Bounty Hunter: Dig Two Graves

by Rachel Aukes

  “But what about the next administrator the murcs send? Who’ll stop them from doing the same thing,” someone in the crowd yelled, followed by several voices of agreement.

  “Yes, the MRC will probably send another administrator, but they can’t take what belongs to us by law. The Sloan brothers took you one by one. We’ll never stand for that again. If the next administrator tries to force even one person into indentured service, all of us must rise up, and that administrator will suffer the same fate as Roderick Sloan.” Val raised her free arm in victory.

  Loud cheers rippled through the courtyard, and Joe noted that many sounded angry and passionate. He wondered how soon it would be before the Midlands erupted in riots and violence like the people of Shiprock had ten years ago.

  Val lowered the loudspeaker.

  “I think they’re going to have a lot more questions for you,” Kit said.

  “I know,” she replied, “but I don’t have answers. I think it’s best to let them adjust to being free for a while. Then we can deal with the details.”

  Rex carried out a single painting and slid it into his back seat. It was of a woman with long red hair, standing in a lake.

  Joe cocked an eyebrow. “All your talk about raiding Sloan’s treasure trove, and that’s all you’re taking?”

  Rex shrugged. “They need the stuff more than I do.” He raised his head a bit higher. “But I really like that painting, so I’m keeping it.”

  The ground beneath them rumbled, and they looked at each other.

  “I didn’t realize the Midlands had earthquakes,” Kit said.

  “It doesn’t,” Joe said. Someone in the crowd pointed to the east, and he followed their finger. His heart froze. A massive cloud of black smoke rose from the direction of the silo.

  “No!” Val cried and ran to her cutter. She waited for no one. Joe jumped in with Kit, and Rex climbed into Beatrice. The three cutters raced back to the silo.

  Kit slowed when they entered the valley.

  “Oh no,” he whispered.

  Joe’s throat constricted. It was as they’d feared.

  The silo was gone.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  In the silo’s place was a massive hole, as though a giant snake came up from the core of the Earth, swallowed the silo whole, and spewed out charred remnants. The surrounding ground had caved in, leaving a black smoking pit with fault lines snaking out in all directions.

  Val parked near the cutters, and Kit and Rex pulled up behind her. Those nearest the silo had been blackened and warped by the explosion. The dead tank was buried up to its turret in a sinkhole.

  Rex whistled as he stepped out. Joe hurried over to Val, who was speaking with Paul and Lupe from her security team. Their soot-covered faces were streaked with tears.

  “There was no warning,” Paul sobbed. “Nothing at all. It just exploded.”

  “We were out here, prepping the cutters for the volunteers to take out to the farm,” Lupe said. “No one had come up yet. Some were packing to return to their homes in Clearwater. Others were pulling together food and medical supplies to help out at the farm.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. I’ve never heard of a silo exploding before. Was it a gas line?” Paul asked.

  “No gas line explosion would be that bad,” Kit said. “Besides, silos have so many fail-safes that even if a gas line on one level exploded, lockdowns would prevent fires on the other levels.”

  “There’s no way this was an accident. Someone had a big grudge against someone in this silo,” Rex said.

  Val rubbed her face. “You’re right.”

  When she looked up, Joe saw she was crying.

  “It was Renzo. I don’t know why he did it, but he’s behind this, I’m sure of it,” she said.

  The name rang a bell. Joe had to go deep into his memories to find the source, but the name he came up with didn’t match, because that Renzo had been killed in the Revolution… Joe had killed him.

  “That bastard’s cold enough to do it,” Kit said.

  “Wait. You’re not talking about Zenith’s Supreme Commander Renzo, are you?” Joe asked.

  Kit nodded for Val, who was staring blankly at the smoking hole in the ground.

  “The same,” she said, and sighed. “Renzo provided us with this silo. I just found out he was helping Roderick Sloan too.”

  Kit frowned. “Why would he be doing that?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think it was to hurt the MRC, or maybe to turn public opinion against the MRC. Zenith was everything to him. It still is, and Renzo has always been good at subtlety.”

  “This Renzo fellow sounds like a real piece of work,” Rex said. “We should introduce him to Cat. Maybe they could kill each other.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Kit said, “but Renzo makes Cat look sweet.”

  Joe racked his brain. He remembered Black Night. Joe had shot Renzo in the stomach—the man hadn’t had armor on. If the blaster shot hadn’t finished him, igniting the entire building would’ve. “How’d he survive?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Kit said, and turned to Val. “I’ve given a lot of thought to how Zenith could’ve benefitted from having refugees in a secret silo, and the only thing I can figure is that they were planning to woo all these refugees into their ranks, to be spies or soldiers or what-not.”

  “Or they were planning to do some spooky medical testing on them. Don’t forget that Zenith has always been really high on the creepy scale,” Rex said.

  “But Renzo killed them all. Every person he helped save, he killed. Why?” Val asked, her voice cracking on the last word.

  Kit pulled her into an embrace.

  Rex looked at Joe. “I don’t know this Renzo fellow, but anyone who’d blow up an inhabited silo has got to be even meaner than a puppy beater.”

  “That he certainly is,” Joe said under his breath.

