She pushed the button again and the closet disappeared. Flashing a grin at Talon, she picked up the rifle and began checking the moving parts. “The locker wasn’t discovered in some laboratory. This little miracle is pure magic.”
Shoving a double handful of bullets into her pocket she was ready to go. “Time to find out just who our uninvited guests are.”
Talon was impressed—again—with the level of trust Shadow had in him. She never asked him how he knew there was a new craft in the harbor. She accepted his word and went, immediately, into action.
It took them about fifteen minutes to jog through the village. The rise that separated the village from the marina was just ahead and the voices he’d heard earlier were loud and distinct.
“This place ain’t got nothin’ worth stealin’.” Voice one whined.
“It’s got fresh water and maybe some game. We gotta have supplies before we go any further.” Voice two was the obvious leader.
“Don’ know why we had ta split up. Six is better odds for stayin’ alive than two.”
“And six is easier ta spot by the bounty hunters, dumbass.”
Voice one was closer to where Talon sat near the crest of the rise. It was too dark for their visitors to see beyond their torches but he could see just fine. Anyone could smell the stench of incarceration rolling off their bodies and hear the clang and rattle of the manacles on their ankles.
Escaped prisoners!
“When are the others gonna get here?” Voice one asked.
“Ain’t nobody comin’ here. I told ya this ain’t nowhere near where we need to be. I saw the guards head after the others and we went this way. I ain’t goin’ back to prison. Now come on and let’s find us a place to bed down for the night.”
“I don’….”
Whatever he was going to say died on his lips when he saw Talon.
“Good evening, gentlemen. How may I assist you?” Talon pointed the loaded crossbow at voice two.
“Who the fuck are you?” Voice two demanded, brandishing a short piece of board he’d picked up on the beach.
“I own this island and I didn’t invite you to visit. Now get back on your hover-boat and keep on going.” He prayed they wouldn’t push his ultimatum. The crossbow was cocked and loaded but he only had one shot and two targets.
“We’ll die out there without some supplies.” Voice one had the most annoying whine.
“You’ll die here for no reason other than you’re trespassing.” Talon hoped they kept sailing. He didn’t want to kill them.
“Come on, Butts. This ain’t the only island around here.”
They turned and headed back to the marina. Talon followed at a distance to make sure they left the island. As the hover-boat lifted up and pulled away from the beach, Butts stood and flipped him the middle finger salute.
“You sleep real good tonight, asshole!” He yelled. “Knowing you sent men ta their death!” A short bark of laughter floated across the water. “Or maybe we’ll come back in time for breakfast!”
Chapter Eighteen
“They’ll be back.” Talon watched the hover-boat pull farther and farther from the shore. He knew the minute Shadow walked up behind him.
“Without a doubt. They were dressed in prison uniforms. You know this island better than I do, any place more likely for their return than this one?”
Talon grinned and shook his head. “I was only twelve summers when I left here. Armed assault wasn’t on my class schedule back then.”
“Yeah, but little boys all over the universe are basically the same. You dream of being heroes and winning epic battles. So I bet that somewhere around here is at least one special place—a command center—that every boy in the village knew, even as young as you were. It was the perfect place to defend your kingdom.” She slung her rifle over her shoulder and started walking back to the village.
“Here,” he slipped his torch into her free hand. “You don’t want to trip and break your neck. At least, not until we save our little kingdom.”
“You can be such an ass…axel.”
There was no longer any sting in her words. “Yeah, so I’ve been told.” He laughed softly. “But I’m your axel.” The darkness hid his grin when she snorted.
“I already told you I wasn’t part of…uh, just academic studies. Let me think about this for a few minutes and maybe a memory or two will surface like it did with the game trails.”
The house was in sight but Talon didn’t recall a single memory of where the other boys played out their fantasies. It would have to be high ground and that eliminated everywhere on this side of the mountain. From what he recalled of his local history classes, the far side of the mountain dropped straight into the sea. As far as he knew the only possible landing areas were along the marina.
“Dinner is stone cold.” Shadow hung her rifle on a peg in the wall and started lighting the lanterns. “It won’t take long to heat it up as soon as I get the fire pit going.”
“Don’t bother on my account.” He was too preoccupied with surviving the next twenty-four hours to worry about a hot meal. “Call it field rations and serve it cold.”
With a shrug of her shoulder, Shadow sliced off a thick chunk of the roast for each of them and added a plate of dried fruit to the table. “I figure those two will be back as soon as it gets light enough to see where they’re going. In case I’m wrong, we shouldn’t have a fire or use the lanterns.”
“I agree. No sense hanging a sign above the door saying here we are, come attack us. I’ve pulled up every scrap of memory I have about this place and I’m almost positive that the only place on the island they can bring a hover-boat is along the marina.”
“Almost positive?” Shadow asked with a grin. “Guess that’s the best intel we have to work with. There are about fifty buildings between there and here. Do we let them get into the village or take them out on the beach?”
Talon’s chest swelled when he realized that she—a trained mercenary—trusted his opinion. Because I sobered up enough for the old me to resurface. I wonder if she knows she saved my life. That’s a hellava debt I owe that woman.
