Not much, considering the arsenal Maggot had at his disposal and the number of men on his side, but it would have to do. “Are you all set?” he asked Bear.
Bear was bothered by the lack of light, just enough filtering in through the openings to enable him to detect Hickok’s form on top of the other cubicle. He gazed up the shaft, noting that black stretches alternated with patches of light at each story. All of the doors to the shaft had been pried open long ago, and the light from the respective hallways provided minimal illumination.
“Are you ready?” Hickok demanded.
“As ready as I’m gonna be.”
Hickok gripped the cable and jumped, wrapping his ankles around the cable for added support as he slowly climbed, hand over hand, toward the next story.
Bear tucked his Winchester under his belt, angling the rifle along his right hip. He tightened the belt to insure he wouldn’t lose the gun as he scaled the cable.
“Will you come on!” Hickok’s voice carried from the darkness above.
Bear took a deep breath, grabbed the cable, and started his ascent, mounting the cable in the same fashion as Hickok. He found himself speculating whether the rats could climb the cable.
Hickok reached the open doors at the first-floor level. He paused, hanging onto the cable, waiting for Bear to catch up.
“Is somethin’ wrong?” Bear asked when he reached a position on his cable directly aligned with Hickok. The two cables were eight feet apart.
“I thought maybe you were taking a nap,” Hickok cracked.
“You ain’t funny, man,” Bear responded.
“I remembered what these things were called,” Hickok informed him.
“You do?” Bear spoke softly, his eyes on the portion of the first-floor hall visible through the open doors.
“Yep. They were tagged elevators, I believe.”
“Remind me to tell you how impressed I am,” Bear said, “after I get off this cable!”
Hickok grinned and resumed ascending his cable, his wrists, already injured in the pit incident, smarting painfully. They had to hold out until he reached the third floor! If he lost his grip now, he’d bust his skull in the fall.
Bear paced his exertions, keeping level with Hickok. He wondered how Hickok and Bertha had met, and he hoped Bertha was still alive because he wanted to see her again, to tell her all the things, express all his feelings, the emotions, he’d never been able to display before she deserted the Porns for the Nomads. Why hadn’t he gone with her? She had wanted him to go with her, even pleaded with him, tears in her beautiful eyes. And he’d refused. In all his years, Bear castigated himself, he’d never met a bigger asshole than the person he saw when he stood in front of a mirror.
They reached the second-floor doors and paused, resting.
“Only one more to go,” Bear whispered to Hickok.
Hickok nodded and grinned.
The voices and the two women were on them before they could scurry for cover.
“I don’t like it one bit,” the first woman stated as they walked into view, engaged in conversation, slowly passing the open elevator doors.
Hickok and Bear hung in plain view, scarcely daring to breathe, waiting to see if the women would spot them.
“I don’t like it none either,” the second young woman said, “but I don’t see what I can do about it.”
“I know what you can do,” the first woman, a brunette in a faded green dress, commented.
“Like what?”
“Stick a knife in the bastard,” suggested the brunette.
“You’re nuts!” the second woman, dressed in baggy brown pants and a yellow shirt, exclaimed. “I’d never get away with it.”
“Sure you could.” The brunette grabbed her friend by the arm and the pair stopped. “You just tell his buddies you found him dead. I’ll back you and be your alibi.”
“I don’t know,” the other woman said uncertainly.
“It’s the only way you’ll get rid of him.”
“I know.”
“Don’t you want me anymore?” the brunette asked.
The second woman kissed the first on the lips. “Of course I do!”
“Then you’ll do as I say,” the brunette directed.
Her companion nodded and they continued along the hall. Neither of them had glanced into the shaft.
Hickok looked at Bear, who shrugged and led the way up the cables.
They slowed as they neared the third floor, cautious, anxious to avoid committing the blunder they’d pulled on the second floor.
“I’ve never seen any person eat as much as him!” a male voice wafted down the elevator shaft.
“Quiet! Do you want him to hear you?” asked a woman.
“He can’t hear me.”
“He has ears everywhere!” the scared woman stated.
“This is our fourth trip to the food pots!” protested the man.
“At least we’re alive to make the trip,” the woman snapped testily.
The sounds of conversation faded.
Hickok inched up the rope until his eyes were above floor level. He leaned out and glanced both ways. “The hall is empty,” he whispered to Bear.
“You still sure you want to go through with this?” Bear queried.
“How many times must I tell you?” Hickok replied. “It’s time the Porns had a new leader.”
“I hope you know what you’re doin’.”
“So do I.”
“You sure can give a man confidence,” Bear sarcastically quipped.
Hickok scaled the cable until his feet were above the hall level. He swung his legs forward and back, twice, and on the second swing he vaulted into the corridor, landing crouched, already drawing the C.O.P., scanning for any sign of Porns.
A moment later Bear joined him. He pulled the Winchester from his belt and checked to see if a round was in the chamber. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” he told Hickok. “Which ain’t sayin’ much.”
The hallway was carpeted and both walls were covered with wood paneling, some of the panels broken or cracked or missing altogether.
Torches hung in special brackets on the walls.
“Which room is Maggot in?” Hickok inquired.
Bear waved him to their right, to a closed door ten feet away.
“This is it,” Bear remarked. “The eating room.”
Hickok gently twisted the knob and quietly opened the door a foot. He peered around the jamb.
The meal was still in full swing. A table large enough for a dozen diners was in the center of the lavishly decorated chamber. Maggot, like a plump, ponderous hyena presiding over a flock of vultures, sat at the far end of the table on a chair higher than any other. His cheeks and jowls were coated with food and grease. He was smiling as he scooped mouthful after mouthful from a large bowl, using a white ladle, gulping the chunks of food without bothering to chew. Ten other men also sat at the table.
Hickok noted several items of interest. Rat was sitting immediately to the left of Maggot. All of the men were armed, but they had leaned their rifles against the wall behind their respective chairs, and out of their reach. Some of them would be packing handguns, but he wouldn’t know which ones for sure until they drew. He did know Rat had the Taurus on his left hip. His eyes lit up when he spotted his Pythons and the Henry, all three on top of the table within Maggot’s easy grasp. He eased out to the corridor.
“Are they still in there?” Bear whispered.
Hickok nodded.
“So how do we play this?” Bear inquired.
“You give me your Winchester and take off,” Hickok answered.
“Do what?”
“Just give me your gun and get out of here.”
“I thought you wanted my help,” Bear, taken by surprise by this unforeseen development, noted.
“I did,” Hickok concurred. “But I’ve changed my mind. I’m going in there alone.”