Danny watched her go, and then started when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Dean was standing next to him.
“Don’t think about it,” the younger Cawdor advised. “If you see her again, then it’s supposed to be that way. Concentrate on keeping yourself from being chilled. That’s all that any of us can do, right?”
Danny answered with a nod, and Dean continued, “Okay, so when we get back to the redoubt we’ll try and unravel a few secrets before we have to get into a firefight. Sound good to you?”
“Yeah, guess so,” Danny replied. But for the first time in a long time during his young life, he realized that there was something pulling at his attention that was more than just a hunk of old machinery.
The two young men returned to the main body of the party, where Lonnie was issuing his commands. “I was figuring on taking some rest here until the cover of night, but now we can’t be certain that this is safe. I don’t know whether or not to trust her, or whether or not she’ll be spotted coming away from here, so I figure we need to head out triple fast.”
“In this heat?” Mik questioned, adding with a whine, “and how the fuck are we going to get any cover in the middle of the day?”
“We aren’t,” Lonnie answered. “We just move at a regular pace, and keep ourselves triple alert. If she’s found, or says anything, then the mission’s blown anyway. The attack on the convoy won’t be a secret. So it’s even more important than ever to get back to Papa Joe and report what we’ve found.”
“Guess so,” Mik agreed reluctantly.
“Then let’s do it,” Lonnie said with an air of finality.
The sun bore down with an unrelenting gaze, the heat seeming to settle around their feet and work up their ankles in tendrils of heat that grabbed at them and sucked them down, draining them of their energy, each step sapping their strength.
Tilly stared up at the sky, squinting and covering her eyes as she looked toward the sun, trying to determine its position and so work out how much longer they had until the cooling balm of the night. She turned and shook her head at Mik, who was giving her a quizzical stare. The burning red orb was still almost centered in the sky, and although it was past the midway point of the day, there were still many, soul destroying hours of heat to go before the night could descend.
Lonnie led, with Tilly and Mik at point, Danny sticking to the middle with the three companions. As they walked, using as few words as possible so that they could conserve energy and not run their throats ragged in the dry heat, Danny and Dean filled in Doc and Jak on the details of their part of the mission.
Dean confessed that he was surprised to find the others waiting at the rendezvous when he and Danny had returned. They had only spent a few hours in the ville, and the rendezvous time was set for the next morning.
“Didn’t even know if you were alive,” he said shortly to preserve precious breath, “but even so, didn’t expect to see you waiting.”
“Things triple fast when pressure,” Jak said, shaking his head, the tendrils of his stringy white hair dripping sweat in the overwhelming heat.
“I must confess, I hadn’t expected us to achieve our objective as quickly,” Doc mused.
“When we left the bar, it was touch and go whether the sec would get us…and if not them, then certainly those drunks and jolt fiends who were gathered on the sidewalk outside. Fortunately, there was enough smoke and covering fire from within to confuse them, so when we tumbled out in the midst of a few other customers who were placing discretion over valor, then there was enough of a general melee for us to achieve safety. I fear the poor bartender may, however, have bought the farm.
“In the safety of a side alley—possibly the very one you had used scant seconds before, though that is mere supposition on my part—we were able to regroup, and Mik and Tilly were able to calm Lonnie. It would seem, although I can claim no authority for this, that the bartender was one of those responsible for him falling foul of the baron, and thus being exiled. I fear he wanted to settle that old score before we began our mission.