“Well, hey there, white boy,” Harvey greeted Jak, nodding at J.B. as afterthought. “So, what action’s been going down, then?”
Chapter Ten
“Just taking a look around, seeing what’s happening. Just the usual sort of thing,” J.B. said with a deceptively laconic air. In fact, he was concentrating intensely on the body language of the two sec men. If either should make a move for his blaster, then the Armorer would be ready.
“Why not?” Bodie replied with an ease that couldn’t be faked. “Guess if you’re gonna be around for a while, then you may as well check it out, see where the action is.” The fat sec man leaned forward with a leer and winked at them. “Fine gaudy house just off the main drag here. Don’t get no trouble from the customers ’cause they always get value for money, you know?”
J.B. forced a smile. “I’ll remember that. Right, Jak?”
“Sure.”
Harvey narrowed his eyes. “Sure you’re okay, Whitey? Y’all look kind of tired to me. Like you been up all night.”
Jak shot him a look that questioned, but couldn’t find the answer it sought. “Hard settle. Tossing all night,” he said carefully.
Bodie gave a lecherous grin. “Sounds like you need that gaudy, boy.”
J.B. laughed and slapped the sec man on the shoulder in a friendly manner, shaking his head. “Might just be right there, friend.”
Harvey also laughed. It was even more false than the Armorer’s. “Kind of like to stay and talk all day, but we got work to do, Bodie. Be seeing you,” he finished as the fat sec man suddenly sobered and fell in behind his chief.
Jak and J.B. watched them disappear into the throng of ville dwellers.
“Think he know?” the albino queried.
“Sure as hell hope not. I’d trust that mud-sucker as far as I could spit him,” J.B. murmured.
THE COMPANIONS ASSEMBLED once more at their allotted sleeping unit. While the combination of Mildred, Doc and Krysty had found little in their short search other than the fact that inhabitants of Raw were friendly if a little frightened of the outside world, Dean and Ryan had encountered the baron and his wife.
“She’s the danger,” Dean said softly, leaning against the wall and chewing the ball of his thumb. “Alien seems like a baron who wants the best for his people. But her… She asked where you were,” he directed to Mildred, “and called you ‘the black’ again. I don’t know if Alien even noticed, he’s so under her spell. But the way she said it, I just keep thinking of the chilled,” he finished.
Mildred said nothing. Krysty, on the other hand, turned to Ryan. She had plenty to say.
“We can’t stay here. None of us are happy, and there’s something about Jenna that makes me shiver when I even think about her. Gaia!” She shuddered.
“I don’t know what she’s up to here, but this time I don’t want to know, either. I just want to get out.”
The one-eyed warrior shook his head slowly. “I say we stay.”
“Why?” J.B. asked. “Dark night, Ryan, after what Jak’s told us, after what we all feel, why?”
The one-eyed man fixed the Armorer with a steady gaze. “Trust me, J.B. After everything, trust me. That bitch could be a problem, but there’s something at stake here. The Illuminated Ones are one of the best leads we’ve ever come across. If Erewhon does still exist, it could be all that Trader spoke of. It could be the promised land. I can’t just throw that dream away.”
There was a short silence. Ryan was their leader, and the tacit agreement was that they follow his lead. But even at this risk?
Doc cleared his throat. “I believe Ryan may be correct. The risk may well be worth it. After all, does anyone know about friend Jak’s nocturnal excursion? Does anyone suspect us of anything? On the contrary, everyone bar Jenna seems to like us. And frankly, she seems to dislike everyone except herself, so we are not alone in that.”
Mildred pursed her lips and nodded, her beaded plaits moving in slow time around her head. “Damned if I don’t think I’m going senile when I agree with this crazy old coot.”