James Axler – Way of the Wolf

“I brought a friend, Cobb,” the dwarf replied. “Has an interest in books and such.”

“You’re going armed,” Cobb said. “Where’s Liberty and his gang?”

“Chilled,” Albert said. “By this man and his friends. Liberty’s probably been turned to crow shit from the looks of things when I last left him.”

The door opened a little wider, revealing both the man’s eyes now. “He chilled Liberty, and he’s walking around Hazard all straight up and all. Hard to believe.”

“Believe it,” Albert said. “I was there.” He gripped his blasters. “And now I got these.”

“You should of just run on, my little friend,” Cobb said.

He turned to Doc. “And you, you should have never come here, because you surely signed your death warrant.” He cocked his head at Albert. “Or hasn’t the little man told you that?”

“I hadn’t,” Albert said, clearing leather with both his blasters and pointing them at Doc. “Dammit, Cobb, I was planning on telling him at a better time than this.”

Doc felt totally surprised, not believing the dwarfs allegiance had turned so quickly. He fisted his sword stick, drawing the pieces in two by a fraction of an inch. If the chance presented itself, he planned to bury the business end of the sword in the little man’s throat.

“Don’t do nothing stupe,” Albert said. “I’d hate to shoot you, Doc, but I don’t aim to die because you’re overreacting to bad news. Mebbe it isn’t as bad as you think.”

Righteous indignation and burning anger filled Doc as he looked into the little man’s eyes. “I saved your life by my own hand,” he said in a hoarse voice. “And I bade my friends trust you as they trusted me. Now you betray that trust. If you know your books as you have assured me you do, you will know a passage from Plutarch that was accredited to Julius Caesar and is most appropriate for this moment—’I love treason but hate a traitor.’ ”

Albert gestured with his blasters. “Get on inside the building, Doc. Cobb, take that cane away from him. And relieve him of his blaster.”

Doc submitted to the indignity of being left bereft of self-defense. Cobb dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder and guided him into the structure. Two other men spread out before him, weapons gleaming in their hands. Doc glanced around the small room, but his chances of escape were as dim as the lantern light.

Chapter Eight

“Can’t shake them,” Dean said, turning into the grade of the broken land outside of Hazard. Fear kept an edge on him like a skinning knife. “Going to have to take them.” He carried the Browning Hi-Power in his fist. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted the five tattooed men they’d picked up tailing them.

The coldhearts rode horses and carried long blasters across the pommels of their saddles. The intent and the wariness they displayed left no doubts about what they planned.

Despite the run through Hazard, Jak and Dean hadn’t been able to throw their pursuers off the trail. The men had clung stubbornly, guessing where the two youngsters had headed. Finally, at the stables, they’d been cornered and driven out of the ville.

And that was the part Dean couldn’t really figure. The five men hadn’t tried outright to chill them, but they had left no doubts in his mind or Jak’s. Still, there had been nothing to do except be driven before them.

Dean hauled up short behind a thick-boled oak, thinking about how his father and the rest of the companions had set to and chilled Liberty and his gang without warning. He wondered if these five men intended for a message to be sent to the rest of the populace of the ville.

He peered through the shadows and saw Jak only a few feet from him. The albino carefully worked a water bladder they had taken from the stables. Jak had emptied it in one of the stalls, then drained the oil from three lanterns before they’d climbed through the roof and escaped into the brush. That had been when they had first discovered that the men had at least two silenced handblasters among them.