“Why do they want us three?” Mildred wondered.
“To work the orchards,” Ryan stated. “Those workers we saw on the farm must have been slaves.”
“I don’t know, lover,” Krysty mused. “From the way the sec men were looking at us, I don’t think they went to the trouble of capturing us just so we could work the fields.”
“Mebbe women are different kinds of slaves,” Ryan pondered, not liking the thoughts that were crossing his mind.
Just then a sec man appeared at the back of the wag. “Shut your trap, Cyclops,” he barked. “And keep it shut till we get to the farm. Next time you talk, it’ll be answering questions from Baron Fox.”
Ryan just stared at the man, his gaze never wavering.
The wag started to move.
The sec man eventually looked away.
“WHEN I WOKE UP they were gone,” J.B. said as he, Doc, Jak and Dean inspected Ryan’s room.
“Ah, a puzzle worthy of the sleuth of Baker Street,” Doc commented, inspecting the room a bit more closely than the others.
“Who?” Dean asked.
“Holmes, young Master Cawdor. Sherlock Holmes.”
Dean just looked at Doc strangely, as did Jak.
“They must have taken Krysty first,” Doc concluded. “And outside of this room.”
“Why do you say that?” J.B. asked.
“Some of her belongings are on this night table, so this was her side of the bed. There’s no sign of a struggle here, unlike on the side Ryan had slept on.” They all looked at the dead sec man, lying facedown in a pool of his own blood. “Also, while there are several of Ryan’s bloody footprints in the hallway, leading to the far door, there were none made by Krysty’s Western boots.”
“But how did they manage to get Krysty?”
“I think the nearby door is the key. I think she must have awakened in the middle of the night, perhaps attuned to some disturbance or danger her prescient ability allowed her to sense was very close at hand. She took her blaster and went to investigate, most likely without waking Ryan. She must have opened the door at the end of the hall to have a look up or down the stairs when she was taken by someone on the other side, most likely the very danger she had ventured out of her room to investigate.” The three friends listened closely to Doc’s explanation, none of them able to find fault with his reasoning.
Doc continued, obviously intrigued by the peculiar sequence of events and enjoying the process of deduction. “Once the door was open, the sec men were able to come in and out as they pleased, avoiding detection because you were concentrating on the door at the other end of the hall. They searched each room, working their way down the hallway toward you. They found Ryan first. He was able to chill one of the sec men, but not all of them and they managed to subdue him and take him away. Next they found Mildred and were able to steal her away, as well.”
“Dark night!” J.B. cursed under his breath.
“And then they stopped their raid,” Doc said, striking the end of his swordstick on the floor for emphasis, “and went back to the farm.”
“Why?” Dean asked.
“I think it has to do with the women. I believe that is all they were interested in from the beginning. Ryan just happened to be in the way, and quite frankly I am surprised they did not just kill him where he lay.”
“Wake up rest,” Jak offered.
“Yes, in all likelihood,” Doc said.
“But why would they want just the women?” Dean asked.
Doc didn’t answer.
Even so, Dean slowly realized it for himself. “Oh,” he said.
“It’s my fault,” J.B. said. “I let everyone down, just like in my dream.”
Doc put a hand on the Armorer’s shoulder. “No, it is not your fault, John Barrymore. There’s another element to this scenario that I have yet to mention.”
“What is it?”
“Well, under normal circumstances, a bunch of local sec men would never have accomplished this feat without one or all of us waking up and killing a fair number of them, if not all. So, the question is, what was different this time?”