When she reached the top, she turned and looked down along the length of the channel, and noticed something that Jak had missed during his ascent—the inward curve of the rock continued all the way along the length of the tunnel, suggesting that it acted as a tunnel for any storm forces that may hit the outcrop, the actual channel being caused by wind and sand erosion. She looked up to the gathering storm above and hoped that they would be able to leave the channel before the storm began to hit hard.
Like Jak, she was able to pick her way along the irregular pathway cut into the top of the rock and find herself a place to hide and observe.
Now they had only to wait for the trade-off to begin.
The lead wag from Charity stood at the entrance to the arena. Directly opposed was the lead wag from Summerfield. Both had their engines ticking over, both were waiting for the other to move first.
“Come on,” Jenny whispered to herself as she watched them from her secured position. She looked up at the sky, and hoped they would move soon.
IN THE SUMMERFIELD WAG, Baron Tad Hutter was feeling much the same. So, too, was Elias Tulk, but for different reasons.
Hutter glanced up at the gathering sky and frowned. “That asshole Jourgensen better start moving soon, or else this storm is gonna make things impossible.”
“Mebbe he’s waiting for you to make the first move,” Tulk said. “Mebbe you should, ’cause it sure looks as though he isn’t gonna.”
“Shit, I don’t wanna give him any ground at all, but…” He indicated to Tulk to put the wag into gear and begin to edge into the arena.
ON THE FAR SIDE, Baron Al Jourgensen watched as the lead wag from the Summerfield convoy started to move into the arena.
“Okay, let’s do it,” he said simply, indicating for his own driver to begin.
The two convoys began to move slowly toward the center of the arena, each moving at a crawl to try to keep pace with the other, neither side willing to reach the middle before the other. The problem being, where was the middle of the arena? The lead wags in both convoys, stop-starting in a stuttering procession, reached a point where they were about thirty yards apart when Hutter signaled to Tulk to stop. As his wag shuddered to a halt, so Jourgensen signaled his driver to stop.
The two convoys now sat, facing each other, only thirty yards apart. They were both far enough into the arena for the rear wag in each train to be well within the boundaries of the openings in the outcrop. There was plenty of space behind each wag for the Hellbenders to pen them in before beginning their attack.
From their promontory positions, Jak and Jenny watched the wags proceed with mixed feelings. Jak was immobile, his red eyes fixed on the two trains, waiting patiently. Jenny, on the other hand, was less than patient, shifting uncomfortably on her perch and dividing her attention between the convoys and the sky. She was careful not to disturb or dislodge any of the rocks that surrounded the small perch she had made for herself, but nonetheless found it difficult to remain motionless. She felt itchy for action of some kind as the minutes ticked by and no one moved in any of the wags.
But that didn’t mean that nothing was happening.
“GET THE WOMEN shackled and get them out in the open.” Baron Al’s voice crackled over the radio.
“This is it, then,” Claudette said to Ayesha.
The baron’s daughter nodded. “Let’s get this done, then.”
“You’ll never get away with it, you do know that, don’t you?” said the sec man who had been riding shotgun. “Even if this attack from your so-called allies happens, chances are that you’ll all still buy the farm. Is that really what you want?” he added, directing this away from Ayesha and Claudette and toward the other women, who had picked the shackles from the floor and were starting to put them on without closing the mechanism—even the bloodstained Anita, who had tried to clean herself up with water from the wag’s supply rather than appear conspicuous. “Go through with it, keep your heads down, and all you’ll get is shafted by the men of Summerfield until you make them some babies. Is that so bad?”