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J.B. just shook his head. “For now, I guess we should be grateful we didn’t arrive three minutes after we did,” he said dourly.
* * *
ONTHESLOPEoutside the redoubt, the white-clad women stepped away from the figure they had surrounded and Jak saw that the man was dead. His neck had been snapped and his head was poised at an awkward angle as he lay on the dirt, his eyes wide-open and staring into nothingness.
As one, the women turned at a noise. Jak heard it, too. It was coming from the redoubt.
Still in his hiding place, Jak saw Krysty and Doc emerging through the doors, their blasters held loosely in their hands. Krysty looked more able to stand on her own now, which was something.
As they stepped out onto the path, the women in the white robes moved through the trees toward them. Jak stepped out from cover, holding his blaster loosely, pointed straight up to the sky. “Wait,” he said. “Mean no harm.”
The women stopped, their white robes fluttering around them as they caught the breeze.
“Who are you?” the closest woman demanded. She had blond hair so pale it was almost white, and her eyes were a luminous green.
“Jak Lauren,” Jak said before indicating the redoubt entrance with an incline of his head. “Friends. Not hurting.”
Behind the blonde, another woman, this one with dark skin like Mildred’s, smiled tentatively as she spoke. “He speaks like a child,” she said. “It’s sweet.”
“His blaster isn’t sweet,” the blonde replied, her emerald eyes fixed on the weapon in Jak’s hand.
Jak took his cue and, holding out his empty hand in a placating gesture, he lowered himself to place his Colt Python on the ground. Jak didn’t like being weaponless—well, he was hardly that, as every sleeve and pocket contained a leaf-bladed throwing knife, though these strangers were not to know that—but he saw the necessity to act peaceably while the lives of his friends were at stake.
“Jak?” Doc’s voice carried up the slope. “Where are you, lad?”
The blonde fixed Jak with a look. “You had better reply, Jak,” she said. “Tell them to put down their blasters if, truly, they and you mean us no harm.”
Jak did just that, raising his voice and explaining the situation in his clipped manner. “Put away blasters, no danger,” he called back to Doc. “Five new friends here.” He was careful to state the number, so that Doc and Krysty would know how many they faced should it come to a firefight.
Down by the redoubt entrance, Doc and Krysty reluctantly placed their blasters in their holsters. The white-robed women watched, and the blonde—their leader? Jak wondered—nodded agreeably.
“Now,” said the blonde, “tell them to wait there.”
Jak did, and a few seconds later he was being led by the group back to the redoubt entrance.
“Well, well,” Doc said, appreciably eyeing the long-limbed beauties who accompanied Jak. “I see you have made some charming new acquaintances.”
Then Doc bent at the waist in a slight bow. “My name is Dr. Theophilus Tanner,” he introduced himself, “and my companion here is Krysty Wroth. You’ve already met young Jak here.” Doc made no mention of their other companions, still inside the redoubt. It didn’t do to reveal all your cards too early in the game.
“Doctor,” the blond spokeswoman said, the hint of a smile crossing her thin lips. “This is private territory. Would you care to explain how you came to be here?”
Doc fingered the handle of his sword cane for a moment as he thought. “We...um...arrived via a miraculous machine.”
“The mat-trans,” a brunette said from the back of the group. “You worked it?”
Krysty gasped at her casual comment.
Doc had not intended to be quite so transparent in his explanation, but caught unawares all he could do was reply truthfully. “Yes, the mat-trans,” he said. “We ran into a spot of bother out—” he gestured vaguely “—yonder and made the jump here, wherever here is. I am afraid it was all rather rushed.”
The women stepped forward, concern on their features. “And how is the mat-trans?” the dark-skinned woman asked.
“They survived the jump,” the brunette pointed out before Doc could reply. “Obviously, it’s operational.”
“Ah, no,” Doc replied before the women could continue. “There was an explosive device inside the unit that...”
“Exploded,” Krysty suggested, seeing Doc struggling.
“Quite, yes,” Doc acknowledged.
“William placed a bomb?” the honey-haired woman said in alarm.
“Deirdre thought as much,” the blonde confirmed before turning back to Doc.
