Hellbenders

With which finality, Correll put down the handset and returned his attention fully to the vast expanse of desert that lay ahead. In the far distance, almost over the horizon and approximately another half hour’s drive away, Ryan and Krysty could see a small cluster of rocks.

“That’s it,” Correll said so softly that it could almost have been to himself. He kept one hand on the wheel of the wag while, with the other, he cradled the box on his lap. “Soon,” he added in a gentle tone.

Ryan wasn’t sure, but it seemed as though Correll was addressing the box.

ELIAS TULK HAD DRIVEN in silence across the plains, avoiding the ruts wherever possible and skirting the patches of quicksand. Baron Tad Hutter sat next to him in silence. Tulk was setting a fast pace as the leading driver, and the sec men who sat in the rear of the leading wag were keeping a close watch on the wags that followed.

“Shit, man, slow down,” once of them implored. “Those dudes back there are really having problems keeping the pace up.”

“Not my problem,” Tulk said shortly. “Not my fault if the bastards can’t drive.”

“But Baron,” the other sec man added, addressing the silent Hutter, “we don’t want to lose them.”

Hutter was silent for a moment, then said, “If they can’t keep up, then they’ve got no place on my sec.”

The two sec men in the rear of the wag exchanged puzzled glances. It didn’t make sense. If they lost the rest of the party, it would put the baron at risk if they arrived at the rendezvous point alone and found the opposing force there in full.

Neither, however, felt brave enough to question Hutter on this. Instead, they lapsed into an uneasy and uncomfortable silence.

Hutter, however, was much keener to talk now that his long silence had been broken. He spoke in a low undertone that could be heard over the sound of the wag engine by Tulk, but not by the sec men at the rear of the vehicle.

“So what d’you think you can prove, boy?”

“Who says I want to prove anything?” Tulk replied, keeping his eyes on the road and not pausing to glance at the baron.

“I’d say you want to prove something pretty badly,” Hutter mused. “You’ve never spoke to me like this before—no fucker with any sense has,” he added.

“Mebbe I’ve lost any sense I ever had,” Tulk replied. “Mebbe I’ve got some for the first time. And mebbe you should make your mind up about that, eh?” he added.

Hutter narrowed his eyes and didn’t speak for a time. He studied the whip-thin sec man beside him, his eyes concentrating on the road ahead with an intensity that was out of place.

“Can’t think of anything to say now?” Tulk added after a while, without looking around.

“No,” Hutter replied truthfully. “If I thought it was possible, I’d say you had some plan to get rid of me, but I can’t work out how the fuck you’d manage that on your own. And you sure as shit wouldn’t get any of the others to join you. I’ve made sure of that, making them all shit scared of each other more than me.”

There was a note of puzzlement in the baron’s voice that made Tulk want to smile. However, he managed to keep any sign of his inward amusement from showing on his face.

As he drove, Tulk’s mind wound back to the moment when the recce party had taken him back to the redoubt.

It had been some months after he had begun spying, and it had taken until this point before he had been truly accepted, and any suspicions that the Hellbenders still held had been allayed. By night he had left the ville, and had met with the recce party at a point several miles from the edge of the ville. His cover story to explain his absence was that he had been conducting a survey of the outlying areas to plot any points from where the ville could be attacked. To this end, the recce party, which already knew the area, gave him a detailed map of the area surrounding the ville that would only omit their own personal camping spots when on recce. Armed with this, and the wag he had used to leave the ville, Tulk was able to cover his own back and make the time to follow them on the day-long journey to the redoubt, where he had first met Correll.

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