  Val sniffled and drew away from Kit. She wiped her eyes with her forearm and pulled out the mini tablet. “It’s time I have a chat with Renzo.”

  She placed the call, which was accepted within a second. A figure, digitally shrouded, was on the screen.

  “Hello, Commander. I see this is a conference call,” the man Joe assumed to be Renzo said.

  Val glanced at the sky. “And it’s safe to assume you have a drone watching us right now.”

  “I’m always watching.”

  “I already know your drones are everywhere.” Joe glanced upward out of reflex while Val continued. “What I want to know is, why did you kill all those people, Commander? They were innocent; not one of them knew about you.”

  “They were just collateral damage. Every war has casualties.”

  “We’re not at war. The Revolution has long since ended,” Val said.

  “No, the Revolution is still underway. You put those refugees at risk when you brought them to a Zenith silo, and you have put your five friends who stand with you now at risk by revealing our secrets.”

  Val’s hands shook. “I swear, if you try to hurt any one of them, I’ll—”

  “You’ll do nothing because you have no power over me.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “My apologies. Please don’t hurt my friends. None of them are any threat to you.”

  “You’d better keep it that way.”

  “I just need to know, why did you kill all those people? I don’t understand,” she pleaded.

  “It wasn’t personal, Commander. We simply didn’t have time to evacuate them. The silo was too valuable to let it fall into MRC’s hands. Ah, and speak of the devil, their tank squadron is arriving. You and your friends should run. You have about three minutes before the tanks reach your location.”

  The screen went blank.

  “Wow,” Rex drawled. “Yup, I was right. That guy’s a real piece of work.”

  Joe felt the rumbling before he heard it. The tanks were nearly there. “We’d better get out of here.”

  Chapter Sixty-Five

 
; The six were faced with the option of running or hiding. Either came with danger. In the end, they decided that hiding was the better choice. Paul and Lupe volunteered to go to the farm and warn the workers of the incoming MRC military. They would likely be too late, but they went regardless.

  Joe, Val, Kit, and Rex drove their three cutters to the hideout the Swintons had used. Its greatest camouflage was that it didn’t have power, and so the building wouldn’t appear on any MRC scans.

  As the cutters pulled up to the hideout, Kit said, “Huh. How about that?”

  “How about what?” Joe asked

  “I can pull up a map of all the MRC vehicles in this area. I show twelve tanks and twelve transports rolling up to the silo’s location.”

  Joe frowned. “Do you see a blip for this cutter on that map?”

  Kit adjusted the map. “Crap. I do.”

  “If you can see them, then they can see you.”

  Kit grimaced. “I’ll take this cutter to the farm, where the other murc vehicles are. I’ll hop a ride with Paul and Lupe if they’re still there. Otherwise, I’ll need you to come and get me when you can.”

  Joe opened the door. “I will.”

  Kit raised his finger. “Don’t leave me with all those people. You know I don’t like people.”

  “We’ll come get you.” Joe shut the door.

  “Where’s Kit going?” Val asked.

  “Every MRC vehicle has a tracker, so he’s taking it back to the farm so they can’t track us here,” Joe said. “We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled just in case they tracked Kit’s entire trip and see that he stopped here.”

  “Should we head to a new spot?” Rex asked.

  “I’m running out of places,” Val said. “I’d rather you keep an eye out for the squadron. We’ll go in the opposite direction of the farm if we hear them coming.”

  “What’s the plan now?” Joe asked.

  “I was thinking we reach out to President Darville again.”

  “She didn’t respond the first time, did she?” he asked.

  “She may have, but I wasn’t in the silo to check my messages. If she did, her message went down with the rest of the silo.” Emotion flickered over her features. “So, I think I’ll try calling her this time. Do you think that’s smart or stupid?”

  “I think it’s our only option of getting those tanks out of Clearwater,” he replied.

  She pulled out her mini tablet, found the general number for MRC Central, and put the tablet to her ear. Joe listened as she was transferred through various operators.

  “I’d like to speak with President Darville. Yes, I know she doesn’t take calls, but tell her this is Sheriff Vane in Clearwater.”

  Val tapped her foot while she waited.

  “Hello? Yes, I’m calling for President Darville. This is Sheriff Vane in Clearwater. Tell her this is urgent.”

  Val glared at the tablet and said to Joe, “I’m on hold again.” She turned her attention back to her tablet. “Oh, hi. Yes, I need to speak with President Darville, and if you transfer me to another operator, I’m going to come there and strangle you myself. Now, tell her this is Sheriff Vane of Clearwater. Roderick Sloan is dead, and I’d like to speak with her about removing that tank squadron from my town… Thank you.”

  Val pulled the tablet away from her ear and put it on speaker. Music filled the old building.

  “This is President Darville. To whom am I speaking?”

  “This is Sheriff Vane of Clearwater, Madame President.”

  “Are you calling to surrender, Sheriff?”

  “No. I’m calling to negotiate.”

  “A silo has just been destroyed, which I’m led to believe was the location of your rebel headquarters. I have a tank squadron in Clearwater right now. So exactly what do you have to negotiate?”