Jak listened to all of this in silence, piecing together the story in his mind. William was the man he had come across in the woods, who had engaged in the firefight with these mysterious women before being chilled by them. William had said something to Jak before that fight began, something that might have been important. Jak thought back, recalling that the man had asked about the bomb. “You can’t let them...” was all he had said. Can’t let them...what?
“We should go check,” the dark-skinned woman said and the others agreed.
“Darn it, if William has blown up the mat-trans...” the brunette said, bitterly shaking her head.
“And it had to be now,” the honey-haired woman agreed, “right when these travelers could have...”
The blonde hushed them both with a look. “Melissas.”
“Melissas,” the honey-blonde replied, lowering her head, and her companion did the same.
The five women ushered Doc, Krysty and Jak back inside the redoubt. Doc wondered when would be the most appropriate time to mention that they had more companions waiting within.
Chapter Four (#ulink_a315419d-1948-5f7e-b646-a24d92e3f477)
“I don’t like losing the mat-trans,” J.B. stated as he and Ryan moved through the redoubt. “Makes me edgy.”
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Ryan agreed. “The mat-trans have been our little secret for a long time, and I don’t revel in losing our escape hatch like this if we are in a hostile place. Otherwise, it means a hike overland to wherever the next redoubt is.”
As the two men trotted past the monitoring room, Mildred’s head poked out, calling them back.
“Hey, guys!” They joined Mildred in the monitoring room, where Ricky was just fixing his shirt over the bandage that Mildred had affixed around his belly and ribs. J.B. touched Mildred’s face briefly, leaving what he wanted to say unvoiced.
“What happened?” Ricky asked, looking from Ryan to J.B.
“Bomb went off,” Ryan said, “ruining the mat-trans.”
“Damn,” Ricky cursed.
J.B. made a show of looking at the youth’s bloody shirt. “How are you feeling? You okay, kid?” he asked.
Ricky shrugged. “De nada. I’ve had worse in Nuestra Señora.”
He was bluffing, J.B. knew. That musket shell had scored blood and had to have hurt like hell, but the kid was proud and he didn’t like to show weakness in front of the companions.
“I only heard one explosion,” Mildred was saying as she put her extra bandage in her medical satchel.
Ryan nodded. “We were lucky,” he agreed. “There were no other bombs. A military base like this could’ve been stuffed full of ordnance that might have been rigged remotely to go off when the bomb went off.”
“You said the mat-trans was wrecked,” Mildred said, phrasing it like a question.
“Yeah, for now anyway,” J.B. confirmed. “We might be able to do something with it, given time, but we’d be better off finding another mat-trans if we need one.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Mildred said, “but, assuming it does, how far would we have to go?”
J.B. shrugged. “Till we know where we are, I won’t have clue one, Millie,” he said.
“Then I guess we’d better start figuring out where we are,” Mildred said, and Ryan agreed.
Checking that Ricky was okay to move—he was—Ryan led the way back out into the corridor and the foursome headed toward the outside door.
* * *
DOCLOOKEDSURREPTITIOUSLYat the five angelic women who accompanied them as he, Krysty and Jak were led back through the redoubt they had just exited. Each of these women was young with flawless skin. Doc guessed not one of them was over twenty-one. The blonde led the way confidently, and she seemed to know which paths to take. Doc guessed that she was leading them to the mat-trans chamber to survey the damage that the bomb had wrought, and he wondered if Ryan and the others had survived the blast.
“So,” Doc began uncertainly, “Melissa, is it? You seem to know your way around this...facility.”
The blonde looked at Doc after a moment, confusion turning to understanding as she realized that he was addressing her. She smiled then, indulging him. “It’s not Melissa,” she said, “and yes, we’ve been here many times before.”
“Ah,” Doc said. “Please accept my apologies, I thought I heard your companions call you Melissa. I must have become muddled.”
“They did,” the blonde replied as she led them down a stairwell with concrete steps and reinforced-glass banisters dividing each level. “But that’s not my name, it’s a designation. We’re all Melissas.”
“I see,” Doc said, though he didn’t.
