“What?”
“He knows you’ve had a stressful day and could use some breeders to unwind.”
“He said that?” the baron asked, the anger rising within him.
The sec man, obviously frightened of the baron, simply nodded.
“He hasn’t caught the one-eyed outlander yet, has he?”
The sec man shook his head.
“Triple-stupe fucker,” the baron shouted. “And he thinks I’ll just forget about his incompetence by sending me a couple of breeders.”
The sec man stood still and silent.
The two breeders were trembling in fear.
“I was hoping he’d show a little imagination in his search, but he’s just as triple-stupe as the rest of you.” The baron went over to a dresser and pulled open the top drawer. In one fluid motion his hand slid inside and came out with a blued steel 9 mm Luger blaster. He turned to the sec man. “Find the sec chief and tell him to meet me in the nursery.”
“Yes, Baron.”
“And find that redheaded gaudy slut of an outlander and bring her to the nursery, too.”
The sec man ran off to carry out the baron’s orders.
“If the sec chief can’t find the one-eye, then maybe we can use his friends to draw him out.”
The two breeders remained.
“You two wait for me here,” the baron said. “I’ll be back.”
THE SUN WAS GONE from the sky.
The raiders had just finished building a pair of wooden ladders that would help them get over the fence and into the compound.
“All ready?” Ganley asked.
“Ready,” the raiders answered in a jumble of voices scattered over several seconds. “Then let’s move.”
J.B. TAPPED HIS FINGER on the key, waiting for word to come from the back of the wag that everything was secure and the rest of the group was ready to move.
When Jak and Dean were in position behind the .50 calibers, Doc was in the wag’s bed overseeing the cannon shells and Clarissa was riding shotgun with J.B.’s Uzi at the ready, J.B. grabbed hold of the wag’s key and turned it.
The starter motor turned over weakly, the engine sputtered and then stopped.
“Want us to push?” Clarissa asked.
“Not yet,” J.B. answered. He turned the key again and the starter let out a series of slow protesting groans. The engine sputtered once more, but this time it suddenly roared to life.
J.B. beamed proudly as the work he’d done on the engine over the course of the day had paid off. The engine was running more smoothly than it had in the morning, and he was confident it would keep running for as long as he needed it to.
“Hang on!” he said, then put the wag into gear. The wag lurched forward.
J.B. drove slowly in darkness, not wanting to try the wag’s lights. If they worked, it would help with the driving, but it would make the wag a good target for the farm’s sec men. As it was, all they had to shoot at was a sound in the darkness and such things were hard to hit at the best of times.
Their plan was simple.
They would use the 37 mm cannon to take out the farm’s electric supply. That would shut off the lights, shut down the electric fence and generally create chaos within the complex.
Then they’d use the weight of the wag to break through the front gate.
Once inside the complex, Clarissa and Jak would head into the main building to look for Ryan, Krysty and Mildred. J.B. would select strategic targets for the 37 mm cannon, such as sec towers, wags and emergency electricity and lighting while Dean and Doc would use the .50 calibers to keep the sec force under cover.
Depending on how the wag stood up, J.B. would stay with the wag they had, or they’d try to take one of the baron’s wags from inside the barn.
While all this was going on, Ryan, Krysty and Mildred would be working their way out from the inside of the complex, splitting the sec force, chilling sec men and distracting other sec men from the front gate.
Add to that the muties, who would be streaming in through the gate and over the fence, taking out sec men and eating them raw, and the slaves themselves who would have been warned about what was coming and would be all too eager to escape or chill their former masters.