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Ryan eased himself in the saddle. He wasn't particularly surprised or disappointed.
It would have been a miracle if the myth had turned out to be true, and Deathlands
was generally low on miracles.
It was impossible now to try and deduce the history of the Rubicon Pass Mall. The
main outline of the walls was plain enough, so were the piles of rubble that had
been the individual stores. Nothing else remained.
"Best be heading back to Salvation," Krysty suggested.
Ryan had known the woman long enough to be sensitive to shades of meaning in
her voice. There was something there that really meant she thought they should
head back to Salvation.
"Feeling?" he asked quietly.
Krysty nodded, looking tired. "Might be nothing to it," she said. "Just a feeling."
Their horses were tired, making it hard to move along as fast as they all wanted.
The nearer they got to Salvation, the more Krysty became worried, constantly
standing in her stirrups to try and look on ahead. Originally the plan had been to
get to the mythical mall on the first day and then return easily the following day,
back to Salvation before sunset on the second day.
Now that was shot.
The eastern sky was already darkening as the sun began to sink on the opposite
horizon. The shadows had lengthened, and they were still a good fifteen miles
from the ville, with the descent to the plateau to come and then the ride across the
open desert to reach Salvation.
Krysty held up a hand, bringing them to a halt. "No good," she said, her face lined
with tension, coated in sweat and dust, making her look like a carving of an Aztec
goddess.
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"Something wrong?" Major Ward asked, irritably waving flies away from his
face.
"I've got a seriously bad feeling," Krysty replied. "The ville's under threat. I'm
sure of it." She looked to Ryan for reassurance.
"Skullface?" he asked.
"I don't know. I can't see that kind of detail, lover. You know that."
The wag master stared at her. "You one of them doomies, I heard tell of, missy?"
"No, but I can sometimes feel danger. That's what I feel now."
Ward looked at the others. "Then I guess we best press on at the best speed we can
make." He squinted up at the cloudless sky. "Looks like we could have us a good
moon to travel by. That seem like a good plan to you, son?"
Ryan.shook his head. "No. We could get caught in the jaws of a trap if we try
that."
J.B. agreed. "If there's no moon, we can't risk riding on. If there is a moon, we'll
stand out on that flat desert like cow chips on a girl's belly. Heads they win and
tails we lose."
"Then what& " Ward began.
Jak interrupted him. "Fucking easy. Go round. Slower. Come in back."
The wag master looked at Ryan, who smiled. "Jak's right, Major. Only way. We
circle to the left, and it'll lead us to cross the blacktop we came in on. That way
there's cover all the way to the edge of the ville."
"But how long'll that take? If the little lady's right, then mebbe we should dig the
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spurs in."
Ryan looked at his wrist chron. "Be there around midnight. Best that way. Knife
in the groin chills just as good as a sawed-off in the mouth, Major. We'll do it our
way."
They moved on cautiously. During the detour they could just see the hazy shape
of Salvation. Krysty thought she could just make out a speckle of lights that could
be campfires being lighted for the evening meal. But that didn't mean a thing.
Ryan rode in silence, locked into his own thoughts, worrying about the mysterious
Skullface and his band of killers. There had been something familiar about the
way the inhabitants of Salvation had been mutilated and tortured before enjoying
the mercy of death, something that yelped of a swift and evil nature. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]