“I’m Phyllida. This is Linda, Nancy, Charm and Adele,” she said, indicating the others.
“All pretty names,” Doc said. “So you say you have been in here on other occasions?” Doc added, raising his voice a little in the hope Ryan would hear—if he was still here.
The Melissa called Phyllida looked back at him and smiled, her teeth white and flawless, much like Doc’s own. “The mat-trans you came in was damaged a long time ago in the quake,” she explained. “We’ve been examining its workings, trying to repair it.”
“Our engineers,” the dark-skinned Melissa, who was called Adele, elaborated.
“We noticed some quake damage when we came in,” Krysty said from within the huddle.
“The unit’s only been operational—what?—two days,” the brunette called Linda said.
“Not even that long,” Phyllida said. “They were still testing it yesterday evening.”
“Then it seems we arrived bang on time,” Doc said, wincing at his rather unfortunate choice of words. “Forgive the unintentional pun.”
“Yes, you—”
“Nobody make a sudden move!” Ryan said, stepping from the cover of an open doorway with his SIG Sauer raised in a two-handed grip. “Hands in the air.”
J.B. and Mildred stepped out of the shadows behind Ryan, their own weapons raised to target the group of robed women. Behind them both, Ricky waited in the shadow of the doorway, his De Lisle carbine clutched in both hands, the pain of his patched flank making him stand a little hunched over.
The Melissas tensed, moving automatically back so that they were close to the concrete walls.
Doc found himself front and center of the sudden negotiation.
“What’s the state of play, Doc?” Ryan growled, his weapon fixed on blond-haired Phyllida where she stood behind the old man.
Doc took a deep, steadying breath, his hands surreptitiously twisting the silver lion’s-head grip of his swordstick to release the blade within. “These people are unarmed, Ryan,” he stated, “and they have shown no inclination to harm us. It is my understanding that their sole interest is in the mat-trans, which they have been working on for some time.”
“Did they plant the bomb?” J.B. asked, running the shotgun over the group in warning.
“No,” Doc explained. “I am led to understand that they opposed the individual who did that, and that they had hoped to stop it.”
He turned to Phyllida. “Is this correct?”
Phyllida nodded. “Yes. You didn’t mention that there were more of you,” she said.
Doc raised his eyebrows. “You did not ask.”
Phyllida looked from Doc to Ryan and the others who had their drawn blasters pointed at them. “Your friend is quite correct,” she said at last. “We won’t hurt you.”
“My name is Phyllida,” the blond-haired woman continued. “We of the Trai have a strict ‘no blasters’ policy, and we would be grateful if you would adhere to that while on our property.”
She waited while Ryan watched her, his lone eye scanning carefully over her companions as he weighed them up. Finally he said, “And your people are unarmed?”
“Precisely so,” Phyllida confirmed.
Ryan searched Doc’s face for some sign of deceit and saw none. It paid to be cautious in the Deathlands, but a standoff had to be resolved, one way or the other, and Ricky couldn’t keep fighting without recovering. Slowly, Ryan brought his SIG Sauer down and holstered it, and his people did the same. Ryan knew just what J.B. was thinking as the Armorer slung his shotgun—it was the same thing that they were all thinking. Can these people be trusted?
“I’m Ryan,” the one-eyed man said, though he made no move to meet Phyllida.
Instead she came to him, her pure-white robes fluttering behind her like mist, one delicate, pale hand outstretched in greeting. “Pleased to meet you, Ryan.”
Ryan took the woman’s hand. Her grip was firm, stronger than he would expect for her build. He released her hand after a moment.
“I guess you weren’t inside when the bomb hit,” Ryan said.
“What makes you say that?” Phyllida asked.
“Your clothes,” Ryan said. “They’re clean.”
“You’re right,” Phyllida replied. “We were outside this structure, tracking down the violator who planted the device. I understand it went off.”
“Yeah,” Ryan said.
“Then I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner,” Phyllida told him. She sounded genuine, her voice tinged with regret.
J.B. spoke up from behind Ryan’s shoulder, his eyes watching the strangely garbed women carefully. “You use the mat-trans often?” he asked.