“We have better cover and more maneuverability here but I don’t like the idea of them coming into the village. The tree line just inside the rise worked earlier. I vote we stay closer to the water. Why don’t we work shifts, say two hours each. One of us can keep watch while the other gets some rest. Just before dawn, we spread out and find a good spot to welcome our new friends.”
Shadow arched her back, rotated her head, and rolled her shoulders working the tension from her body. “Sounds good. We put in a hard day getting that eldorak butchered.”
And I kept us up most of last night. She must have thought the same thing because that pale blue aura just spiked a little pink. “Get some sleep, Blue. I’ll wake you in a couple of hours.”
* * * *
Shadow spotted the perfect location at the edge of the forest where two trees grew so close together that their limbs were practically woven together. There were several branches growing out toward the open waterline. She could lay her rifle along any one of them and be virtually invisible.
“Good choice, Blue.” Talon whispered. “I can’t see any trace of you and I watched you climb into that nest. I’m going closer to the water. See that over-turned boat about a hundred yards down the beach?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s another smaller skiff on the other side. I’ll be between them.”
“Stay out of my line of fire.”
She couldn’t shake that itchy feeling on the back of her neck. They were missing something vital—something that could get them killed. The sun was high enough that she could determine the color of anything not hidden in shadows. Way too late for their visitors to be making a surprise visit.
Talon waved to show her his location. Don’t grin at me you fuckin’ asshole. I’m furious with you. He didn’t wake her until shortly before sunrise. His only excuse—you were so
tired that I just didn’t have the heart to wake you. What a crock! Yes, she was tired but so was he. This was what she did for a living. In a war zone situation you learned to go to sleep quickly and wake up ready to pull your watch. Does he not trust me to carry my weight?
Maybe he’s treating you like a woman and not just one of the troops. There were times when she really hated that annoying little voice.
Snipers were trained to remain motionless for hours—even days—waiting for the conditions to be right for their shot. Too bad she wasn’t a trained sniper. She should have taken a trip into the bushes before climbing into the tree. Her bladder was screaming at her. The leaves that felt so soft and comfortable hours ago now had sharp little points pricking her through her shirt.
This is bullshit! Those thugs aren’t coming back. Hell, they probably drowned or sailed to another island. It’s not going to be long before I have to break cover—or create a most unusual rain shower.
She couldn’t wait any longer. Pushing herself to a sitting position, Shadow shouldered her rifle and…froze.
“I tell ya, Monk, they’s got to be hidin’ back in one of them houses.”
“If ya talk jus’ a little louder they’ll hear us comin’ all the way back to the prison!” Monk growled. “Shut yur trap an’ keep a look out fer ‘em.”
“There’s a woman here with that big dude! I ain’t had me a woman in near ten years. Ya gonna share her, right Monk? Us bein’ partners means we share ever’ thing, right Monk?”
“Butts, I swear if ya don’ shut up, the only thing ya gonna get a share of is this here shiv.”
Where the hell did they come from? Talon got it wrong! Crap! She prayed they walked past her position soon or they would share more than they realized. Hell, she’d shoot herself before bedding that scum. A flicker of movement on the beach pulled her attention from the pair directly below her perch.
Talon! He was headed in her direction. He picked a hellava time to give up. Any movement—any sound—would give away her location. If they would just move another twenty feet either direction she could use the handgun she carried in a shoulder harness. The tree limbs were too closely woven to get off a shot straight down.
Damn, damn, damn! If you get yourself shot, Talon, I will seriously kick your ass all over this island! She only had one workable option.
“That’s far enough, gents. Drop that knife and I won’t shoot you.” She hoped they were too stupid to realize she couldn’t follow through with her threat.
Not so dumb after all. The two men scurried into the heavier brush.
“Monk! It really is a woman! A real living, breathing woman!”
“Shut up, Butts. Look here, girlie. I bet I can stay hidden down here a lot longer than you can stay sittin’ up there. So why don’ you jus’ come on down and lets us get ta know each other. Where’s yur man?”
“He’s just up the road. Talon!” Shadow yelled. “Our guests came in the back door. We need to get that lock repaired as soon as we can. I remember seeing a couple of rusty locks over on the underbrush road.” It was the best warning she could come up with on such short notice. Would he pick up on where the men were hiding?
“Hey! Don’t be tryin’ ta give him no hints ‘bout where we’re hidin’.”
“That’s right, girl. Ya don’ wanna make Monk mad. He’ll treat ya a lot meaner if ya make him mad.”
“Shut up Butts.” Shadow and Monk spoke at the same time.
She had no choice. Her bladder was seconds away from geyser stage. Leaving the rifle hidden among the branches, she climbed down from her nest using the tree farthest from the two criminals. It should give her the extra seconds she needed to pull her handgun.
The two escaped prisoners crashed through the brush as the gun cleared her holster. The first shot went through Monk’s right eye. The second took Butts’ nose out through the back of his head.
“Shadow! Don’t shoot! It’s me! Are you hurt?” Talon skidded to a stop between the dead bodies. “Damn, woman, you are one fine shot. Hey! Where are you going?’
