You saw what she was like last night.”
“Frightened?”
“Don’t play with him too much, Red. Riley’s not the kind of guy to take much without snapping.”
Hella knew that but she couldn’t just stand there and take his condescending attitude without striking back in some way. She considered her behavior on its best terms since she wasn’t calling him a liar to his face.
“When she went out into the woods, Trammell was out of her mind.”
“I wouldn’t know. I didn’t know she was out there till I heard her scream. I’d say she was out of her mind then. Anyone would be under the circumstances.”
Riley tried the smile again. “That’s funny. Parker said Trammell didn’t scream till after you fired on the creature that had her.”
“Things happened pretty quickly last night. Parker’s wrong.”
“He’s not a guy usually wrong about things.”
“He is about this. Are we done here?”
Riley stepped back and nodded. “Sure. Just wanted to give you a little friendly advice.”
“Don’t believe everything Dr. Trammell says. Got it.” Hella retraced her steps and walked back into the camp.
Stampede growled in her ear. “They’re getting all spun up about last night, Red.”
“You think?”
“Hey, no need to be mad at me.”
“Then you should have let me hit him.”
“Maybe. We’ll see. You may still get your shot.”
As usual, Hella rode point on Daisy, but she was aware of the wingmen Riley had assigned to her. Both guards, one man and one woman, moved awkwardly through the forest. She was certain both of them thought they were being stealthy, but the forest animals cleared out ahead of the hardshelled invaders. Anyone looking for signs of intruders would have spotted them easily.
Klein Pardot hadn’t gotten the expedition up and moving till after lunch. By then, they’d wasted half the day and all the cool of the morning. With the rain gone for the moment, the Redblight turned into a sauna filled with the sound of running water as the land tried to drain the excess precipitation.
While she rode, Hella’s thoughts turned often to Dr. Trammell. She couldn’t help picturing the woman with her little girl, both of them tucked away in some small home in New Mexico. Hella didn’t know enough about the country there to guess what the home would look like, but she thought she knew what it felt like. The home would be warm and safe, and only soft voices would be used there.
Everything would smell like baking bread. That was one of the luxuries she and Stampede didn’t get while they were guiding expeditions. Even Pardot’s group didn’t have a way of baking bread.
Don’t do that. Don’t think about things like that. Stay focused or you’re going to get Stampede killed. Hella got angry with herself, and Daisy sensed it. The lizard trilled anxiously beneath her and cocked her head to look up at Hella.
“It’s all right.” Hella patted Daisy on the forehead and smiled. The smile was a habit. Daisy probably didn’t really register facial expressions. The lizard interpreted the world through smells, sounds, and touch. She rubbed her head up at Hella’s hand.
The fact that she couldn’t remember her own childhood tormented Hella. She wondered if it were possible that she still had parents and siblings out in the world somewhere. But she didn’t know. Her earliest memories were of being alone and of Stampede. Sometimes she felt guilty for wanting to know more. The bisonoid had been a good provider for her until she’d been able to become a full-fledged partner.
She pushed Colleen Trammell out of her mind; then Riley jumped right in there. The man had been interested in her as a woman, and that had been … intriguing. A lot of the men Hella encountered were all about lust. She knew what that felt like, and she’d isolated herself from the way their looks had made her feel alternately unclean and vulnerable. In their eyes, she was just a prize to be won.
She hadn’t thought that was the case with Riley. Or maybe she didn’t want it to be the case with Riley. She had to admit, and it was easier doing that with herself than with Stampede, that idea was pretty stupid. Riley saw her differently than anyone else had. She saw that in his eyes.
To make up for some of the time he’d lost them, Pardot also insisted on traveling into the night. According to Pardot, Riley and the guards could use night-vision gear to keep watch for potential pitfalls.
“Back out of there, Red. Let them have point.”
Reluctantly Hella had done that even though she felt confident about her and Daisy’s ability to keep them safe. But she understood Stampede’s logic.
“Maybe they think no one can see them in those hardshells, but anyone carrying tech themselves can.” Stampede had spoken over the comm link. “If they’re going to be bear bait, let them run by themselves. You and I need to stay clear.”
Hella knew it was true, but she didn’t like hanging back with the others.
Nearly two hours into the dark march, one of the convoy trailers mired in a mud pit, and Klein angrily shut them down. They made camp on the lee side of a hill festooned with birch and blackjack. As before, Pardot insisted on setting the defense bots along the perimeter.
“Looks like we get another night’s sleep.” Stampede turned the spit over their fire. The quail Hella had collected during the last hour of light roasted over their private campfire. Fat dripped off the birds’ bodies and sizzled on the open flames.
“I’m not feeling very restful.” Hella fed small twigs to the fire to keep it burning evenly.
“Change your mind about pulling up stakes on this one?”
Surprised, Hella glanced at Stampede. She was conflicted and she knew it. She didn’t want to leave Colleen Trammell or Riley. The former she understood but not the latter. “Is that what you want to do?”
