“Yes, sir,” the sec man said, and started off with the animal in tow. It followed placidly, waiting to be beaten or fed, whatever was the choice of its new masters.
Then Mitchum slapped Ryan on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get chow. Don’t know about you folks, but I’m starving.”
“Could do with a bite,” Ryan admitted. Taking his own horse by the reins, he began leading it down the street of the ocean ville.
“Hot food sounds good,” Dean said, rubbing his stomach.
Then Mitchum bumped shoulders with Ryan. “Also got a gaudy house,” he added.
“Brought his own,” Krysty said, a touch of ice in her voice.
The officer broke into a grin. “No offense meant.”
“None taken,” she replied. “This time.”
Walking their horses down the street, the companions found that between the trailers were tiny plots of farmland, set out in neat squares, edged with brick and covered with oily canvas supported by rusty poles.
“Protection from acid rain,” Mildred said, excited. Before they sailed away, she had to find out what the locals used to coat the canvas. That was info she could trade to villes across the Deathlands and help save a lot of lives.
The public latrine was far from the wells, and noisy chickens were in a bamboo coop behind a woven wicker fence. Big dogs were on rope leashes before a lot of the trailers, and there were no slaves in sight. No decomposing bodies hung from torture poles, or any of the things they normally found in a ville.
“Nice place,” Doc said, resting his ebony stick on a shoulder.
The sword cane was too long to hide easily in their bedrolls. Besides, there was no reason anybody would think it wasn’t just a support for the old man.
“Best in the world,” Mitchum stated proudly.
Since the colonel had never seen Front Royal in Virginia, Ryan held his peace and let the man enjoy the fantasy.
LEANING OUT OF a second-story window, a beautiful girl allowed her robe to gap open in front and expose a lot of cleavage. Several men passing by on the street took notice, but there was no reaction from the strangers walking with their horses. Still they were new, and that was nice. The gaudy slut smiled at the prospect of meeting outlanders, and for a moment the twin tips of her forked tongue darted into view. She could almost taste them already.
Then the boy in the group glanced her way and gasped. She smiled gently, letting her robe part to expose her perfect breasts. A knock on the bedroom door made her turn away, and in walked a grisly sec men and an old skinny woman.
“There you go, Lieutenant,” the madam of the gaudy house announced. “You pay for the best, you get the best.”
“Fantastic,” he exhaled in admiration.
The slut by the window had the figure of a nubile young girl barely in her teens, but when she turned there was the face of an adult. Long black hair reached to her knees, and her shape was something out of a predark girlie mag.
He’d been saving a long time for this. She cost a lot, and only the baron had her on a regular basis. But now that the sec man saw her, he knew she was worth it for looks alone. And if the tales were true about two tongues, one in her mouth and the other elsewhere, this was going to be one hell of a ride. Sure, she was a mutie, but he wasn’t here to breed with the slut. Just bed her.
Impatiently, he slapped the pouch of black powder into the old woman’s hand. “I’ll take her for the whole day,” the lieutenant said.
“Oh, that’ll cost more than this,” she said quickly. The madam could hear the sound of raw lust in a man’s voice. He’d pay all he possessed to have the girl just once.
The lieutenant turned on the madam and drew his blaster. “Going back on our deal?” he growled.
The madam shrugged in response and walked from the room. She had tried; that was enough.
“Come here, girl,” he said loudly, but there was already a loss in his words. He could borrow, but never possess.