But for all their efforts, they hadn’t once tried looking in the water tower. There had been a few close calls, with sec men hanging around the base of the tower awaiting new orders, but Ryan had remained still, making no sound, and eventually the sec men were sent to some far corner of the farm.
And then, twenty minutes earlier, there’d been some action. Judging by what he’d heard, Ryan figured that a sec man had been wounded on patrol. They were crediting Ryan with the deed, but that only made him smile. Ryan knew that it meant his friends were at work, either on the inside creating a diversion or on the outside preparing to break them out.
It had been quiet around the base of the water tower for the past ten minutes, and if Ryan was going to get out of the tower before dark, now was the time to do it. After the sec man had been wounded, the bulk of the sec force had hurried to the western fence looking for him, leaving only a shadow force around the main complex. If he could make it to the slaves’ quarters unnoticed, then he could spend the rest of the day there in warmth and comfort waiting for dark.
Ryan lifted himself up to the top of the water tank and took a look over the rim. In the distance he could see the sec men patrolling the fence and searching the trees. There were a few sec men closer in, but they were headed west to join the search with the others.
Ryan turned to scan the eastern stretch of the farm and spotted a pair of sec men walking the fence, looking more as if they were patrolling rather than searching. One last quick look around and Ryan was convinced that it was time to move.
He lifted himself over the top of the tower and climbed down the ladder to the ground. His clothes had left a wet trail down the side of the tower and on the ground beneath his feet, but with any luck the midday sun would dry any tracks he left behind.
The slaves’ quarters were about fifty yards away, across a stretch of fine, tan-brown dirt. To the left were patches of grass and weeds that would cover his trail but would add another twenty-five yards to the distance he had to travel.
He decided it was better to hide his tracks.
But instead of running, Ryan walked slowly, almost casually, as if he, too, were looking for the one-eyed outlander. Hopefully, if anyone saw him from a distance, he would look like just another sec man out on patrol.
He was halfway to the closest cabin when he heard voices shouting loudly.
“Do you see him?”
“I think so!”
Ryan wanted to run or dive for cover, but he was out in the open. He heard no more voices, and he thought that he’d be hearing blasterfire at any moment, but no one fired a shot.
He took another look and saw two sec men standing near the main building. They were pointing at something out past the main gate.
“That’s a mutie, you triple-stupe bastard!” one of the sec men said.
“It could have been the one-eye.”
“Yeah, and I’m Baron Fox.” Ryan picked up the pace slightly and reached the cabin without further incident. He put his hand on the doorknob and turned it. It was unlocked. Without another moment’s hesitation he opened the door and slipped inside.
“Who the—?” a man said.
“Don’t stop now, baby!” a woman urged.
Ryan stood motionless inside the doorway as a man and a woman halted their rutting and lifted their heads to see who had just joined them.
“Afternoon,” Ryan said.
The woman smiled. “It’s the outlander.”
“Hey, they’re looking all over the place for you,” the man said.
Ryan reached over his right shoulder to touch the hilt of his panga just in case these slaves thought about turning him in. “I thought I would hide here for a while. Till dark.”
The woman’s facial expression turned coy, and she ran a hand over one of her full and heavy breasts.