“You leave now and take your friends with you— the fish traders, the muties, all of them.”
There were a few moments of silence. So far the deal wasn’t sounding very good. “And?” Ryan asked.
“And Red won’t be chilled.”
“That’s not much of a deal,” Ryan said.
“Best one you get, One-eye.”
“Let her go and we’ll leave.”
The sec chief shook his head. “The baron wants her. We need to rebuild the breeding stock, and she’s just what we need.”
“You sure you can’t take him?” Ryan muttered.
Mildred made a second assessment. “Sorry, Ryan.”
“If you don’t let her go, there won’t be a piece of this farm left standing by the time I’m through with it.”
“I’ll take that chance,” Fillinger said.
“What are we going to do, Ryan?” Mildred asked.
“I don’t know.”
THE REICHEL VILLE raiders had made it all the way through the orchards and had taken a dozen slaves with them—nine of them women. The entire operation had gone easier than they’d expected, and they were about to leave with eight more than they arrived with.
The ville would survive and flourish.
As Rhonda led a party of six toward the large group of buildings at the far end of the complex, she was looking for something to give sec chief Ganley. He’d been a selfless leader to the raiders, and they had all expressed their wish to thank him in some way. A mate of his own would be a excellent show of gratitude, but what sort of woman would suit him?
They turned the corner on the cabins housing the men and women living on the farm, and Rhonda caught sight of a sec man standing on the roof of the biggest building on the farm. There was a woman with him, a woman with the most amazing red hair. He seemed to be shouting down at someone on the other side of the building.
“Dwayne,” she said.
“Yeah,” came the response from a middle-aged man as he came up behind her.
“That first night we camped out on the south shore of the lake, what did the sec chief say when we asked him what he’d like in a mate?”
Dwayne thought about it a moment. “Uh, he said she’d have to be healthy, and that he always liked red hair. Red hair, or dark skin, one or the other.”
“Look up there.” She gestured with a flick of her head.
“That’s red, all right.”
“Take two others up onto the roof. When we take the sec man out, you bring the redhead down to the staging area. We’ll cover your back along the way.”
“Right.”
“As soon as we’re on the other side of the fence, we’re outta here.”
“WELL, ONE-EYE!” sec chief Fillinger said. “I don’t see you leaving.”
“Can’t leave her behind,” Ryan said.
“Sorry to hear that.”
“You chill her, there won’t be a farm left to rebuild.”
“It’s already gone to shit.”
“Let her go!” Ryan shouted, then turned to Mildred and whispered. “Take your best shot.”
Mildred raised her target pistol slowly, knowing that once the sec chief saw the blaster she’d only have a split second to take the shot.
But then the sec chiefs body suddenly jerked to the right. The man let go of Krysty and stumbled to keep his balance.
With several feet of darkness between the sec chief and Krysty, Mildred had no trouble marking the target. She raised her ZKR and fired off two rounds, catching the sec chief first in the chest and then in the head.
But he didn’t fall.
Instead he turned away from Krysty and in the dim glow of the auxiliary lights, the arrow that had pierced his neck and shattered his throat became visible to the friends on the ground.
“Let’s get up there and grab Krysty,” Ryan said, already running toward the main building.
Mildred followed him, five steps behind all the way through the building and finally up the ladder that brought them to the roof.
But when they got there, all they found was a dead sec chief.
Krysty was gone.
Chapter Forty-One
J.B., Doc and Dean had taken up a position outside the barn where they’d been told the baron kept a LAV and a few transport wags. They had considered storming the barn and capturing one of the wags, but a dozen or more sec men had already gone inside and following them in would have brought on a firefight.