“So you think he was with those?” Ryan asked, jerking a thumb behind him to indicate the chilled saboteurs who were lying in the morning sun.
Myall shrugged. “With all that stuff, on the blacktop that leads to the well and refinery? What am I supposed to think?”
“Exactly what you are, my dear boy,” Doc murmured. “A most carefully laid trail, but not without one glaring error.”
“Eh?” Myall looked at Doc with a puzzled expression.
“So simple that it is obvious,” Doc said slowly. “If he was one of the saboteurs out there, then how, pray tell, did he end up being chilled on the road…before they actually reached the well and refinery?”
“Mebbe it happened on the way back, a falling-out of some kind ’cause it all went wrong,” McVie began.
Krysty cut him short. “We chilled them all. Their wags are still at the site. If they chilled Crow, then it was on the way.”
“And someone wanted him to look like a guilty man,” Mildred added.
“Well, you’ll have a chance to talk to the big man about it,” Myall sighed. “I radioed Baron Silas straight away, and he’s coming out here.”
BARON SILAS ARRIVED about an hour later, during which time Ryan and his people had the chance to clean up and eat, if not to get any sleep. The baron drove into the camp in his large old truck wag, with the shotgun sec rider, and strode straight across to where the bodies of the saboteurs were still lying, rotting in the sun.
He nodded to himself, then turned to Myall, who had joined him. The sec chief showed the baron to where the corpse of Crow had been stashed, and when the two men emerged, they were greeted by the companions, who had left the mess building to meet the baron.
“Well, well, well,” Baron Silas said as he greeted them, his eyes slits under the brim of his hat. “You caught some of them, but still managed to blow some of the compound.”
“Nothing compared to what could have been done. Besides, you know we couldn’t cover all the vulnerable points without extra cover,” Ryan commented.
“You mean to say you didn’t mount a full guard?” Baron Silas said with a startled tone.
Ryan examined the man closely with his single eye. “You know what our plan of action was. That’s why you sent Crow out to ask us.”
“I didn’t send Crow,” Baron Silas said flatly. “Your job was to protect the site and root out the saboteurs. Looks like you’ve done some of that, but not enough.”
“What do you mean?” Ryan continued.
“I mean all the other barons are coming to Salvation in three days’ time, and all I can tell them is that you’ve failed.”
“You call that failure?” Mildred said angrily, pointing to the distant corpses of the saboteurs.
“Yeah, I do. There’s still damage to the site, and you’ve no idea where they come from.”
“And you have, from this evidence?” Doc queried gently, noting a certain tone to the baron’s voice.
“Yeah, reckon I have,” Baron Silas replied. “If Crow was involved, then it’s got to be something to do with Running Water. And mebbe Water Valley. Could be that they’ve got an alliance going that has to do with their water-power mills. In which case, this’d be a problem for them.”
“Then why would they come in with you?” Dean asked.
Baron Silas shrugged. “Because it looks good, and gives them a chance to hit me from within. I reckon it’s pretty clear what’s going on now. I’d suggest—” he put heavy emphasis on the word, making it clear he thought of it as an instruction “—that you search out the rest of the bastards behind this, and look in that quarter. All this crap about it being from outside is just that—crap.” Finally, Baron Silas spit on Crow’s corpse. “I trusted you, bastard.”
“WE NEED TO TALK,” J.B. whispered to Ryan as they, along with McVie and Myall, watched Baron Silas leave.
“With you on that,” the one-eyed man agreed. “This stinks worse than those chilled mercies.”
Myall, who appeared not to have heard the whispered conversation, turned to the companions. “I’ll start operations in the camp, try and get to the bottom of it. You get some rest, ready for tonight,” he told Ryan.