by Sam Ryder
Chapter 14
Bad Luck and Trouble
We continued our midnight stroll around town, hoping to get lucky. Lady Luck seemed to have abandoned us, if she was ever with us to begin with.
“I’m a little concerned about locking this ride down, if we ever find it,” I said to the two of them.
“Why?” Hannah asked.
“It will cost money. I know you come from money, but you’re already paying me. How much do you have?”
“Says the one who just spent a buck-fifty on three cups of ancient beer,” Hannah said.
“I got us some information worth its weight in gold, didn’t I?”
“You paid for the beer before you knew had info,” she pointed out.
“Was it not delicious?”
She laughed. “It was all right,” she admitted. “Anyway, don’t worry about the money. We got it covered.”
I wasn’t so sure. Coin was scarce in the Ends, and given what she was wearing, she didn’t have many places to hide a large supply of it.
At the time of the Blast, the general population wasn’t really carrying much cash or coin around anymore. The Blast wiped out banks and other financial institutions and incinerated most of the cash. Some coins survived, but not a lot. The network that tracked your money was gone.
Millionaires became paupers in a flash. The playing field was figuratively, and literally, leveled. Whatever coin survivors had on them when they took cover became the only coin available in the entire wasteland.
There wasn’t that much of it, so the value skyrocketed. Suddenly, the spare change in one’s pocket was like having hundreds of dollars. If you found a few bucks on somebody, you were set. That’s why Hannah’s rate of $2.75/week she paid me was enough to get me on the road. That was more money than I had seen in years.
But that also meant the pot was finite. People couldn’t just go manifest more money by working hard. There was a limited pie that would get no bigger. Then again, there was no government backing the value of the money, so who knew if it would maintain its value. For now, it was enough that people believed it had value, but that might not last forever. More and more, people paid for things by bartering. One day coins might become worthless and obsolete.
That’s why I was so worried about the rate of a vehicle. If the ride cost more than Hannah had—and she was the only one of us with much money—then we’d either have to dip into my pay, or we’d just be out of money.
Rides were also scarce. No gasoline, no oil... any machinery that somehow survived the blast didn’t run for long. We went back to animal power again, and not that many people had them—or could afford to feed them.
Before the Blast, there were specialists who cared for animals. Now, the average man and woman had to learn how to tend to livestock. It was hard. Lots of them died.
Their value soared even higher than coin. You could charge a fortune for a horse if you had one.
The Blast sent the world back to the middle of the 18th century in terms of technology.
As we continued our search through the dark of the city, Gehn stopped in her tracks, staring at the ground with a concerned look on her face.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Something’s up,” she said. “We need to move. Fast.”
I jerked my head to the left and to the right, scanning the area to see if trouble was brewing. About fifty yards behind Gehn, two men were fast approaching, bathed in shadows. There was a determined intensity about their gate, like two heat-seeking missiles locked on us as their target.
“It’s too late,” Gehn said.
“I know,” I replied. I knew what was coming. “Get behind me.”
“Fuck that,” Hannah said, grabbing Beta from my holster before I could consider offering it to her. She grabbed Chuck by the collar and held him back with one hand while holding the revolver in the other. Gehn, on the other hand, slid gracefully behind me, cowering. I remembered what she’d said before, and I thought of it less as cowering as protecting these men from what she might be capable of.
The two men strode without fear until they were within ten feet of us. They were both carrying handguns, which hung loosely from their grips at their sides. They clearly were comfortable with the weapons.
“You boys better step back,” I warned. “Nobody lays a hand on these two. And God have mercy on your souls if you touch my dog...”
I wasn’t looking forward to a fight. My leg hurt. Walking around all night had tired it out even more, and the pain was getting to be too much to bear. I was concerned I may black out again, and I didn’t want to leave these two women to have to take care of me again, especially if there was violence.
Still, I wouldn’t back down. I knew how guys like these operated in the Ends—they wouldn’t back down, either.
The guys didn’t respond, which was starting to make me antsy. “Who are you with—the Council?” I asked. I wanted to know what I was dealing with. Though the Council supposedly represented nonviolent order, I wouldn’t put it past them to hire armed hitmen to take out whomever disturbed their so-called peace.
Still no answer.
If I pulled one of my guns, they’d likely open fire right away. Didn’t want to get anybody else involved. One errant bullet and it could ruin someone else’s life. Someone sleeping a nearby building, perhaps. A kid. A mother. An innocent. I couldn’t have that on my watch. I’d need to shoot them, but I couldn’t give them the chance to respond.
They were ugly bastards. Disheveled, filthy clothing, long beards. Dirt on their faces. They couldn’t be bothered to wash. But then again, nobody paid them to look good.
Someone paid them to kill.
They shifted their stances and simultaneously their sleeves lifted to reveal bracelets studded with three bits of metal. Thirds. Grunts then. Mindless muscle. So not hired by the Geneva Council, unless they were double dipping. This was good though, right? If they were part of the same organization as Hannah, she could talk them down. It was probably one big misunderstanding.