  “I have a proposal that prevents anyone else from dying and the MRC from getting a bigger black eye in the Midlands. Neither of us wants bloodshed, but if your tanks open fire on people with no weapons, you will open a wound in the Midlands that will never heal.”

  There was a brief pause. “What is this proposal you wish to discuss, Sheriff?”

  “Before I go into it, I want you to know that those people who died in that silo today weren’t rebels. They were refugees who’d fled Roderick Sloan’s slave farm. None of them raised their hands against Sloan, let alone the MRC. Sloan tried to recapture them for his labor camps, and my friends fended him off. Two tanks and several squads were lost in those attacks, but we were only defending the refugees. We did not instigate any attack.”

  “I will take your words into consideration when I debrief Roderick Sloan and the squads stationed in Clearwater.”

  Val looked at Joe while she spoke. “You should know that Roderick Sloan is dead. I killed him three hours ago. He was facing charges for the confirmed murder of five townsfolk, and that’s not taking into account rumors of over two hundred more murders on his farm, and the murders of at least four administrators around the Midlands. He was also charged with extortion of Midland administrators and fabricating events in order to profit from his position.”

  Joe knew Val was really stretching the truth, but he also knew that the truth was clay in the hands of politicians.

  There was a longer pause. “You murdered Administrator Sloan and took away his chance of a fair trial. You will be—”

  Val cut in. “I’m the legal sheriff of Clearwater and have the authority to carry out justice. Sloan is dead, and don’t pretend that you aren’t happy about it. Now, here’s my proposal, Madame President: take your squadron out of Clearwater immediately. With Sloan dead, you won’t see any more trouble here. He was the one causing the trouble.”

  Darville laughed. “That’s not a proposal; that’s an order. You’re offering me nothing.”

  “I was getting to that. I can offer valuable information on your real enemy, and that’s Zenith State.”

  That Darville didn’t laugh again meant she recognized the truth in Val’s words. “Tell me what you know, and I’ll see if it’s worth recalling my squadron.”

  It was Val’s turn to laugh. “It doesn’t work that way, but I can assure you that the information is so valuable that it will put your life in danger.”

  Joe’s lips curled up at the bait no leader could turn down…something so secret and damaging that it was dangerous to know. That type of information was a politician’s favorite weapon.

  “I accept your proposal, Sheriff. But know that if your information proves faulty or worthless, I will send a squad after you.”

  “I would expect no less from you. Tell me when you’ve ordered the squadron to pull out of Clearwater.”

  “It’s done. Now, give me the information.”

  “Zenith State is still operating, which I suspect you know, and they’re planning something big. They’ve built silo bases throughout the wastelands. The silo they destroyed today was one of theirs.”

  “That’s preposterous. Why would they destroy their own silo?”

  “Because they didn’t want you to get it and learn their secrets.”

  “And what secrets would I find?”

  “I have only one to offer you: they’re building an army of technically modified soldiers.”

  “What do you mean by ‘technically modified,’ Sheriff?”

  “I mean cyborgs, Madame President. They call them Z-borgs. Zenith is building their army right here in the wastelands, in their siloes, under everyone’s noses.”

  “And how can you prove any of this is true?” Darville’s voice had changed, but Joe couldn’t tell if it was fear or disappointment she was masking.

  “I can’t, but you can. Catch yourself a Z-borg, and you’ll have your proof,” Val said.

  “This information is weak at best.”

  While Joe believed it was solid information—he had seen the Z-borgs in action—he was surprised Val hadn’t given Darville Renzo’s name. Knowledge of his existence had to be worth something to so
meone.

  “This information gives you a chance to prepare for a war that’s coming, Madame President. Do with it what you will.”

  “I will uphold my end of our bargain, Sheriff. But I warn you, stay within your role as sheriff, and do not take up the mantle of vigilante again. I will not stand for lawlessness in my wastelands. If you cross that line again, I will rain hell down upon you.”

  Darville disconnected the call, and Val sighed. “You think she’s really going to keep out of Clearwater?”

  He shrugged. “I think she will. For now, at least. I’m more worried about Zenith. Renzo’s going to want to silence you if he finds out what you told Darville.”

  She looked sullen. “I’m afraid Renzo’s going to want to silence all of us.”

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Kit showed up in Joe’s old cutter. “Joe, that cutter of yours smells like someone died in it, and I think they might still be in it.”

  “But it got you here,” Joe said.

  “Yeah, but I miss mine. I’m going to have to get it back.”

  “Remember what happened the last time we tried to get your stuff back?”

  Kit’s features twisted. “A mountain fell on me because you threw the grenades too soon.”

  “I threw them when you told me to throw them. You didn’t drive fast enough,” Joe countered.

  “That’s because your cutter couldn’t go any faster. No wonder you called that beast Monster.”

  Kit opened the back of the cutter and sat on the liftgate, closing a circle (well, triangle) with the liftgates of the other two cutters. Rex sat on his while Val and Joe were on hers. Rex and Joe still had their exoshields on, but their helmets rested on Rex’s liftgate. They were passing around a flask of something horrible smelling and terrible tasting, but the only other option was to walk down to the creek to get a bucket of water, and no one had the energy for that.