It’ll be uncomfortable in there.”
“I can handle a little of that—you get the best,” Abner snapped at Mac, “and
tell these mothers to let those wags go!”
“GO, GO, GO!” Murphy screamed at Bailey, his hapless driver.
“Can’t, sir. These scum are holding us off the ground, and this is a front-wheel
drive, sir.”
Murphy cursed. There were four-wheel-drive wags back at the redoubt, but they
were totally enclosed. His desire to be as open as possible for recce purposes
was going to be his undoing.
“What about Avallone?” he shouted, referring to the driver of the other wag.
“Can’t see, sir,” Bailey replied.
Murphy swore loudly, picked up the handset for the radio and barked into it.
Avallone’s fear-struck voice replied that he was having the same problem.
“Shit. We’re fucked now, really fucked,” Murphy said, almost to himself,
realizing that blind panic and losing his cool had gotten them into a no-win
situation. What they needed was a miracle.
“Son of a bitch,” he breathed in sheer disbelief as the whine of the engine
suddenly became a roar. The wag bucked as the front wheels hit dirt and it began
to move, skidding across the circle, through the main alley and out past the
beacons.
“Sir, we’re free and right behind you,” Avallone’s voice crackled over the
radio, relief in every breath.
“Sir, why did they let go?” Bailey asked.
“Don’t ask why, just be thankful that they did,” the sec chief breathed.
RYAN AND JAK HEARD every word over the radio in their respective wags. J.B. had
decided that Jak should drive rather than risk his ankle, which still gave him
cause for concern if strained, on the pedals of the wag.
Jak drove silently, concentrating on the trail ahead of him, following Murphy
and Avallone in their wags. He carried J.B., Mildred, Mac and five ville
dwellers. They crouched and squatted in the back, crushed together as the wag
bumped over the plains.
In the other wag Ryan carried Dean, Krysty and Abner along with five ville
dwellers. Like the other wag, they traveled in a tense silence. They were going
into the heart of the enemy’s territory, something none of the ville dwellers
had ever dreamed of doing.
Ryan and Jak kept close to the tail of the other wags, so that they could locate
the bridge. Once they were over that, it was a matter of keeping them in sight.
The enclave housing the entrance to the redoubt came in view. In the driver’s
seat of each wag, Jak and Ryan could feel the tension grow behind them.
They heard Murphy yell over the radio for the sec door to be opened. Ryan and
Jak gunned their engines, getting every last ounce of power from the wags so
that they could tailgate Murphy and Avallone, beating the sec door as it started
to fall.
In each wag fighters prepared themselves. Once the wags rolled to a halt, then
all hell would break loose.
Chapter Twenty-One
The wags screeched to halt inside the redoubt. The sec door to the enclave
closed behind the four wags, leaving Murphy with the wags driven by Ryan and Jak
between himself and the sec lock that would open the door once more. The sec
door directly in front of him was also closed.
Wallace’s voice came over the radio, now that the wags were inside the redoubt
and in the range of the failing old tech. There was little doubt that the Gen
had observed the return of the wags, and the manner in which they had screeched
to a halt.
“Murphy, what in the holy hell is going on down there? Did you get the parts?”
“You could say that… Yeah, you could fuckin’ well say that.” the rattled sec
chief replied. “The back two wags have got Cawdor and his scum, with some
bastard outsiders, and they’ve been trained to fight. I lost half my men out
there.”
“Then don’t lose this half. I’ll be down with reinforcements,” Wallace barked.
Murphy looked at the handset in his sweating grip. It occurred to him that if
Cawdor had the radio sets switched on, he would have heard it all—the