James Axler – Trader Redux

“Have to agree to differ, Doc. Nothing unusual about that. We seem to spend most of our time together disagreeing about something or other.”

He smiled, showing his full set of oddly perfect teeth. “Into every life a little rain must fall, my dear lady. Our occasional spats are one of the things that make this lonely life bearable for me.”

The black woman turned, startled. She took a quick step to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Wouldn’t be without you, Doc,” she said, then laughed. “Now I’ve made you blush.”

He turned away, standing and staring blankly for several seconds at the wall of the room. When he swung back, both of the women were surprised to see the brightness of unshed tears in his pale blue eyes. He tugged out his swallow’s-eye kerchief and noisily blew his nose.

“By the” he began, then blew hard again, examining the crumpled cloth. “I feared that I was likely to have one of my notorious bleeding noses. But I see I am not.” He put away the kerchief.

“You all right, Doc?” Krysty asked.

“Affection has always unmanned me, my dear. I confess that your kindness, Dr. Wyeth, sent my thoughts racing back to my beloved lost wife.”

LATER THAT AFTERNOON, when Krysty was strolling out in the yard, Doc came quietly up to her.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Yes?”

“When I was with you and Dr. Wyeth”

“When Mildred kissed you and you gave your famed impersonation of ripe tomato?”

“Indeed.”

“While Ryan and John Dix are away from us for a while, and as there appears to be no grave threat to our safetyI wondered whether I might venture on a small adventure of my own.” He smiled. “I say! Venture on an adventure. Rather good that, wouldn’t you say, Krysty?”

“Yeah. You mean go off on your own?”

“For a while.”

“A while, Doc?”

“Two or three days. No more than a week. I doubt my survivalist qualities for any longer.”

“You’d need to speak to Jak.”

“Of course I would.”

“He might not think it was a good idea. Lot of things could go wrong, specially if you’re on your own.”

“But that is the very nub, the kernel of my feelings. I know that I am all too often the lame duck on the good ship Enterprise . I know that.”

“That’s double crap, Doc. Gaia! I’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve saved our lives. You chilled three of those crazy fladgies on your own. Think if you’d failed us then.”

“I had thought to increase my chances of survival by taking Judas along with me.”

“If he doesn’t chill you first, Doc.”

She took his arm and the two friends walked together toward the house.

When Jak and Dean returned, Doc asked the albino teenager for his opinion of his plan.

Chapter Four

The dawn sky squatted, brooding, on the snowy tops of the mountains around them. The temperature had dropped further, leaving the sheen of gray ice on the water bucket within five minutes of Ryan drawing it up from the rattling depths of the well.

The fire had gone close to dying, until J.B. went to bring in some fresh kindling and hewn logs from one of the outbuildings.

Trader had awakened slowly and grudgingly, stretching and cursing. “Damned back and damned knees and damned shoulders and damned fingers. I say fuck them all!” He saw that the other three were looking at him. “Best you can hope for is to die before you get old,” he said.

“I heard that already,” Abe chirped brightly.

“Well, now you fucking heard it again!”

FLURRIES OF SNOW were carried in the teeth of the blue norther that came rampaging down through the Cascades, having started its life somewhere in the glittering white wilderness of the Arctic.

Ryan and Abe got breakfast crackling and spitting in the skillet, while J.B. went out to check on the animals available for them. Trader sat in the deep armchair, massaging his knees, mumbling to himself.

It struck Ryan yet again how much his old leader had aged during the time that they’d been parted. But he still sensed the mix of steel and whipcord, like before. And when the firefight began, Trader had effortlessly delivered the ace on the line, just like he always had.