“Things have gotten decidedly more tense since this morning. Me and you are getting frozen out of Riley’s security debriefs, and Pardot is making sure to drive a wall between you and Colleen Trammell.” Stampede bared his teeth in a grimace and snorted. “Good sense says that what we should do is pick up our marbles and go, but that’s not what I want to do.”
“Because of Colleen?”
“No, not because of Colleen. She’s not my problem, and she’s not your problem. You need to remember that. Colleen is part of these people. Whatever problems she has, these people are more set up to handle them than we are.”
“I don’t believe she’s mentally deficient. Pardot’s lying about that.”
“Maybe so but the lady’s definitely got something wrong with her head. Even if it’s just the precog ability messing with her. We’re not set up to deal with that either, especially if she can call these ripples to her.”
“So why do you want to stay?”
“Whatever they’re after, it’s got to be worth a lot. Otherwise they wouldn’t have come out here with so many people.”
A cold feeling stirred in Hella’s stomach. She’d been with Stampede for years, and she felt certain she knew him well. During that time he’d never given in to any temptation to steal from their clients. Other scouts sometimes killed an expedition to the last man and took everything those people had. That was one reason outsiders were cautious about hiring scouts and never allowed their numbers to get larger than the party’s.
“You’re not talking about hijacking whatever they’re after?”
“No.” Stampede didn’t take offense at the question. “I’m thinking that whatever they’re after is big. Maybe big enough that we can walk away with a score of our own with what slips through their fingers.”
Hella hadn’t thought about that, but it made sense. “What do you think they’re after?”
Stampede shook his head and flicked an ear at a
buzzing insect hovering around him. “I don’t know but I think we’ll find out soon enough.”
After the quail were gone and the fire had died down, Riley joined Hella and Stampede at their campsite. “Dr. Pardot says his PDA shows we’ve got about three more miles to Blossom Heat. I wanted to make sure that was right.”
Hella worked on the rabbit hides. The furs were trade goods she could barter at the camp. She had a few others in Daisy’s packs. She ignored Riley because she didn’t want Stampede there when she talked to the man. Having Stampede listening in over the comm link all the time was bad enough. It would have been better if she’d known how to treat Riley.
“If we get an early start, we can reach Blossom Heat before midday. You can tell Dr. Pardot that the trade camp has generators there that pump water. By this time tomorrow night, he can enjoy a shower in a room. If he has the money to pay for it.”
The room didn’t interest Hella. She didn’t like sleeping indoors. Inside was too noisy with the sounds of everyone around her. Outdoors had more room, and the noises weren’t packed in on top of each other. But she was looking forward to a hot bath. Grabbing a quick soak in the early morning hours before the rest of the camp was up had gotten old.
“I’ll let him know.” Riley paused. “Get a good night’s sleep, Hella.”
“Sure.” Hella’s cheeks flamed and she didn’t dare look at Riley or Stampede. “Thanks.”
After a brief hesitation, Riley walked away.
“You’ll want to watch yourself around that one, Red.” Stampede’s voice was slow and measured.
“Because he’s interested in me as something more than a scout?” Hella fixed Stampede with a defiant glare.
Stampede twitched an ear in irritation, and his nostrils flared. “No. Because I don’t like the way he looks at you.”
“He looks at me like I’m a woman. And whether you like it or not, I am a woman. I’m not a little kid anymore.”
“You’re also not as experienced as you think you are. Somebody like Riley will turn you inside out.”
Hella pushed herself to her feet. “I’m going to go check on Daisy.”
Stampede nodded but didn’t say anything.
Angry, Hella took her pack and walked over to the tree where she’d left the mountain boomer. She didn’t want to be mad at Stampede but she was. There were things she needed to learn, and she didn’t need Stampede blowing over her shoulder while she learned them. It was frustrating.
She also didn’t want to be so interested in Riley, but she was that too. She knew she didn’t trust the man completely, but that was all right too. Making a choice between Stampede and someone else wasn’t anything she wanted to do soon. She was certain that Riley would be nothing more than a diversion, and a diversion wasn’t a commitment. In fact, someone such as Riley—someone who would be gone soon—might be the best diversion to have.
At least having him around made her feel different.
CHAPTER 8
Blossom Heat lay at the bottom of a small valley. Hella reined in Daisy and gazed down the hill. Even with her sunglasses, the bright, noonday sun hurt her eyes a little. She was soaked in her own clothing from baking in the heat. The chain-mail shirt chafed against her skin. And it stank.
Hella stood up in the stirrups and stretched her legs. Daisy shifted beneath her, anxious to be off again. The lizard’s keen olfactory senses had picked up the scent of cured meat coming from the trade camp. Carnegie, the trade camp’s owner, kept a couple of hunters on permanent retainer to track feral pigs in the surrounding area. There were always fresh hams and barbecue for sale at Blossom Heat.
At Riley’s command, two of the hardshells on ATVs sped down the wide trade trail toward the camp. Hella fell in behind them. She knew even a klick away that she already wore gun sights on her chest. Snipers manned the towers on the four corners of the camp. Riley’s men were more confident than they had any reason to be.