I glanced at Hannah, who had noticed their bracelets at the same time. Instance of relaxing, however, her body had stiffened. Uh oh. What was I missing?
“There’s something I should tell you,” Hannah said.
“What?” I asked, not getting a good feeling.
“I might’ve, kind of, sort of, found something out about the Guild. It’s not good, Cutter. Not good at all. Now they’re hunting me.”
Shit. “Actually, they’re not hunting you,” I said. “They’re finding you—like right now.”
“Good point. What do we do?”
“Are they trying to kill you or bring you in?” I asked under my breath. The men were still just standing there, and I was beginning to wonder whether they knew how to speak at all. Or maybe they were waiting for backup. If we were surrounded, it would be the end of the altercation.
“To be determined,” Hannah said.
Great. I had zero information. I wish she’d told me sooner, but then again, she didn’t know me. Maybe she was worried I wouldn’t help them if I knew she was on the wrong side of the Guild. She was probably right. I would’ve run a million miles away even if she’d offered me ten bucks a week.
Under my breath, I said, “Shoot the guy on the right, I’ll take the one on the left.” She nodded her understanding, still in a crouch to hold back Chuck, who was growling low from the back of his throat. “And for godsakes let go of my dog. He gives us the advantage in numbers.”
She blinked but let go of his collar. As expected, he exploded off his haunches, barking wildly. He may have been an old hound in those days, but he could still move like a young pup when threatened.
The men flinched, bringing their weapons to bear. Yes, they aimed for Chuck, and I felt bad about that, but I was counting on my own skill and Hannah’s revelation that she was “decent” with guns.
I shot my man in the chest, aiming for the largest part of his body to ensure I didn’t miss. He mana
ged to squeeze his trigger, but it was a reactionary thing with no finesse. Still, I ducked as the bullet whined well overhead. Hannah’s shot rang true as well, except she hit her guy dead in the throat, emphasis on dead. A spout of blood shot from the hole that would’ve put Old Faithful to shame. Either she was damn lucky or a damn good shot. I had a feeling it was the latter. Two men up, two men down. Chuck tore into them anyway, ravaging the corpses. I didn’t call him back. The motherfuckers deserved everything they got.
I looked back at Hannah as I holstered my weapon. She grinned a half-moon grin. “Nice shot,” I said.
“You too.”
Gehn was visibly trembling, and at first I thought it was a mix of fear and her attempt to hold back her Ender instincts for violence. But then I realized she was looking past me, her eyes as wide as those Christmas globes filled with snow. I turned to find another bearded man wearing a Third bracelet. This one had a long, dark ponytail tied behind his head, and he smirked with his gun pointed at me.
Dammit, I should have kept Alpha out just in case.
“Relax, Cutter,” he said to me in a deep, calm voice. “I won’t shoot you. Not now, anyway. I’m just here to collect my asset.”
I whistled for Chuck and he returned to my side, tail wagging. There was blood around his chops.
I knew this man. Unfortunately. Hannah did, too, of course. His name was Elias. He was the leader of the Wanderer’s Guild. Supposedly, they had no allegiances, pursuing their own agenda. But maybe that had changed. I wasn’t as up on Ends politics as I should be.
“What asset?” I asked, playing dumb.
He laughed. “What? Hannah hasn’t told you? She wronged us ten times over. Give her to me, and you and your dog can be on your way. I’ll even take the Ender off your hands.”
I pretended to consider the offer. Elias took a step forward and I flinched. “Whoa,” he said. “I’m just going to collect from my boys.” He riffled through the pockets of the two dead men while still keeping one eye on me.
“You always did fine work, Cutter,” he said while pulling a few coins from one of the pockets. “If you ever want a job, I still have plenty of work for a slippery bastard like you. The world is changing, you should make sure you’re on the right side of things.”
In the early days of the Ends, I did some work for Elias. I was a trained killer in my previous life and didn’t have much to live for.
In the beginning, it was just other assholes. The wasteland was full of looters and criminals looking to take advantage of the lawlessness. Before people established the new world of “society”, the sick nature of Man ruled. And it was bad, even worse than today.
Stealing was common. So was killing—even more than it became later. Fuckers were raping, beating, and pillaging whatever they could find. I wasn’t into that shit, but I was into survival, and the demand for killers for hire was huge. Elias stepped in and provided a service. I joined up because I wanted the cash and it was making society better, taking out the worst scum rampaging unchecked.
It was easy to kill the dirtbags. I was damn good at it but killing for money left me feeling emptier than ever. I hated the work, and I hated this smug piece of shit that ran the Guild. At some point I realized it wasn’t all bad people I was being ordered to kill. There was a hidden agenda too, and some of my targets were innocents.
Elias tried to keep me around. He was taking his cut, and I made him a wealthy man. He didn’t have to do much, just farm out the jobs to me and I’d take care of them. Once I walked, he was stuck dealing with lesser killers.
The two morons he sent to take me out were a perfect example. They worked cheap, and they had to work cheap because the fee needed to be split two ways. Neither were very good. You get what you pay for, even in the world of contract killing.