“I gotta pee!” She yelled from behind a cluster of bushes.
“Nice to see you have your priorities in the right order. One, kill the bad guys. Two, empty bladder.” His laughter died when she stomped up close enough for their bodies to touch from chest to knees. And put the barrel of her gun under his chin.
“Three, shoot the jerk giving me a hard time.”
“Come on, Blue, I…,” Talon swallowed hard. She wouldn’t really shoot him. Would she?
“Forget it. How in blazes did they sneak up on us through the village?” She holstered her weapon and turned to examine the dead men.
Monk’s shiv would have done serious injury if he got close enough to either of them to use it. Not your typical sharpened spoon for this guy. The blade clutched in his lifeless hand was a good twelve inches long and sharpened along both edges for ten of those inches. She said a silent prayer to whichever fate urged her to carry a revolver instead of something with fifteen to twenty shots. If she had to waste a couple of seconds flipping the safety off and sliding a round into the chamber, Monk could have easily beheaded her.
“Well, crap. Would you look at that?” Shadow turned to Talon and pointed to what was left of Butts head. “The son of a bitch has my last pair of sexy undies on his head! I shot my own silk panty! My red silk panty! With the black lace waist! Oh, to hell with it.” She pulled the gun from the holster. “I’ve gotta shoot him again. He has to pay for this insult to my….”
Talon wrapped his arms around the angry woman trapping her hands—and the gun—between their bodies. He had no trouble at all seeing the violent spikes of color radiating around her body. Given the strength of her light show he was perfectly happy seeing only a faint, muted color spectrum.
“It’s over, Blue, just relax, baby. When we get back to civilization, I’ll buy you another pair. I’ll buy you a dozen pair.” He rubbed the tense muscles across her shoulders and back until he felt her relax against him.
“You can’t.” She mumbled, shifting just enough to rest her head against his shoulder. “I got them on Earth years ago. The nearest Victoria’s Secret is light years from here.
“Who’s Victoria?”
“It’s not a person, it’s a store. They sell the sexiest underwear imaginable. I like La Perla, too, but there wasn’t a shop near where I had liberty.”
Talon figured his best bet was to remain quiet and just let her ramble. She didn’t flinch at taking down the enemy but lost control over a miniscule scrap of red silk. When she drew a deep breath, he knew she was back in control.
“I happen to think you’re sexy without underwear, Blue.”
Shadow jerked out of his arms and shoved her gun back into the holster. “We need to get these guys buried or cremated and locate their landing site.”
Talon knelt beside the feet of the bodies. “Their boots show evidence of stepping in white clay. See?”
“Why is that important?” Her expression indicated she was humoring him by asking.
“When it’s thinned with purified water it’s used to make dishes. In its natural form it can be used on a potter’s wheel.” Talon looked up at her face and grinned. “There’s only one place on the island to find it.”
Shadow grinned back at him. “Let’s get these guys taken care of so we can get started.”
Talon carried each body down the beach to where a pile of driftwood had gathered. The trees were indigenous to this island and cultivated for the sole purpose of cremation. The sap burned hot enough to reduce a body to ash without the necessity of building and maintaining a crematory furnace. The closest translation for the name of the tree was giver of rest. After placing the bodies just below the high tide mark, he and Shadow rolled three trees from the pile near the forest, placing one between the bodies and one on each side. The sap would release and seep into their clothing and onto their skin. After cutting into the bark on each tree section, he placed a lit torch on t
he middle tree directly over the cut. He recited the departure prayer used by his people for untold eons and quickly stepped back as the sap caught fire. Within seconds the middle tree was fully engulfed. Within minutes all three were burning. By the time the bodies were reduced to ash, the tide would be coming in. They would return to the sea.
Chapter Nineteen
“I never heard anyone mention a tunnel leading to the sea. It’s possible that I just don’t remember hearing about it. It’s been a long time.” Talon leaned back against the wall. He and Shadow enjoyed watching the sunset from the porch. Although, he wasn’t happy about her choosing to sit on the other side of the door instead of next to him on this side of the door.
When he led her to the clay deposit earlier they found the entrance to the tunnel their visitors used to gain access to the island. He’d have to do something about that now that he knew it was there.
“I did.” Shadow whispered. “I just didn’t know I did.”
“You couldn’t have known, Blue. You’ve never been here before now.” He didn’t want to accuse her of exaggeration but what she was saying was impossible.
“I mean, I read about a tunnel that leads to the sea. It was a means of escape if the island came under attack. Your ancestors weren’t big on fighting.”
“No, they were scholars, artists, and environmentalists. The basic tenet of life here was there is always an option better chosen above fighting. Guess I didn’t take that lesson to heart given my chosen profession.” He remembered his father and mother debating, hour after hour, over any topic—every topic with possible opposing views. It was as entertaining to them as a night of cards was to him.
“There was a great deal of debate about the tunnel. Because of the extreme high tides on that side of the island, they were afraid anyone caught unaware would drown, especially young children. They decided to hide the entrance and never mention it. The location was carried down by the governing council in case it was needed. After a few generations, the general population forgot all about it.”
The Men of Anderas III: Talon, the Assassin Page 10
