As Ryan turned the corner on the building, a familiar flash of white caught his eye.
“Jak!” he shouted.
The spot of white reappeared in the blown-out hole where the front doors used to be. Jak waited for Ryan and when they met, the two shook hands.
“Good see you,” Jak said.
“Likewise.” Ryan nodded.
Clarissa came up behind Jak. Maurice was standing by Ryan’s side.
“This Clarissa. Friend of muties. Helping us.”
“Maurice,” Ryan said, gesturing with his head in the slave’s direction. “Friend of mine.”
“There’s the one-eye,” someone shouted.
Blasterfire suddenly began slamming into the wall behind them. They all dived for cover, scraping and cutting their hands on the shards of glass scattered around the building. Ryan found himself pinned behind a column supporting the building’s second floor.
Jak and Clarissa had also gained cover, but Maurice had been caught by the sec men’s blasters. His body jerked as he was torn apart by rounds coming from somewhere high up and out of sight. He stood for several seconds, then finally fell to the ground a bloody mess.
“He was going to take me to the nursery,” Ryan said. “That’s where Krysty and Mildred are.”
“I can take you there,” Clarissa said.
Ryan wanted to move, but they were still being pinned down by sec men on the roof of a nearby building.
But just below the sound of blasterfire came the grinding of a wag engine, low at first, but growing louder by the second. Without warning there was a boom that shook the ground, followed by a small explosion.
Men screamed, debris filled the air and the rain of blasterfire abruptly came to an end.
“Lead the way!” Ryan told Clarissa.
The three of them entered the building.
RYAN, JAK AND Clarissa hurried down the steps, taking them two at a time. They all had their blasters at the ready, expecting a sec man to turn the corner on them at the bottom of the stairs and they’d have nowhere to turn.
But they made it down without incident.
“Left or right?” Jak asked.
“Right,” Clarissa answered.
A crack of a blaster echoed from down the hall, and all three took cover against the wall of the stairwell.
After several seconds of silence, a second shot rang out, followed by a groan and the sound of a falling body.
J.B. was best at recognizing the sounds various blasters made and could sometimes even identify the type of ammo being used, but even Ryan knew enough to identify the sharp crack of a .38-caliber Czech-built ZKR. It was possible that a sec man was now using Mildred’s target pistol, but the spacing of the single shots and their accuracy told Ryan all he needed to know.
“Mildred,” he called out in the direction the shot had come.
“Who wants to know?” came the response.
“Me, Ryan.”
She turned the corner, blaster raised in case it was some sort of trick, and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Ryan, and I have to admit, I would have even been happy if it were Doc instead of you.”
“I’ll have to tell him.”
“He’ll never believe you.”
Ryan was done with small talk. “Where’s Krysty?”
“The baron took her hostage when the lights went out,” Mildred reported.
Ryan turned to Clarissa. “Where would he have gone with her?”
“Depends what he wanted to do with her.”
Ryan thought about it for a second. “To get away?”
“Then he’d go to the barn and try for a wag.”
“Then we head back outside.”
Ryan and Mildred began moving back up the stairs, but Jak and Clarissa remained where they were.
“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked.
“Sister prisoner in basement,” Jak explained. “Promised rescue for help.”
Ryan understood. “All right. You go with her, Jak. Mildred comes with me. If you’re not outside in twenty minutes, we’ll come back in looking for you.”
“Won’t have to,” Jak said. “Not be there.”
Without another word the two pairs went their separate ways, Ryan and Mildred heading up, Jak and Clarissa heading down.
JUST OUTSIDE the nursery, Baron Fox escorted the two breeders from his office along the hallway. He’d given instructions to the new sec chief to use the redheaded beauty to convince the one-eyed outlander to leave the farm without destroying it completely. If it worked, wonderful, but even if it didn’t, he’d be safe and in a position to reclaim the farm in no time.