From her present vantage point, she could see over the five-meter-high metal walls that surrounded the trade camp. Before the Darkness, when the collider had unleashed unholy hell to rewrite the world, the trade camp had been a supply station along the superhighways that had crossed the old world. Carnegie had books with pictures that showed the camp as it had been. Of course, nearly all of that had changed, and Hella wasn’t certain that the pictures in the book were even anywhere around the Redblight.
The burly gorilloid stared Riley in the eyes and didn’t flinch. “Not all of you are coming inside the camp.” His voice was a raspy growl that sounded more animal than human, but he could be easily understood.
“That’s absurd.” Klein Pardot strode up to the gorilloid and looked him over.
Faust was impressive too look at. Standing two meters tall, he was broad and heavy with slabs of muscle, and he was armed to the teeth. Bandoliers of .50-caliber rounds for his assault rifle crisscrossed his thick chest. Four grenades hung like fruit. The two handguns in shoulder leather were matched by two more at his hips. The gorilloid had four hands and he used them all in a firefight. Gray and white scars showed through his matting of black hair. His close-set eyes were buried deep under a low shelf of brow.
“That’s how it’s gonna be, puppet man.” Faust curled a lip over his canines and fixed Pardot with a glare. “Now why don’t you haul your tin butt over there out of the way before I pound you one and they have to get a can opener just so you can see daylight again?”
Outraged, Pardot stood as tall as he could and barely came to Faust’s shoulder, and only then because the gorilloid wasn’t tall, just broad. “Take me to your master.”
Faust leaned down to Pardot, causing the man to lean back. “I don’t have a master, bub. I have an employer. And you’d best not make that mistake again.”
Pardot stepped back. “Stampede.”
Making his way forward, Stampede reached the gorilloid and shoved out a hand. Stampede stood a head taller than Faust.
Faust took the proffered hand and nodded. His black, rubbery lips twitched up in a smile that would have drained the hearts of most men. “Thought I recognized you back there. Been a long time since you were out this way.” The gorilloid rolled an eye over Pardot, Riley, and the security men. “You with these guys, Stampede?”
“My expedition, yeah.” Stampede’s hand had disappeared in Faust’s grip.
“Got some real greeners here.”
“They haven’t been in-country before. First time in the Redblight.”
“They gotta get smarter faster.” Faust shook his head and released Stampede’s hand. “And if they don’t, they’re going to get you dead too.”
Hella smiled at the look of sour annoyance on Pardot’s thin lips. No one was impressed by his entourage.
“I’m working on it. For the moment, though, how many people can we bring inside the camp at one time? They’ve got money and aren’t shy about spending it.”
“Carnegie’ll be happy to see them, then. I’ll spot you ten.” Faust pulled a PDA from his pocket. “If you’re going to vouch for them.”
“I will.”
Hella smiled at little at that, knowing then that Pardot would have to recognize they might not have gotten inside at all if not for Stampede and his connections.
Faust gazed at the security team in their hardshells. “I get ten inside. No one else goes in until someone comes out.”
“Does that include Hella and me?”
“You still got that little imp with you?” Faust looked over the crowd.
“Know anybody else that rides a dinosaur?” Stampede jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Daisy. The mountain boomer slurped from one of the watering troughs out front. Carnegie kept fresh water out front for free because people would fight and die over water if they needed it.
Faust grinned and stepped toward Hella. He wrapped her up in his powerful arms and hugged her tightly. “How ya doin’, imp?”
Hella hugged the gorilloid back fiercely. His fur was smooth and soft, but the ba
ndoliers bit into her skin. “I’m still alive.”
Gently Faust put her back on the ground and looked at her. “You’re growing, imp. Gonna be breaking hearts any day. But if any of them break yours, you come see Uncle Faust and we’ll dig the grave together.”
Even though she smiled, she knew the gorilloid meant it. In his own way, Faust was just as protective of her as Stampede was. In the end Faust wanted more of the civilized life than Stampede had, and they’d gone their separate ways four years earlier.
“And if you see something inside the camp that you like and old hornhead there won’t spring for it, come see me.”
“I will.” Hella hugged him again and stepped back. “I’ll come see you even if I don’t find anything I like well enough to carry out of here. I seem to recall somebody being a stickler for extra weight when we traveled together.”
“That’s my imp.” Faust returned to his position at the door. “Ten inside. Your scouts don’t count, puppet man, because I think of them as part of our own. The rest of you pick a shady spot and settle in.”
Hella walked through the open gate and crossed the worn, cracked concrete skirting that made up most of Blossom Heat’s inner courtyard. The original building remained at the center, but it had been rebuilt several times over the intervening years. Some of the work had come as a result of time and decay, but other work had been required after attacks. Firebombs had gutted all the other buildings, but they’d been rebuilt as well. Most of the buildings were small stores with bars across the windows. None of the windows held glass because shattered fragments turned into deadly weapons during a rocket or grenade blast.
“Hella.”
Recognizing Colleen Trammell’s voice, Hella stopped and looked back.
Standing between two security people who had obviously been assigned to her, Colleen looked pasty and worn. Sweat glistened across her cheeks, and dark circles hollowed her eyes. She walked a little unsteadily.
