“You couldn’t help it,” Krysty said.
“Sure. But the way those sick bastards loved it! Nothing like a public killing. Surprised more barons don’t liven their villes with ’em. I know some do, but never with fucking stones. Fireblast! I just want t’get to bed now.”
But the day wasn’t over quite yet.
Without knocking, the sec commander came marching into the long room, stopping in his tracks when he saw Krysty and Lori sitting on the beds with the rest of the group.
“Outworlder Cawdor. The home-keeps don’t sleep or eat with men. Only whores. You said ?”
“No, they’re not whores.”
“Then they go.”
“What?”
“You walk the line and you’ll be fine. They can stay tonight. Past nonperson’s curfew on street. They’d be in the quarry at dusk tomorrow if they were caught out now. This letter from the mayor tells you what’s going to happen.”
It was short and to the point, written in a neat, italic, sloping script on rough-edged handmade paper “Outworlders report to me at nine in the forenoon. Then to militia induction. All passes and food creds will then be issued and accommodation arranged separately. Home-keeps to Arthur Sissy wing of workhouse for acceptance into general pool. First sight makes me reckon both could be whores if I decide suitable.” It was signed “Theodore J. Sissy, Mayor.”
There was also a postscript, obviously added as an afterthought “Outworlder Lauren is a suss-mutie. He will be taken to the lake for rogation and nondesirable rating.”
After the sec man had left, Ryan silently passed the note around. Finnegan read last. “Welcome to Ginnsburg Falls,” he said. “Friendliest fucking little town in the West.”
Chapter Eleven
JAK SLIPPED AWAY at around three in the morning. They’d talked for a long while, deciding whether they should all break and run for it. The girls were both for leaving, but they were eventually overruled. Ryan had pointed out that if all seven of them escaped from the ville it was certain that the whole sec force would be turned out to hunt them into the mountains.
“Head out, kid,” Ryan said finally. “Krysty ‘n Lori, go where they tell you. We’ll step careful, like walking on eggs. This ville is”
“So fucking far out it’s going to fucking meet itself coming back again,” Finn said.
“Right,” Ryan agreed. “I saw a big wag on the way to the stoning. Looked gassed up and ready to roll. We’ll try to check it out sometime, if we get a chance. Get us some food and drink.”
“I could find it in my heart to relish snuffing out a life or two,” Doc Tanner said quietly. His deep, resonant voice was contemplative, his eyes staring out into some unseeable distance. “I’ve seldom met such bred-in-the-bone evil as in that gimpy dwarf.”
“Main thing is to be away clear,” J.B. said. “Won’t be easy.”
“Where to meet?” Jak asked.
“Depends on how many chase,” Ryan replied. “We all agreed to track that radio message. The Kenworth truck’s got a trans-receiver in the cab. Saw the whip aerial. Saw the only highway north, running along the side of the big lake. Past the quarry road. When you get clear of the ville, take that. Move fast and keep your eyes behind you.”
The albino nodded. “Keep sec men out of m’ass. I’ll hide up, ’round ten miles out. If’n there’s fork, I’ll leave marker which took. Watch for me.”
Quickly they gathered around the open window of the dorm, which overlooked the sullen expanse of the lake at the rear of the long building, and watched Jak leave. Finn had crept down, making sure the elderly janitor was sleeping in his room in the basement near the roaring boiler.
“Keep warm,” Krysty warned the boy.
“Sure. By time get safe away, light’ll have come up. Find shelter. Got fire.”
“Go,” Ryan said, patting the skinny boy on the shoulder, feeling a pang of doubt and letting him slip away alone into the Oregon blackness.
“WELCOME TO GINNSBURO FALLS,” Mayor Sissy said, his tiny frame perched behind a massive leather-topped desk with a polished oil lamp at either end. “I am touched with grief that your colleague, Outworlder Lauren, has run away.”