“I don’t do that anymore,” I said to him. “Besides, you would hire somebody you’re supposed to kill?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m not here for you. Just Hannah. Give her up and I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want. Call the Ender the kicker. I’ll pay you fairly for both.”
What an asshole. In every sense of the word.
“Not a chance. Take your spoils and get the fuck out of here,” I said.
He smiled. “I’ve got my weapon trained on you. You’ll die before you can draw.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Maybe not. Besides, Hannah will take you out even if you do pull the trigger.” Though he could probably kill me before he got shot himself, I was counting on his sense of self-preservation.
Thankfully, I called it right. “Fair enough. I’ll see you down the road, then.”
“Hopefully not,” I said. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
He smiled and turned away, comfortable we weren’t going to shoot him in the back. He was right. Something was happening, something he knew about. I had a feeling he had a role to play, whether for good or evil. Maybe it had something to do with the whole Grid thing, maybe not. Instead of drawing my real weapon, I raised my hand and formed it into a pretend gun. I sighted him and pulled my pretend trigger. Bang.
Shit. The Guild is after us now, I thought.
We had already drawn too much attention to ourselves, which was my own damn fault. I didn’t expect to be pursued in all this. The Guild was likely on the Rising’s payroll already.
But why?
I turned to Hannah. “Spill. Now.” I used my military command voice that brooked no argument.
Hannah said, “Don’t get all pissy. I was going to tell you. I was working out the right time.”
“There’s never a right time. Sooner is better than later, especially when it involves something that could cost us our lives.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. Listen, I’m not with the Guild anymore.”
“Then why wear the bracelet?” I asked, though I already suspected the answer.
“It opens doors for me, commands respect. Call it greasing the wheels a little.”
It was the answer I expected, and it made sense. “OK. Then why did you break things off with Elias and his merry band of thugs?”
She shrugged. “Call it a difference of opinion. He’s on the Rising’s payroll now, only no one knows it. He has a reputation to maintain as a freelancer. But I’m telling you, he’s fully with them now.”
“If no one knows it, how do you know?”
She chewed her lip. This was hard for her, but I didn’t care. She should’ve told me all this shit when she first hired me. “I got…close…to him.”
Shit. “You were fucking him?”
“Not exactly. He has some odd fetishes. I helped him fulfill them. That was it.”
I didn’t want to know the details. “So you heard stuff, or what?”
“Yeah. He was talking to these assholes from the Rising who came to our encampment. It was no secret we worked for them sometimes, if they offered enough coin. But this wasn’t a small deal. This sounded permanent. And it involved the Firsts.”
“What about them?”
“They’re not being kidnapped by the Rising. It’s only staged to look that way. Elias is offering them up on a silver platter. I didn’t know why until that beer guy told us about the Grid.”
“He realized you found out his little secret?”
“I told him, actually,” she said. “I was livid. I wanted to understand why he was doing what he’s doing. He told me everything, all about how he’d been offered a high-ranking position in the new government they were planning once they could offer power to the masses.”
“It was dumb of him to tell you.”
“He didn’t think I could escape. Plus, my sister was there, being protected by the Guild. Both of us getting out would be impossible, especially considering how mild-mannered she always acted.”
“But you did escape.”
“We fought our way out. Killed at least a dozen men and women.”
I whistled high and glanced at Gehn to see how she reacted to th
is revelation. She looked at her feet, looking ashamed. The use of the word ‘we’ meant she’d participated in the killing. “Hey,” I said. “You did what you had to do to survive.”
She looked up. “I know that, but I lost control at one point. Hannah had to pull me off a guy.”
“Good,” I said. “I respect no mercy. Hence my best friend is a vicious ol’ dog.”
Gehn relaxed at that, which was my intention.
“Fine,” I said. “It is what it is. We have problems, who doesn’t? We have to be a lot more careful from now on. We’ve got the Geneva Council and the Guild is after us, and neither will stop chasing us until we’re dead. We need a ride, and fast.”
Chapter 15
Ride On
We returned to Barley’s place with no ride and the intention of laying low until the next night, when we would try again.
Luckily, Barley had good news for us. Apparently there was a guy with a ride one block in from the north border of town. Apparently, the guy rented out his equipment if you had enough coin, no questions asked.
“Just tell him Barley sent you.”
Barley got an extra quarter for that information, though I was certain he was collecting on both ends for arranging the deal. He was a good guy, but he was a businessman too. I didn’t fault him for that.
As we hobbled there, the last shadows of night still providing a measure of cover, we talked about the Grid. We did whatever we could to keep our voices down just in case there were any early risers listening through walls and windows.
“So you’ve heard nothing about the Grid?” I asked Hannah.
She shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “I didn’t really associate with the other Firsts. Some of them had issues with Enders, even if they pretended not to.”
“I tore out one of their throats,” Gehn said, to my surprise. I guess now that she knew I was aware of her violent tendencies, she was no longer ashamed. “It felt good.”
“I bet,” I said. “Racist creeps.”
“They’re not all bad,” Hannah said, but it was hard to tell the liars from the genuine ones so I stuck with Gehn and worked my way up until I was close enough to Elias to figure out what his agenda was.
