“That’s what I was told,” the colonel said.
“Any idea why seven trucks would suddenly decide not to do business with us?” Jack asked.
“Maybe some Texarkana merchants decided our money was no good,” Penny said, but put no conviction in her words.
“I have traced the road back out of the hills and there are no more trucks, either pulled over along the side of the road or trying to catch up,” Sal said.
“Jack, this just gets fishier and fishier,” Penny said.
“This doesn’t smell right,” the colonel agreed.
“Mimzy, could we see the lodge again,” Jack said, then slowly studied the map with a commander’s eye. The cabins were in the woods; hostiles could approach them easily from cover.
“Colonel, where are the Iteeche?”
“They’ve taken over a largish cabin quite a distance from the main lodge and are keeping to themselves. Except to get more data. I’m afraid I’ve had to handle approving reading material for them. Nelly has not answered their requests.”
“Nelly’s off-line at the moment,” Jack said.
That hung there for a long moment.
“Colonel, the small bungalows in the trees are just inviting someone to overrun them. They’ll have to be evacuated.”
“Do we tell the Iteeche that we can’t safeguard them where they chose to stay?”
“I don’t think Kris would want to tell them that,” Penny said.
“And if we tell them that, they gonna have to wonder why Kris ain’t doing the honors,” Abby pointed out.
Jack went back to studying the photo of the ski lodge’s grounds. People were already swimming in the pool. Shooters in the woods would mow them down.
“Kris never did like a last-chance defense,” Jack said. “What if we put a roadblock out to stop the convoy well before they get to the lodge. Search the trucks. If they’re clean, we do business. If they aren’t, well, then we do the business.”
“I wouldn’t recommend a small roadblock,” the colonel said, then added, “Your two platoon leaders are here.”
“First Lieutenant Troy, you’re the senior Marine present. It looks like we have a problem headed your way.”
“Yes, sir. Are you coming back?”
“I doubt there’s any chance of me getting there in time, and someone has to keep an eye on the princess.”
“Yes, sir.
“Colonel, I don’t want a confused chain of command, so I’m going to take the bull by the horns. Are you comfortable taking over as senior officer present?”
“These fine Marines shot the stuffings out of my last command.”
“Indeed they did.”
“It would be an honor to lead them in the coming fight, Captain.”
“Lieutenants, you have any problems?”
“No, sir,” came back to him as a duet.
“Then let’s figure out what we’ve got headed our way and how to make sure it doesn’t cause us any trouble.”
Willy Stone was not a happy camper. Seeing Kris Longknife laid out in her own blood should have made his day.
It hadn’t.
Dying, or unconscious in hospital, the woman had still cost him a third of his gunmen. What was it about Longknifes?
Part of it was the nature of this flaky planet. Guns were everywhere, but nobody used them. Not really. Everyone had a story or had heard a story of a duel that had put someone in the grave. But no one had actually seen it done. Or done it.
When word reached the convoy full of brave thugs and proud gunslingers that little Miss Longknife and that local boy, What’s-his-name, were down and bleeding . . . a batch of them went all mushy on Willy.
Some might have had a good reason. It turns out that a big chunk of the gunslingers Anderson, Willy’s client on planet, had gotten his hands on were really guys who just wanted their own spread and didn’t see it happening under the present dukes.
Others were city slickers who would puke if they were dragged off to another cultural event. Not a bad bunch, by Willy’s standards.
But now that What’s-his-name was ready to open up a whole lot of new territory, and that Longknife girl was using a wad of her money to stake the kids with the wanderlust, a good third of Anderson’s “bad boys” were ready to call it quits and run home to Momma . . . or their girlfriends. Whatever.
If Willy had had his way, he would have shot them down where they stood. Still, there were over a hundred of them, and not a one of them willing to give up his guns without a fight.
So Willy left more gunslingers behind with orders to keep the strays squatting on their spurs until the rest of them shot up the lodge. Then they could all go home.
If Willy didn’t slit their throats first.
“You worry too much,” Anderson said, from where he sat next to Willy in the cab of the lead truck. At least the struggling air conditioner made the place half-decent even if it did stink of dust and mold. “We’ve got this whole situation under control. In the morning, we hit the lodge while everyone’s all hungover, leave a lot of dead Wardhaven types behind along with a few cowboys. Enough of our own people are cowboys, and if we need more, we’ve got the dozen hitchhikers we picked up and hog-tied.” The guy laughed at that.
“After that, the shit hits the fan. Wardhaven gets mad at the dukes and their dudes, comes out here, knocks heads, and everything changes. And when change happens, there are all kind of chances for people willing to change fast, right?”
“That’s what I’m told,” Willy agreed. Usually, however, the people getting the most out of a sudden change were a lot smarter than this joker.
Still, fifteen years of preparation hadn’t done vonSchrader all that much good when the shit hit the fan on New Eden. Willy had been smart, as was his policy. He’d gotten his money off planet before the fireworks started. He’d also gotten a job with an escape hatch. When the whole thing fell apart, he’d already been halfway up New Eden’s beanstalk. Funny how good plans go belly-up.
It wasn’t funny that the Longknife girl had been there, on New Eden, helping all those plans fall apart.
She wouldn’t do that to Willy. Not after what he’d done to her first.
“Tell me, Andy,” Willy said, raising the one part of the plan he wasn’t happy with. “What if the dukes decide this little mess we’re leaving at the lodge was done by the city slickers? What if they go sniffing around Denver with their guns blazing before the Longknifes show up to take them down?”
“It’s still no skin off my nose,” Anderson said with a confident laugh. “I ain’t going back to Denver until Wardhaven troops come marching down State Street. Those damn cowboys can shoot off their six-shooters all they want, it will only be opening up more opportunities for me and my friends. We know to duck. DuVale and his buddies don’t. You already picked off his son when you nailed the Longknife girl. Good going!”
“I wish I’d gotten a few Marines along with her.”
“So do I. Why’d you miss them?”
“They weren’t with her. She never moves without them at her elbow, but there she was, prancing out of the damn elevator with just the DuVale boy. I had to take the shot when I had it.”
“Wish you’d gotten the Marines,” Anderson repeated.
“I didn’t, and maybe we ought to do some thinking about what it means that I didn’t.”
“That Marine captain is still mooning around the girl’s hospital bed. He can’t do much from there.”
“Ever heard of the net?” Willy said, keeping most of the sarcasm out of his voice.
“Of course I have. But he’s there, and you’re here. Everything’s fine.”
“Hey, kid,” Willy said to the driver, “pull over the next time you see a wide place in the road. It’s getting dark, and we don’t want to hit them before first light. And I got some rearranging to do.”