Whether that was a hopeful sign, he didn’t even want to consider. He reached the entrance to the hall, which was unguarded on the outside. Beyond the opening, he could see the mass of people. His father and friends, Blake and Downey, and even the baron himself were lost to view, somewhere in the center of the vast room, surrounded by the residents of Raw.
Two sec men stood on the inside of the entrance, their backs to him. Like everyone else, they seemed more interested in what was about to transpire than in keeping watch.
Good. Dean approached the entrance, light-footed so as not to give them cause to turn around. His entrance was aided by a sudden call to silence from Harvey. Everyone, even the sec guards, suddenly craned forward, their attention so focused on what was happening in front of them that they ignored the young man pushing into their midst, unwilling to take their eyes from the spectacle in front of them.
“I WISH EVERYONE wasn’t staring so hard,” J.B. whispered to Mildred as they stood in a group, flanked by Blake and Downey, in the center of the hall. The inhabitants of Raw had formed a circle around them, and were studying them with interest, appearing to have little idea as to what was occurring.
“Why, John, don’t tell me you’re shy,” Mildred replied, her acid sense of humor surfacing as an indication of her own concern.
Jak turned to Blake. “Why?” he asked simply.
The small sec man looked uncomfortable. “Not my choice, Jak. Harv is still boss, and he says word comes from Alien. They didn’t tell me or Downey what it was about. But mebbe you know?” It was half plea, half accusation.
“Mebbe believe if I tell, but mebbe not most,” Jak replied.
“Thing is,” Downey commented, “it can’t be that bad, ’cause Harv never said we should disarm you. In fact he was sure that we shouldn’t.”
“A most interesting stratagem,” Doc mused, hearing this.
“Meaning?” Krysty queried.
“Work it out regarding our earlier conversation.” Doc smiled cryptically. “It is not, perhaps, for the general consumption.”
Krysty’s hair curled tight to her neck. She had a good idea what Doc meant, and knew that it caught them even more between that rock and that hard place than ever. Harvey wanted to set them up and chill them in a firefight, giving himself ample time and opportunity to dispose of the baron in a seemingly accidental manner.
The one thing they had in their favor was Dean. It seemed more than likely that Harvey didn’t know he was loose, or if he did, was unaware that he had returned to the group. And the youngster was somewhere in Raw.
Mebbe, she thought as she scanned the puzzled and not yet hostile faces of the Raw dwellers, mebbe even somewhere in this hall.
Her train of thought was interrupted by the shrill yell of Harvey’s voice as he pushed through to the entry of the hall, followed by Alien and Jenna.
“Hey, move over there, we gonna begin. So quiet up!” the sec chief yelled. Behind him, the baron was grim faced. Jenna found it hard to hide a sly smile, and Krysty recoiled at the psychic wave that hit her when their eyes locked.
It was show time.
DEAN HAD BEEN MOVING through the crowd, keeping his head down so that he wouldn’t be recognized, but had been brought up short by the sound of Harvey’s voice.
Looking up, he saw the sec chief, the baron and Jenna enter the circle left in the center of the hall. He saw the expression on the woman’s face and felt his stomach flip.
Trouble was coming. And now.
Harvey addressed the crowd. “Okay, people, you’re probably wonderin’ why you’re here, and what this is about. Well, these people—” he spat the word as though it were poisonous. “—have betrayed us. Alien wants to talk to y’all about it.”
The sec chief stood back, looking pleased with himself, as the baron stepped forward.
“My friends, I have come to seek a consensus from you. As you are aware, Ryan Cawdor and his fellow travelers have aided us considerably in our recent and most vital struggles against Samtvogel. Indeed, without them our task would have been much harder. And yet I have discovered that behind our backs, Ryan Cawdor has been plotting to overthrow me and to assume control of Raw.”